Temperature is serious as that's what causes the head to crack, if the car has it's engine fan running all the time even when not in traffic and not on a scorching hot day and the car has a dashboard lit up with warning lights do you continue to drive? Same with all the basic checks nobody bothers the carry out any more. I can't think of many cars that do have a coolant level sensor, I could be wrong.
The reports suggest there was little or no warning.
For example the issue with the 1.6 engines was partly that it was localised overheating, which means unless the temperature sensor was in the right area (it wasn't by the sounds of it), you wouldn't get any warning and the fan wouldn't speed up as the sensor wasn't picking up that local overheating issue, and by the time the temperature sensor did give a warning the engine was already cracked and losing coolant.
Even with a temperature warning you don't normally expect it to go from "warning" to "get out of the car it's on fire" as quickly as reports suggest was happening,, and it doesn't sound like the car was making it obvious that it was a serious and worsening overheat.
Remember many people are not petrol heads, or mechanically minded so unless it is reasonably obvious that it's a serious fault they may assume it's safe to get the car to the side of the road or a few hundred yards down the road before turning it off.
From what I caught on the news there was also an issue with Dealerships and Ford downplaying the issue, people were not being told it was a serious issue but being reassured it was just a precaution and to drive normally/check the fluid more often (even checking the fluid daily isn't going to help if the pipe gives whilst you're actually driving and dumps the coolant as fast as it can be pumped).
Also as Mischeif says, there was no coolant level warning.
There is a bit of a difference between "your engine is overheating but the cooling system is working and slowing the overheat" and "congratulations your car is now fully air cooled, badly", in the former you probably have a few minute grace if not more if you're careful, in the latter you've got seconds - would you turn your engine off whilst on the motorway because the temperature light came on or would you assume you've got enough time to pull over?
It sounds like Ford made a couple of poor design choices with the engines (the material for the coolant pipe and the lack of a coolant level sensor), and the combination has proven to have a far more serious effect on the engine than either one on it's own.
Personally from what I understand of how Ford handled it, they should have (IMO) treated it as a safety recall, not a routine recall given the severity and suddenness with which it could happen.
that’s not the same as seeing thousands of 10-18 year old examples still running around without any problems. If you read my post properly i didn’t say ecoboost engines won’t reach that mileage I said i just can’t see there being a big number of them around in 10yrs time or hitting big mileage and still going strong like the 1.6 did in the mk1/2. You seem to take offence whenever I diss the ecoboost engines even in the past but I have owned 6 Fords in my 7 years of driving I love them but I wouldn’t buy a 1.0 ecoboost.
