2014 Ford Fiesta ST Brake failure and crash
Today I would like to share with the community an unpleasant experience I had with my very first car, which was a 2014 Fiesta ST ( https://www.carthrottle.com/post/zC4hi/ ). A great handling, fast hot hatch, which should stop, right? Well, not every time. The car was brand new and I was it’s first owner. The first brake problem I noticed during a trip through the Stelvio Pass in Italy. Brake power would start to fade but I assumed that the downhills and excessive braking was the issue so I didn’t care much. Then winter came and so did more problems. The car wouldn’t stop at all and the brakes sounded awful but Ford claimed it was normal (I study automotive engineering and do know if it’s normal or not), so I took them apart and noticed that the brake pads were worn off as well as the inside of the brake disc at the front axle, which of course can happen but the car had at this point only 15.000km so not a ‘normal’ thing. Ford changed the discs and brake pads, which they said we would have to pay, so we did. Brake power was then restored. A year later or 15.000km later the same problem all over again. In rain or snow the car wouldn’t even lock up the wheels from 30km/h or ABS wouldn’t even work because the brake power was so low. One day I was driving on a two-way country side road (speed limit in Germany 100km/h). There were two cars in front of me and it was raining. The first car started braking to turn right, the man behind him didn’t notice until the last second and stepped hard on the brake. So did I but unfortunately the brake pedal was very hard so I couldn’t even press it and of course the car didn’t slow down at all. I then turned left to avoid a collision to the other side of the road with my foot to the brake at all times and faced a Skoda Fabia in front of me. Long story short our side mirrors collided and the whole thing was reported to the insurance company.
At that moment I had enough. We revised Ford which said that the front axle was in top condition and the rear brakes could be driven for at least 10.000km before they had to be changed. They only changed the brake fluid and did a master cylinder bleed. After that the car’s braking was worse than ever so we drove it to another genuine Ford dealer. Interestingly, he found some sort of glue (caused from brake dust mixed with water as they said) between the brake piston and brake pad, which prevented the rear axle from braking. So, the first dealer insures me that the rear axle is in top shape then I have a near death experience and then the other one says the rear axle is glued and won’t even brake.
The second dealer then changed the rear axle discs and brake pads, which I of course had to pay. I pick up the car and the pedal travel was hideous and the noises were back. On top of that if I brake so hard that the ABS would ‘turn on’ then release the pedal and then brake again the pedal becomes hard and impossible to press. We then contacted Ford Central and they sent us an engineer to investigate. At that time 5 other cars showed up in that dealership with the exact same symptoms and problems. They fixed it but wouldn’t say what the actually did, but I was happy that my car will now brake. Until I washed it.
When you wash a car you all know that you get this kind of rust on the discs, which should go off after a quick run around the block right? Well, kind of in my case. I noticed that even after 1000km the half of the driver’s front disc and the passengers rear disc were still covered with rust, meaning that 50% of the possible brake power and contact with the disc isn’t there. I then got once again on the phone with Ford, who suggested to bring my car (37.000km on the clock) back to change the discs once more.
I did but on the way there I again noticed that the car wouldn’t brake properly or at all. So, I told them that I would not drive this car anymore because a vehicle, which weighs 1100kg and has 182bhp is a quick car and should brake as well as that I now fear the damn thing. We will take some actions against Ford because it isn’t right or normal that a 2014 car with 37.000km has its brakes destroyed 2 times and that all dealerships are not able to fix it but also because we had to pay everything and the insurance of course because of the accident.
So they offered me a brand new lava-red 2015 Fiesta ST aka Lewis, which I am going to pick up next week. I certainly hope that this brake problem only affects my old black ST and not all of them.
Tell me your opinion about that and any similar problems?
Comments
Are you shi*ing me?? I just orderd this car. Well I guess I’m ordering brembos before I even get the car :)
I would definitely do that.
Not good! My fiesta ST is 15 plate and I can say I haven’t had this problem in the 8500 miles I’ve had the car so you shouldn’t get this problem on a newer one. This is the first time I’ve heard of this, very scary though!
my 16 has hit 6000 miles and no brake fade yet
My 14 is at 34,000 miles and isn’t having any problems, but I’ll definitely keep a look out for any such problems.
well happy to hear that I hope lewis will not show any problems ..
I wish I could put my 2 cents in but when the pads wore out on my 14 the first thing I did was new rotors fluid and of course pads and so far it’s fantastic