Issues getting OEM Parts for cars (Ford)

We have a 63 plate Kuga that’s been sat in a ford garage since April 2024, the ECU had water damage, and we have paid for the new ECU, but it’s been out of stock for a while, and today find out that it’s not planned to be in stock until early 2025, so nearly a year sat there doing nothing.

I thought there were some kind of rules around supportability of products in the EU, this is a Mk2 Kuga, so was produced until 2019, seems a bit off that a car that could be 5 years old is basically obsolete due to lack of OEM support, is there anything that can be done about this?

Get an ECU from a scrapyard, or steal one from a kuga they have in stock?

Id it’s still under warranty I would be asking for a courtesy car, or was it your fault it got wet ?

We tried getting one cloned before going to the garage, didn’t work, only way forward was through official ford programming with new ECU.

If parts don’t exist, they don’t exist and no amount of “rules” will change that.

I’m not sure what else to suggest.  If Ford go “sorry, here’s your money back on the ECU and your car back” you’re shit out.  It’s an 11-year old motor.  Keep an eye out for a Cat B write-off?

Makes me consider getting rid of my 18 plate (mk2.5) even more.

Scrapyard/crash salvage yard. Maybe even eBay. Not sure if you’d need Forscan to get it working.

It’s not at a main dealer is it?

Mate, I have a 68 plate Mk4 Focus that nobody sells the oil for. Or filters. Or most other gubbins. It’s an utter shit show at the moment.

Again, scrapyard is not an option, we have tried 2 x cloned ECU’s, they weren’t able to program them for the car, i’m just in disbelief that there is absolutely no supportability for it, we’re not talking about a small part either, you’d think they would keep some stock, it’s bread and butter stuff in any industry!

Seems to be quite common. My FIL’s car was hit last October. It was less than a year old, but it was May this year before they could put it back together due to delays obtaining parts (Hyundai).

I can’t understand why an ECU off and identical car wouldn’t work, is that definitely the fault? Is there a wiring loom connecting to the ECU that’s also faulty? Or the garage just doesn’t know what they’re doing with it.

I can’t understand why an ECU off and identical car wouldn’t work, is that definitely the fault? Is there a wiring loom connecting to the ECU that’s also faulty? Or the garage just doesn’t know what they’re doing with it.

Yep, car was taken to a vehicle electrical specialist in Bristol, they tried to clone the original onto reconditioned ECUs, it failed twice, only option was to go OEM and new via a ford approved garage, so the one we bought it from.

ECU Reprogramming – The UK’s ECU Specialist – Bluehawk Electronics

Actually,

I might know someone.  Remind me tomorrow.

What makes it worse is it had 1500 quid spent on it in January due to DPF failure and so on, thankfully the last ever diesel i’ll own, absolute nightmares, probably last Ford as well!

Just torch the thing at this point

Why does ECU need to be cloned? I thought cloning was matching keys to the car ECU but if your donor car also has its own keys, why couldn’t you use the donor car keys??

(Sure, lock barrels may also need changing but that may be easier…)

IANACM

For the immobilizer normally

My Fiesta ST has been in the garage for nearly 4 weeks. Awaiting parts from Ford. Its very frustrating!

Some cars have other parts that are coded to the car/ECU – change the ECU and you need to remove and recode everything else.

I think the manufacturers do it to stop some second hand parts being fitted.

My niece has a LR Velar, when it went for its first MOT it failed on worn track rod ends.  It’s bad enough that a 3 year old car had such poor quality parts but it then took about 4 months to get replacement parts!

Broke a seat belt clip on the sMax. Waited 3 months. Not too big an issue as there were 4 other seats to choose from in the back, but still a pain.

I think the manufacturers do it to stop some second hand parts being fitted.

It’s to stop stolen parts being fitted.

The ECUs across the car *should* be re-programmable by the dealer/using the official tool with proper access rights, so no hooky versions of the code and DIY/Ebay cables, you need an account and full access to servers etc. It also means that when parts are re-programmed, the manufacturer can see the old and new parts appearing/disappearing/changing in the system. And flag up stolen/dodgy parts.

It’s actually driven by various bits of legislation that started in early/mid 00’s. Started with transmission and engine in the US (my involvement) and has spread quite significantly since.

And yes, It’s been incredibly badly implemented by some manufacturers.

I can’t understand why an ECU off and identical car wouldn’t work, is that definitely the fault? Is there a wiring loom connecting to the ECU that’s also faulty? Or the garage just doesn’t know what they’re doing with it.

Why does ECU need to be cloned? I thought cloning was matching keys to the car ECU but if your donor car also has its own keys, why couldn’t you use the donor car keys??

Often the ECU is linked to lots of other parts in the car. When the ECU went on my Vauxhall if you wanted to take the ECU from a donor car you also had to take all the locks, ignition barrel, central locking, keys etc with it and transfer them all to your car –  becuase the ECU needed to recognise those particular locks and so on to be present to function. If you took the ECU out of the donor without taking steps first to ‘divorce’ the ECU from those components it couldn’t be linked to new ones.

The alternative is your own ECU can be cloned onto a reconditioned one, so the recon is paired with all your existing  components, but that requires the faulty ECU to be functional enough to be able to take that information. I was able to get that done (not by a main dealer though – they weren’t able to)  even though my ECU was full of diesel. For about £300 – just posting the faulty one away and getting the recon back 2 days later

It’s to stop stolen parts being fitted.

Yes, sorry, that’s kinda what I meant (stolen parts are sort of “second hand”).  Thanks for the extra info.

Do you have the part number?  Sometimes you can find the parts available for sale in Europe just with a google.  I did that to get a replacement bit for my Focus when it was on back order with an ETA of 3 months plus.

Mate, I have a 68 plate Mk4 Focus that nobody sells the oil for. Or filters. Or most other gubbins. It’s an utter shit show at the moment.

That sounds bizarre?

Not wanting to teach you to suck eggs but it’s not simply a case of that grade of oil has been superseded? e.g OILGRADE3.6E is now OILGRADE3.6F?

And filters are normally just a thread size, diameter and height (and maybe a non-return valve depending their orientation and location on the engine).

JLR are the same,  a friend just had to wait over a month for a water pump for a Discovery Sport, to then be told if they wanted it fitted at the dealership they’d have to wait at least as long again. Their yard is full of cars waiting for parts, apparently. How brilliant lean and JIT manufacturing are…

Cars have gone so far backwards in terms of reliability and longevity it’s ridiculous. Anyone I know in the motor trade is saying the viable life of Euro6 emissions cars is 100k miles max, and to sell them before 60/70k ideally. I fail to see how building two cars instead of one is progress.

How brilliant lean and JIT manufacturing are…

They are until pandemics, wars, Brexit, Suez canal blockages etc. chuck giant spanners in the works.

Cars have gone so far backwards in terms of reliability and longevity it’s ridiculous.

That’s absolute bollocks. We’ve got a 12 year old Seat Leon and a 130k euro 6 van with only one expensive repair between them, failed bearings on the car AC compressor. Both still drive like new(ish). When I was little my dad had cars that were rusted to **** or had dodgy gearboxes/tired engines at 7 or 8 years old.

That sounds bizarre?

Especially as ford used to use a sort of pick a part catalogue for stuff like filters and oils.

Think there were only two or three new issues of it in the ~15 years I was dealing with ford stuff. (The JV engines sometimes used some bits that weren’t in the catalogue though.)

Anyone I know in the motor trade is saying the viable life of Euro6 emissions cars is 100k miles max, and to sell them before 60/70k ideally.

You mean Euro 6, that’s been around for a decade… I think I’d have heard if they were packing in at 100000 miles. Seeing as a good number of my neighbours are running cars like that to 250000 miles plus.

Maybe your mates have all been running them on veg oil from the chippy?

What about an aftermarket ECU? Like a LINK or Megasquirt? Usually used for performance gains but nothing stopping it being programmed in standard form.

One thing that’s a minor annoyance is that I can only fit OEM wiper blades to my Ford, Halfords blades that are supposed to fit, according to their listing actually won’t; there’s a slight difference in the connector that fits onto the arms. That means I have to pay double the price, £30-odd against £15 or so for the Halfords ones. The Halfords ones seem to last longer as well.

I thought there were laws that prevented that sort of behaviour, but seems not.

Now don’t feel too sorry for the guy as this is a genuine first world problem but my work colleagues Maserati Grandsport is ~ £850 (plus a few hours labour) for an ABS sensor, reason being it’s part of the wheel bearing and can’t be separated. Only available ex Ferrari/Maserati.

Same with the brake discs – factory only at £472 per disc. (RRP £684)

It’s time like this I’m so thankful I run well supported 20year old cars and have an account at Autodoc!

I guess it’s the same reason people buy aftermarket stainless steel exhaust systems..

If Nissan or Ford or whoever are incapable to supply a part… And when they do it’s cheap mild steel.. Why would anyone in thier right mind pay more for a sub-standard item for more money?