Hi all,

Just wanted to ask anyones advice on the situation I'm currently in. Bought a new Fiesta 1.25 in Feb 2010 and had an incident on the M4 that December where my engine warning light came on and the car started stuttering and went into limp mode, pulling into services and restarting the engine seemed to do the job but had it looked at when I got to Cardiff. Ford said that when they looked at it they found a "loose wire" which they had reconnected, and it seemed to do the trick.

Jumping ahead to now, I had to drive up to North Wales this weekend for a week and on the journey I had the same issue with engine warning light flashing and loss of power, except upon restarting the engine the warning light stayed constant (after taking 3-4 tries to actually start the car up). The car is now in Evans Halshaw Wrexham, and calling the service manager today he told me that they found faulty spark plugs and that they're going to charge me £52 to replace them. Even though I'm still in my 3 year warranty period, apparently spark plugs and other parts are only covered for the first 12 months. I explained to him that I already had the similar problem whilst the car was less than 12 months old, but because it was diagnosed as a loose wire, it counts as a different case and that it won't be covered.

Am I wrong in thinking that it's a bit out of order to pay for replacement spark plugs when my car has done less than 7000 miles? Could anyone explain how they could become faulty in such little time. I'm no mechanic so I don't really understand these things but I just want to make sure I'm not being taken for a ride! ( :P )

It does seem unfair, and id be doing everything i could to get them done under warrenty!

However £52 for spark plugs is extremely steep!!

lol a set of spark plugs (4) cost a tenner , there ripping you right off !!

It's not even the cost of the spark plug replacement that pisses me off. It's just the way that it's been handled by Ford. I've had nothing but bad experience with them.

When I told the service manager that I wasn't willing to pay for replacement spark plugs (which I dont think I should do) and that I would take the vehicle myself and try to replace them, he said that even though the diagnostic was carried out under warranty I would still be charged for diagnostics if the repair work isn't carried out.

I've even been in contact with Ford Customer Services today to explain that I've had this problem since before my 12 month parts warranty expired but they won't budge, they say that the loose wire is a seperate incident to this despite the problem persisting. I'm literally disgusted by the way that they're just denying any fault on their part and won't even consider that it might have been mis-diagnosed initially. I've also lost all confidence in Ford technicians at this point. Who's to say that in another few months time I have the same problem and it's diagnosed as something else gone faulty!