Ford Ecoboost 1.0 Cambelt Changes starting to be due @ £1000+

jaybee

jaybee

jaybee

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Ford apparently originally stated that the wet belt setup would last the life of the car, but then changed this (not sure when?) to actually being a serviceable item due at 150,000 miles or 10 years, whichever comes first. This means that on the early Ecoboost 1.0 engines like Fiesta/Focus 2013 plates these will all be coming up to 10 years next year.

The 3 cylinder turbocharged 1.0L engines are popular for being very economical whilst still delivering a good punch and being £0 tax and cheap to insure. They do have a rep for poor reliability - nicknamed the ecoboom - but I think this is largely down to the early ones having the coolant pipe issue causing some to require recalls.

So what's the big deal with the wet belt change? Well apparently Ford quote well over £1000 for it. Some prices on online forums claim quotes of £1200 + VAT. It's a long, complex job requiring specialist tools which nobody has, because they cost a bomb. Why would they make such a stupid engine? As above, it was originally designed to be for the life of the engine so not much thought was put in to it being serviceable.

Some people suggest just running the car until it snaps, then getting a second hand engine dropped in. Not many people seem to be aware of this so go on buying them. I wonder if it will become more well known over the next year or two as people start to sell them off rather than get the work done, and whether the tooling, knowledge and procedure will become more commonly known also bringing the price of the work down at independents.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Just got a quote for £1100 incl from Ford. I don't own an Ecoboost just was looking at getting one.
 
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The tooling is £800 or so, garages would recoup that soon enough because there's thousands of them around that will need it changing.

My 1.6 ecoboost was coming up to needing a change but that's an old fashioned dry belt set up and £575 at a Ford specialist, was quite happy to trade it in and avoid that. Let alone a £1200 belt change. Current engine is chain driven so no such worries with that.
 
Janesy B said:
The tooling is £800 or so, garages would recoup that soon enough because there's thousands of them around that will need it changing.

My 1.6 ecoboost was coming up to needing a change but that's an old fashioned dry belt set up and £575 at a Ford specialist, was quite happy to trade it in and avoid that. Let alone a £1200 belt change. Current engine is chain driven so no such worries with that.
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Sounds like a potential money maker that if you get a good indy set themselves up and get really good/fast at it, undercutting Ford. I'm trying to establish whether all of these 3 cylinder, modern, small capacity, turbo petrol engines have similar setups. Not sure what the interval is for the Peugeot Puretech 1.2ltrs for example.
 
I slipped a tooth on a 1.4TDCi and couldn't get someone to change the cam belt for love nor money. It sat outside a Ford's for 2 weeks before they finally said they just weren't interested in doing the work - not just because it was unlikely to be repairable, but because they just didn't like doing cam belt work. The quote was about £900. I ended up doing it on my drive myself; and should have put a lottery ticket on as it worked a treat and I had avoided interference somehow.
 
jaybee said:
Sounds like a potential money maker that if you get a good indy set themselves up and get really good/fast at it, undercutting Ford. I'm trying to establish whether all of these 3 cylinder, modern, small capacity, turbo petrol engines have similar setups. Not sure what the interval is for the Peugeot Puretech 1.2ltrs for example.
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They are wet belt and every 6 years or 60k!
 
Same with the 1.0 civic, dealer quoted someone £1800 to have theirs changed and I think they are due much earlier 5yrs/60k iirc but were always a serviceable item

Personally I would avoid any small turbo changed engines, in the early days of them being released people were saying they are too highly strained and wet belts would be a potential issue
 
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These 1ltr turbos with wet belts are sounding like good cars to buy when they are only a couple of years old, then run for a few years before selling. The same could be said of any ICE car I guess, but these do sting a bit with £1000 belt change bills. It will effectively write some cars off as people just won't pay it, people won't buy them and eventually they snap and the car gets scrapped adding to yet more waste. Sad times.
 
They’ve changed back to chains in the newer 1.0 but still with a wet belt for the oil pump iirc.

On the Ford forums I’m registered on, I’ve seen a few where either due to engine flush, wrong oil or lack of oil change etc the belt starts to deteriorate and the oil pickup filter in the sump gets blocked starving the engine of oil.

at least from what I’ve read
 
You can add the B-Max to that list as well. Mine is a 2017 so I still have a few years before it is due. I only found out about this last year and as I expected it seems to be a engine out job. It probably wouldn't have changed my mind on buying one though. It's a cracking little engine with plenty of punch (mine's a 125 bhp version) and my last few tanks have averaged 50.7mpg which I am very pleased about as the Astra it replaced was only averaging mid 30's. It would be nice to think that by the time mine is due that the price will have dropped due to it then being common practice and indies will have the gear as well.
 
Armageus said:
I'll be getting mine done this year, yes it's expensive, but can't fault the car in any other way
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Same, apart from 1 broken coil spring its never gone wrong in almost 10 years even if it is low mileage. I'm sure I can get another 10 years out of it without it costing the earth.

I don't really know much about cars, but don't most other cars need their timing belts changed every 6 years anyway? So I guess it's not bad to have to do this once and then that's it until I run it into the ground.
 
Stumble Bum said:
I don't really know much about cars, but don't most other cars need their timing belts changed every 6 years anyway? So I guess it's not bad to have to do this once and then that's it until I run it into the ground.
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I think its more the cost that's the problem. By the time the car is 10 years old, its not going to be worth much more than £1k anyway surely?

For comparison, my GF's 2008 fiesta cost £250 a few years ago for a belt change including the water pump
 
Haggisman said:
I think its more the cost that's the problem. By the time the car is 10 years old, its not going to be worth much more than £1k anyway surely?

For comparison, my GF's 2008 fiesta cost £250 a few years ago for a belt change including the water pump
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My car is about 10 years old already, just had a look and they all seem to be going for £5k-£6k roughly. (and I assume most of these won't have had a new cambelt either) I bought it 6 1/2 years ago for £8500. so they don't seem to have come down in price much. :p
 
Haggisman said:
I think its more the cost that's the problem. By the time the car is 10 years old, its not going to be worth much more than £1k anyway surely?

For comparison, my GF's 2008 fiesta cost £250 a few years ago for a belt change including the water pump
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I had a similar post drafted but did a quick check on Auto Trader. Amazing how well they're holding their value.
 
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