1989 Ford Escort LX review from UK and Ireland

Suffered from breather tube problems since 108,000 miles.

Poor compression from 108,000 miles.

Oil leaked from 108,000 miles and required 1 gallon every 4,000 miles. Caused fire at 125,000 miles as oil dripped onto exhaust manifold!

Engine finally died at 140,000 miles.

The car had one ongoing problem from purchase, being that of oil leakage, which could never seem to be fixed by any of the mechanics who looked at it. I ran out of oil the first time I drove on the motorway and managed to limp to a service station for a refill.

The leak eventually caused a small fire as oil was being sucked up though the air cleaner and dripped on to the exhaust manifold.

In the end I had to disconnect a breather tube and let the oil drip safely to the ground. This meant repeated oil replacement.

In the end, the engine couldn't take any more and gave up. Subsequent to this it was only fit for very short (and slow) trips until I replaced the car pronto.

Apart from this, the car performed well and there weren't any other problems of significance.

Reliability was good (always started), but as with other Escorts of this era, began to corrode around the rear wheel arches.