Team-BHP - Ford EcoSport - Axle breaks on highway. EDIT: Due to accident (details on page 11)

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3847174)

Poornima Krishnan shares this horrific story
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The good part is that everyone is safe. This incident must have left the owners in a state of shock. This is every drivers nightmare. And it happened on a brand new car, it is not that easy to get over it.
It is such a psychological blow, I mean now every time they are in a car, they will have this incident on their mind, specially while driving a car. It was just a month old car and from Ford. How can you trust any car now. I hope they will get over it soon, but frankly this story will still be told many years from now.

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Originally Posted by Jeroen (Post 3848091)

I’m puzzled by the rim that is completely shattered. I have never seen or heard of a rim ending up looking like that without it having hit something very substantial.

I would say you hit something that broke the rim and sheared of all the underpinnings subsequently. All happens in a flash, you probably couldn’t even distinguish between hitting pothole or whatever obstruction and everything coming apart.

Jeroen

The rim is not broken, its torn. The sheer weight of the front bay and the friction from the road, as apparently clear from the skid marks, must have applied enough force to tear the rim. The wheel has turned and is stuck almost at 90 degrees in respect to its initial position and the direction of skid marks. This IMHO must have been the reason why the alloy wheel is ripped.

This is horrible. Thank God that no one is injured. The owner should continue trying to get in touch with Ford management in order to claim warranty. Otherwise legal battle would be next option. For me 3.4 L bill looks insane, an entry level hatch or a decent mid range used car comes within that budget, anyways that's a different topic.
If Ford does not address this issue they might lose their marketing grounds.

While this event is certainly concerning, I would like to highlight the fact that the Ecosport has been selling well since quite a few years - which means there should be several lakh vehicles on the road by now and this is the first ever instance of something like this happening. Also, we do not know the exact cause of the accident and what may have lead to this happening - so it's unfair to jump to a conclusion and start bashing Ford for this.
I am in no way affiliated with Ford but as a happy owner of 3 Fords, I can say that their build quality is surely one of the best in it's segment.

Glad to know everyone is safe.
Ford didn't ever address the stalling issue of Figo maybe they'll get over this too. Don't know how companies manage to ignore such issues. lets hope this is one odd incident only.
Do let us know if there was kind of a noise or vibration or it happened just without warning.
I completely understand the psychological effect after such incident as I am scared enough driving figo around the city or taking it out on highway after i got close shaves many a times as it stalled unusually, in this case things seem quite worse but luckily car managed to get over the impact.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeroen (Post 3848211)

difficult case to prove one way or the other.

Jeroen

Certainly a mishap had this been a fast lane highway, thank god lives are safe.
A dash cam would have certainly helped the case if the road was empty as portrayed, even the sudden jerk would have been recorded.
Ford, I am a potential customer and I am seriously concerned, you seem to have some explanations to give to elevate my confidence level.

This is horrific !! Thank Almighty that no injuries occurred. Also a big thanks to Team BHP for taking up and highlighting this issue.

This type of issue occurring on a brand new car leaves me dumbfounded and as i began to think - an age old malpractice by dealers comes to mind.

When a dealer/service center receives a car with some issues especially part failures / damaged parts on a car out of its warranty period ( say from a customer X who is a big shot/important to the dealer) - the dealer folks cooly swap the damaged parts with fresh parts on new cars lying in their stockyard ( mostly from stock not sold for sometime) and snaps on the new part ( from the new car in the stockyard) to that customer X's car - no cost attached for the part and only labor !! No entry made in any of their systems and no one will know except them - completely under the table.

Until an unsuspecting customer is sold this new car ( whose part was swapped with the damaged part) and then suffers an issue.

Such an issue in a key mechanical part skipping Ford's quality control is not impossible but quite improbable, but the dealer folks swapping parts is very easily doable and happens without our knowledge. The fact is they keep cycling this damaged part with new part from the cars lying in stockyard till one day they forget to remove it from the car in their stockyard to be delivered to a new customer !

When we buy a car do we (as customers) get to know the part ID's of all the mechanical parts that has been assembled into it ? ( or at least a BOM of the key mechanical parts??) - i think we are entitled to know ?

I wish Ford gets in and clears this up as for sure the dealers wont be helping !

Good to see all the occupants safe! The question here does not stop at the axle alone. The photo shows complete LH suspension is ripped off. The strut, Lower Arm, the engine Subframe (which houses the lower arms) knuckle all seem to have given up. That's not possible just because of a broken axle-as the axle has flexible ends and breakage of axle won't effect the suspension to such an extent.

A failed lower arm or knuckle could be probable cause. Just my opinion though.

Thank the almighty, no one is hurt, but not sure, these incidents might not cause injury that are physical, it might cause severe strain internally due to the heavy impact that the occupants would have been subject to. Hoping they do not develop such complications in the future.

This seems to be a manufacturing defect, for otherwise, the road looks good, hoping that the speed would not have crossed 100 KMPH considering it is a brand new vehicle.

What are the chances of the owner getting a new car if he claims it? I mean, changing the front axle, the alloys, windshield, tinkering the front door, thats about 20% of the car that is changed, the owner deserves a new car.

In pic 5, if you notice near the rear wheel, the under-body skirting has misaligned with the body panel.

Wouldn't these kind of axle breakage, impact the chassis too? I'm sure the chassis would have taken some impact.

Hoping that the customer gets a fair resolution.

This damage cannot be caused by the front axle / cv joints breaking. Even if the front axle breaks, the wheel will still be held in place by the upper and lower suspension arms and steering joints.

This can happen only if the front suspension collapsed completely in which case the driver would have received warning signs (wobbles/ unsteady behaviour) long before this happened.

We aren't being given the entire story by the owner.

Probably the reason why Ford isn't responding either.

Having personally experienced exactly similar failure in front axle of Chevy beat 3 years back, I'm not confident the manufacturer would respond with conscience to this problem. The human lives and the consumer's money are the cheapest and for grabs in this part of the world.

I recommend to start a legal procedure if you have time and patience my friend. The case should win on our favour but it is a long process.

i might be wrong but, looks like a stress fracture at the strut assemby to me (looking at the second photo). The axle or a tie rod break should not impact the wheel coming off, i feel. drive shaft is a possibility like many said - and that could be an assembly issue.

nonetheless, would help us in the forum to know what happened with the dealer/OEM?