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Fiesta ST Repair Dilemna

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51
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23
Location
San Jose, CA, USA
#1
So I love my 2019 Fiesta ST but I'm in a mental dilemna with a recent issue. 64k mileage with a LSD and some other bolt on mods and it started belching white smoke shortly after developing a misfire on startup (had cleaned the plugs and swapped some coil packs to see if that was responsible and then a few days later belched white smoke on startup). Instantly shut it down and had it brought into the Ford dealership I purchased from as they had 1) done overheating related warranty work when it had less than 20,000 miles on it twice (faulty thermostat I was told and fully covered), and 2) I was aware it may qualify for assistance from Ford for the repair since it's right outside the warranty. After the overheating issues and reading online of cooling issues, I had installed a Mountune radiator and CPE intercooler and had zero issues.

Well turns out it has a crack between cylinder 2 and 3 and the top of the short block has some warping, and the dealership quoted me $13k for a new long block, they won't just do a new short block. The service tech also told me Ford denied any assistance, though he's seen similar vehicles get some assistance, and then Ford customer service says the dealership recommended they reject my claim for assistance. They just point the finger at the other whenever I talk to someone.

Dilemna is I've been building up a 1990 Mustang GT for track duty and daily driving my Fiesta ST, so I do scrap the Fiesta and sell for parts, restore with a used motor and try to resell, or go all out and buy a Mountune long block and have two track toys...

Curious if anyone has heard of these blocks cracking on a Stage 1 tune with 65k miles, or dealt with Ford assistance claims just outside of warranty?

Notes from the diagnostic below:
ACCESSED MODE 6 TO VIEW MISFIRE COUNT FOR CYLINDER 2. PERFORMED POWER BALANCE. CYLINDER 2 FAILS TEST. PERFORMED A MANUAL COMPRESSION TEST FOR ALL THE CYLINDERS. COMPRESSION WITH IN SPECS. PERFORMED RELATIVE COMPRESSION TEST THROUGH IDS. TEST PASSED. PERFORMED INJECTOR FLOW TEST. TEST PASSED. PERFORMED CYLINDER BLOCK TEST. TEST FAILED. RECOMMEND PERFORM ENGINE TEAR DOWN FOR HEAD GASKET DAMAGE AND OTHER POSSIBLE DAMAGES. TECH 997262: TORN DOWN ENGINE FOR FURTHER DIAGNOSIS AND FOUND CYLINDER 2 ON THE ENGINE BLOCK HAS COOLANT INSIDE OF IT. FOUND COOLANT STAIN IN THE CYLINDER BOAR. UPON FURTHER INSPECTION FOUND CRACK ON THE SHORT BLOCK BETWEEN CYLINDER 2 AND 3. STRAIGHT EDGE THE CYLINDER HEAD AND FOUND THE CYLINDER HEAD TO FAIL THE STRAIGHT EDGE IN MULTIPLE SPOTS. PERFORMED SMART COST CAP AND WAS TOLD TO REPLACED THE LONG BLOCK ASSEMBLY. RECOMMEND REPLACING THE LONG BLOCK ASSEMBLY.
 


TyphoonFiST

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Rich-fizzield
#2
RocketST has mountune MRX long block i do believe. He had some assembly issues but i do believe they were sorted. Hopefully he can chime in. TUNE+ also does Long Blocks* So does PumaSpeed across the pond. Stage 1 tune by A tuner or OTS tune?
 


rallytaff

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#3
This is one reason I purchased the extended warranty for my 2014 car. I still have 20,000 miles left on my warranty until it runs out at 125,000! I tend to play safe!
 


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Location
Camden, NJ, USA
#5
of you could just find a solid used engine off FB....they are around. Can even be an escape motor
@rcnut14 that's option 2 for him and i agree for him to go this option. although i don't understand why he doesn't just buy a used engine and make it his budget build track toy
Dilemna is I've been building up a 1990 Mustang GT for track duty and daily driving my Fiesta ST, so I do scrap the Fiesta and sell for parts, restore with a used motor and try to resell, or go all out and buy a Mountune long block and have two track toys...

Curious if anyone has heard of these blocks cracking on a Stage 1 tune with 65k miles, or dealt with Ford assistance claims just outside of warranty?
@ztrahan i don't have much history with warranty work on the Fiesta but if Ford corporate is actually pushing back i think you're SOL. having a non-factory tune on the engine is a 100% voided warranty on the engine. any other part on the car you could make an argument, but the engine itself? yeah, no. same goes for slapping an LSD in your tranny and the tranny goes out. both are worth the risk IMO but that's the risk.
 


OP
Z
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Location
San Jose, CA, USA
Thread Starter #6
RocketST has mountune MRX long block i do believe. He had some assembly issues but i do believe they were sorted. Hopefully he can chime in. TUNE+ also does Long Blocks* So does PumaSpeed across the pond. Stage 1 tune by A tuner or OTS tune?
Stratified Stage 1

@rcnut14 that's option 2 for him and i agree for him to go this option. although i don't understand why he doesn't just buy a used engine and make it his budget build track toy


@ztrahan i don't have much history with warranty work on the Fiesta but if Ford corporate is actually pushing back i think you're SOL. having a non-factory tune on the engine is a 100% voided warranty on the engine. any other part on the car you could make an argument, but the engine itself? yeah, no. same goes for slapping an LSD in your tranny and the tranny goes out. both are worth the risk IMO but that's the risk.
Main reason is 1) I need a reliable daily, and the Fiesta ST has been that with zero issues until now, and 2) I bought the Foxbody for that exact purpose of a budget track car, especially with it being easier to wrench on myself and much cheaper (consumables are more expensive, but parts are cheaper). Didn't want to have to tackle an engine swap in the Fiesta at the same time as maintaining my less reliable Mustang.

It's currently in stock form (minus the LSD) at the dealership, so I don't think that was part of their decision lol
 


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Location
Camden, NJ, USA
#7
It's currently in stock form (minus the LSD) at the dealership, so I don't think that was part of their decision lol
i don't want to say i'm in the room with those dealership techs but it's pretty easy to tell if you had a different tune on the car based on counting the amount of reflashes the ECU has had. even if you did revert back to OEM there's a big ol' counter letting the techs know how many times the enginesECU's been reflashed. if it's more than once it better be accounted for in warranty paperwork. if you were still under warranty and FoMoCo still made tons of ICE performance cars and they were flush with cash, maybe they would just look the other way or the Ford tech wouldn't even bother to check.

but you aren't, FoMoCo doesn't and isn't. so you probably won't have much luck at any dealership unfortunately.

and an engine swap with a used FiestaST engine would still be significantly cheaper and probably give you plenty of reliability. your cracked cylinder issue is pretty rare and almost non-existent in the late model engines. something to think about.
 


OP
Z
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San Jose, CA, USA
Thread Starter #8
i don't want to say i'm in the room with those dealership techs but it's pretty easy to tell if you had a different tune on the car based on counting the amount of reflashes the ECU has had. even if you did revert back to OEM there's a big ol' counter letting the techs know how many times the enginesECU's been reflashed. if it's more than once it better be accounted for in warranty paperwork. if you were still under warranty and FoMoCo still made tons of ICE performance cars and they were flush with cash, maybe they would just look the other way or the Ford tech wouldn't even bother to check.

but you aren't, FoMoCo doesn't and isn't. so you probably won't have much luck at any dealership unfortunately.

and an engine swap with a used FiestaST engine would still be significantly cheaper and probably give you plenty of reliability. your cracked cylinder issue is pretty rare and almost non-existent in the late model engines. something to think about.
Fair point, though I did clear most of the ready state codes I believe and the tech working on my car said even he was surprised Ford offered no assistance, while Ford said the dealership was the one who rejected my claim. After this particular dealership had tried to falsely sell me the wrong car without telling me (another story), I didn't care much for them.

Looks like I'll be going the used motor route... Appreciate the input.
 


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Location
Lancaster, PA, USA
#9
i don't want to say i'm in the room with those dealership techs but it's pretty easy to tell if you had a different tune on the car based on counting the amount of reflashes the ECU has had. even if you did revert back to OEM there's a big ol' counter letting the techs know how many times the enginesECU's been reflashed. if it's more than once it better be accounted for in warranty paperwork. if you were still under warranty and FoMoCo still made tons of ICE performance cars and they were flush with cash, maybe they would just look the other way or the Ford tech wouldn't even bother to check.

but you aren't, FoMoCo doesn't and isn't. so you probably won't have much luck at any dealership unfortunately.

and an engine swap with a used FiestaST engine would still be significantly cheaper and probably give you plenty of reliability. your cracked cylinder issue is pretty rare and almost non-existent in the late model engines. something to think about.
legally in the states they have to prove the tune caused the failure….not sure how easy that would be. Also, the ECU resets every time the battery is disconnected, so the reset counter doesn’t mean much either.

op, do you have another dealer nearby? You could take it for a second opinion, could just be a crap dealer
 


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549
Location
Camden, NJ, USA
#10
legally in the states they have to prove the tune caused the failure….not sure how easy that would be. Also, the ECU resets every time the battery is disconnected, so the reset counter doesn’t mean much either.

op, do you have another dealer nearby? You could take it for a second opinion, could just be a crap dealer
i didn't say "reset" i said "reflash". that said, quick research still suggests you're way more right than i am as dealerships never check the reflash counter. and some don't even have the capability to check even if they wanted to. i didn't know that part.

and i agree on the crap dealer. had a wheel bearing issue on my RX8 way back in the day within the first 5K miles that the local dealership refused to even look at without charging me. finally had to get corporate directly involved but that took months b/c i didn't have another mazda option. i also recommend trying another Ford dealer.

and while i agree that "prove the tune caused the failure..." is the letter of the law, all ECU tunes advance knock timing and bad knock results in issues OP's engine has encountered. if he had an early year where the Mountune 215(?) was a Ford approved tune, he'd have an out. albeit still unlikely since he's (just) past the warranty period but the last model year has no cover for an aftermarket tune. I have a 2019. trust me or not, i've looked. it's no different then if i put a different turbo on the engine and all of a sudden i have blown seals. "you can't prove the turbo caused the engine damage" argument would get you nowhere.

but again, apparently the Ford tech probably never even checked for an aftermarket tune so that is a moot point.

edit: i have an aftermarket ECU tune and am still well within my warranty period (3.5 years/28K miles) and i'm holding my breath if i have any engine issues and have to take it in for warranty work. that said, i'm not too concerned as OP's experience is a real outlier.
 


Last edited:
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Location
Jupiter
#11
My engine blew due to no coolant, before the factory recall for coolant level sensor issues. It was tuned when brought in, and I had no issues with warranty repairs. It was obvious what caused it, but at the time I was still worried about having the tune in place.
 


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