Ford Ecoboost problem

[Silver Machine]

My son has just taken delivery a brand new Ford Fiesta 1.0 echoboost. It is a lease car through his work. With less than 1000 miles on the clock we were looking over the engine (just out of general interest) this morning. Checking the oil it seemed to be slightly emulsified and slightly orange. We then noticed the orange coolant in the expansion tank had gone down by about 500mls.

Contacted the lease company, who said that with the car being new this is quite ok and my son is fine to carry on driving it. He spoke to one of their 'technicians' who reinforced that this is not a condition to worry about.

As this is a new lease car my son is not over concerned as they will replace/repair etc at their expense.

Would be interested on what you folk think about this as I think it looks like some kind of gasket failure.

PS. There is no oil in the header tank.

[John Vine]

That coolant loss would worry me.  How about getting a second opinion from a Ford dealer?

JV

[PaulHead]

I picked up a Focus with the eco boost engine just before Christmas and at the handover they specifically pointed out that there was an orange die in both the engine oil and the brake fluid (looked slightly emulsified) which is apparently used to check circulation and will gradually disappear.  They also mentioned that levels can drop if there are any air pockets left in the system and suggested I bring it back after a 1000 miles to get them checked ( free but not mandatory).  Sounds like he should drop it back to a dealer and get it topped up.

Paul

[John Vine]

...brake fluid...     ?

JV

 

[Silver Machine]

Thank you John and Paul. Excellent advice from you both. He is going to drop the car at  a local ford dealer tomorrow and let them have a look.

[PaulHead]

.... Not sure why I said brake fluid, meant coolant, must be cracking up!!! 

[grumpy the 7th]

quote "Thank you John and Paul. Excellent advice from you both. He is going to drop the car at  a local ford dealer tomorrow and let them have a look".

What did the dealer say?

I've got the new Focus 1.5 182ps (not too bad but no torque)

[Silver Machine]

My son is away with work at the moment. Should see him for more specific details at the weekend and will post accordingly. From what I gather the dealership topped up the coolant and said the orange dye in oil was normal. They did say that he should keep an eye on engine temperature in that if it rose significantly within a short period of time he should stop and call for recovery.

They seemed unable to explain why there was orange dye in the oil and why the coolant appeared to have gone down. In fact we didn't actually know if the coolant has gone down as we did not check it on delivery and just assumed it should have been at its max level.

Will keep you posted even if we have no further developments.

[Silver Machine]

As promised the latest update. Engine has run well for the last couple of weeks and both coolant and oil levels have remained constant. engine oil seems to have lost its slightly emulsified look and is just appearing as slightly 'worn' oil with a touch of orange.

In reply to Gt7th. My son finds that the torque/power are ok in the fiesta but nothing to write home about. Prior to this car he had a Vauxhall Corsa which by comparison with a similar type of engine had lots more torque. Handling of the fiesta does seem to have the edge on the Corsa though.

[grumpy the 7th]

Cheers, Silver.

I'd expect the Fiesta to have better handling, I've had XR2's, wify has had Fiestas and I've had the 1.7 Puma and 2.0 & 1.5 Focus's All of them were good handlers and ALL had much more grunt than the current 1.5 ecoboost 182 ps.