Focus ST - broken seat frame / base
Discussion
Afternoon all,
I recently (end of May) bought a 2006 Ford Focus ST from a Ford main dealer, with a 2 year Ford warranty. Car had 59k on the clock, FFSH and appeared to be generally in good order.
The driver's seat has been making creaking / cracking noises since I got it, which I put up with for a while, but when I decided to have a look into it, I realised that the seat base appears to be broken.
Standing outside the car, if you take hold of the front outside corner of the driver's seat base, it moves forward and backwards about 1.5 - 2 inches. Not the whole seat, just the base. It seems to be pivoting towards the centre of the car, as if it is fixed in place at the back/left corner, but detached at the back/right corner.
It seems to me that this could be dangerous in an accident, if the rotating force caused the other side of the seat base to detach also - basically it looks like the seat base could come free in a crash, which naturally concerns me.
I dropped it off at Ford for them to look at yesterday and they phoned me back after about an hour saying they "couldn't replicate the fault I'd described" - which to me suggests either they'd only given it a cursory glance, as the fault is easy to spot, or they'd realised the seat base / frame is buggered and they don't want to accept the cost of repairing it. I ask them to look again because to me the fault was obvious and potentially dangerous, and I didn't accept that they were not able to replicate it. Still waiting for them to come back to me.
This isn't the only fault with the car I've asked them to look at. It also has a vibration through the steering wheel and a possible PAS fluid leak.
The seat is what concerns me most. I don't want to put up with a broken seat which I think could be dangerous in a crash. If the service techs continue to try to fob me off, any idea what I can do to ensure they take the problem seriously? I appreciate it's not a new car but if I pay extra for what is supposed to be a comprehensive Ford extended warranty, I expect them to treat mechanical defects as if it is a new car - otherwise what's the point in having a warranty? I know if the brakes are knackered (after the whopping 1,500 miles I've put on the car since buying it) they will probably try to wriggle out of it and I won't be able to do much about that, but it's the seat base which concerns me.
I wasn't sure if it was OK to name which main dealer it was - I can post that if it's OK to do so.
I recently (end of May) bought a 2006 Ford Focus ST from a Ford main dealer, with a 2 year Ford warranty. Car had 59k on the clock, FFSH and appeared to be generally in good order.
The driver's seat has been making creaking / cracking noises since I got it, which I put up with for a while, but when I decided to have a look into it, I realised that the seat base appears to be broken.
Standing outside the car, if you take hold of the front outside corner of the driver's seat base, it moves forward and backwards about 1.5 - 2 inches. Not the whole seat, just the base. It seems to be pivoting towards the centre of the car, as if it is fixed in place at the back/left corner, but detached at the back/right corner.
It seems to me that this could be dangerous in an accident, if the rotating force caused the other side of the seat base to detach also - basically it looks like the seat base could come free in a crash, which naturally concerns me.
I dropped it off at Ford for them to look at yesterday and they phoned me back after about an hour saying they "couldn't replicate the fault I'd described" - which to me suggests either they'd only given it a cursory glance, as the fault is easy to spot, or they'd realised the seat base / frame is buggered and they don't want to accept the cost of repairing it. I ask them to look again because to me the fault was obvious and potentially dangerous, and I didn't accept that they were not able to replicate it. Still waiting for them to come back to me.
This isn't the only fault with the car I've asked them to look at. It also has a vibration through the steering wheel and a possible PAS fluid leak.
The seat is what concerns me most. I don't want to put up with a broken seat which I think could be dangerous in a crash. If the service techs continue to try to fob me off, any idea what I can do to ensure they take the problem seriously? I appreciate it's not a new car but if I pay extra for what is supposed to be a comprehensive Ford extended warranty, I expect them to treat mechanical defects as if it is a new car - otherwise what's the point in having a warranty? I know if the brakes are knackered (after the whopping 1,500 miles I've put on the car since buying it) they will probably try to wriggle out of it and I won't be able to do much about that, but it's the seat base which concerns me.
I wasn't sure if it was OK to name which main dealer it was - I can post that if it's OK to do so.
Yep. There is a recall for this specific issue. I even found the service bulletin for it and gave them the reference number for it when booking the car in. So rather annoyed that they'very tried to tell me nothing is wrong because they can't be bothered to fix it.
This is Evans Halshaw Ford in St Albans who have the car, by the way.
I have also posted the same question on the STOC and the replies there suggest it is this recall which is an £18 part so pretty poor if they are trying to get out of incurring this massive expense...
This is Evans Halshaw Ford in St Albans who have the car, by the way.
I have also posted the same question on the STOC and the replies there suggest it is this recall which is an £18 part so pretty poor if they are trying to get out of incurring this massive expense...
-Lummox- said:
Yep. There is a recall for this specific issue. I even found the service bulletin for it and gave them the reference number for it when booking the car in. So rather annoyed that they'very tried to tell me nothing is wrong because they can't be bothered to fix it.
This is Evans Halshaw Ford in St Albans who have the car, by the way.
I have also posted the same question on the STOC and the replies there suggest it is this recall which is an £18 part so pretty poor if they are trying to get out of incurring this massive expense...
I had the exact same problem with my passenger seat on my 06 ST3. It was fixed under warranty, but In all honesty I'm not sure what they did. I'm sure I read somewhere on STOC that it was to do with a bolt ripping a larger hole in the frame and it could be remedied with he use of some washers.This is Evans Halshaw Ford in St Albans who have the car, by the way.
I have also posted the same question on the STOC and the replies there suggest it is this recall which is an £18 part so pretty poor if they are trying to get out of incurring this massive expense...
Well I phoned the garage on Saturday, they said they had inspected the car again and found a fault with the seat which they had fixed (no details on what it was or what they had done to fix it). Can't say I was surprised, just disappointed they didn't spot it the first time they looked!
BUT I couldn't have the car back yet - because they were waiting on delivery of a new wheel. One of mine is buckled and they weren't sure when they would have stock so can't say when I'll be getting the car back. That was the apparent cause of the vibration through the steering wheel.
Why they didn't spot this when fitting new tyres to the car before I got it I don't know (the vibration has been there since I bought the car, and they fitted 4 new tyres to it before I collected it). You'd think it would be difficult to properly balance a wheel which was buckled but evidently the tyre fitter didn't notice.
Can't say I'm massively impressed that I dropped my car in Weds eve and only found out this last nugget of info when I called them on Saturday. I wonder when they would have thought it appropriate to call me with an update?
Also no discussion yet as to whether they are going to try to charge me for any of the work. I'd certainly hope not - broken seats and bent wheels on a car supplied by Ford with a Ford warranty should be covered, I would think... I don't think they are classed as consumables...
Will update when I hear anything else...
BUT I couldn't have the car back yet - because they were waiting on delivery of a new wheel. One of mine is buckled and they weren't sure when they would have stock so can't say when I'll be getting the car back. That was the apparent cause of the vibration through the steering wheel.
Why they didn't spot this when fitting new tyres to the car before I got it I don't know (the vibration has been there since I bought the car, and they fitted 4 new tyres to it before I collected it). You'd think it would be difficult to properly balance a wheel which was buckled but evidently the tyre fitter didn't notice.
Can't say I'm massively impressed that I dropped my car in Weds eve and only found out this last nugget of info when I called them on Saturday. I wonder when they would have thought it appropriate to call me with an update?
Also no discussion yet as to whether they are going to try to charge me for any of the work. I'd certainly hope not - broken seats and bent wheels on a car supplied by Ford with a Ford warranty should be covered, I would think... I don't think they are classed as consumables...
Will update when I hear anything else...
Have to say, not very impressed with Evans Halshaw St Albans.
Was told by 2 different people there that the vibration through my steering wheel was due to a damaged wheel which they were replacing with a new one. Picked the car up yesterday, none of the wheels are new and the vibration is still there. So can only assume they either didn't change it, or wrongly diagnosed the fault (and replaced the damaged wheel with a used wheel off another vehicle, which would seem like an odd practice if they had to wait for delivery of a used wheel from Saturday until yesterday).
Unfortunately the service department was closed at this time so couldn't speak to anyone.
Called them back up this morning to ask them to look at it again. Explained that I collected it from them yesterday with an unresolved fault.
Was told that they can't look at it again for nearly 3 weeks. But don't worry, when they do they'll phone me with a quote before undertaking any work.
Hold on I say, the car was supplied by you with this fault less than 3 months ago, and also with a 2 year warranty. So I don't expect to be charged for fixing a problem present on the car when they supplied it.
"OK" they say. "We note you don't have a service account with us, would you like to set one up?"
"Well, bearing in mind you've supplied a vehicle with 2 noticeable faults, one of which you haven't fixed before giving the car back to me yesterday, and the second of which you initially told me wasn't faulty before I asked you to look again and you admitted that it was faulty... and took over a week to give the car back to me... and are now saying it'll be another 3 weeks before you can look again at the problem you didn't fix... why do you think I would want to bring the car to you in the future for servicing?"
"OK sir. Well that's you booked in. Do you know where we are to drop the car off to us?"
"Errr... bearing in mind I bought it from you, and picked it up from you less than 24 hrs ago, yes, I know where your dealership is."
FFS...
Was told by 2 different people there that the vibration through my steering wheel was due to a damaged wheel which they were replacing with a new one. Picked the car up yesterday, none of the wheels are new and the vibration is still there. So can only assume they either didn't change it, or wrongly diagnosed the fault (and replaced the damaged wheel with a used wheel off another vehicle, which would seem like an odd practice if they had to wait for delivery of a used wheel from Saturday until yesterday).
Unfortunately the service department was closed at this time so couldn't speak to anyone.
Called them back up this morning to ask them to look at it again. Explained that I collected it from them yesterday with an unresolved fault.
Was told that they can't look at it again for nearly 3 weeks. But don't worry, when they do they'll phone me with a quote before undertaking any work.
Hold on I say, the car was supplied by you with this fault less than 3 months ago, and also with a 2 year warranty. So I don't expect to be charged for fixing a problem present on the car when they supplied it.
"OK" they say. "We note you don't have a service account with us, would you like to set one up?"
"Well, bearing in mind you've supplied a vehicle with 2 noticeable faults, one of which you haven't fixed before giving the car back to me yesterday, and the second of which you initially told me wasn't faulty before I asked you to look again and you admitted that it was faulty... and took over a week to give the car back to me... and are now saying it'll be another 3 weeks before you can look again at the problem you didn't fix... why do you think I would want to bring the car to you in the future for servicing?"
"OK sir. Well that's you booked in. Do you know where we are to drop the car off to us?"
"Errr... bearing in mind I bought it from you, and picked it up from you less than 24 hrs ago, yes, I know where your dealership is."
FFS...
It gets better. Vibration through the steering wheel - obvious things to look at before swapping wheels (which they don't appear to have done anyway) are tracking and wheel balancing, right? I mean they had the car for 8 days, they must have checked those, surely? And they fitted the tyres on the car just before selling it to me, so must have checked the balancing... right?
WRONG. Had the tracking and wheel balancing checked at ATS this weekend. Tracking was out front and rear, and all 4 wheels were badly out of balance.
Seriously, what were the clowns at Evans doing with my car for 8 days?
The car drives better now, the vibration I was experiencing whilst maintaining speed has gone, but is still there under braking. Which still leads me to think that the car probably has warped front discs.
Have written a nice long complaint to Ford attaching the invoice from ATS... will update the thread as to further developments, but at the moment my advice to anyone thinking of buying a car from Evans Halshaw St Albans is to avoid it, unless you're a fan of getting mugged off as soon as you highlight a problem with the vehicle they have supplied.
WRONG. Had the tracking and wheel balancing checked at ATS this weekend. Tracking was out front and rear, and all 4 wheels were badly out of balance.
Seriously, what were the clowns at Evans doing with my car for 8 days?
The car drives better now, the vibration I was experiencing whilst maintaining speed has gone, but is still there under braking. Which still leads me to think that the car probably has warped front discs.
Have written a nice long complaint to Ford attaching the invoice from ATS... will update the thread as to further developments, but at the moment my advice to anyone thinking of buying a car from Evans Halshaw St Albans is to avoid it, unless you're a fan of getting mugged off as soon as you highlight a problem with the vehicle they have supplied.
So just had a call from the service manager at Evans Halshaw Ford St Albans.
It seems that they never actually sourced a new wheel for the car, but did source a secondhand one contrary to what I had been told.
BUT the service techs, for reasons which still remain a mystery, decided there was no need to fit it and gave me the car back without changing the wheel, and without doing the tracking or wheel balancing. Happy days.
No great surprise that the fault I brought it in for remained present when they gave me the car back, bearing in mind it appears in 8 days they actually did nothing at all to rectify it, then gave the car back to me. The service manager admitted that he was still trying to establish what, if anything, they had actually done to investigate and resolve the vibration before giving the car back to me, because all he could see was that they had put the problem down to the wheel, sourced a wheel, then decided not to fit it, and given the car back to me. He agreed that he can't see how they could have decided there was or wasn't a problem with any of the wheels without trying to balance them, and agrees that they didn't try to balance them. Must have been using the Force or something.
The service manager would like me to bring the car back in on Saturday and demonstrate the vibration through the steering wheel to him, which I'm happy to do, and they are at least refunding me for the cost of getting the tracking and wheel balancing sorted out at ATS, because he agreed that these things should have been checked whilst they had the car.
But I'm still currently in the same position I was before I brought the car to them for this fault - I don't have a definite answer as to what is causing it, and I don't have an answer as to whether or not they intend to fix it without charging me - which I would hope they will do, since the fault was present on the car when supplied, and it was supplied with a 2 year warranty. We'll see in due course, I guess...
It seems that they never actually sourced a new wheel for the car, but did source a secondhand one contrary to what I had been told.
BUT the service techs, for reasons which still remain a mystery, decided there was no need to fit it and gave me the car back without changing the wheel, and without doing the tracking or wheel balancing. Happy days.
No great surprise that the fault I brought it in for remained present when they gave me the car back, bearing in mind it appears in 8 days they actually did nothing at all to rectify it, then gave the car back to me. The service manager admitted that he was still trying to establish what, if anything, they had actually done to investigate and resolve the vibration before giving the car back to me, because all he could see was that they had put the problem down to the wheel, sourced a wheel, then decided not to fit it, and given the car back to me. He agreed that he can't see how they could have decided there was or wasn't a problem with any of the wheels without trying to balance them, and agrees that they didn't try to balance them. Must have been using the Force or something.
The service manager would like me to bring the car back in on Saturday and demonstrate the vibration through the steering wheel to him, which I'm happy to do, and they are at least refunding me for the cost of getting the tracking and wheel balancing sorted out at ATS, because he agreed that these things should have been checked whilst they had the car.
But I'm still currently in the same position I was before I brought the car to them for this fault - I don't have a definite answer as to what is causing it, and I don't have an answer as to whether or not they intend to fix it without charging me - which I would hope they will do, since the fault was present on the car when supplied, and it was supplied with a 2 year warranty. We'll see in due course, I guess...
Can sympathise with you, I bought a brand-new Mk3 Focus ST from the same chain up in Scotland, then when it went wrong the 'Master Technician' and the 'Service Director' were both beyond useless.
I won't clutter up your thread with all the detail but hope you get the car sorted to your satisfaction sharpish, you shouldn't have to go through all this hassle when you part with hard-earned cash to these eejits.
I won't clutter up your thread with all the detail but hope you get the car sorted to your satisfaction sharpish, you shouldn't have to go through all this hassle when you part with hard-earned cash to these eejits.
Well I've been to see the service manager this weekend who took my car for a drive to see if he could replicate the vibration through the steering wheel, and quickly came to the conclusion that it actually drives worse than I'd described it in my email, and he's very apologetic that the car was given back to me in this condition.
He also admitted that he can't see from their records what if any remedial work they'd done to decide the car did or didn't need the replacement wheel fitted, although he's sure that it was ordered, since the replacement wheel is in their workshop now... But he can't see that the service techs actually did anything before giving the car back to me (aside from deciding I was making a fuss over nothing, and giving it back to me 8 days after I left it with them).
I'm currently driving a Fiesta EcoBoost (heavy on the Eco, light on the Boost...) whilst they sort it out, which apparently should be sorted out by tomorrow hopefully... Seems like a sound bloke, but the proof will be in actually sorting the car out...
He also admitted that he can't see from their records what if any remedial work they'd done to decide the car did or didn't need the replacement wheel fitted, although he's sure that it was ordered, since the replacement wheel is in their workshop now... But he can't see that the service techs actually did anything before giving the car back to me (aside from deciding I was making a fuss over nothing, and giving it back to me 8 days after I left it with them).
I'm currently driving a Fiesta EcoBoost (heavy on the Eco, light on the Boost...) whilst they sort it out, which apparently should be sorted out by tomorrow hopefully... Seems like a sound bloke, but the proof will be in actually sorting the car out...
Happy to say that Ford have now resolved the vibration problem on my car, which didn't have much to do with the wheels and was mainly due to warped front discs (which I had suggested to them was the probable cause of the problem when I initially booked the car in). But at least it's fixed now, and true to his word, the service manager has sorted it out FOC, as well as promising to do my next annual service FOC and giving me a slight discount on the MP260 conversion if I want to go with that in the future. So much happier now than I was just after getting the car back the first time!
Did you have any luck with getting your seat repaired? Looks like I may have a similar issue.
I have taken a look around the internet and am need of some help. Apparently there is a way to see if the bar is cracked, do you have images which can help? Also are you able to order the part separately? I have read that some places want you to buy the whole frame which can cost over £300.
Please can you advise?
I have taken a look around the internet and am need of some help. Apparently there is a way to see if the bar is cracked, do you have images which can help? Also are you able to order the part separately? I have read that some places want you to buy the whole frame which can cost over £300.
Please can you advise?
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