Ford B-Max 1.0L Ecoboost Engine Failure

cpembroke

We assisted our son in buying a second-hand Ford B-Max Titanium Turbo, fitted with 998cc Eco Boost engine, in June 2018 from a Ford garage. We considered it an ideal car for him and his two sons. It had had one previous owner with less than 13,000 miles on the clock. On its V5, it was declared as new, at first registration, on 31/03/2016.

Recently, when my son was driving the car, on the busy A331 Blackwater relief road, when it started slowing down but with no warning indication.  As there was no nearby pull over area, he pulled off, at the junction, and stopped. At this point smoke was coming from under the bonnet and out of the exhaust. Our son called out his recovery service who took him to local Ford Garage in Farnborough.

Garage advised that the engine failed, parts having fired out inside the engine, stopping the 3 cylinders. A new engine would be required at a cost of £6000. This was not considered, by us, as economically viable.

Having spoken to the garage, near Christchurch, where the car was originally purchase, we were advised to contact Ford One Stop.  Our son did this, but they advised that no help could be given due to him having failed to have the car regularly serviced at a Ford garage.

To my mind for a 41/2-year-old car’s engine to fail in this drastic manner is due to a design fault rather than lack of maintenance that would not have picked up on this type of internal failure.  Having checked the internet I found there had been several failures of these engines, for other reasons, and Ford eventually took responsibility for cost of repairs, including those which owners had already paid for.

In light of these previous problems do you feel it would be of benefit to take this up with BBC Watchdog in light of BBC having played a major role in getting Ford to pay up back in 2018.

daveyjp

Without full Ford history you won't get goodwill.

You would need to know exactly what went wrong and then prove it is a design issue.

Oil starvation due to blocked oil pump filter is one possible cause, but you need to strip the engine to get to the filter.

Grumpy_chap

You purchased a car 2.1/2 years ago.
How many miles since?
What servicing since?

fred246

I have a theory that the failure is a combination of.
1)Drivers not knowing what the temperature gauge is and not watching it.
2)Owners not checking oil and coolant levels.
3)Engine design fault
4)Maybe poor servicing.
Checking your oil & coolant is so easy. You know it's exactly the same level every time, so any slight drop immediately rings alarm bells. As we know from this forum it's something that owners steadfastly refuse to do.
However, when anyone reports a seized engine from lack of oil or coolant (which seems depressingly common) they are immediately asked when it was last checked.

facade

fred246 said:

1)Drivers not knowing what the temperature gauge is and not watching it.

You mean manufacturers surely?

All you get now is an "engine seizure in 5 seconds" light, if it comes on, the engine is dead.

fred246

Our car has an LED display for temperature, but I was the only one in the family who knew what it was. The other drivers had no idea what it was. I am the only one who reads the owners manual.

bhjm

1.0 Ecoboost, or shall i say Ecoboom - they are known for blowing up. My colleague had the same - he was lucky and just the blew up.
but so far, very little is known from your post, what went wrong with your engine.
" parts having fired out inside the engine, stopping the 3 cylinders." does not really help to indentify the root cause, but 
"when it started slowing down but with no warning indication" could indicate a fu.... turbo due to overheating.

Tiexen

bhjm said:

1.0 Ecoboost, or shall i say Ecoboom - they are known for blowing up.

Are there any known EcoBoost problems?

The EcoBoost tech has now been fitted to millions of engines, and is really pretty mainstream technology, which means it’s well run-in – there’s certainly no reason to fear undue breakdown or reliability issues.

A couple of high profile recalls for EcoBoost cars issued in 2018 may sound alarm bells, but the truth is the faults were not specifically related to the EcoBoost tech. A Focus 1.0-litre EcoBoost recall referred to a nylon pipe potentially overheating in the cooling system, while a potentially more serious fault in the cylinder head of 1.6-litre EcoBoost engines again isn’t directly related to EcoBoost tech.

One potential issue facing buyers looking at EcoBoost cars for sale is that fuel economy figures in the real world can be some way off those quoted. The turbochargers deliver punchy performance, but if you’re tempted to use that performance often it’s understandable that the EcoBoost fuel economy advantages start to disappear.

fred246

People keep repeating this quote from the website of Carbuyer. It doesn't take long on their website before an advert for Ford cars pops up. Adverts for Ford cars are normally paid for by Ford. If a company funds your website you wouldn't normally openly criticise their products.

facade

To put it in context, Ford have made gazillions of them, and only a few thousand have blown up, which is a minute percentage.

I wouldn't touch one though, because I'd end up with one of the few thousand for sure.

Like Renaults. I and others know that Renault cars have shoddy electrics, and if a DCi engine manages not to put a rod out the side, it is only because it has eaten the high pressure pump and filled the injectors with swarf. This is based on every Renault I have any personal knowledge of fitting that profile perfectly.

However, they made gazillions that didn't break, and people buy them like hot cakes, so much so that Renault own stakes in most car companies.

AdrianC

facade said:

so much so that Renault own stakes in most car companies.

...a bit of an exaggeration.

Renault own 43% of Nissan, who own 15% of Renault.
Nissan own a one-third stake in Mitsubishi, but Renault don't.
Renault and Nissan each own about 2% of Daimler-Benz.