Late Christmas for Focus RS Owners as Ford Gifts New Head Gaskets (and Maybe More!)

We told you recently of the tsunami of complaints from Ford Focus RS owners swamping the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — and other agencies — with minor gripes like, say, their brand new car burning engine coolant. Well, there’s a fix afoot.

In a recently released service bulletin, Ford describes the issue plaguing its hottest hatch and vows to replace every cylinder head installed in a Focus RS built between August 3, 2015 to July 6, 2017. That is to say all of them.

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Piston Slap: A Citation Against Conventional Wisdom?

“V” writes:

Hello Sajeev,

Conventional wisdom says wait until the second model year of a new vehicle since that’s when the automaker will have fixed the glaring flaws decried by the “beta testers” who bought the first model year. Is this always true?

Do automakers fix problems “on the sly” so that, say, a 2016 model year car manufactured in August 2015 could already incorporate some/all fixes slated for 2017 model year?

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  • Jalop1991 This is easy. The CX-5 is gawdawful uncomfortable.
  • Aaron This is literally my junkyard for my 2001 Chevy Tracker, 1998 Volvo S70, and 2002 Toyota Camry. Glad you could visit!
  • Lou_BC Let me see. Humans are fallible. They can be very greedy. Politicians sell to the highest bidder. What could go wrong?
  • SPPPP Vibrant color 9 times out of 10 for me. There may be a few shapes that look just right in metallic gray, for example. There are a few nices ones out there. And I like VW "White Silver". But I'd usually prefer a deep red or a vibrant metallic green. Or a bright blue.
  • 28-Cars-Later Say it ain't so, so reboot #6* isn't going to change anything?[list=1][*]V4-6-8 and High "Tech" 4100.[/*][*]Front wheel drive sooooo modern.[/*][*]NOrthSTARt.[/*][*]Catera wooooo.[/*][*]ATS all the things.[/*][*]We're *are* your daddy's Tesla. [/*][/list=1]