Hi there, 

I just bought my first car and it is a 2015 Ford focus 1.6l diesel. I noticed today that there is a bit of rust on the back panel where the boot handle panel joins the rest of the boot. Has anyone come across this issue themselves? 

Image can be found at this link on Imgur: https://m.imgur.com/qofupkb. I am not able to embed it in the text unfortunately. 

Thanks,

Ian

I used to have this problem on our old MK1.5 Ghia estate. It was basically caused by the trim flexing and rubbing the paint away when pulling the tailgate open because the foam seal between the trim and the tailgate was too thin to maintain a gap. Yours could be a similar problem but hopefully one of the experts will be along shortly to confirm or shoot me down.

Yeh looks like it would rub as it's in close contact you would think there would be a rubber trim or something there. That's  ridiculous for a 3 year old car and 3 years I'm sure is the ford limit for paint warranty. Not only that it's 3 years old they are also aware of the issue since the MK3 and have carried on doing the same =>https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.carbuyer.co.uk/news/151971/watchdog-ford-owner-faces-warranty-woe-over-rusty-focus%3famp

To stop it happening further the link above described a fix with some vinyl.

Hi MJT and F0CUE. Thank you for the reply and information! I will look into this fix, and I might try and contact Ford themselves. 

 

I bought the car from a separate dealer who is not a Ford dealer. Would Ford themselves still cover the paint warranty or would I best to just look into my own mechanic? 

 

Thanks, 

Ian

It depends when in 2015 the car was produced if it's still within the 3 years then they should do it.

Body and paint warranty is 12 years I think, though that may only cover big rusty holes rather than a bit of surface rust!

Paint warranty is subject to having the paint inspection at 2 year intervals then stamped in the service book. Without that you got no chance of warranty. 

Had mine inspected for the same issue (Mk2.5, rubbed both sides, paint-free patches are approx 10mm in diameter after removing loose paint). Ford refused outright to cover any repair, the corrosion/perforation warranty only covers corrosion/perforation from "inside" the panel. Not the touch condition described. I'm not one to back down, but the totally blunt and emotionless responses I received from Ford UK left me feeling a bit let down. They wouldn't even provide the stickers FOC.

Ford sell the vinyl stickers to prevent it / any further damage. I chose to just treat the rust and paint with a colour match paint every so often as the damage has been done.

Hi Micro,

 

Sorry to hear about that experience from Ford! I spoke with a local Ford dealer over the weekend and they were also completely against it. Not really willing to inspect it or recognise this as an actual issue. I just don't want to see this rust develop into anything more. I will look into treating the rust, can i ask how you do it?