Are Ford ripping me off?

RexLuscus

My wife's 7 year old Fiesta's check engine light came on, and the local Ford garage replaced an O2 sensor. When the fault recurred for the second time, the garage said they 'suspected' that an oil seal had developed a leak, allowing oil to contaminate a wiring harness, which they recommended replacing at an estimated cost of £1200+.

We took the vehicle to an independent garage for a second opinion, who said they could find no evidence of the suspected leak. However, after further investigation and remedial works, the fault was still recurring, and the garage suggested we take the car to a different, larger Ford franchise about 25 miles away for further diagnosis.

We took the car in to the larger Ford garage for diagnosis, and they confirmed the original diagnosis (I don't know if they actually carried out any additional tests, or merely looked up the car's history on the Ford digital tracker). We had the recommended work carried out at a cost approaching £1,500.

On driving the car home from repair, my wife noted a gradually worsening loss of power, to the point where the engine gave out black smoke from the exhaust, stopped, and could not be restarted. The RAC recovered the car to the Ford franchise which carried out the repair. After further diagnosis, the garage informed me that the engine control unit had been 'spiked' and needed replacement at a further cost of £1,500. They claimed that this was probably caused by the previous fault which they had rectified.

The car has only 18,000 miles on the clock, and has been driven less than 500 miles since the original fault, having been assured by the original Ford garage and the independent garage that it was safe to drive even with the check engine light on. The engine was running without any evident issues before it went to have the most recent repair carried out. It had a full service and MoT last month, with no problems noted (the trouble code had been reset and had not recurred at the time of the MoT, but came back soon after). Up to the point of the original fault, the vehicle has a full Ford service history.

It appears to me that the damage to the engine control unit is a result of an improper or careless repair rather than the pre-existing condition. If the control unit had been 'spiked' before the repair, it would surely have been evident prior to the repair. If the damage had occurred prior to the repair, it should have been picked up when the garage undertook the diagnosis.

Can anyone suggest how best to take this forward, as I feel that I'm being taken for a ride and being required to pay a large amount to rectify what appears to be damage caused in the course of the repair?

Stubod

..not the dreaded wet belt engine is it by any chance???

Mildly_Miffed

Stubod said:

..not the dreaded wet belt engine is it by any chance???

I'm intrigued as to how you think that might be relevant to a leaking oil seal that's damaged a wiring harness, then a fried ECU.

OP - yes, it's entirely possible that the damaged harness both caused the ECU damage and hid it from diagnostics.

I'm not quite sure how the ECU could be damaged *by* replacing the harness, though, assuming basic workshop precautions (disconnect the battery first) were taken.

Money_Grabber13579

Mildly_Miffed said:

Stubod said:

..not the dreaded wet belt engine is it by any chance???

I'm intrigued as to how you think that might be relevant to a leaking oil seal that's damaged a wiring harness, then a fried ECU.

Could be very relevant purely for the fact that if that is the next thing to fail, the car might not be worth spending any more money on…(this was my interpretation of where this thought was going).