This is my first post on this forum and a lot of you will probably be offended by what I have to say. The POS is a 1996 Escort zetec 1.6 estate aka 'puff the tragic wagon'

I bought this car for my wife 3 years ago. It had 125000km(78000 miles) on the clock. At 131000km(81417 miles) one of the idler pulleys collapsed and suprise! bent all the valves. so after replacing the valves and both idler pulleys as well as the cam belt tensioner at great cost because things like this are expensive in South Africa I felt that it would be ok for a while. Well with all the other problems this peice of !Removed! has given me why the hell would I expect it not to do this again before the next cam belt change. 3 days ago my wife calls me and tells me that the heap of dog poo wont start. When i got around to having a look at it today I see it is a few teeth out. Line everything up again turn the motor by hand to make sure that nothing is catching etc. Then I spin the motor. It's making a popping noise. I suspect the valves are already bent. Check the timing, all is well. Might be 180 degrees out. Checked but same result. Do a compression test on all the cylinders. no compression = bent valves.It is now on 164000km(101926 miles) So once again I am in for a expensive repair bill. I hate this car, it has been an unreliable nightmare. Worst part is it will be a battle to sell as they are not popular here. How can anyone be fanatical about such a loser of a car. I even asked Ford SA for an apology for launching such a heap of cr@p but they wont even give me that.

Thanks for listening and if you are offended by my post and that I think the Zetec Escort is possibly the worst feat of modern engineering then I am sorry but that is life. To the morons in fords employ who designed the Escort and the Zetec, i hope your balls rot off.

That is all

This is my first post on this forum and a lot of you will probably be offended by what I have to say. The POS is a 1996 Escort zetec 1.6 estate aka 'puff the tragic wagon'

I bought this car for my wife 3 years ago. It had 125000km(78000 miles) on the clock. At 131000km(81417 miles) one of the idler pulleys collapsed and suprise! bent all the valves. so after replacing the valves and both idler pulleys as well as the cam belt tensioner at great cost because things like this are expensive in South Africa I felt that it would be ok for a while. Well with all the other problems this peice of !Removed! has given me why the hell would I expect it not to do this again before the next cam belt change. 3 days ago my wife calls me and tells me that the heap of dog poo wont start. When i got around to having a look at it today I see it is a few teeth out. Line everything up again turn the motor by hand to make sure that nothing is catching etc. Then I spin the motor. It's making a popping noise. I suspect the valves are already bent. Check the timing, all is well. Might be 180 degrees out. Checked but same result. Do a compression test on all the cylinders. no compression = bent valves.It is now on 164000km(101926 miles) So once again I am in for a expensive repair bill. I hate this car, it has been an unreliable nightmare. Worst part is it will be a battle to sell as they are not popular here. How can anyone be fanatical about such a loser of a car. I even asked Ford SA for an apology for launching such a heap of cr@p but they wont even give me that.

Thanks for listening and if you are offended by my post and that I think the Zetec Escort is possibly the worst feat of modern engineering then I am sorry but that is life. To the morons in fords employ who designed the Escort and the Zetec, i hope your balls rot off.

That is all

i suspect there are plenty of happy motorists out there who used to or may even still own one of these, sounds like you just have the bad apple. just because you say your escort is a POS doesnt mean to say they are all the same.

Im sure you are pretty annoyed that the car is costing you a fortune but thats life!

hello mate

With those zetec engines, you either get a gooden or a bad one!

ive known many people that have had Zetecs, that just dont die, and they really beat the !Removed! out of them but they just keep on going.

But i once owned a MK2 Ford Mondeo with the 2L Zetec, It was immaculate and only summat like 80,000 on the clock. After driving it around for about a month i was starting to hear a horrible nocking noise from the engine. So i had my mate hav a look. It turned out that one of the valves was on its way out. Seeing as i only payed a few hundred quid for the car i didnt bother paying all the money to get it repaired, i just kept driving it. after a few more weeks, another valve went, then another then another. I just did not see how a car with full service history and baby'd by me could hav the valve just go like that.

So personally that experience has put me off a bit about those engines. But tbh i just think that i was an unlucky one.

Good luck

As said, you either get a good one or a bad one.

I have the 1.8 16v zetec engine in my escort, and never had a problem with it. Apart from the idle control valve playing up.