2020 Kuga 1.5 petrol engine oil leak

[Adrian ABC]

Bought my 2020 Kuga second hand with 16,000 miles on the clock and full main dealer service history. The car was a really clean, low mileage example and hence I was really pleased with the car. 11 months on and having covered 24.000, the car was indicating it needed its first major service. I was keen to keep the main dealer service history up on the car and hence booked into my nearest Ford dealer and was quoted just under £600 for a major service. It had been a few years since I had used main dealers for servicing, so after coughing and digging deep I paid for the service. Only to be informed to my surprise the car had an oil leak. The car was returned to me with no details as to what had cause the oil leak, I had to chase the main dealer to confirm if the car was okay to drive and also chase for what needing replacing and cost. After almost a week was I quoted £800 to replace a defective 'front cover' including sealants, gaskets and once use bolts, replenish fluids (oil & coolant) and five hours of labour. As this did not sound like normal wear and tear for any car that was less than four years old and covered less than 25.000, I questioned if this should not be cover as a manufacturing defect (although the car's manufacturing warranty had expired some 8 months beforehand). I'm still awaiting information/confirmation back from the dealer on this, but was I wondering if there are any owners on this forum of year 2020+ Kuga with 1.5 petrol engine that have experienced similar issues. 

[unofix]

45 minutes ago, Adrian ABC said:

2020 Kuga

Does your profile need updating ? 🤔

[unofix]

On 5/9/2024 at 9:11 PM, Adrian ABC said:

but was I wondering if there are any owners on this forum of year 2020+ Kuga with 1.5 petrol engine that have experienced similar issues.

🤔

[TomsFocus]

I would assume this is the 3 cylinder 1.5 EcoBoost engine?  This engine is used in the Mk8 Fiesta and Mk4 Focus as well as other models, so there should be plenty of owners with that engine on here, just not necessarily in a Kuga.

I don't remember seeing this issue on here so far.  I think 'front cover' must refer to the timing chain cover.  So you are effectively paying around 90% of the labour for a timing chain replacement, without actually having the chain replaced.

I doubt you'll get anything through the warranty so many months after expiry.  Ford aren't known for gracious warranty repairs even when the warranty is still active.

Personally, I'd have a look at the cover and see how bad the leak really is.  If it's just a minor weep along a short edge section, it can probably be left without causing any issues. 

I know it's a long way off right now, but the oil pump belt should be replaced at 10 years old (or 144k miles), so the cover will need to be removed for that, and can either be resealed or replaced at the same time.

[Adrian ABC]

Thanks Tom, yes its the same 3-cylinder Ecoboost engine found in the Fiesta and Focus. Ford Dealer has still not confirmed if Ford will be willing to help pay towards the cost and to be honest I'd be surprised if they did. We have been using the car (had to really) and its not showing any signs of oil leaks under where its been parked over night, so I'm thinking the same as yourself i.e., monitor it and see if it can wait until a more urgent replacement activity that reassociates front cover removal. 

[RaduF86]

Hi,

For some reason the 1.5 is known to leak oil. I have been following a German forum and there were plenty of these engines with oil leaks.

One thing you can do is to first clean/wipe all the oil you see and start monitoring. Find out where it comes from. Don't trust the dealer directly, because I have read that the first thing they point to on these engines is the timing cover, but it is not aways that and you shall pay for a job that doesn't get the leak fixed. Based on what I have found so far this engine had the following leakage sources: cam shafts cover seal, timing cover seal, head gasket. These are the ones that come up most often.

So clean it, monitor it, try to find where it comes from (and if it is coming from the sealing of the timng cover or from the bolts of the timing cover), then take it to get it fixed.