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

[jaybee]

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.

 

[jaybee]

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.

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.

 

[jaybee]

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.

 

[jaybee]

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

2013 Fiesta Ecoboosts even base spec sell for 5k plus at the moment. The Titaniums go for often over 6k.

 

[jaybee]

It is dumb, and unless you are able to perform an engine swap yourself would probably end up costing the same as getting the belt replaced.

Yeah and are there really a load of ecoboost engines laying around ready to be dropped in? Buying reconditioned ones is going to be more than having your engine belt done as well, since they will have spent the same - you would hope - already doing that.

What alternative small hatchback cars are out there with similarly economic engines, cheap to insure and pack an ok punch though? Nothing can really compare in this segment which is why they are so popular. I think Audi do the A1 1.4tfsi, but if you want 5 seats you have to get the sportsback I think and with them being Audi, they fetch a high price. You have the small city cars like the Toyota Aygo and the similar cars like that, but they again have only 4 seats and are very small. Not as quick either.

 

[jaybee]

My wife has a 2010 cooper D which has been remapped so hits around 140bhp and pulls like a train with 300nm of torque, it does 70mpg also although it does need a good run every now and again to regenerate the partial filter. Only 20 quid tax also.

You'd have to be brave to buy a Diesel car now in 2022 though surely with the way things are going? Even an older one.
We also do loads of little journeys. Mini's also have only 2 seats in the back. There will be the odd occasion we need to chuck 3 kids in the back.

 

[jaybee]

It really isn't. Honest John lists the real world mpg of the 1.0 ecoboost in the mid 40's which is exactly the same as naturally aspirated 4 banger 1.6. It's listed as mid 60's according to official stats.

Sure it will do high MPG in a set circumstance. Eg for validation tests but you have to constantly be on boost to go anywhere it quickly goes down.

Can you give me an example of an NA 4 banger 1.6 that does mid 40s mpg and is not ancient and well spec'd? I have a 2003 Focus 1.6 NA (I guess this qualifies as ancient) and it very much does NOT get mid 40s lol. Maybe into the 30s on a good day but it is ancient and burns oil.

I think mid 40s real world combined is pretty good, but yes the book figure of 60+ combined is a tad optimistic. I've heard of people not being able to get below 30mpg in the ecoboosts even when thrashing it. Not sure how true that is. I genuinely am all ears for anything out there that is a real competitor to the ecoboost engines whilst still being as cheap to insure and tax, about as fast and as good economy. The other upside of the Ford cars is that you can easily pick up Titanium spec ones which are well spec'd for a small non premium brand hatchback. i.e. Even on the 2013 Titaniums you get DAB radio, LED daylight running lights, cruise, parking sensors on some, rear tinted privacy glass, bluetooth/sync. The Titanium X even comes with front heated leather seats. The 99bhp ecoboosts also map to about 145bhp (same as the 125 map to anyway) which give them even better pick up if you are that way inclined. I'm sure the wet belts love that.

The alternative rivals I have looked at don't generally come as well spec'd (excluding Audi/BMW). I think some of the 208 top spec ones are pretty good, but then you have the same problem with their 1.2ltr puretech engine.

 

[jaybee]

My 1.6 2003 Focus averaged 40mpg over 25,000 miles lol.

https://www.fuelly.com/car/ford/focus/2003/janesyb/77606

Discussing 2003 Focus's...don't think we fit in here mate lol
*Looks down the motors threads list at the types of cars typically discussed

 

[jaybee]

So far just a few small things I've needed to get fixed but these small things are beginning to become more frequent. Just noticed the horn has stopped working and the fuse appears ok

Losing the horn can happen with age.

 

[jaybee]

Wife got a quote for her fiesta's cambelt which needs doing next year when she had a service and MOT yesterday, came out at just over £500 from a Lookers Ford dealer.

Do you not think that was someone just looking it up on the system wrongly and/or not really understanding the extra work involved?

 

[jaybee]

Any recent experiences to feed into this thread? I have a family member that is upgrading soon and their ecoboost focus will come up for sale in the new year probably for very cheap. It's mint etc, but aware that this work might need doing soon.

 

[jaybee]

I read that from around 2017/2018 ish onwards, Ford quietly updated the 1ltr ecoboost engines to have a chain for the timing belt. Apparently they still have a wet belt for the oil pick up though. Not sure if this is true. Saw it on reddit.

 

[jaybee]

Just had the wifes car done, 54k miles, 10 years old, we've had the car from new.
Local garage, 12hrs labour ~£1250 all in.

Family member wants to pass their 2014 Focus 1.0 ecoboost onto my son for cheap, and it will have done about 70k miles. It's been very well maintained but, awkwardly, I wonder if the family member actually knows about this high cost. I think they would feel really bad passing it on knowing it would need £1250 doing straight away. I am going to have to mention it I think. A shame that the price hasn't come down more by now. I suppose the first ones needing it are only just starting to prop up still. Perhaps we will start to see the market flooded with them with just shy of 100k on them, or 9 years old.

EDIT: It's 150k miles I forgot, so realistically it's always going to be 10 years that comes first for most.

 

[jaybee]

What's involved in just removing the oil strainer and cleaning it out? Is that just removing the sump? So possible to do as part of each oil change say... I'm sure there's more to it but just was wondering if it was feasible to do as a maintenance item.

 

[jaybee]

Official Recall (America) for the 1.0 Ecoboost that identifies the actual cause of the failing belts as tensioner failure:

Ford's Self-Clogging 1.0-Liter EcoBoost Engine Is Finally Getting Recalled

139,000 Ford EcoSport and Focus vehicles have been recalled for engine failures due to faulty oil systems, which will be fixed for free.

www.thedrive.com

Interestingly it only calls out "The problem is found in the 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine used in model year 2016-2018 Focus hatchbacks and 2017-2022 EcoSport SUVs."

Despite that many people have had issues with models prior to 2016. Also that's the US so I wonder which Euro models might be affected. The plot thickens.