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Leaves in the engine - poor desing


nla
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After driving for 40 years and never encountering this problem, it never occurred to me that leaves and other materials would get into the engine through the grill at the top of engine hood. What a stupid design. The check engine light came on and the engine was running rough, while I was traveling. When I took it in to the dealer, they showed me how there was lots of debris in the engine and which had allowed water to drip in from rain and the coil was all rusty and wet. They said I would have to pay to replace (and of course they would have to order the part) as this was my responsibility, according to them and not covered by warranty.. But how can you anticipate something like this happening, especially when this has never happened with any other vehicle I have had. They ended up drying out the coil and everything has been fine since. So be aware and don't let this happen to you.

Edited by nla
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I noticed a good many leaves blowing into the lowest opening (the one without the grill bars). I stuck a piece of window screen in there and now they seem not to get stuck anymore but just blow away. This didn't cause any water to leak in under the hood though.

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The dealer's explanation of what caused your engine trouble doesn't really make sense. The Duratec 2.0 used in the Transit Connect has coil-on-plug ignition, meaning each spark plug has its own coil, and the coil pack is a sealed unit (the four black cylindrical devices located in the spark plug valley of the cam cover). How could leaves collecting on the cowl vent area cause water to get on the coils? There's a rubber seal along the back edge of the hood that should stop both debris and water from falling back into the engine compartment.

I see you are located in CA, so you most likely experienced the same unusually wet winter that I did. I don't have a lot of trees around my house, but the underhood area of the Transit Connect certainly got very wet from all the rain, and I did not experience any issues. :shrug:

At any rate sorry you had the trouble, and at least it is resolved.

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