Ford Fiesta - Buying a Ford Fiesta 03 1.4 TDCi - Advice Sought..

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Tue 10 May 2011 13:29
Ford Fiesta - Buying a Ford Fiesta 03 1.4 TDCi - Advice Sought.. - 12345oncei

I am considering buying a Ford Fiesta Finesse 1.4 TDCi on an 03 plate with low mileage (40k). On sale for £3500. However, I have been reading a lot of problems on this forum regarding the PSA engine (injector seals etc).

Any advice for telling if it is a bad one? Would I be better off looking for something with a different engine!

Any advice appreciated.

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Tue 10 May 2011 16:29
Ford Fiesta - Buying a Ford Fiesta 03 1.4 TDCi - Advice Sought.. - injection doc

I have owned a 1.4tdci Fiesta and 1.6 TDCi.

Our own 1.4 was three years of total trouble free motoring. The 1.6 has also been as good in 4 years of ownership. The 1.6TDCi is a lot lot quieter than the 1.4TDCi and also the 1.6TDCi is lot better on fuel.

They can suffer with injector seals leaking which causes excess carbon to build up in the engine causing a lube failure of the turbo. Some garages just replace the turbo but dont replace the injector seals hence a 2nd turbo failure.

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Tue 10 May 2011 17:31
Ford Fiesta - Buying a Ford Fiesta 03 1.4 TDCi - Advice Sought.. - 12345oncei

Thank you for the reply.

Is there any way to tell if the injector seals are on their way out?

One I am thinking about looking at is an ex fuzz ride but I am sceptical at the low miles. If it was a panda I would expect miles to be > 100k and would therefore be uninterested. But similarly can't comprehend how an 03 plate police force vehicle can have that low miles.

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Mon 31 Oct 2011 09:42
Ford Fiesta - Buying a Ford Fiesta 03 1.4 TDCi - Advice Sought.. - mnarayanan

I would be very cautious of buying the so called POLICE force vehicle with low mileage. I just burnt my fingers, i got my Ford Fiesta from a chap who deals with police vehicles, low mileage, seemed attractive... Guess what, Engine failure in 2 months, now having to replace the engine... paid 3.5K for the car. Now another 1.5K, could get a genuine low mileage car from Cargiant for that sort of price.

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Mon 31 Oct 2011 10:29
Ford Fiesta - Buying a Ford Fiesta 03 1.4 TDCi - Advice Sought.. - Dovile

what is up with this stupid forum. i spent 10 minutes writing a reply to this, and when i posted it it cut off pretty much everything i wrote?! aaaargh

to summarise what i wrote first time:

*£3500 seems a bit much for an 03 fiesta with small engine and near-entrylevel trm level
*16tdci is better than 1.4tdci in pretty much every way
*facelift fiestas from 2006 better for this money - and is possible to find.

Edited by Dovile on 31/10/2011 at 10:40

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