Advice needed

[loulery]

Hi all,

Our car is under an AA warranty and was brought from a local ford garage in mar 2016. From Summer 2017 we have repeatedly had engine malfunction message or engine management light come up. Our lower engine has now failed and i just need to know where we stand so I'll give you all the events.

June 2017 - engine light on and Halfords say need a new solenoid, aa covered this

Nov 2017 - Turbo failed aa cover we just pay for parts that aren't covered for turbo change

leave garage get home light back on Halfords say to drive for a few days so can do a reading it stays on and start to get a strong burning smell so it goes back and told faulty turbo so new one ordered and put in

Dec 17 - engine light on told turbo again and need to lambda sensor aa will cover sensor and i guess turbo on part warranty?

Jan 18 - engine light again take it in turbo again and told need new egr valve again aa cover valve turbo on part warranty?

Apr 18 - engine light take to Halfords they now do a full check incl electrical and have car for 4 days, tell me it's a pressure valve/fan? and aa will cover

- next day car is rattling and phone halfords and aa (to complain) we are told to take it back on way engine light comes on, with a few hrs halfords tell us lower engine catostrophic failure due possibly due to carbon deposits that caused engine to be starved of oil.

Now waiting on AA to do investigations they have requested all paperwork from halfords incl pics so now waiting on a decision.

Any advice incase i need to fight my corner? 

Thank you x

 

[Luke4efc]

Taking it to Halfords is where you might be going wrong. They couldn't hit a cows ***** with a banjo and their so called "vehicle technicians" seem to be glorified salesmen to me.

[loulery]

We had no choice this was the most local approved garage, we are still waiting to hear from Halfords who are still waiting to hear from the AA. I just can’t help but think Halfords have not dealt with our car correctly leading to this engine failure 

[TomsFocus]

It's a 1.6TDCi right?  This engine is known for carbon issues that block oilways and break turbos.  Turbo will keep breaking after it's happened once.  Halfords probably don't know this tbh - do you have receipts to prove that things like the oil feed pipe and oil pump weren't replaced when the turbo was changed?

[loulery]

They knew of issues because during the conversation when giving us the news they said this particular engine is prone to this and improvements were made and a new engine model released so why did they not do anything relating to this? when the turbo was 1st changed we paid about £200 odd for parts relating to turbo change as aa only covered turbo itself, all the turbo changes later I have nothing because we were not charged anything as the parts that they say were the cause aa covered but not sure who foot the bill for the 2nd, 3rd or 4th turbo

[TomsFocus]

Without any receipts I think it'll be hard to prove either way.  When the turbo is changed on these, they must replace the oil feed pipe and oil pump.  Clean out the oil sump and flush the engine oil twice, and then check oil flow rates as well.  If you had receipts to prove this wasn't done then that would help show Halfords were to blame.  You'd also need records to show that the car has had regular oil changes, otherwise the neglect could be put on yourself as the owner.

The engine was totally changed for the later Focus (it became 8 valve amongst other things) but it wouldn't have been possible to fit that to yours.  On a 2011 model, you would have had all the improvements made to the older 16v engine but even then that wasn't really enough to stop the problems occuring.

 

[loulery]

The car has had regular services it was also brought with a service history, aa have asked for all reports on the work done to the car by Halfords. I also recorded a conversation with Halfords where they say this is a known issue so why was this never discussed and looked into as a possibility rather than oh turbos failed again it’s this part, it’s failed again let’s change this part. If everything was completed back in November and if they had done all the necessary changes, cleans and flushing why has an carbon build up led to my engine being knackered but also why has the aa not questioned the number of claims as I am sure the replacement turbos can’t all have been under the parts warranty as the supplier won’t replace them unless there is evidence they failed without a route cause?

[TomsFocus]

Ok that's good, hopefully AA will be able to use that evidence to get a decent result then.  

Let us know how it goes.