Croney

Hi so the sister in law was driving her car, warning light to pull over came on dash, but she drove it for another 10 minutes or so... Turned out the car had lost all its coolant and overheated so much so that it seized up, you could smell clutch and burnt oil when i got there 2 hours later.

Problem now is finding a replacement engine or someone who can rebuild it, the garage its at are having trouble finding a replacement. Any sugestions would be appreciated. We are near to durham and newcastle.

Not sure as yet why it lost its coolant only had 31k on

1509joe

iTrader: (2)

Suggestion. Change the sister in law


Warning light to pull over came on dash, but she drove it for another 10 minutes or so

dpb

It sounds like there was a recall on these due to ford emplying inadequate plastics for the cooling.


Not her fault at all !

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Have a google: It's a small engine with extremely high power output for its size , therefore highly stressed, and heavily reliant on coolant circulation.

As such any loss or neglect (should check levels at least once a fortnight, I'd personally do it weekly! ), will cause localised boiling which causes air lock. From that point onwards it's game over if continued to drive in this state. First warning sign is poor heater performance. If that's ignored, along with warning light etc, well, sorry to say, it's driven to destruction as this engine has zero tolerance to overheating.

Why it leaks; Like all modern cars, plastic. Slight tap in the car park even if no obvious damage, grounding the front bumper on a high curb can lift and flex the front end and puts a micro crack in one of the radiator ends. Same could happen if driving through deep snow, and scooping it up snow plough style (quite common given recent events, although it's usually the air con condenser that takes the brunt).

There is also a T-piece on the return hose to the coolant reservoir (called a DEGAS pipe), which can crack. There was a service bulletin on these on the Focus to replace the original plastic item for a metal one, don't know if this is affected the Fiesta.

Maybe worth checking with Ford to see how much a crate engine is and if exchange is available they were £4.5K but it may have dropped.

VEGE. (http://www.vegeuk.com/uk_en/ ) is also a good mainstream engine supplier.

As these engines are prone to failure they are in high demand, so getting a secondhand one from a salvage yard is going to peither take a while or cost a hefty sum; Scrap yards know what this engine is worth. New engine will need the cooling system throughly pressure checked, as the overheating event will have over-pressurised the cooling system, so other parts may have fractured.

Beware of engine builders round the Heathrow area making big promises (free pickup/delivery etc.) at a good price. They are scammers and operate under a range of business names and fancy websites. There is also a few in central Birmingham and down Essex way that should be given a wide berth.

legb4rsk

Not her fault the coolant leaked.
Definitely her fault the engine seized. She drove it for 10 minutes with the warning light on!!!

ray54

Quite a few on Ebay, there,s a very low mileage engine/box complete (8.000 miles, £895.00),would make it an easy fix, if the cars worth it?,

Sorry can,t do link.....i am hopeless with tech. (speedjunkie4) if that helps any.

Ray

Croney

Yes defo her fault for driving it for so long. I asked did you drive it with the light on, she said now.... well only 10mins or so, I could have fell over, have seen the cheep ones on ebay but do worrie about scams from un known breakers as iv heard of these from Birmingham and also Manchester.

ray54

Agree with you there..you have to tread very carefully around anything to do with the motor trade.

Don,t blame her to much sh*t happens, just don,t lend her yours.