The dark failures of the Steem-Mobile - A study in Ford Focus failures

The Steem-Mobile's history isn't as glamorous as has been previously portrayed on this blog. Currently, it is a potential fuel air bomb; due to a factory recall from Ford Australia. It isn't the only issue the Steem-Mobile has experienced in its young life.

Let's start with the current recall, which if you own one, you should probably read about.

In short:

Certain vehicles under particular environmental conditions may ingest excessive levels of dust, which may block the carbon canister during a purge cycle. This could cause the fuel tank to reach vacuum levels that exceed design limits. If this condition is not corrected, the fuel tank may crack, resulting in a fuel leak. A fuel leak in the presence of an ignition source can lead to a fire.

This is the current issue. There has been a previous recall for the same model due to shitty driveshafts. The defect here was that they could shatter under accelration. You know, the part of the car that makes it go, shaterring under acceleration. Sounds great.

I'm lucky enough to own a manual (It has words about how to operate the car that I can read while the car is out of action. It also has a third pedal, known as a clutch which means that I can laugh at all the unfortunate people who purcahsed the automatic version of my vehicle, because Ford Australia currently have a class action on their hands regarding a 'six-speed dry dual-clutch PowerShift transmission'.

These are the known issues that have impacted a great deal of Ford Foci that have been manufavtured in Thailand and made their way to Australia and other corners of the world. My Ford Focus is rather special, in that it has had all sorts of other issues.

De-Syncs

One of the main reasons I purcahsed the Ford Focus over the Mazda 3, and Volkswagon Golf, was the Sync system. You press a button on the steering wheel, talk to the car, and it changes tracks for you, or makes a phone call. Or does other such things. Only... mine didn't work properly. I tried fifteen different USB sticks, formatted differently, with different bit rate mp3s, wmas, and other audio formats.

I synced at least 8 different phones and had the firmware for the Sync system upgraded / degraded and even had the sync computer replaced 3 times before it actually started to work consistently. Ford Australia tried to blame my devices for causing this issue, so when I rocked up to the service center with no less than four phones and ten USB sticks, making the compelling argument that it wasn't my equipment causing the issue, it was theirs, that they finally agreed to replace the chip. Three times, before it worked.

I even learnt how to swap the fuse for the audio system just by feel because I had to do it so many times throughout the duration of this particular fault. This, I considered to be a major fault so early in my love-affair with my Focus. This issue persisted for almost an entire year before it was finally resolved.

It doesn't stop there!

My car has three pedals. The one that's the most fun, the accelerator. The one that is necessary to continue accelerating, the clutch, and the one that helps you stop. The brake. Except, after 13,173 kilometres, the brake pedal broke. More accurately, the rubber moulding that fitted over the brake pedal proper cracked. This was for a car that since new, in my care, was garaged each and every day, and driven less than 10,000 miles.

Rumours of my gargunatan feet aside, this is not something that under Australian consumer law would be considered to be durable and of reasonable quality. Pretty great screw up. Maybe I'm being petty about the fact that there wasn't sporty, drilled, polished chrome pedals underneath the rubber; but that sure as shit would have been more durable.

What a ripping time!

I am a large man. I'm six foot two (for the americans) and about 95kg. (About 210 pounds) This doesn't make me a monster by any means; but it does mean that I have razor blades in my shoulders. Specifically in my shoulder blades, as they're aptly named, because shortly after the brake pedal fell off, still under 14,000 kilometres, The front driver's seat began to fall apart at the seams. Literally.

Again, this was fixed under warranty, but not without me spouting words about 'reasonable' quality and pointing at the odometer like a madman shouting 'this shouldn't happen with this few kilometres!' Ford agreed.

I'm starting to unravel.

What Next?

My theory is this: The latest issue regarding the fuel tanks and carbon filters is what is causing the instability in the Asia-Pacific region. 40,000 Ford Foci could become incendiary fuel air bombs employed by the region’s friendly North Korean regime to terrorise suburban streets throughout Australia and other segments of the world. Truly Machiavellian, Kim Jung Un.

Please do something, Mr Trump!

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Thanks for reading guys! P.S. I won't ever buy a Ford ever again!