Our Ford Focus is leaking coolant - will Ford help pay for repairs?
Our four year old Ford Focus 1.0-litre Ecoboost, with 25,000 miles, went in for its annual service and MoT today (main Ford dealer). When we went to collect it, we were told it was suffering from a major coolant leak, to the extent that they filled it up when they spotted it and as soon as they put the system under pressure it drained out again. They said there was certainly a problem with the water pump, but also pointed out another leak from elsewhere and they will have to virtually strip the engine down to sort it out. We said we had seen no trace of coolant leakage and were told it had gathered under the engine (inside the front engine cover) and then evaporated. This repair will cost over £800 (mainly labour) but we are going away soon, so have told them to go ahead as clearly we couldn't use the car on the motorway in this state. We were wondering if you have any idea what may have caused this, whether it is a common fault or just bad luck. What are our chances of some support from Ford towards the cost?
These engines are notorious for this because a nylon union in the degas pipe that takes boiling water from the turbo back to the expansion tank can fail. Since the engine itself it tiny, with a very small coolant capacity, any loss of coolant rapidly leads to disaster. It's a design fault and you should not have to pay anything at all for it to be fixed. This gives you numerous other instances of the same thing happening, together with a photograph: www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/ford/focus-2011/?sec.../ Do not be conned into paying for the repair.
Answered by Honest John on
