Major problem with 11,000 mile nearly 2 year old Ka UPDATE POST 71

Inactive

jd82 wrote: »

If it is the petrol then it will be the FIAT FIRE engine and I am not aware of a single case of piston ring failure on that engine from the FIAT forums.

The engine has been around since the early 80's and is well proven. The cause of the piston ring failure is old oil especialy if its had a lot of stop start journeys.

How about over filling it, as suggested earlier?

marlot

The engine should not have failed. By not having it serviced in line with Ford's schedule the owner has to:

1. Show that the engine was faulty when it was supplied new (in the car), in line with the sale of goods act (after six months, the onus moves from the supplier to the customer to prove)
2. Show that the missed service did not make the situation worse.

The egnine could well have been faulty from now. However, the fact that the dealer *may* have picked up the problem at the 12-month service, and so had a chance to mitigate their losses means that I'd side with the dealer on this one.

We know the engine has only done 11,000 miles, but that could be 11,000 1-mile journeys

Strider590

Over filling Engine Oil take your pick, all say the same thing....

petrolhead69

If the oil was overfilled to the point of breaking a ring the car would have been very smokey, the op never mentioned this. I would hope it wasn't that because that would mean this girl has been driving a few weeks without checking the mirror and seeing plumes of blue smoke. Hopefully not but if that is the case take the car keys away for the safety of your grandchild to be.

Strider590

petrolhead69 wrote: »

If the oil was overfilled to the point of breaking a ring the car would have been very smokey, the op never mentioned this. I would hope it wasn't that because that would mean this girl has been driving a few weeks without checking the mirror and seeing plumes of blue smoke. Hopefully not but if that is the case take the car keys away for the safety of your grandchild to be.

But this is the trouble these days, people ignore the warning signs.... They turn the stereo up and think "oh it's probably ok, it passed it's MOT" or "it's ok, it's just been serviced".

moonrakerz

jase1 wrote: »

Engines don't just fail like that.

Yes they do ! No matter how good an engine you get; RR, Mercedes, BMW, Ford, Honda - some of them will fail after a short time. Simple fact of engineering ..............

moonrakerz

thescouselander wrote: »

if the OP was to take Ford to court Ford would have to demonstrate this was actually the case.

As the OP would be instigating the Court case, she would have to prove her case - Ford have to prove nothing..........

thescouselander

moonrakerz wrote: »

As the OP would be instigating the Court case, she would have to prove her case - Ford have to prove nothing..........

I would be very surprised if the company being sued didn't try to defend themselves. In a civil case the judgement is made on the balance of probabilities so if the defendant doesn't try to prove their case they could be significantly disadvantaged.


Something else that just occurred to me. Why is it that only one cylinder is affected? If the problem was down to dodgy (old) oil all cylinders should have been affected by wear equally - I'd at least expect to see a reduction in compression on the other 3 cylinders. Same with over filled oil - there would have been other evidence like oil gushing out of the crank case breather.

I reckon its either a manufacturing fault or something has been ingested into the engine.

MrsE_2

bigjl wrote: »

But don't you think that low mileage urbanuse comes under harsh conditions, always started cold, then short journey, oil not fully warmed, thus leading to build up of crud in the oil that doen't have a chance to be evaporated off when the oil gets up to temp.

Especially when you realise that Ford probably charge around £100 for the annual service on a 1 yr old car.
.

Just to clarify, she moved to a town a few weeks ago & until that lived in a rural location & worked in a very small town.
The car has been to a city once!

The Ford service would have been £250, hence she used a local garage.

MrsE_2

StrongWork wrote: »

So you think it is fine that oil wasn't changed (or even checked I bet) for 2 years after the car was purchased (irrespective of mileage)?

Remind me not to buy a car from you.

The oil was checked regularly, & her BF changed it.