2019 fiesta with leaf in heater motor

[Pablom24]

Hi, my son got his first car, a 2019 fiesta which he has had for under six months now. After hearing an out of sorts noise form his heater motor, and with winter edging in he decided to take it back to the dealer he got it for. Master tech explained that he would have to remove dashboard to investigate and 5hours were required at £120 per hour if it turned you to be his fault and not a warranty claim. Turns out at some point he has turn to internal recirculation on settings and the fan has sucked in a leaf off the carpet. Has anyone heard of this as master tech said it’s common, but I’ve been in the trade 30 yr and never heard anything like this. Also refused warranty and billed him £670.

regard Pablo

[isetta]

I have never heard of this. could it be a con and there was something else wrong.   it's a bit like washing machines where the engineer repairs it and then says it's your fault because you left a coin in the clothing and then he shows you a coin which was in his pocket all the time. 

[Bobr]

Been driving for 61 years and never heard that one before.

[Pablom24]

Master tech told him it’s a common fault , so ever time it ingests a leaf it’s £670 .... taking it up with Ford them selves now 

[Ydda2]

does it not have a mesh screen on it to stop stuff being sucked in

[Pablom24]

They said it’s his responsibility to keep car tidy ffs it’s immaculate must be a design fault 

[Pablom24]

No mesh or it wouldn’t get in there

[Ydda2]

totally agree got be a design fault not to have a screen on it does have on outside under bonnet

[Pablom24]

It has a screen under bonnet like any other car , but surely the fact that it can lift a leaf off the carpet like this , there should be a recall to sort it 

[DaveT70]

Call Ford customer relations and complain

[billyboy]

What about the filter, is it on the input side or the output side, I always thought it was on the input side.Surely the leaf would dry up eventually and get smashed to powder and pass through

[Eric Bloodaxe]

No, never come across that story either in almost 50 years of car owning. Have had what I assumed to be a leaf get in under the windscreen scuttle though, but as Bill suggests above, the noise eventually disappeared when the leaf presumably dried out and disintegrated. 

[TomsFocus]

Sucked a leaf off the carpet!?  How much suction does the Fiesta system have!?  

It's technically possible, recirc does take from below but you'd need some serious suction to do it!  I've never heard of it actually happening.  

I know how annoying the noise is having had cars with no pollen filter (oh look, another 306 reference from me ) but I don't see it being worth the cost and hassle to try and rectify.  Dashes never go back perfectly, they always creak and rattle afterwards.

[Ian Lanc]

Heck! Two options...Option 1: Keep the blower on max speed in a hope it breaks up the leaf. Option 2: Turn the stereo up!!!

[Pablom24]

Defo if we knew it was a leaf I’d have said to leave it to break up but I had a look at front intake and it was spotless and it’s a 6 month old car .... think ford are going to try sort part of the bill 

[RodJones]

My daughter had a similar thing happen to her 2019 fiesta, although they said they found a mouse had crawled in there somehow, £600 and was not covered under the warranty. 

[unofix]

I didn't know that Ford were now using Dyson to make the blowers 🤔

[Jim H]

I can remember changing my pollen filter on my previous car and ending up with a footwell full of leaves. I was always surprised how many it collected. I don't know if you can remove filter you can feel for any leaves behind it.

However, I do wonder how a mouse could get in there with all the meshes, grilles and filters, It may be trickier to find and remove.

[K. Brewster]

Hi,

I have the same issue  here on a  2019 ford fiesta. The noise starts as the heater is turned on and the noise is louder when I turn the internal recirculation on.

After some investigation, here is what i found : the bonnet under the windshield just  in front of the air intake was quite dirty and there were a few leafs there so i did wash it. I also found some leaves in the cabin filter that i accessed from the passenger side of the central console of the car. 

Despite washing both these areas,  the noise is still there. I believe a leaf has found its way past the filter and is inside the heater blower which i located : it is a Bosch H1BH-19846-AA heater blower but its an absolut nightmare to access it....  Don't really feel like its worth going to ford for this  much work as it will be painfully expensive...  Thinking of letting the leaf desintegrate as suggested here. 

Any news on this Pablom24 ? Did the issue resolve itself with time ?

Sincerely,