Hello Ford User Forum

I was wondering whether the forum members could give me any guidance about the problems I'm currently having following the breakdown of my vehicle which is a wheelchair-adapted vehicle (rear entry ramp to accommodate my electric wheelchair.) as I'm a quadriplegic.

In October 2022, I purchased a Ford Grande Tourino Connect 1.5 diesel with one previous owner and 1000 miles on the clock.

It was still under the Ford warranty with 9 months remaining at the time of my purchase.

On 11 December 2024, while my dad was driving, a low oil pressure warning light came on.

Almost immediately, the engine started to make horrendous sounds as if it was smashing itself to pieces, which turned out to be probably an accurate reflection of events.

We stopped the car as soon as was safe to do so in less than 30 seconds I would say.

At that time the total mileage of the vehicle was 4,600 miles

The car completely shut down and had to be returned on a low loader to our local garage.

My local garage quickly assessed that the engine was destroyed and I'm looking at a repair bill of £10,000.

Ford has not told me the cause of the failure, my local garage has speculated that it might have been an oil pump failure and other people told me about a wet belt failure being common with this engine I've no idea.

My local garage said that given its low mileage, I should contact Ford and see what can be done in terms of the repair costs because this should not be happening on a car that's been fully serviced from the outset and has such low mileage.

We contacted the Ford customer support centre and they wanted confirmation that Ford-approved oil was used by Jubilee Automotive Ltd who I purchased the car from.

They confirmed via email that they used the Ford-approved oil and parts although could not provide an invoice for the thousand-mile service that they carried out before selling it to me because they don't invoice themselves for the services carried out before the sale.

I subsequently emailed Ford yesterday including all the emails sent from Jubilee answering Ford's questions and basically asked them to step up on this.

I also try to press upon them the fact that I'm fairly reliant on my wheelchair vehicle and I'm completely stuffed without it, with no local taxis even in 2025 taking my electric wheelchair and no short-term replacement available.

I’m currently having to drive to work in my electric wheelchair in the freezing cold it’s a nightmare I’m pretty much housebound with all Christmas plans completely screwed.

I also emailed the UK head of Ford whose executive complaints team got back to us today but again wanted invoices from Jubilee Automotive showing what oil they used.

Given the fact that I gave them Jubilee automotive details, I don't know why they're not going to act frankly.

So I'm just wondering whether anyone else has any experience of this type of vehicle engine having these problems is the oil issue just them trying to get out of accepting responsibility for a vehicle engine going after less than 5000 miles?

Does this engine have a vulnerability in terms of the oil that is used does anyone know?

I would be grateful for any information and suggestions on what to do next.

I notice that the Motoring Ombudsman is run by its members, somewhat akin to the GMC, so I'm not sure how much use they are in approaching.

Ultimately, I don't want to pursue a publicity angle about this; I'd rather get it sorted out without playing the wheelchair card but this is a nightmare!

 Let's be honest social media is far more effective these days than going through customer services.

Cheers Sean

 

 

Before we all start repeating the same advice, please have a read through this very recent and still current thread. I'm sure you will find it of interest:

 

If this is a 1.5 diesel, it doesn't have a wetbelt.

The common failure on this engine is the small chain between the two camshafts.