Ever found your boot filling up with water over the space of a few weeks?

I had this problem last autumn as my C-MAX approached its first service (November). About the same time I had a few warnings advising that the "Rear Tailgate was open". At the service the dealer replaced the tailgate latch under warranty, believing that this was the cause of the water ingress. For a while my boot stayed dry and I gave up checking it. Then in April I noticed water building up again. When I contacted the dealer I was told that water ingress was not covered after the first 12 months. I disputed this, claiming that the original problem was reported during the warranty period and had clearly not been resolved. The dealer still would not budge.

So, I wrote to Ford Customer Relations. They 'phoned me and, following a discussion about how many Fords I had owned etc, they offered to fund 60% of repair costs subject to the water ingress being diagnosed due to a manufacturing defect. I refused this offer because I believed it was due to a defect and I did not want to fund 40% of £???. Within the hour, Ford came back with an improved offer of 100% funding up to £500, again subject to a manufacturing defect. I decided to take my chance.

Luckily for me it was diagnosed a manufacturing defect - water had been entering under capillary action via the tailgate top hinges and seeping down inside the bodywork to reappear under the spare wheel. I would never have found this myself and I did try, even using water jets!

The repairs (which I hope will work) cost Ford about £350 and the garage that did the work told me that they had done "a few repairs of this type". Hence my reason for posting my story. If you have a similar problem, don't be fobbed off by dealers' refusals and initial offers from Ford Customer Relations, especially if you have owned a lot of Ford cars over the years. My advice is to be persistent and stand up to them - it's worth it in the long run!

great tip mate

Also glad to hear you had the issue fixed by the dealer instead of forking out your hard earned.