Hi everyone
My fiancee and I both have S reg Ford Ka's. I recently took them both for a service (non-Ford garages) and in both cases the mechanics had extreme difficulty in removing the spark plugs.
They both (two different garages) explained that there is a design fault on the Ka that means that water that gets under the hood corrodes the spark plugs. On water of the Ka's the mechanic had to take the head off to drill the offending plug free, on the other Ka, the mechanic felt the plug start to "go", and thus emplyed heat to get it free.
The first instance cost an extra £50 to get sorted.
Needless to say, the mechanics at both garages applied a copper ease substance to the new plugs before re-insertion. This should hopefully ensure that the same problem does not occur at the next service.
I'd like to ask:
- Have any other "viewers" had the same problem?
- Is there any compensation from Ford?
- Has the design fault been rectified?!
Cheers in advance.
Ray
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in my experience it is usually the fact that the plug sidewall corrodes very thin and the top of the plug snaps off leaving the threaded part in the head .usually if the broken porcelain is pulled out of the centre of the plug then a splined
"easy out" can be tapped into the hole in the centre to remove the remains of the plug without removing the head. The only prevention is a coating of high temp. grease on outside of new plugs when replacing them. The threaded piece left in the head isnt usually tight as the tapered seat is usually on the piece that snaps off.
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Ray,
The basic engine fitted in the Ka has been around for many years and was fitted to almost every Fiesta made, and a lot of Escorts as well. Plug removal can be difficult sometimes. I would be a bit suspicious of a £50 charge for removing the head, drilling, new head gasket and so on. It isn't enough !
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Steve,
That was exaxtly my own thought. I do all my own servicing and repairs generally but if I knew a garage who could do good work at these rates would encourage me to gve up doing it myself.
regards
Alvin Booth
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Certainly not an uncommon problem with taper-seat plugs that have (a) not been treated with copper-slip type grease and/or (b) been overtightened. These plugs should only be tightened to approx 15-20NM torque. Worth noting that the commonest breakages are Motorcraft and Equyem plugs, neither of which have cad-plated bodies, and therefore corrode at the weakest point just above the taper seat - very rare to see this type of failure with Bosch or NGK, which ARE plated.
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Hi guys
Thanks for your messages. I too was surprised at the price of the "job". This was a really "friendly" family run garage though, and I think in some ways they felt that they had let me down by not being able to undertake "such a simple task as removing the plugs"!!!!
Good quality plugs and the a copper based solution is the key I think.
As an aside, you can probably tell I'm a fan of the Ford Ka! Great little car it is as well - IN MY OPINION!
Best regards
Ray
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Ray Irving wrote:
> As an aside, you can probably tell I'm a fan of the Ford Ka!
> Great little car it is as well - IN MY OPINION!
Oh how I agree with you! I still haven't got over the loss of mine yet (we had to sell it when we moved last autumn to what turned out to be the bottom of a lake).
There *are* problems with the Ka (as noted by HJ in the Breakdown), but none of them, either singly or together, detract from what (IN MY OPINION :-) ) is a terrific car.
Martyn
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The over torquing of taper seal plugs in Endura E's is now cited in the car by car breakdown as the other cause of plugs being impossible to remove from KA engines. I'd better add it to Fiestas too. Thanks to Adam and others who pointed out the taper seal reason.
HJ
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And of course the problem's made worse by the extended intervals between plug removal these days. When they were pulled out every 6k, they didn't get the chance to rust in. I agree copperslip is the answer, but given the propensity for taper seat plugs to sieze in don't overdo the torque when you fit them after greasing them. The reduced friction on the thread will tend to amplify the tightening effect! In many cases torque settings are based on clean, dry but unlubricted threads.
Regards
John
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