Hello all,  

 

Please forgive the long post but I find myself in a quandary and was hoping for some input from some superior minds. 

 Long story short, I have a 2019 ford focus with just over 60k miles on the clock. In November 2025 I took it to two separate garages as the car started to judder under heavy acceleration – neither could diagnose the fault. 

 In January of this year, on approximately a 400 mile round trip, after about 70 miles the car starts juddering on the motorway under normal loads and the amber engine light comes on. I manage to nurse the car through the journey and return home. I appreciate this might have been a mistake and willingly accept any flak that comes my way for that. 

 I contact Evans Halshaw who advise the car can be driven with an amber engine light and the earliest they can get the car in is two weeks later. They identify the fault as the following: 

Confirmed EML on dashboard, carried out FDSR scan check and found fault codes P3000 and P3083 which both relate to a cylinder 3 misfire. We followed the diagnostic procedure and replaced cylinder 3 coil pack and spark plugs. After we changed these, there was still a slight misfire on the vehicle and a fault code showing of P2003 so we proceeded to replace the cylinder 3 injector.  

 After these adjustments they then report the car will no longer start per the below: 

 The car then was not started so we checked the spark plugs, all ok, we carried out a compression test which showed low compression cyl 1 40psi, cyl 2, 40 psi and cyl 3 70 psi. We discussed the vehicle with ford technical and were advised compression measurements should be around 160 and these measurements would indicate the vehicle has a faulty engine.  

As discussed with yourself, we carried out the correct repair following our diagnostic procedure. From history given, the engine had an intermittent fault with a misfire. The failed engine would have always occured whether that being with yourself driving down the road, or with ourselves at this current visit. As we replaced the parts, this caused the pressure to affect the underlying issue with the engine, meaning it failed sooner and on our premises. 

 I’m not an expert, but I’m not picking up what they’re putting down. In my mind, the engine was able to generate enough pressure in the cylinders to get the car there and only since their repair is when the car is failing to start. To say this is an underlying fault with the vehicle without any evidence of what that fault might be strikes me as suspicious and I feel like I’m getting palmed off. I’m curious to know how board members who are more familiar with these processes interprets their response and how they might effectively react to such news. 

 They want a bit over £10k for the replacement engine and labour. Ford themselves will not offer to cover any of the costs due to the age of the car. 

 Thanks in advance. 

 

 

Low compression means either piston rings or piston fault or valve faults or head gasket

You could opt to take it to an engine specialist/reconditioner who could strip it down and recondition the faulty parts or, much, much cheaper, source a known running, low mileage engine from a write off and fit that.

Remember, same engine is in Fiesta 2020 on, Focus and Puma

That would be my advice

Absolutely NOT 10k for a brand new engine on a 2019 car, not worth it

But you probably won't be back🤷🏻‍♂️

Is it 1.0 or 1.5 out of interest?

I think there's a typo in those compression figures. It would never have run at 40/40/70psi! I suspect that should be 140/140/70.

If the first 2 cylinders really are only 40psi then I would suggest something they've done has caused that damage.

The garage are clearly trying to wriggle out of any responsibility, but unfortunately it'll be pretty much impossible to prove that it was caused by their work. If you want to take legal action against them then you need to send the car to a different garage to have an independent engine strip down and diagnosis made. This will cost you money in labour, but you can claim for that if they can prove the failure was caused by the garage. Obviously it is a risk as they may not find any proof of fault and just leave you further out of pocket.

Ultimately you need legal advice here, not just mechanical advice from us.

Wouldn't be a cylinder deactivation failure would it?

4 minutes ago, DaveT70 said:

Wouldn't be a cylinder deactivation failure would it?

CD should hold the valves closed, so would still build compression if it was stuck on. The 1.0 chain engine does 'drop a cylinder' quite often though. So I wouldn't be surprised if just one had lost compression from a broken ring or whatever. But it should still run on 2 which makes this case strange.

Assuming it is a 1.0, a brand new engine could be sourced elsewhere:

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Thank you so much for taking the time to read and reply.

In answer to @DaveT70 - totally agree, £10k is totally out of the question. There is a local ford specialist garage near me who I could potentially have the car towed to for a second opinion as having presented the same info to him, he says it does not stack up. But then Evan Halshaw are truly off the hook. In my head, keeping the car there and the pressure on is likely my best shot at a resolution.

@TomsFocus It is a 1.5 ecoBoost and I see where you're coming from. Proving that they're at fault will be hard to nigh on impossible. It's infuriating.

I'm going to ask them to detail what checks and work they've done to try and make the engine work again and ask for more detail about their assertion "The failed engine would have always occured whether that being with yourself driving down the road, or with ourselves at this current visit."

To me, the above statement should be able to be evidenced - if it was always going to fail then tell me exactly why/what/how, and tell me how the work on one cylinder has caused all others to fail.

22 minutes ago, GummyDeMilo said:

@TomsFocus It is a 1.5 ecoBoost and I see where you're coming from. Proving that they're at fault will be hard to nigh on impossible. It's infuriating.

I'm going to ask them to detail what checks and work they've done to try and make the engine work again and ask for more detail about their assertion "The failed engine would have always occured whether that being with yourself driving down the road, or with ourselves at this current visit."

To me, the above statement should be able to be evidenced - if it was always going to fail then tell me exactly why/what/how, and tell me how the work on one cylinder has caused all others to fail.

Oh, that is interesting. I can't remember seeing another 3 cylinder 1.5 lose compression so far. (Was common on the old 4 cylinder 1.5).

You really need an independent assessment done. Not just another report from Evans Halshaw.

Yep, fetch it out, pay the diagnosis fee and take it somewhere else.

At least crack the head off and see what's gone on

40 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Oh, that is interesting. I can't remember seeing another 3 cylinder 1.5 lose compression so far.

All sounds very odd. I can't recall a failure like this of a 1.5 on any of the Fiesta ST-specific forums and some cars are running 285bhp! Again, not being able to run (at least after a fashion) on 2 cyls sounds strange, as the 200ps version of the 1.5 in the Fiesta ST is designed to do so under light load.

BTW Have not spotted (yet) any cheaper sources for the 1.5 (unlike the1.0) which again might tell us this is not usual.

I've just checked the fault codes as they didn't seem familiar. They all seem to be wrong. FDSR is presumably meant to be FDRS. Cylinder 3 misfire should be P0303. Cyl 2 is is P0302. Can't work out what P3083 is meant to be.

Does anyone know if FDRS codes are different to OBD2/Forscan?

1 hour ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

BTW Have not spotted (yet) any cheaper sources for the 1.5 (unlike the1.0) which again might tell us this is not usual.

No joy on brand new yet, but there seem to be plenty of used from write offs ranging from £1k- £2.5k.

Not a serious suggestion, but you could even get this fitted under £6k.😀

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7 hours ago, DaveT70 said:

Wouldn't be a cylinder deactivation failure would it?

Cylinder Deactivation is only on Cylinder one.

14 hours ago, Tizer said:

Cylinder Deactivation is only on Cylinder one.

Oh, I thought it deactivated all three in turn