83 replies to this topic

[Pitsparky]

Are you on the focus rs forum? Do you hang about with anyone or leave your house at any point to socialise? Doing these simple tasks you'll soon learn that there are issues. This is just going round in circles and as Steve said you must just have your fingers in your ears as you be been told that there are issues and cars are failing yet you don't want to listen to any one or belive it. Strange

You just dont get it do you? What qualifies you to claim the 2.3 , an engine made in 100,000s and is Japanese !!!!! Is unreliable. Ill answer that for myself..... absolutely nothing!

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[s66anb]

I've owned one though for 3 years which I bought brand new. I'm not slagging the car I'm just saying the engine's have issues. Would I buy another no probably not as it's alot of money to put right if it does fail and it's an expensive car to purchase.

I now own a mk2 focus st and yes I know they have issues but engine's can be had from as little as a few hundred pounds. I don't plan on pushing this engine as it's a daily and not looking to spend daft money plus I know what can happen.

[Pitsparky]

Two good mates of mine both had engine failure one recently which cost just over 10k to rectify head warped in 4 places and block . Luckily he had 5 year warranty.
 
Other mate is know on his 2nd replacement engine so my maths says out of 3 us 66% have failed 

So 66% of RS engines fail? That will be many thousands of broken RSs out there. Never heard such an unbelievably crazy claim. The head will likely have warped because of the original head gasket issue and are these cars standard??? If not irrelevant again.

[s66anb]

You just dont get it do you? What qualifies you to claim the 2.3 , an engine made in 100,000s and is Japanese !!!!! Is unreliable. Ill answer that for myself..... absolutely nothing!

I'm guessing what qualifies me is the car I owned failed however not in my ownership but within 1k miles of me selling it. I had a lucky escape and not left to pay the bills to put it right. I only have 3 years warranty and it was out of warranty when it failed

[Pitsparky]

Ok guys. A couple on here claim almost every 2.3 engine is going to fail because they are , you would think Ford would have dropped it by now wouldnt you, instead if it being a mainstay engine.

[Pitsparky]

I'm guessing what qualifies me is the car I owned failed however not in my ownership but within 1k miles of me selling it. I had a lucky escape and not left to pay the bills to put it right. I only have 3 years warranty and it was out of warranty when it failed

Well you had better rid yourself of your mk3 before the chocolate pistons melt then. Not my opinion but the opinion of many none mk3 owners who have similar unfounded inclinations. Envy has a lot to do with it. You see it works against your car too!

[s66anb]

Ok guys. A couple on here claim almost every 2.3 engine is going to fail because they are , you would think Ford would have dropped it by now wouldnt you, instead if it being a mainstay engine.

Why drop it when it can be rectified? Which I'd like to think has been done. No one's saying every rs will fail all we're saying is more than you think have failed and still are failing. Bearing in mind these cars won't get alot of miles on them as owners like to keep them garaged so this could still be happened for years to come. Mine failed at 28k an engine shouldn't be failing at that amount of miles or even 100k for that matter

[Pitsparky]

Why drop it when it can be rectified? Which I'd like to think has been done. No one's saying every rs will fail all we're saying is more than you think have failed and still are failing. Bearing in mind these cars won't get alot of miles on them as owners like to keep them garaged so this could still be happened for years to come. Mine failed at 28k an engine shouldn't be failing at that amount of miles or even 100k for that matter

There is nothing to rectify. Remember you said the 2.3 was unreliable not specifically the RS. Like I said its a 20 year old JAPANESE Mazda its got no modifications left to do to it and I think in no way needs any. Do not accept the failures are any where near what you totally disproportionately claim. There are a few RS failures if you trail around online. Then there 100000 2.3s totally reliable. No getting away from that fact.

[Alb]

I think I'll pause this for a while.

[Siye ST]

Plenty? You have to put it into context, what is plenty? And how many are trouble free. I bet as many as any other engine. You cannot go by a few that report problems on these forums or turn up at bd. 100000s are not reporting problems, these are the ones you have to compare to. Not the few failures on I still believe almost all modified or possible abused. The engine is already at its safe design limit so if you modify it expect a shorter life, simple physics Im afraid. No different to any other, 350hp from a 2.3 is about right. 300-320 from a 2.0 is about the reliability limit of standard engines. Apart from merc who fully beef up and hand build a special 420. The mp375 is as far as you can go according to Ford engineers in the 2.3.

Whats wrong with plug?

Iv seen 3 engine failures this week alone, two owners from instagram and there is one on BD proformance youtube channel, non of the failures are due to the head gasket either... the 3 that iv seen just in week seems like more than 99.9 percent.. They have issues that go further than just the head gasket issue which effects rs's below june 6th 2017...

 

Lovely car i love them and the look but the 2.0 block is much stronger.. Its a shame because i could have gotten one with my 22k i had to spend on my new car. It was between a  2016 RS with like 50k miles or a 2018 st3 with 10k miles... I choosen the st3 after weeks of research and im so glad i did....and aint looked back and every month or so i see failures or mentions or failures on comments etc or on Focus RS owners instagrams. The gamble for me would have been too much worry as i tend to really push cars at times.

[Jason Sullivan]

[Mart1976]

A MK2 RS in Ultimate Green would have a place in my garage anytime........and it would only come out in summer.

Damn right ....I'm with you on that but mine would be white .

Mk 3 just don't do it for me ...I drove a Mk 3 Rs 5 miles ...turned round and through the keys back and said ..yeah thanks anyway .lol...just didn't like anything about it ...
Jumped in a standard Mk 2 Rs ....oh wow ! ...what a difference ...

[Pitsparky]

And how many haven't failed? How many broken mk2s are constantly in BD, a never ending stream of them, they have 1 Mk 3 RS !!! Mk2  are obviously far far less reliable if that is the evidence. Loads of other mk2 specialists repairing them on a daily basis too making livings out of block mods etc etc etc, loads of them. But lets just ignore that !

Ok its only a mk3 RS thing, if you want to be convinced it is a design thing. Im not. And Mazda turbo charged this engine in its early days many years ago. Admittedly, it is only the Mazda L block with a Ford Head.

How many of these few cars are post head gasket repair failures ? Im guessing all. How many are post mid 2017 cars, Im guessing none. All just a guess. Too many of these head gasket repairs were poor quality and earlier ones recognised by Ford as needing a new updated procedure. Plus some slipped through the net that had associated head and block distortion. But the vast majority of the repaired engines are fine. The 2.3 has a lot of strengthening and improvements in its design over the 2.0. It just helps if its built with the correct parts. And not tuned any further than 375 hp as Ford engineers quoted as its reliable limit.

[caprixpack]

[Bigayal]

I think its the same with any engine Ive got 2 2.0 diesel Passats same engine code everything, one has never missed a beat and is coming up to 180k the other is on 114k and has been a never ending nightmare of glow plug failures electrical issues actuator fails and many more engine related problems that fortunately are still covered under warranty as I extended it as it has had so many issues, ps the 114k one has always been serviced by vw and all work on it completed by vw , the 180k one serviced by independent garages after about 60k 👍