Completely pluggered

Recently I took my 2005 Ford Focus 1.6 Ghia for its 40,000-mile service to my local Ford garage from which I bought it new. They could not remove the sparking plugs to change them because the plugs had become corroded in their mountings on the cylinder head. The car had been regularly serviced and ran well. The garage, having consulted Ford directly about the problem, told me that the plugs would have to be broken out of their casings which would result in having to remove the cylinder head, clean out the debris and rebuild the top half of the engine in order to regain compression. A ballpark cost given was £2,500. As I owned the car outright, I decided to change it when the garage made me a very good offer for it against a newer Focus. They sold my old car at a regional auction having declared the problem upfront. I wondered if any of your readers have experienced a similar problem with this make and model?

Asked on 6 February 2010 by R.C., Bristol

Answered by Honest John

Yes, it's a problem. The washer fluid can drip into the spark plug channel at the top of the engine and if the engine does not regularly get hot enough to evaporate it off then this problem occurs.

Tags: technical issues owning engine

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