[Brumby]

Hi Johannskaria,

The way Ford handled this issue is really commendable. In India most of the manufacturers shy away from accepting a failure on their part and push the reasons on unsuspecting customers even if the products are well under warranty. There are a lot of examples here in the forum where in the customers have been given absurd reasons to avoid guarantee claims.
It seems Ford is genuinely on a mission to be one of the top customer friendly company and to win the trust of the Indian customers.

As you mentioned the problem is not with the oil pump as that would have led to immediate seizure of the engine and you would not be able to drive it at all.
It seems Ford India knows about the failure of the pistons of a particular batch of engines and hence replacing them free of cost inspite of vehicles being out of warranty. The service centre asking you to drive the vehicle down to the service centre confirms that folks at Ford are well aware of the problem.

This type of failure occurs mainly due to following reasons:
1. Lack of piston cooling (insufficient oil sprayed on the piston internals).
2. Localised heating on the piston crown because of fuel impingement.
3. Material failure.

The most probable reason seems to be material failure as other two factors can be checked by dismantling the engine which is done at frequent intervals during the engine development and testing stages.

The only checks you need to do for a vehicle after an engine replacement are, vibrations, any loose nuts and bolts on the engine mounts, all other parts that are not a part of the engine assembly and are mounted/connected on the engine (like hose bands, pipe unions and flanges). It will be a good idea to get all the nuts and bolts re-tightened to the specified torque after a month or 1000 kms.

Inspite of the job being done at an authorised service facility we must not forget that they too work under tight schedules and have targets to meet, and human error cannot be ignored as that is the major contributory factor for most of the incident/accidents.

Regards.

[Ricky_63]

Good to hear Ford being considerate & proactive Changing an engine is quite a huge cost, I am sure they are aware of the problem in a particular batch of cars or some such. Having said that, I still give them a "hats off" for the action.

I recently had a problem with my 2016 Ecosport TDCi which has run 15000 kms only. The car works great, then all of a sudden there is metallic sound whilst waiting at the red light. Next thing I notice is the gears are not slotting as they should, but are engaging.

Took the car to Ford & they diagnosed this to be a snapped spring in the gear shifter assembly. They did not have the part in store (rarely breaks) They ordered & said they would "replace" the gear shifter assembly under warranty. 3 days later the car was picked & returned with the replaced shifter assembly. I was not charged a single rupee.

2016 Figo TDCi 19K on the odometer, hit a pothole in the rains. Strut damaged. Replaced strut under warranty alongwith one damaged lower arm. NO CHARGES !


Kudos to Ford for the customer service. This would go a long way in bringing back customers to them.

Cheers

[Asish_VK]

Great work by Ford ! And good to hear your car was repired without any fuss by Ford. Wishing you many many more peaceful miles of ownesrship in your ecosport

Ford surely have improved immensely on service support part.

I am going to show this thread to every one who mock/gives weird gestures to me when I mention Fords are cheaper to maintain and their service is on par or even better than the market leaders

[harmanjeet14]

Your post reminds me of the similar ordeal which we had to go through with our Figo 1.2 petrol 2011 model.Around the similar ODO reading of 40k,the engine started consuming engine oil.Our experience with the workshop was not as smooth as yours.

Firstly,we were not told the reason for engine failure(till date they haven't given a proper reason).Our car was properly maintained and single handendly driven by my father and so no particluar reason for engine packing up so soon.

Secondly,the car was in the garage for over a month and for the better part of it inspection was carried out whithout giving us any information whether the company would honour the warranty or not.

But Finally after about three weeks of ordeal we were told that FORD has approved the replacement and our car would be getting a new heart.

The situation could have been better handled but I am happy that they honored the warranty.
My uncle,who owned a Hyundai Santro 2005 model had a similar problem.The engine packed up first at 25k and then again at 48k and both time Hyundai's sole response was that the poor fuel quality is causing the seizure and company is not liable for repairs in such cases.

[Col Mehta]

Originally Posted by abhishek46

Could you post few more details on the said episode?

Apologies, don't have a lot of info on this since it was just one of those casual 'over the drinks' talks but yes, his less than a year car suffered sudden engine death and Ford gave him all sorts of cooked up stories on how bad quality fuel AND poor air quality (yes, you are reading it) sometimes bring engines to seize - which, of course, he didn't buy and fought his way out to force Ford to replace the engine.

[Ashdel]

As per my view, problem like these should not occur at first instance, and even if they occur, company like Ford is setting a benchmark in customer service and not playing blame game

[King_pin09]

Originally Posted by johannskaria

The 4 years of ownership proved us one important thing.

Originally Posted by johannskaria

only the service light was on for reminding about the 40k schedule.

Originally Posted by johannskaria

The car has been strictly adhering to the scheduled services at Kairali Ford service center and we always stick to the good folks there.

40K Kms of running in 4 years is not very high in my opinion. Engine seizure at this early stage, despite having less Kms on the odometer and even so having adhered to the service schedules scrupulously; this only means a serious flaw at the manufacturers end. To me, Ford replacing the Engine / its components under warranty is a part of their obligation towards its customers. Kudos to Ford for having admitted its own fault and remedying it without the owner forced to put up a big fight.

On the other note, you may like to thank your stars for the vehicle not giving up in the mid of nowhere amidst a long trip and placing its occupants in a precarious situation.

Nonetheless, it all culminated in a happy ending.

[Dr.Naren]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

Out of warranty vehicle and Engine replacement-unheard of in our country. Although it feels nice, thinking over it, I would be questioning "Why did they agree to do that so easily? Similarly what other things might go wrong with the car? if it was a known issue, why wasn't it recalled?" 3 of 6 cars purchased in the same year having a problem with the Engine That's a remarkably high percentage. Call me a negative person, but If I were in your place, I would really think twice before buying a Ford again. It'll be riding your luck too far IMO.

Ford Ecosport had created lot of hype and there was long waiting period in 2013. I have seen many Manufacturers who would not recall the newly launched cars and send circulars to dealers to replace the parts only if the customer has any complaints.

Few examples :

1. Maruti Baleno :
Maruti is changing the suspension setup for most of the owners who complain about bouncy ride. They are not recalling the cars.

2. Renault Kwid :
Renault had found out some defects in fuel system and they were not recalling the cars. I had posted about this in Team BHP and Team BHP had even shared it in FB page. Surprisingly Renault recalled the cars after few days . Official version was entirely different though where they said fuel hose, clip etc but they were actually changing the fuel pump in tank.

3. Duster 110 HP
There are many reported cases of injector failure. I believe there was no official recall.

Now coming to Ecosport engine issue.. Ford knew it very well!! There are many customers who have got the full engine / parts replaced under warranty. Ford has even notified the dealers to immediately report and rectify the issue if the customer complains about abnormal noise, oil consumption etc. It's really sad that most of the manufacturers in India are resorting to such tactics.

[ashokabs]

I think we are habituated to a very low customer service level so we are very grateful if we do not have to fight for our right. However, it is not acceptable that the company did not take care to inspect the batch of engines from 2013 batches which were known to have shown defects of the nature mentioned. I would not touch the Ford products.

[poloslg]

Oh so I am not the only one who went through the same situation. Last month, even our Ecosport started flashing the message Engine oil pressure low. I drove to the service centre next day and after diagnosis the service manager told me that the whole engine will be replaced free of cost due to Oil pump failure. Although the service here at Ganges Ford,Siliguri was pathetic. They kept my car for 3 weeks straight and didn’t even care to provide me with a loaner car. This is quite a common issue with Ecosports sold in the year 2013-14 as Ganges Ford was overloaded with Ecosports with the same problem.

[Vid6639]

Ok. this is getting quite disconcerting for me.

I have a 2013 November Ecosport done 33K kms. Last year I had this intermittent low oil warning and Ford fixed it by changing some turbo component. I can't remember what now.

The low oil hasn't shown up after that except maybe about twice on a cold start then disappeared.

The engine clatter has gone up a little over the past few months and I have felt some hesitation to rev till redline. But I might be being paranoid.

[ranjithrnair]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Ok. this is getting quite disconcerting for me.

I have a 2013 November Ecosport done 33K kms. Last year I had this intermittent low oil warning and Ford fixed it by changing some turbo component. I can't remember what now.

The low oil hasn't shown up after that except maybe about twice on a cold start then disappeared.

The engine clatter has gone up a little over the past few months and I have felt some hesitation to rev till redline. But I might be being paranoid.

Well the initial batch is confirmed to have this issue and it is a quality issue of valve stem seal . I think you should get this checked again at the earliest possible.

[King_pin09]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

Now coming to Ecosport engine issue.. Ford knew it very well!! There are many customers who have got the full engine / parts replaced under warranty. Ford has even notified the dealers to immediately report and rectify the issue if the customer complains about abnormal noise, oil consumption etc. It's really sad that most of the manufacturers in India are resorting to such tactics.

Ideally a responsible manufacturer, after being aware of such a serious defect in its cars, is expected to announce a mass recall of the entire batch of cars fitted with these defective engines. However it is disheartening to see car makers refraining from doing so perhaps under fear of risking their reputation in open media and/ or to cut on losses caused due to bulk replacements.

What these manufacturers fail to understand is that, the customer is now at the grave risk of being stranded, suffer accidents or even sustain/ cause injuries to themselves or to others. Sadly, the focus is mostly concentrated about their own reputational and monetary losses rather than saving precious lives of its own customers.
.

[sansvk]

As I replied before it is a scary situation, the reason being most of the early 2013 cars will be out of warranty soon. Without this thread, I wouldn't have been informed of engine issues and it seems the number of engines replaced is high. I dont expect a recall because its an issue with the heart of the car and cost is quite high, instead I would have liked to see an advisory from Ford mentioning the possible symptoms and root cause. Again a company wouldn't send out an advisory because it would open the pandora's box.
After reading this thread the only task I can perform is to take the car for regular service, check the oil and coolant levels regularly and hope the dreaded lights donot come on.

[Turbanator]

It's quite strange that FORD India is not able to do a root cause analysis of the failed engines, there have to be some components which must be the culprit, it's not as if everything was built wrongly. Will it not be better if FORD can simply replace the problematic component/s. There was another thread from someone in Delhi reporting sudden death but I am not able to find now. Wonder who is going to foot the bill of these changes? Or is the probability of such failures very less like 1 in 1000 or more & there is no way to identify exact engine numbers having this problem so perhaps FORD is taking chances and working on a case to case basis?