1991 Ford Sierra GLX from UK and Ireland - Comments

As it is a twin overhead cam, the previous owner hadn't had it serviced before I bought it so within a week of buying it the cam chain smashed and caused a lot of damage to the engine.

Other than that, since then just a starter motor gone.

The cam chain also broke on my twin cam Sierra at 47000 miles, causing damage to the head and block, resulting in replacing the engine at a cost of £1600 in 1997.Other than this disaster the car has been faultless in the 5 years I have owned it.

The Double-OverHead Cam (DOHC) engine used in the later Sierra's suffers from this complaint something chronic. The Chain is generally thought to last about 100k miles, after which you are in "gods good hands".

Keeping the oil changed frequently with the CORRECT grade (about 10w-40) will lengthen it's life, but make sure the chain is changed every 100k at the very least.

They also suffer from cracked cylinder heads and are prone to overheating and blowing head gaskets - often this is all linked!

Other than the minor niggles, they will return upto 40mpg if driven carefully yet are satisfyingly responsive. Mine is a '91 Ghia with a 2.0 EFi in it and it's done 150k on the original engine. I'm replacing the head gasket at the moment, but this is by choice rather than anything else.

Jim Christie, Secretary, Ford Sierra Owners Club.

Www.crustworld.co.uk/sierra.

Purchased 2.0i (dohc) from sister inlaw at 104000 miles as cam chain had gone, causing the usual top end damage.

Now runs very well, but not happy with rear end wander on wet or uneven road surface conditions.

K reg march 93.now showing 115000 miles.

Bought mine 2ltr when it was 4yr old

i also had chain break causing damage to engine

after 12 months, but excellent car since

sadly parting with it this week

best car have ever owned superb

Haydn from Flintshire

I bought 2ltr DOHC EFI about 5 months ago, since then have done about 6000 miles to put it to 104000 miles and had no problems other than cracking oil sump which was my fault for hitting a hump bridge too quickly. Have also owned 1.8 CVH which hated, but the DOHC is best car I have ever owned. £300 bargain.

I have bought a Kreg 1992 sierra glx 2.0 dohc 2 weeks ago. I love it.

It ran rough when cold. Replaces the leads, cap and rotor, and now it's much better. Need to clean out broken parts of old leads from spark plugwells before changing the plugs, then hope for further improvement. Also the temperature gauge is not working, may help ecu to fix.

Plenty of rear wheel drift when you want, fast acceleration amd low down torque (easy top gear cruising).

Big massive boot and seats recline to be almost like a bed.

Looks cool as duck with series 2 rs turbo wheels.

I have had my 2.0GLX for about 9 years. The comments about head gasket and cam chains are true. Appears to be a design weakness here. My 'fors' are: good fuel consumption, excellent low end torque and drivability. 'Againsts' are: poor steering geometry (leading to regular replacement of rubber bushes and poor front tyre wear. Poor handling. Engine life short compared to rivals, including the Cortina which it replaced! Hydraulic tappets become noisy. Overall: reliable until the explosion. It has been a good car despite the various weaknesses!