I spoke to the boss of Bengkel Excellent Auto, the Ford specialist in Klang Valley when I was at their workshop servicing the car earlier last month since I also had interest on the Ford Focus Mk3.5. He said that the Mk3.5 which is using the 6-speed torque converter has engine issues. He had a customer bring in the car to his workshop due to engine problems. He said that the cooling system of the engine in the Mk3.5 which is different from the Mk3 is the main issue which contributed to the overheating of the engine. If I interpreted it correctly, he said the Mk3 uses intercooler whilst the Mk3.5 uses a different system, something like liquid cooling system which works well in cold climate countries but not here in our hot weather country.

Looks like the Focus mk3.5 reduced an issue with the gearbox but may have introduced another one with the cooling system of the engine. Perhaps it's the Ecoboost system which uses this system, this I'm not sure.

We chit chat a little on cars, as usual. He said that he brought his dad to test drive many cars when he was on a shopping spree. Tested Mazda CX5, M3, Kia Sportage, Hyundai, Honda CRV and few more, and in the end it's still back to Ford for superior driving dynamics. The CRV was said to handle the worst (as expected). Mazda's handling still lost to Ford Focus/Kuga, according to him, and while the Kia Sportage drives quite well, the interior does not feel as high quality as the Ford and also the price is much higher, so it's not really value for money in comparison to new Ford prices. At 2nd hand prices, the Ford seems to be great value but maintenance will be slightly higher due to replacement of wear and tear parts which is expected for cars above 6 or 7 years of age.

Is there specific batch with defective block? Or all mk3.5 sold in malaysia prone to this issue?

Design defect of the engine block which contains the cylinder where it will crack with time. The boss of the workshop Azhar used to work in a Ford service centre for several years before joining Al-Isra. According to him, 5 out of 5 customers who use the Focus 1.5 Ecoboost will report on the same problem, and it is always the engine block of cylinder no. 2 which shows the crack everytime but not the other 3 cylinder blocks.

The representative of Ford Thailand who came to investigate didn't have a clue on the problem and no troubleshooting solutions were offered to overcome the issue. The cracked engine block will be replaced within warranty period. After 5 years, it's all on your own after the warranty period expires. The boss informed he didn't dare to touch the car (owning it) because of this cylinder block issue. He also suggested that because of this engine block issue of the car, the 2nd hand value will plummet with time after the problem is more widespread and known to others. People would be less inclined to consider the car after knowing about it.