Team-BHP - Things to replace before your car's warranty expires

Hi folks,

The extended warranty on my Ford EcoSport 1.5TDCi (2020) is close to expiry in about 3 months. I have done close to 66,000 Kms and I wanted to know if there is a list of items that I can ask the service center to replace or check carefully as it is approaching the 5-year mark.

The drive-shaft is making strange noises and it shall be replaced but I wanted to understand from the experts if there are other critical parts inside the bonnet of an EcoSport 1.5TDCi that the service station won't touch or talk about, but need replacement.

They do have an extended warranty for 150,000 Kms / 8 years which i will take as i intend to retain this vehicle.

Thanks once again for any insights you might have.

Best wishes,
Anand

I'm not familiar with this specific vehicle, however I suggest first read the documentation of existing Extended Warranty, as to what is covered, and what is not (as part of wear-n-tear clauses).
Just asking the workshop guy to check may not really result in right answers, as workshop may tend to ignore or apply a patch-work, for their savings.

Few things that come to my mind (including some of my personal experience with other car), which maybe included in EW, do check :
- steering rack / column assembly (check for any leak/play)
- window-glass motor, wiper-arm motor, water sprinkler motor
- radiator, condenser, evaporator, expansion valve, compressor
- caliper assembly (not the pads / discs)
- glow plugs, injectors, fuel pump, ABS module, alternator, starter motor
- switches (power window, steering mounted), or sensors (temperature, MAF, ABS, TPM, etc)
- master / slave cylinder assembly, EGR, Intercooler, Turbo
- belt or crankshaft pulley
- gear / drive shaft

Suspension, bearings, clutch, belts, filters, gaskets, bulbs etc are typically part of wear-n-tear / routine maintenance, and mostly not covered in extended warranty.

Ofcourse, there could be so many things in a car that may age, but not necessary require a change, especially under EW. The key would be periodic maintenance, routine checkups on different aspects, and keen observation of any anamoly / "different" behavior.

Bit off-track, however I'ld like to share few of my past pleasant experiences with "EW encashments" :
a) the wiper motor suddenly stopped. Upon reaching the workshop, came to know that EW expires the next day, I was lucky! They quickly changed the parts.
b) with a bit of pushing to solve my issue and escalating to manager, they finally changed the entire steering rack assembly

best wishes. do post your experiences and service details, regards.

There is nothing to replace if your vehicle is working fine.

Warranty does not cover preventive replacements - exception being manufacturer recalls / campaigns.

Your ASC is already replacing a drive shaft - have them check whether the other one is working fine.

An issue with the 1.5 TDCI is the Continental Injectors that fail often. However replacements are done only when they fail and preventive replacements are not accepted under warranty and not required either

As you are extending the warranty further you can claim warranty for any part that fails later. If there are no issues, do not bother about replacements. Just enjoy the car. :)

It is great to see that you are taking good care of the car, but as others mentioned, I was a bit surprised by the query itself. An extended warranty doesn't cover any anticipated failure or depreciation, it is only for the replacement of failed parts. A preventive maintenance package would have a scope for these replacements, and they have their schedule for the same, so getting anything replaced under warranty on a question of it ot having failed but for preventive cases doesn't seem to be possible.

Anyways getting the maximum possible extended warranty is always recommended and good to see that you are going for the extension.

As already mentioned above, if there is nothing wrong with your car then replacement of spare parts in EW is not possible. Having said that, my personal experience regarding Ford EW is a bit different. Your relation with your service advisor (SA) plays a key role in availing benefits of EW. I've seen that if the part you're asking to be replaced is not that costly, then it is easy to convince your SA. As an example, the gear lever of my car had developed some play after 6 years (the bushes had worn out) but there was no problem in gear shifting. I told my SA regarding the same and he told me that it is normal. He also asked me to check gear lever play in other cars at the service centre and I found out that they had way more play than mine. But I still insisted that my gear might get stuck in future from similar experiences of other users on online forums and then he had the complete gear shifting assembly changed (Rs 6500+ labour) in EW. Other time my display had developed a little blur although everything was visible quite clearly and the blur was visible only on close inspection. SA was kind enough to have it replaced in EW.

So in a nutshell, if there's even a slight problem in your car you may try to convince your SA. Even if SA doesn't help, have him note the problem in service history. That way in future, if your EW is expired and same problem creeps up, you can show that the problem was not attended previously when EW was availed.
In your case, you can try looking for problems in your steering column (play/abnormal sound in potholes), excessive gear lever play, power window switches and other parts of daily abuse.

Since you're usage is less, you can buy the extended warranty for peace of mid as it covers all mechanical, electrical and electronic components except wear and tear parts. Anticipatory claims won't be allowed on extended warranty. Only if the part fails, after filing a TSR report the specific part will be honored under warranty. Common part failures at the 7 year mark for thr ecosport is the steering rack, drive shaft and APIM module (sync 3 module equipped in sync3 variants). Do note that Ford has bumped the price of the APIM module by a big margin and it costs 54k if we need to replace on our own. S variant headlights are 40k a pair. So keeping extended warranty upto 8 years makes sense.

Also, get the vehicle serviced only at Ford or even parts changed at Ford so that warranty claims will be smooth.

However in my case it won't be if much use as I drive 30-45k kms in a year and the warranty eligibility is 1 year or 20k kms.

I hope this helps your query.