Inside Line – Ford Ka to 2009
• A complaint is that the interior ventilation system will only blow cold/cool air or vice versa, hot air. The fault usually lies with the motorised heater valve on the bulkhead failing, which doesn’t allow hot coolant water to flow through to the interior heater matrix.
• Technicians need to be careful when fitting a pollen filter during service, particularly making sure not to over tighten the fixing screws, as his can cause the windscreen to crack.
• Owners may complain of the engine stalling at junctions. There may be no engine ECU fault codes logged. The issue may be caused by the idle control valve being dirty and sticking intermittently. Cleaning the control valve or preferably fitting a new one can cure the problem.
• On very early Ka’s, some customers have reported idle flare between gear changes. The throttle position sensor and wiring loom are known to cause this problem. To fix, a new sensor and loom should be fitted at the same time.
• Electric window and door central locking failure can be caused by corrosion to the door wiring loom connectors. It can be a costly job as a new loom will be required for each affected door.
• On the Ka 2004, the loss of speedometer and ABS light can be caused by the internal failure of the ABS control unit.
• On the Ka 70bhp OHC engine squealing from the power assisted steering can be caused by the original fluid reservoir being too small. Technicians can service the car and top up the power steering fluid and the noise appears. Ford have a modified larger reservoir, or just ensure when servicing that the fluid level is in between the min / max markers rather than full, as this stops the noise.
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