I bought a ford because I thought I would be getting a reliable vehicle to get me through my college years and beyond. I have had no complaints about the vehicle until it started on fire the week after Christmas. I was driving the vehicle when it killed in the middle of town, I coasted to the side of the road and tried to start the vehicle. The dash flashed "fuel economy" when I had a 1/2 tank of gas and smoke started to come out from under my hood. I opened the hood to a 12 inch flame coming up from the wiring harness, I was able to blow that one out and a shoe repair shop gave me a fire extinguisher to put out the other wiring harness. My mistake was putting out the fire...seriously, I should have let it burn and insurance would have given me the money to purchase another vehicle (not a ford).

After 3 days at the ford dealership they finally discovered the cause of the fire. They told me that the engine overheated causing the head gasket to blow. In the process it shot oil onto the very hot turbo which caused the wiring harness to ignite.

I had no bad hoses, my coolant wasn't low and my engine never once informed me that it was overheating. On top of that I had just had a regular service on my vehicle at a ford Quick lane about a week and a half before and they had said that all my hoses and coolant was good.

Apparently Ford has had a similar issue with this engine and there were recalls involving possible engine fires from overheating, the same issue that I experienced. (12S41- Ford recall number)

I am currently fighting with ford, I am about a month into it and still car less and becoming more and more frustrated with the whole thing. If anyone can offer any advice or has dealt with a similar issue with their ford please comment.