Fords own Zafira B problem? Faulty Injectors
During the 2nd half of 2016 and the 1st quarter of 2017 Ford manufactured a number of 2.0 litre Euro 6 compliant engine units for the Transit van range with faulty fuel injectors.
The engine units were installed across the range of vehicles and Ford do not have a record of which vehicles were fitted with the faulty injectors, hence the reason that no recalls have been issued, recalls have been issued for the timing gear failures on the same units in the range, however, most of these units are known about and recalls are being issued where applicable, however, in many cases some vehicles will have the both problems but may only materialise outside the 30 day rejection period.
Some of the engines were installed with 1, 2, 3 or 4 faulty injectors, making the issue for consumers materialise under different conditions and frequencies, some vehicles will experience the problem within a few miles others will only be affected under certain load conditions, unfortunately if the vehicle is not used or tested under load or at motorway speeds within the first month, the customer may not notice the problem until the 30 day rejection period expires leaving the customer with having to give the dealer the opportunity to remedy the problem and lose the vehicle for 6 weeks or more, or rejecting the vehicle if the fix doesn’t work which has occurred on numerous vehicles and then having to accept a reduced refund price on the vehicle outside the 30 day rejection period.
The problem with the failure is that it has the potential to be far more serious than the Vauxhall Zafira B issue, as the vehicle fuel system reduces the fuel flow without warning to go into a “limp mode”causing the vehicle to slow rapidly without activating the brake lights.
One customer (source supplied) reported travelling on the motorway at 65 -70mph in the middle lane when the vehicle abruptly slowed causing other vehicles on the motorway to swerve and take avoiding action. A sample of the customer complaints can be found on the Ford Transit Forum at
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=178478and at:
http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/for ... ues/46754/Extracts from the forums have been attached.
From the forums you can see the blogs start around the 23rd March 2017 when various customers were taking delivery of the new 2017 models.
Ford are aware of the issue but are failing to recall the vehicles or to prevent them leaving the dealers until the customers report the problems, as such, the customers are being put at risk and being used as the test dummies.
The extent of the problem is unknown but as the vehicles were only manufactured in the second half of 2016 and early 2017 and are only being delivered to customers now, the incidents of failures are growing, Ford couldn’t comment on the number of vehicles affected as they are not aware of which injectors were installed into which vehicles.
The problem isn’t just a UK problem as the engine units were sold as base cab units to various manufacturers of 2nd tier vehicles such as utility vehicle manufacturers and motorhome manufacturers such as Triagano which manufacture a range of vehicles with the base units being the 2.0L Euro 6 Transit van - Chausson, Benimar, etc the list goes on Trigano are not the only manufacturer using the Ford units as base vehicles, other motorhome manufacturers, fleet hire companies, corporations that purchase Fleets of Ford transit based vehicles may all be affected with the same problem.
With the manufacturers of these 2nd Tier vehicles and dealers supplying them to the public just becoming aware of the issue you can understand their reticence to inform the public prior to purchase, or even the 2nd tier manufactures letting the dealers know as they wouldn’t want to lose the 1000’s of orders, so long as they can get them out of the door, the customer can deal with the issue after the sale.
Apart from the safety issue, the issue of getting the vehicles repaired in a timely manner is also of a major concern, due to the number of vehicles affected, Ford seem to be unable to keep up with the demand for the replacement of injectors and fuel supply lines that are also needed to be replaced to complete the repairs safely.
One customer who only had the vehicle for 28 miles has been waiting for 6 weeks for the vehicle to be repaired due to parts being on back order and insufficient replacement parts in stock, perhaps this is an indicator of the extent of the problem.
It’s hard to understand why Ford hasn’t taken the lead in this and ensured that all new Transits manufactured in the last half of 2016 and the first Quarter of 2017 are safe for customers to take delivery before they are taken onto the road.
With the Zafira B scandal fresh in everyone’s minds and VOSA under pressure to ensure manufactures act rapidly to ensure vehicles are made safe when known issues occur it will be interesting to see how quickly they and Ford respond to this issue, or will they wait for a fatality first?
Please don’t underestimate the seriousness of this issue, no one died in the Zafira B issue because most of the vehicles were stationary when the issue happened this problem only materialises on load or at speed.