Broken S-max

Skywalker · 9 Jan 2014 at 17:51

Our 61 plate from new S max which has only done 17k miles is broken. We where driving down the road Monday right next to the dealer (luckily) when the car suddenly decided to be very hesitant and stutter, no power and engine management light on. I drove straight in to the dealer with the engine running and basically gave them the keys and told them to fix it as we have had so many problems with the car since new.

They called a few hours later and told us they cant find what the issue is. They found the engine had overheated and dropped all the coolant and dumped some in one of the spark plugs. It could be as simple as a spark plug causing a misfire, head gasket has gone or the whole engine is now written off. They haven't managed to do anything yet as they haven't changed a spark plug on one of these engines before :eek:

Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong as obviously they don't know and we are stuck with a hire car the misses wont drive as we have been given a fiat mini bus which is to big for her and with no parking sensors :eek:

Thanks very much - Luke

Scythe · 9 Jan 2014 at 17:55

Not too sure as it sounds like it could be anything, the dealer sounds as useful as a chocolate tea pot though. Not capable of changing a spark plug, really?

Matt82 · 9 Jan 2014 at 18:05

Would be nice to know what cause the catastrophic over heat

Skywalker · 10 Jan 2014 at 08:06

Have no idea as we where just driving slowly as it's a built up area and total distance was about 1 mile, I never really put my foot down till it's warmed up because of the turbo.

ganesh · 10 Jan 2014 at 08:09

Skywalker said:
Have no idea as we where just driving slowly as it's a built up area and total distance was about 1 mile, I never really put my foot down till it's warmed up because of the turbo.

Was an overheat actually registered on the water temp dial?

R@tman · 10 Jan 2014 at 08:17

Is the car a petrol turbo ? or diesel turbo ?

If the cars diesel i would be worry about the garage changing the spark plugs !

Skywalker · 10 Jan 2014 at 12:16

It happened pretty much 300 yards from the dealer , It is a 1.6 petrol .

Skywalker · 20 Jan 2014 at 11:47

Turns out it was a spark plug. They have no idea where the coolant leaked from as well. They still have the car testing everything is ok by putting some miles on it probably using it for a delivery van :rolleyes:

Skywalker · 20 Jan 2014 at 13:39

And a phone call back just now saying its done it again and destroyed a set of spark plugs and emptied the coolant. They have checked its not the head gasket and wont have a verdict till the end of the week at the earliest

Matt82 · 20 Jan 2014 at 14:32

I just cannot figure how they dont know whats happening with the coolant unless they really are the sort of monkeys who can only "diagnose" based on what fault codes tell them

Skywalker · 20 Jan 2014 at 18:40

They have now told me there was oil in the spark plugs so it may be the head gasket :confused:

But like you say Matt, its silly how they rely on a machine to tell them what is wrong most the time and the guy sorting it has been a ford tech for the last 40+ years :rolleyes:

Skywalker · 24 Jan 2014 at 10:15

A little update, They have taken the cylinder head off and it seems its smashed a piston in the block and the garage are on the phone to ford technical on what they need to replace as they obviously don't know themselves :rolleyes:

justalex81 · 24 Jan 2014 at 10:23

they don't know what to replace?!!!!!!!!

what smashed a piston inside the block?

i wouldn't be letting my car be worked on by underqualified monkeys

thepharcyde · 24 Jan 2014 at 10:27

New pallet engine please.

Richie · 24 Jan 2014 at 10:38

Skywalker said:
A little update, They have taken the cylinder head off and it seems its smashed a piston in the block and the garage are on the phone to ford technical on what they need to replace as they obviously don't know themselves

A lot of what you have said in this thread is absolute pish.

Of course they know what to repair/replace. They cant just go ahead and replace the engine under warranty without authorisation from Ford. Ford will send out the new engine (or bits) and the dealer will fix it. The strip down and replacement of engines is very costly to Ford as it is them that foots the bill from the dealer (labour and parts). They wont allow garages to do it willy nilly.

Its quite obvious by your other posts in this thread you have a massive chip on your shoulder against garages/dealers yet have no idea how they actually operate.

Malc · 24 Jan 2014 at 10:45

justalex81 said:
they don't know what to replace?!!!!!!!!

what smashed a piston inside the block?

i wouldn't be letting my car be worked on by underqualified monkeys

I wouldn't have thought it was that simple.

The car is in warranty so the workshop will be wanting to know the most cost effective and safe way of getting it back on the road. Man hours taken into account, it could be cheaper to replace the engine than remove a large proportion of it and replace in order to ensure they have removed all the damage.

As with any engineering company, I'd imagine Ford Technical will be acting as design/engineering authority and the garage is purely the maintenance side.

Matt82 · 24 Jan 2014 at 11:48

Skywalker said:
A little update, They have taken the cylinder head off and it seems its smashed a piston in the block and the garage are on the phone to ford technical on what they need to replace as they obviously don't know themselves

Thats crazy. If a piston was missing, it would have been running on three cylinders, that alone should have been pretty obvious as the note of the engine complete changes

Skywalker · 24 Jan 2014 at 16:40

Richie said:
A lot of what you have said in this thread is absolute pish.

Of course they know what to repair/replace. They cant just go ahead and replace the engine under warranty without authorisation from Ford. Ford will send out the new engine (or bits) and the dealer will fix it. The strip down and replacement of engines is very costly to Ford as it is them that foots the bill from the dealer (labour and parts). They wont allow garages to do it willy nilly.

Its quite obvious by your other posts in this thread you have a massive chip on your shoulder against garages/dealers yet have no idea how they actually operate.

All I have said in this thread is what the service guys in the dealership have said to me and this has been passed onto you by me saying "They" as I am not fixing the issue myself as its under warranty and have not put a foot in the car since 5 minutes after the fault first occurred.

They do not know what to replace/repair as they still haven't figured out what the problem is and that is why they are on the phone to ford technical

I do not have a chip on my shoulder with this garage/dealer as we are always in a replacement car within 2 hours of any issues and all other issues are eventually dealt with.

I fully understand how garages work with the manufacturer footing the bill as the garage in question is a franchise

Skywalker · 24 Jan 2014 at 16:41

Matt82 said:
Thats crazy. If a piston was missing, it would have been running on three cylinders, that alone should have been pretty obvious as the note of the engine complete changes

Like I say it happened yards from the dealership so that was lucky. It was stuttering etc but with only a few yards for me to hear its pretty hard and easier to just drop it to them and leave it

Sonea Fifer · 24 Jan 2014 at 16:52

I haven't looked but I'm guessing a 61 plate S Max doesn't come cheap - and I wouldn't be expecting these sort of issues with an almost brand new vehicle that's only got a years worth of mileage under it's belt. :eek:

Hope you get it sorted out soon OP