RE: Focus RS owners offered 'free repair'

[ducnick]

Hi Ford.
Any chance you can take the same approach to the failing RHD mustang oil coolers that take the engines with them, or the air con evaporators that cost £2K to replace? Seeing as they are all prone to failure we would really appreciate the same response ASAP!

[Robert-lhcbq]

Have honda issued a recall on their chocolate civic Type R gearboxes yet?

[Valgar]

It's a free repair, not a recall...honestly...

[Jeff_Enthused]

Robert-lhcbq said:

Have honda issued a recall on their chocolate civic Type R gearboxes yet?

I learned one thing buying my RS - don't do it. Don't buy any of these hatches designed to make J. Clarkson achieve orgasm on the test drive, get good press, sell to morons (me included lol) then break within three yards of driving it off the chuffin' forecourt, by which point theyve closed the gates behind you and claim its not their fault lol.

[Jonesy23]

So has any actual pattern emerged yet of what engines are affected?

Usually it's not enormously difficult to trace back through the stock history and work out what batch(es) of engines and parts were actually to blame, especially if it turned out to be misbuild or faulty components.

A design issue might be a bit trickier but I'm not sure we're seeing suggestions of that are we?

[Jeff_Enthused]

Jonesy23 said:

So has any actual pattern emerged yet of what engines are affected?

Usually it's not enormously difficult to trace back through the stock history and work out what batch(es) of engines and parts were actually to blame, especially if it turned out to be misbuild or faulty components.

A design issue might be a bit trickier but I'm not sure we're seeing suggestions of that are we?

According to Markcup70 on youtube it's 100% of RS engines thats why they are doing recall on 100% of RS. I need to get shot off mine quick before value tanks.

[VR6 Eug]

Open deck block with no real strengthen webs is a recipe for disaster, but what really amazed me is that the engineers thought that was ok and even more odd is problem didn't show up when the car was put through testing, so is fords rigorous testing process not that rigorous?

[hothatchery7]

First of all regardless of my personal opinion of Ford, at least they have accepted the faults and are willing to fix for free. Which they should. Many manufacturers fail to do this with many things and sweep it under the rug. Secondly on the reliability front, we use RS's as recce cars for Ogier and bar some trivial things. They have withstood thousands of KM's on unforgiving stages on surfaces most road cars would disintegrate on. They are back out for another year with only minor servicing. Yes it runs a sumpguard and Reiger suspension but apart from that these are standard cars as stipulated by the FIA. However to state these are unreliable pieces of turd is just not true.

[Jonesy23]

VR6 Eug said:

Open deck block with no real strengthen webs is a recipe for disaster, but what really amazed me is that the engineers thought that was ok and even more odd is problem didn't show up when the car was put through testing, so is fords rigorous testing process not that rigorous?

You mean an open deck die cast block like so many others, say for example the Ecoboost V6 block?

Nothing wrong with that at all. I think people don't understand open deck blocks.

Of course if the problem is that people have been building them wrong then all the testing in the world won't help.

[gazza285]

blade7 said:

So instead of a new engine you'll just get the head and gasket, wonder if the failing gasket has let water into the bores and steam cleaned the oil away.....

If you have oil in the bores above the rings, then it's not just the head gasket you have to worry about.

[CedricN]

Itsallicanafford said:

Buy French, buy once

This guy is right, this is post manufacturer warranty claims(per 100 cars) from one of the biggest insurance companies in sweden. If you want to buy european buy a Renault, otherwiser buy asian



At least Ford are better than the germans on handling big issues, instead of just letting the customer take the costs of crappy cam chains, IMS bearings etc, but I really wonder if they have a bullet proof solution, only time will tell..

[blade7]

gazza285 said:

blade7 said:

So instead of a new engine you'll just get the head and gasket, wonder if the failing gasket has let water into the bores and steam cleaned the oil away.....

If you have oil in the bores above the rings, then it's not just the head gasket you have to worry about.

You've heard of bore washing?

[Ahbefive]

nickfrog said:

Jeff_Enthused said:

Can't wait to get shot of mine and buy a Megane RS!

Hi Humandoing, how is it going ?

It really is that obvious. What a knob.

[RemyMartin81D]

Nanook said:

Don't buy any of these hatches, yeah?

Apart from the French one that you're apparently going to buy next, despite the fact your Focus RS is completely fictional?

Total fruit loop and walt.

Probably not old enough to drive anything more than a little tykes car.

I called out humandoing in the original thread far too obvious.

[Rawwr]

Jeff_Enthused said:

HAHA to all the bellends on here who took the Michael out of me for ages saying how deluded I was to think Ford were a bunch of jokers and should sort this out.

FORD have admitted to being jokers. Admitted it! I know it probably dont make you happy to think of someone not getting scammed by a huge american company with millions of dollars but oh well youll have to find something else to get rood about, im phoning Ford up when they open tomorrow to get this sorted just like I said they should all along.

So to be clear, Ford (your god some of you in fact probably most of you on here for some reason) actually agree that the RS is a bag of pants. Can't wait to get shot of mine and buy a Megane RS!

Gosh, sounding just like HumanDoing again. Who knew?

[Rawwr]

PistonHeads in 'YET AGAIN FAILING TO BAN OBVIOUS TROLL SHOCKER'.

[culpz]

We shouldn't really have to praise manufacturers for holding their hands up, admitting fault and offering free fixes. However, considering many others have never acknowledged or honored blatantly common issues in the past, you can't help but have a fair bit of respect for Ford for this.

You've got Porsche, with their previous bore-scoring edition cars. You've got Subaru, who are still selling their chocolate 2.5 engine to this day. You've got Renault, who sold their Clio 197's/200's with doomed manual gearboxes. There are probably many more, but those are just a few.

[Msportman]

Thank god I didn't buy one of these......a few laps of Castle Combe would probably see it explode.

There's a catalogue of problems on this generation of RS not to mention the rear Differential overheating in drift mode shutting down the 4WD system. .Didn't Ford conduct long term endurance testing??

What an expensive mistake for many.....if the blocks do distort then the whole engine needs to be junked. They should have done more R&D.

So glad I bought a reliable Golf R...at least I've been able to tune it to 400bhp reliably, track it and use it as my daily driver and was able to order a 3 door!

[scarble]

CedricN said:

Itsallicanafford said:

Buy French, buy once

This guy is right, this is post manufacturer warranty claims(per 100 cars) from one of the biggest insurance companies in sweden. If you want to buy european buy a Renault, otherwiser buy asian

At least Ford are better than the germans on handling big issues, instead of just letting the customer take the costs of crappy cam chains, IMS bearings etc, but I really wonder if they have a bullet proof solution, only time will tell..

I have always said that Renaults are alright (not biased..) it's PSA that give the French a bad rep.

It still seems very hazy what the real issue is. Are they just replacing warped head gaskets with new gaskets which will soon fail in the same way as the underlying cause is a head/block interface issue?

Do they actually all need new re-designed blocks to be 100% fixed?

If you buy one used, how do you know if the block has minor distortion?
What if the pistons fail at 100,000 miles because of this?

Not the first car to make it to production with faulty block/cylinder liners/crank journals though and it won't be the last. Considering these days you can put an engine under considerably more load on a test bed than you will ever in the real world and abuse it for hours on end in a fully automated test, shock cooling and heating and loading it up from nothing to everything in under a second, it is odd that these kind of failures still occur.
Perhaps if manufacturers actually had to pay the full cost for something like this their rigorous testing would become more rigorous.

Edited by scarble on Wednesday 24th January 10:52

[culpz]

Msportman said:

Thank god I didn't buy one of these......a few laps of Castle Combe would probably see it explode.

There's a catalogue of problems on this generation of RS not to mention the rear Differential overheating in drift mode shutting down the 4WD system. .Didn't Ford conduct long term endurance testing??

What an expensive mistake for many.....if the blocks do distort then the whole engine needs to be junked. They should have done more R&D.

So glad I bought a reliable Golf R...at least I've been able to tune it to 400bhp reliably, track it and use it as my daily driver and was able to order a 3 door!

I do remember that some of the first few batches of the MK7 Golf R had their turbos let go in the early stages of their life. New cars have issues and get (hopefully) ironed out. As long as they are acknowledged and rectified, as such, then i really don't see the big fuss.

There's a guy that i follow on YouTube, who has a Stealth Grey RS, and is insistent that, if his engine does go pop, it'll completely take the shine off the experience and is adamant that he'll sell the car. I know a few others that have said similar things.

I personally struggle with this kind of mindset.