Woody1

My missus sold her Cooper S about 4 months ago as she was expecting. She traded it in for a Focus ST170 5 door that we bought from a Ford dealer in Chester through Ford Direct. It had 4500 miles and is a 54 plate. The car has been great apart from a vibration through the pedals (most noticable through acelerator pedal at 70mph). As the first service was due this month, we decided to mention then so we could get it sorted. I read on the FFOC that it can be caused by the routing of the acelerator cable, so wasn't thinking the issue was serious.

Any way, went in for the service at Polar Ford in Warrington yesterday with 6900 miles on it. They reported back to my missus that the discs are f*cked and we will have to pay £500 for new ones. Anyway, she rang me, so I rang the garage to complain. They reckon that storage prior to our purchase has probably corroded the discs hence the problem. I argued that it should be their problem, not mine as it only has 6900 miles on it. Their argument is that it is wear and tear and the warranty does not cover this. I argued quite comprehensively, but they did not budge.

I got no joy, so they gave me the complaints department number. I told them the facts and they told me the same story, that it is my problem that the brakes are corroded and it is just one of those things that can happen when you buy a car. I argued that I bought a nearly new car with warranty to avoid such issues, but they weren't intersted. The argument was much more in depth, as I believe it is criminal what they are saying.

The only consolation is that my missus rang the garage where we bought it and the manager wants us to take it down their. He told her that if the brakes are perished, Ford should replace them due to the age and milage on the car. My worry is that he may be wrong. Anyway, it is going to them next Tuesday, so fingers crossed.

I had a look at the discs today. The front ones don't look too bad, but the back ones are goosed. They have deep grooves in them.

I did not swear at any of the individuals I spoke to (despite my wanting to)but their attitude was f*cking disgusting. I cannot believe that a company of their magnitude will argue that brake discs that have done 6900 miles are f*cked through wear and tear. All I want to do now is sell the piece of ****e and buy a Japanese car.

Does anyone have any advice on how to take the matter further if we get no joy ?

If I do have to replace them, they wont be ford items that I purchase !

Cheers

Neil

Dai-Tec

try a different stealers mate?

Woody1

What ? dealer do you mean?????? !!!!!!

The complaints department was the Ford complaints department, not the branch, so not sure I would get much joy.

Kosy

iTrader: (2)

First try another dealers.
If that fails you need to go to Citizen's Advice.

If you have had the car 4 months and the brakes are as bad as that
i would say they must have been damaged before you bought it so the
car was legally not fit for the purpose you bought it. The CAB will say that
too and Ford will have to replace the discs.

Good luck

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Japanease car...18,000miles. Pads 50%worn (if that)


Inner braking surface, front discs (boths sides of car, outer braking surfaces clean, with marginal wear - single pot sliding calipers)


There was notification of the problem at the 1st service (at 10,000miles) - yet nothing was done about it....

Sorry sir....that's wear and tear, £300 please.....- no difference to there then!

Playsatan

iTrader: (2)

Just had the same story with my wifes Peugeot 307 but at 20k. Thought as it was under 3 years old and under warranty it'd be a no-brainer but no.

I've a mate in the car parts business and he said its all down to the fact that the brake pad compounds have changed in recent years. He's seen a 3 fold increase in disc sales in the last 2 years alone. As far as I'm concerned if thats true, they fitted the pads, its a design flaw, its their fault.

Try explaining that to a dealer though.

MikT

If they are saying that the discs are worn then ask them what thickness they currently are. Then ask them what thickness they are when new and the thickness that they should be replaced at. You should be able to work out what the wear rate is and, more importantly, if they genuinely need replaced.

If they are not warped and there is life left in them and you have no problem with braking then no worries. Although i would seek an explanation for their reason for replacement.

Paul

p1doc

buy new rear discs from elsewhere and find nice dealer to fit them,your car is now in ford database so dealer woukld find it hard to reclaim disc replacement off ford unless they did your discs via another car-some kind subaru dealers replace discs under warranty even excessively warped discs!
martin

BOB.T

If the discs are corroded from how the car has been stored, I would say you'd have no chance whatsoever of getting ANY warranty company to pay out. However, if the discs were corroded when you bought the car, I would expect the dealer to be responible for repairs, out of his own pocket. I'm sorry, but any car with steel brakes can suffer from corroded brakes, it's not just a Ford thing, Japanese cars can suffer just the same.

If you're interested in what the dimensions of your brakes should be, drop me your reg no or chassis no and I'll look it up on the Ford ETIS for you

sgcooby

I thought you claimed earlier that it was the dealer who said the problem was due to the way the car was stored prior to you buying it. Is this not an admission of guilt??

mg driver

tell em your writing to top gear and all the mags to tell em how disghusted you are with ford customer relations and have a letter to show them that your gonna send that really makes them look bad ,,,,,,you may soon get a different reaction.
I had so many troubles with a car once ,it was in the garage more than at home and in the end they didnt want to know anymore even though it wasnt fixed ,so i threatened them with legal proceedings and all of a sudden it was all "yes sir,no sir ,three bags full sir".

BOB.T

I managed to get the ST specs without your details, this is direct from Ford.

Front discs,
Diameter 300mm
Thickness new, 24.0 mm
Min thickness, 22.2 mm

Rear discs,
Diameter, 280 mm
Thickness new, 10.0 mm
Min thickness, 8.0 mm

Minimum pad thickness, 1.5 mm (friction material)

sti-04!!

Did you contact Ford's Customer Relationship Centre ??

Telephone No - 0845 841 1111

Tbh the ST170 is a load of junk, i bought one pre registered on a 54 last year, kept it for 3 months, it had problems galore, got sick of it in the end & traded it in

Kuro

surely it's not "fit for purpose" as per the Sale of Goods Act? (1988 was it?)

I wouldn't give up on it mate that's for sure

Bakerman

I agree with Kuro - the discs will have been in that condition when you bought the car so therefore it was not fit for purpose at the time of sale. Says a lot for any inspection done before you picked up the car.

fast bloke

Agree with Kuro - Sale of goods act is how you are going to have this resolved. As you have purchased the car within the last 6 months the dealer has to disprove that they were fauly at the time of sale. If it goes beyond 6 months you have to prove that they were faulty.
Stop ringing people - do it all in writing. Your letter should include large chunks of this text
Make sure you mention that the car does not meet the standard that a reasonable person would regard as acceptable with reference to the durability of the brakes.

scoobydooooo

i don't agree !! my brother has had his for 8 months and hasn't had one problem ! i would like to know where the 170 bhp is but that is another question

NotoriousREV

Part of your problem is using Polar Ford. Heard nothing but bad things about them and they were rubbish when we were looking for a car a few years back.

gingerboy

Woody1

YHPM

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Source some disks and fit them yourself, not at all hard, not worth the stress arguing for the price of some disks.

BOB.T

Yep, Polar Ford were rubbish with me too, I'd never use them again! I saw the salesman who sold me the car walking down the road but it was a couple of years later, luckily for him I didn't twig who he was at the time or else I'd have smacked him!

TopBanana

I agree with that J4cko fella.

Dick Cheese

Bend over and take it like a man!

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Yes, I suppose arguing til you are blue in the face is fun and not all that time consuming....

I suppose it depends on how dear the disks are, people get tied up in knots when they get told their car needs new brakes, 300 400 quid maybe, half the time the dealers are on the make anyway, how the hell does the average car owner know if they need new brakes, because it makes a noise, that could be pads/disks, disks or just pads, maybe just a stone caught under the heat/crud shield, garages play on this, thats why they make 300 quid for an hours work !

I did mine on a Volvo T5 using original equipment pads and disks for under a hundred quid, dealers wanted 385 quid. They are dead easy, have a look, see what size tools you need (perhaps invest 15 quid on a Haynes) and get on with it, not rocket science, its a lump of metal that clamps two pads to a rotating metal disk.

Alternatively go and drive with the handbrake on for a bit and give the car some stick so the rears actually get used, my mate got stung for this on his Fiat Coupe because he hadnt used it, we gave it an 'Italian tune up' and they were right as rain.

Possibly just nip into your local garage, get them to whip the disks off and get a few thou skimmed off, the actual corrosion with only be very shallow and the disks are still new and are hardly used back there anyway so they wont miss a little (and it is a tiny bit). Depends on how dear the new ones are whether its worth skimming, I can do disks and pads on a Mk2 Golf for about 20 quid ! *Eurocarparts.com, sadly only VW etc.

Woody1

Wow, what a response, I need to give up work to catch up !!!!

To clarify, I have contacted the Customer Relation Centre and their story was exactly the same as the garage doing the service. They both said corrosion could have resulted from storage (by Ford). I rang the complaint...sorry CRC number again and started pushing the issue that it was fords fault by allowing the corrosion to happen and the person on the other end started to try to deny that it was storage that may have caused the problem. Sounds like they thought I was ono something !!!

The car apparently had an RAC inspection, although this may of been done before the corrosion occurred.

I will await to see what the findings are on tuesday at the garage where we bought it.

Gingerboy, you have got PM

I like the car overall, big inside which is great with kids, love the colour (same as RS focus blue), fantastic handling but agree, not sure where the 170 big ponies are hiding !!

thanks to the enthusiastic response from everyone.

Woody1

125k on original discs, thats impressive.

Dicke C

Had a similar issue with a Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec(21,000 miles). Bought 16 month old from Ford dealer and noticed a scraping noise when first appling the brakes in the morning. Took it several times for checks but Ford say nothing wrong. When i took the rear wheel off brakes virtually fell to pieces. Back down to dealers with car and asked for a check again. This time kept hold of locking wheel nut and on return was again informed no problem was found.
Asked to see workshop manager as to how they checked rear drums without removing wheel. Manager had no answer and would check.
Then rx'd a call from dealer saying rear drums and shoes were shot and it would cost me £250. I advised caller that I had recorded every conversation with dealer and manager and would they like to rethink their billing practice.
Amazingly later that day all charges were dropped and car was repaired with free full valet.....Moral of the story...lie,cheat and blackmail. Its what they do everyday!

Woody1

They are disgracing their own brand at the end of the day. Whether I get it sorted or not, I won't buy another Ford. I have dealt with Toyota main dealers, Rover and Subaru who have al corrected faults that I have.

Toyota in Warrington were superb with a fault on my Supra. They were struggling to find an intermittent fault with my fuel supply so got a local guy to do the fault finding for me so not to charge me their higher labour rates. They then sourced a second hand fuel pump for me due to the cost and delay in getting one from Japan. It turned out that the contacts were worn, I think probably through vibration from the noisy exhaust I had on it.

Their application in helping you getting your car sorted has a major impact on their future sales, and it looks like ford are not realising that.

I will be sticking to Japanese cars in future.

birtywrx

£500 for discs and pads???? are they gold plated? that sounds a rip off! i work for renault bud, and if fords customer service is like renaults they will sort it for you, 7000 miles isnt even run in! even though discs are a wear & tear item, like a clutch! it depends how its treated/driven etc!!! but at 7k its a joke!