1997 Ford Ka 2 from UK and Ireland - Comments

There was a persistent problem with the tappets from 30,000 miles onwards.

Rear windscreen wiper didn't always work.

Bushings on the front wheels had to be replaced roughly every 10,000 miles.

Front bumper came away from the body of the car.

The car needed to have its tappets re-aligned every 5,000 miles or so despite the best efforts of the mechanics in my local Ford dealership. This problem is what ultimately caused me to sell the car.

Storage in the car is unbelievably poor, with precious little space to store things like maps, sunglasses, cassettes and other things people usually keep in their cars.

The radio was cheap and nasty.

My mother has a 1997-model Ford Ka. There have been problems with rust and leaking braking fluids.

Now at about 60.000 km the camshaft needs replacement. Price: about 1.200 £.

Ford admits that KA in some cases have problem with their camshafts, but since the car is more than 3 years old it is no longer of their concern.

The Ka is regarded by most in the car trade as being a sound car that is desirable, especially with young people and girls.

It is however noted that the engine is a weak link, and the design of the underpowered 1.3 endura unit is essentially the same as the one first introduced in 1962.

If you get problems with the engine then rather than have costly repairs, a 2nd hand engine from a scrappy is your best bet and you should really try as hard as possible to get the far superior 1.25 engine that is found in the Fiestas of recent times.

Hi, I just read the comment above, its true that the KA engine is basically the same design as the Kent OHV engine first used in the 105E anglia, it was the only engine that would fit the KA apparently. the vehicle had originally been designed to take a modern and efficient 2-stroke design of engine which was more compact, but couldnt meet the upcoming tightening of emissions regs. I seriously don't think the 1.25 zetec engine from the festa would fit without major modification or ford would have used it already, it being a far superior engine.

Ref: the tappets.

What sometimes happens is the oil holes in the rocker shaft block up and this can cause the rockers to seize on the shaft. The cure is to take the shaft off (if I remember correctly, it's held onto the cylinder head with 4 bolts) remove all the rockers and spacers from the shaft, clean everything up and reassemble.

Unfortunately with these engines 5k miles is the furthest you can go without a tappet adjustment. However, it's a pretty straightforward job - a set of feeler gauges is about £4 and it takes about 1/2 hour.

Also bear in mind the vast majority of mechanics won't have any idea how to adjust mechanical tappets because not many cars have them anymore.