Ford RSA rescued my Aspire Titanium Plus twice on a highway

Soon after I began my journey, hissing noise and smoke started coming out of the engine bay of my car.

Thanks to Rajkumar Choudhury for sending this information in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP share page!

Hi,

First of all, I would like to thank this channel for all the discussions on various threads. Those articles, tips and discussions help us a lot. This is the first time I am writing to Team-BHP and I would like to share two incidents that happened on a single long trip. I typed this mail on 21 Oct 21.

I purchased a Ford Aspire Titanium Plus (TDCI) in the last week of Nov 2020 and this is my first car. I had driven more than 17K km and then the first breakdown happened.

I had to travel 1300 km in 2 days so I started at about 4 am on 09 Oct 21 which was Saturday. Just about 3 km after starting my journey in a hilly area, hissing noise and smoke started coming out of the engine bay (speed was about 20 to 25 km/hr). I immediately stopped the car and inspected that something happened in the No 4 injector area.

At the same time, I called Ford RSA and they immediately arranged for towing to Panvel which was about 52 km away. The engine should not be started if exhaust comes out of any other parts.

The tow service reached my location at about 0630 and the car was dropped in Bhavna Ford, Panvel at 0930. I told the service manager about the problem and the long trip. He immediately sent the technician to diagnose and found out that the No 4 injector retainer was broken into two pieces causing exhaust to come out from the area.

The car is under the warranty period and the service manager told me the repair work may cost nil but I had to wait till Monday for warranty repair or I had to pay an estimated amount of 2K for immediate replacement of the parts. I had no time to wait and I agreed to paid service and they replaced the retainer and the bolt. After the QC test, the car was delivered at about 3 PM and I started my journey.

The very next day (Sunday), before 70 km from Vijayawada on NH65 at about 1230, the same noise came out of the engine bay. I immediately stopped the car and found out that the No 2 injector retainer was broken. Again, I called Ford RSA and they arranged for towing to Laxmi Ford Vijayawada.

The pickup service came at 1630 hrs and then dropped the vehicle at the service centre at 2010 hrs. As it was Sunday, I had to wait till the next morning. So I left Vijayawada by train to Visakhapatnam.

The next morning the service manager from Laxmi Ford Vijayawada called me and I informed him about the problem and the previous incident too. Later he asked for the list of spares replaced at Bhavna Ford and I provided the same. At about 1140 hrs the repair work was done and the same was informed to me.

That day, I reached Vijayawada by train and took the delivery of my car. It cost me about 1300 at Bhavna Ford and 2100 at Laxmi Ford.

I would also like to mention that before starting the trip my car was parked for about 2 months in Khandala in heavy rain and I almost drove 15 km in that period. Every 3-4 days I routinely start the car and keep the engine running for at least 10-15 min. For every journey, I always start the engine and only after 2-3 min I drive the vehicle.

After the incidents, my car has been driven almost 3K km and no issues came up till today. I am quite satisfied with the service of Ford even after the news of the discontinuation of current models.

Here's what BHPian VijayAnand1 had to say about the matter:

Thank you for posting this. The injector clamp or the fork, as it's called, is at a tight spot and often accumulates water when washed and if not thoroughly aired off, it tends to react with the engine heat and accumulates rust, which in turn, due to the engine's harmonics, tends to crack the holders. Replace all four injector holders with a new one and make sure no water accumulation takes place near and behind the injectors.

Good luck.

Cheers!

VJ

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