Ford Ranger motor blown - snorkel blamed

[BigSkiddy]

One of my staff, had his PX Ranger (one before current shape) die.
In short, the turbo malfunctioned and it will require a complete new motor. It only had 18,000km.
Ford are not covering it under warranty as they claim water has entered the motor via the airbox. They believed this occurred when the vehicle had been offroad about 3 weeks prior and it took that long for the water to make it to the turbo.
The vehicle has a Safari Snorkel, fitted by ARB. Due to this modification which includes the plugging of a drain hole in the airbox (before the filter), Ford have rejected this as a warranty issue. The repair bill is $18K. The insurance company appear at this stage to be covering it.

I didn't raise this to bag out Rangers, but I know a few forum members have them, along with the BT50's with snorkels fitted. Probably something to consider when offroading.

I'm no mechanic but the explanation given by Ford makes no sense to me.

Be interested to here peoples thoughts.

 

[PhilW]

Yeah tough one that.
Why is it necessary to plug the drain hole in the air box?
By nature of it being called a drain hole, you would think it would be in your interest to leave it as such.
I guess in a water crossing that drain hole would become a point of water entry.
Having said that..... It would be a very handy thing to have if you did get a splash of water down the snorkel intake.

Anyway I hope it all works out for the poor bloke

 

[Rockape]

Lucky the insurance company is looking like it will foot the bill. If ARB fitted the snorkel and blocked the drain hole, you would think they would be liable or the manufacturer if their instructions recommended it.. I would think if you had water injested it would play up straight away not 3 weeks later. I hope your friend has a positive outcome. Thanks for the heads up BigSkiddy.
Cheers
Nick

 

[Mark13]

Drain hole has to be blocked to stop water getting sucked in through it when air box is submerged... Without blocking it the snorkel is a waste of time...

 

[Sammy D]

If that is the case where does all the water go when you are driving in rain?

We haven't got a snorkel on our cruiser but the one on the old hilux still has an operating drain at the bottom of the air box with a simple rubber flappy valve, having no way for water to get out of the air box seems scary.

 

[Mark13]

There are 4 drain holes where the air ram joins the snorkel and these are the drain for when it rains... Brain type heads have a similar set up to the air ram but they use the swirl of the air to discharge the water...