Ford Focus Problems - Need to Rant !

Cirrus

@Nunogilberto ; workmate has a Mondeo, think it's an '11, that just started doing it too.

Tone71

I have an 06 1.8 tdci sport for work and it`s a great little car, 175k on the clock and still going, it did had the limp home issue when I first got it but sorted it by blanking of the ECU and got the software to reset the error codes every now and then to clear the dash lights as they are annoying.

gubble

@octafish It's done 106k

Which ok is high mileage but for a diesel not particularly high.  Just seems to be one thing after another with it.

Well just dropped it off at the garage so fingers crossed

boogieman

I've had two Focuses, an 01 and an 07. Both were faultless, only needed replacement brake discs on the 01 apart from regular servicing and tyres. Both were 1.8 petrols. Both had lousy fuel consumption though, I was getting under 30 mpg urban, 40 on a long run. 

Cirrus

Now THAT was one thing I did like about the 1.6tdci estate - I once got 70mpg on a tank which included a trip up the the lake district and back. My wife's newer fiesta with the same engine can't get that - probably because of the DPF and associated regen cycles.

dern

None of these problems seem particularly unusual on a ten year old car, especially a ford. They're not premium cars after all and the engineering isn't up to BMW standards from my experience of running and maintaining two mondeos and a 5-series. That's why they cost absolute peanuts when they reach this age.

m_c

The 1.8tdci was not that good an engine. Sluggish, noisy, and rubbish on fuel. It was the old 1.8d from the escort, that kept getting bits bolted on to update it, which rarely results in a good engine.

The later style EGR valves were problematic, and an even bigger problem to change. They come complete with the inlet manifold, which is a 3-4 hour job to change. If you ever come across one where it looks like the EGR actuator has been unbolted from the manifold, walk away very quickly.

The Delphi high pressure pumps were rubbish. Under the conditions @cirrus mentions, they'd lose control of fuel pressure. The ECU would command a pressure reduction, but it would keep climbing until either going into reduced power, or cutting out completely. I was at a course at Delphi years ago, and even they admitted they had shelves full of pumps that had come back from authorised repairers, that despite being rebuilt by the book, wouldn't work. Delphi simply supplied a new pump to replace them, as even Delphi couldn't always work out why they wouldn't work.

Injector return pipes would leak. There were a batch of questionable injectors, that were 'fixed' by a software update.

And then the last versions they swapped the crank to pump drive from a chain to wet belt, and never really publicised the fact. I've heard of a few where the belts failed, because everybody just assumed it was still a chain.

jellyroll

dern said:

None of these problems seem particularly unusual on a ten year old car, especially a ford. They're not premium cars after all and the engineering isn't up to BMW standards from my experience of running and maintaining two mondeos and a 5-series. That's why they cost absolute peanuts when they reach this age.

Never had a single problem with my wife's 10 y.o. Honda. They're not premium cars either....

dern

jellyroll said:

dern said:

None of these problems seem particularly unusual on a ten year old car, especially a ford. They're not premium cars after all and the engineering isn't up to BMW standards from my experience of running and maintaining two mondeos and a 5-series. That's why they cost absolute peanuts when they reach this age.

Never had a single problem with my wife's 10 y.o. Honda. They're not premium cars either....

I had a Honda Prelude a long time ago and it was built to a significantly higher standard than our mondeos were. It was unusual for anything to break on the Honda (same with the BMW I have at the moment) but things like front suspension bushes on the mondeo were more or less service items for example.

menamestom

dern said:

None of these problems seem particularly unusual on a ten year old car, especially a ford. They're not premium cars after all and the engineering isn't up to BMW standards from my experience of running and maintaining two mondeos and a 5-series. That's why they cost absolute peanuts when they reach this age.

My neighbour has just bought an 2009 5 series with 70k on the clock.  He had is 2 weeks and the engine has gone pop.  Apparently a known issue which BMW never really acknowledged.  Anyway, they quoted 4k fix the car, which has a FSH.

He did say he will keep the car because it just felt right and the doors sound good when they close.

I know this is anecdotal and I'm not saying that Ford are more reliable than BMW, but BMW have had some major engineering/quality issues over the years.  They are engineered well on the outside but there is cost cutting in the mechanics like every other manufacturer. 

Anecdotal I know but the only people I know that have had complete engine failures were driving modern German cars.  My own view is generally BMW's are more reliable than Fords, but a large proportion of the difference is just perception.  Couple that with the fact that Fords are usually much cheaper to fix when they do go wrong, the decision to go premium is not always so clear cut.

gubble

Oh dear....

Fuel injectors. Talking £1k+ to fix.

Well now I'm stuck with no idea what to do.......

Cirrus

gubble said:

Oh dear....

Fuel injectors. Talking £1k+ to fix.

Well now I'm stuck with no idea what to do.......

Is that at a main dealer? You can probably half it going independent.

But, it's a 10 year old car and you can never be sure what's going to go wrong next month. and a grand is a good lump sum to put towards a newer car.

m_c

Sounds like wherever you took it to can't diagnose it, and are quoting a big scary bill in the hope you don't fix it and they don't get a problem job.

If it's running fine up until it loses power, then it's very unlikely to be injectors. If it's a fuel pressure problem, then it's more likely to be the high pressure pump. Last time I fitted one, they were about £400 from Ford for a new one, and eliminated the entire will it/won't it gamble of so called reconditioned ones.

gubble

Decided to get rid of it, get a run around for a few months whilst I save up. in the meantime I need to liquidate some assets so anyone fancy a USA Special Strat?

marantz1300

My wife has a 2010 2.0 (petrol) Focus, which she loves. No problems yet , but this thread is a bit concerning.

 I have a 97 Landcruiser Colorado with over 200,000 miles.

Only thing I've had too change is the starter motor last month.

Cirrus

marantz1300 said:

My wife has a 2010 2.0 (petrol) Focus, which she loves. No problems yet , but this thread is a bit concerning.

 

As far as I understand it, Petrol engines don't suffer the same reliability issues. Hopefully it'll be fine!

ICBM

menamestom said:

I know this is anecdotal and I'm not saying that Ford are more reliable than BMW, but BMW have had some major engineering/quality issues over the years.  They are engineered well on the outside but there is cost cutting in the mechanics like every other manufacturer.

My neighbour had an 08 BMW recently - it was starting to rust quite badly along the sills and wheel arches. He's replaced it with an Audi… which may or may not also be related to the BMW being useless in snow .

midlifecrisis

our focus diesel 08 plate started behaving erratically, going into limp mode and not restarting.  fancy mechanics with diagnostic eqpt couldnt pinpoint it and said may need sensors and comp unit replaceing  ie £1000 etc, turned out that some electrics in the dashboard needed resoldering, apparently a known problem with focus's and ours were fixed for about £150, about 3 mnths ago. 

dern

Agreed that BMWs aren't infallible but all I can say in 5 years of maintaining a 5 series vs about 10 years of maintaining mondeos is that the BMW parts feel much better quality and the thing feels 'less cheap' generally when I was working on it. None of these cars are risk free though.

The great thing about fords is that if you're happy to keep putting parts on them the parts are generally very cheap compared to BMW and they're pretty good cars. Having said that replacing the front wishbones bushes on the v6 for the third time in 7 years seemed a bit much.

m_c

dern said:

Having said that replacing the front wishbones bushes on the v6 for the third time in 7 years seemed a bit much.

Aftermarket bushes?
Worst I've ever fitted were a pair of Volvo XC90 lower arms that lasted 3 months before the car started wandering about the road as the bushes fell apart.
But having fitted a mix of genuine and aftermarket steering/suspension parts on lots of different vehicles, aftermarket stuff generally doesn't last as long.
Things like transit wishbone bushes, original will last 4-5years, aftermarket ones will be lucky to last 2. Vivaro track rod ends original on town vans will last about 3 years, and I've seen aftermarket ones needing replaced again after a year.

Off course, not all aftermarket parts are created equal, and there is a reason we refer to our current proffered supplier as Euro Crap Parts.