Kuga owners must bring vehicles for safety check

Several local Ford Kuga owners are also affected by Ford South Africa’s decision to issue a recall for all Kuga models equipped with the 1.6 litre engine for a safety inspection.

The safety recall comes after several cases where this specific Kuga model’s engine compartment caught fire due to overheating problems.

“A total of 4 556 vehicles are affected by this safety recall in South Africa, and were built between December 2012 and February 2014. Ford Kuga models with the 1.5 litre and 2.0 litre engines are not affected,” said Ford SA in a press release issued on Monday.

By Tuesday this week, Bridge Ford in Louis Trichardt had already checked about 20 of these 1.6 litre models. “Rather be safe than sorry. Even if your 1.6 Kuga is not displaying any problems, please bring it in to be checked,” urged Bridge Ford owner Mr Rampie Gilfillan.

According to Ford SA, they have determined that the Kuga 1.6 engine compartment fires were due to the engine's overheating. “This is caused by a lack of coolant circulation, which can lead to a cracking in the cylinder head and, therefore, an oil leak. If the leaking oil reaches a hot engine surface, it can potentially catch fire. We are not aware of any injuries resulting from the engine compartment fires,” said Ford SA in the press release.

Locally, Gilfillan said that they were only aware of one 1.6 litre Kuga catching fire. The vehicle is currently kept at their premises for further inspection. “The owner is from Thohoyandou and the incident occurred during December,” said Gilfillan. He added that, including the above-mentioned incident, 46 similar incidents of this specific model's catching fire nationally were recorded.

The safety recall comprises two stages. The first stage involves replacing affected components on the cooling system, verifying and updating the software and conducting an oil leak check on the cylinder head. “If any Kuga 1.6 litre owner sees any indication that the engine may be overheating or experiences warnings on the instrument cluster, they should pull over as soon as it is safe to do so, switch off the engine and ensure all occupants are safely out of the vehicle. For safety reasons, the bonnet must not be opened,” said Ford SA. The second stage will make the cooling system even more robust and is likely to involve further changes to parts and warning systems. “We are currently ensuring that the changes we make are complete and thoroughly tested – and will communicate with our customers as soon as this stage commences,” said Ford SA.

Gilfillan said that the safety check and fitting of safer replacement parts are done at no cost to the client. The safety check takes about an hour to determine whether the vehicle was fitted with faulty parts. “Currently, Ford is experiencing somewhat of a shortage of replacement parts, but they are working around the clock to keep up with the demand. Should parts not be immediately available, Ford will supply a courtesy vehicle to the Kuga owner,” Gilfillan said. He assured Kuga owners that after faulty parts are replaced, the vehicles are 100% safe to drive again.

For more information or enquiries, Gilfillan invited Kuga owners to phone their service department at tel. 015 516 5071.

Date:22 January 2017

By: Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

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