Hey all,

Over the last month I have been trying to diagnose an issue with my 64 plate Fiesta Ecoboost 1.0 (see my post history for details) and around 13,500 miles on the clock. The Issue started 200 miles after its 3 year service and the symptoms included:

• slow cranking
• a dull knocking sound
• sounded like the engine was misfiring (diagnostics reported misfires on all 3 cylinders)
• strange rattling noise
• show rumble/shaking that was very noticable in the car

The issues started around the 20th of December and I couldn't get an appointment with Ford until 24th January at the earliest so I tried to fix the issue myself. I looked general go to areas like:

• The battery, connections etc
• Changed the spark plugs
• Checked the coils
• Replaced the crankshaft sensor
• Replaced the throttle body

But none of that fixed the issue at all.

The car went into Ford today and the Mechanic said that the issue is the cam shaft plunger (and the parts around it) and that it will cost £2000 to fix.

Annoyingly, the car is just out of warranty, has always been serviced by Ford and in the two years that I have owned it I have only put 10,000 miles on it.

Im going to write a letter to Ford about this because in my opinion its ridiculous that a car with this sort of milage should have this sort of issue (or any mechanical issues really).

I wondered if anyone else had experienced this sort of issue with there Fiesta (or other Ford).

Id really appreciate peoples opinions on this.

Hi,

I've had a similar experience with my previous car although it wasn't a Ford. The car developed a fault when it was 3 years and 4 months old. I had a full service history and the dealer wanted £2,800 to repair the fault. I wrote to the manufacturers "customer relations department" and explained the situation as I felt the cost of repair should be covered by the manufacturer. Happily they agreed.  You need to do the same because I believe at that mileage and with a full Ford service history you should not be paying for the repair yourself.

Shocking that you had to wait a month for an appointment with your dealer.

If it has a Ford dealer history and has been diagnosed by an authorised Ford dealer then you may well qualify for a goodwill contribution.

Not good either with getting it into the dealer, but they've only finite capacity, and if it's all taken, its all taken.

17 hours ago, Matt Alsop said:

Hi,

I've had a similar experience with my previous car although it wasn't a Ford. The car developed a fault when it was 3 years and 4 months old. I had a full service history and the dealer wanted £2,800 to repair the fault. I wrote to the manufacturers "customer relations department" and explained the situation as I felt the cost of repair should be covered by the manufacturer. Happily they agreed.  You need to do the same because I believe at that mileage and with a full Ford service history you should not be paying for the repair yourself.

Shocking that you had to wait a month for an appointment with your dealer.

Thanks for reading my post :)

It sounds like you had a really good deal! I wish I was that lucky ha! I have contacted the dealership and they said that they will pay for 50% of the repair. Whilst thats good, I still feel like this sort of issue should not have even happened with the age and the milage of the car so I am going to contact Ford an see what happens.

1 month was a long time to wait! Im pretty sure that its just a busy dealership at a busy time of the year.

16 hours ago, Jethro_Tull said:

If it has a Ford dealer history and has been diagnosed by an authorised Ford dealer then you may well qualify for a goodwill contribution.

Not good either with getting it into the dealer, but they've only finite capacity, and if it's all taken, its all taken.

Ive been offered 50% which is good but Im going to push for more. Its just over 3 years old and shouldn't have this sort of mechanical issue at all.

It shouldn't, but it does sometimes.  They work on a set matrix/formula for goodwill, and deviation from that is unlikely, although it hurts not to try.  Most people think they pluck a figure out of thin air and negotiate from there, but the method for calculating it is quite regimented.

Of course, extending the warranty for a further two years yourself would likely have cost a lot less than the repair if owners are worried out things that "shouldn't" happen but do, but that's a spilled milk scenario for you now.  If you never want to pay repair bills then buy another new car, or extend the warranty - I absolutely hear what you're saying about how it "shouldn't" have happened, but it did, and being upset about how it "shouldn't" won't pay the repair bill.  If you're not happy about paying for unexpected failures, then you could have extended the warranty and had every penny covered.

whilst this is not a helpful comment really,  in addition to what Jethro Tull says, if customers think the manufacturer should pay for such repairs after a longer period than 3 years then some manufacturers do have longer warranty periods eg. Kia.  Ford say it's 3 years warranty and customers know that when signing the contract.

but I would be pretty annoyed if it was my car.

I am assuming they are saying it needs a new cylinder head - is that right?

9 hours ago, Jethro_Tull said:

It shouldn't, but it does sometimes.  They work on a set matrix/formula for goodwill, and deviation from that is unlikely, although it hurts not to try.  Most people think they pluck a figure out of thin air and negotiate from there, but the method for calculating it is quite regimented.

Of course, extending the warranty for a further two years yourself would likely have cost a lot less than the repair if owners are worried out things that "shouldn't" happen but do, but that's a spilled milk scenario for you now.  If you never want to pay repair bills then buy another new car, or extend the warranty - I absolutely hear what you're saying about how it "shouldn't" have happened, but it did, and being upset about how it "shouldn't" won't pay the repair bill.  If you're not happy about paying for unexpected failures, then you could have extended the warranty and had every penny covered.

You're absolutely right but Im still going to push it to see if can get anywhere.

4 hours ago, isetta said:

whilst this is not a helpful comment really,  in addition to what Jethro Tull says, if customers think the manufacturer should pay for such repairs after a longer period than 3 years then some manufacturers do have longer warranty periods eg. Kia.  Ford say it's 3 years warranty and customers know that when signing the contract.

but I would be pretty annoyed if it was my car.

I am assuming they are saying it needs a new cylinder head - is that right?

Im not sure to be honest. I have been told that its the cam shaft plunger but when changing that part, all the parts around it will also need replacing. Ive spoken to two other mechanics and they didn't know what the cam shaft plunger was and looking on google didn't help me much either. Im wondering if there is a more common name for it?

The plunger is probably what the high pressure fuel pump sits on . May be damaged in the head

But I can't see a plunger .

The eco boost engine runs a very high pressure fuel pump (upto 3000psi) that is mechanically driven off of a lobe on 1 of the camshafts. i would imagine the dealer has diagnosed a worn cam lobe /follower under the pump which would cause poor starting rough running etc as the pump cant reach peak pressure. the cost involves stripping outthe camshafts and replacing worn parts plus new cam belt and tensioner gaskets etc.  

I wonder why it wore down, if that was it.

I had a mk3 escort which suffered extreme camshaft wear at one end in the area of the lobe that operated the fuel pump. It was caused by the fuel pump gradually leaking petrol which washed all of the oil away from that area of the camshaft. One of the valve operating lobes was also extremely worn down

It would be unfortunate if the same problem arose again due to an undiagnosed slight fuel pump leak