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1.6 diesel, Worried over choice of engine.


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Hi all,

I have just bought a 2013 MK3 1.6 diesel (113) Focus Zetec. 29k miles with full Ford service history (3 stamps).

I am a little worried because the more I read about these engines the more problems I come across. Are these really that bad? I have come across turbo failures due to oil starvation and leaking injectors.
Although it’s lovely to drive, sounds nice, and very economical I’m not really enjoying it due to the fact that I keep thinking that I made the wrong choice in choosing this diesel engine L.

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I've been thinking the same since buying mine back in sept 2014...  I drive hard though but only when it's warm and change oil at 6k. 

Just done a major service at 8 years and 64k and amazingly the turbo still doesn't have any play and the injector seals aren't blowing yet...

I did have many DPF and EGR issues but they are no longer an issue. 😉

I know it's a ticking time bomb and will eventually break...but for now at least it still seems to be OK..

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ah , buyers remorse after the purchase......

only a time machine can put that right    ;-)

what can anyone on the internet advise other than keep the car with a cautious eye or sell it on now if you dont feel comfortable with it ?

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I had no time to do research and after owning a mk3 Mondeo TDCI for 12 years with only oil and filters changes for the first 120K miles with problems only started after all that time I thought I’ll get another TDCI this time a Focus as no longer need such a big car. Thinking it’s a good choice.

Mondeo started with injector problems so had to change car quickly.

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Baa, I'm at 90k and its all good, 6k oil changes, EGR and DPF "fixed" the turbo has some small chips on a couple of the blades, clutch and DMF are probably next.

Not sure what the life span of the turbo is, anyone know?

Knowing what I know now id have gone for a 1.8 but I think most of the doom and gloom stories you read on this engine are from mostly older cars and definitely on abused cars

 

 

 

 

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All them replies are from people with a mk2 Focus not Mk3.

There is nothing wrong with the Mk3 focus 1.6tdci engines/turbos. 

Enjoy your car and stop worrying about what if ., !

Had my mk3 1.6tdci remapped to 140bhp, 335NM torque over 3 years ago, not had a single issue with it. 

So enjoy your new motor and be proud of it. 

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As long as it has had regular oil changes, I think you should generally be okay.

They improved the design of the problem areas a bit over the years, but just don't skimp on the oil changes.

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as last 2 posts point out, problems were with older mk2 ,2.5.

mk3 much better now, seem to be quite reliable , only thing to watch out for and keep on top of is fuel filter gets blocked up before the 37.5k replacement interval.

been one or two injector issues either fixed by a software update or failing that renewal. ( but is rare)

normal 12.5k oil changes is sufficient also.

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The Focus MK3 has the newer 8-valve version of the 1.6 TDCI. Compared to the old  (problematic) 16-valve version of the 1.6 TDCI the new 8-valve version is almost completely re-designed which basically makes it a completely different engine. Very few parts remained the same.

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6 hours ago, Dee_82 said:

Baa, I'm at 90k and its all good, 6k oil changes, EGR and DPF "fixed" the turbo has some small chips on a couple of the blades, clutch and DMF are probably next.

Not sure what the life span of the turbo is, anyone know?

Knowing what I know now id have gone for a 1.8 but I think most of the doom and gloom stories you read on this engine are from mostly older cars and definitely on abused cars

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your reply. I think that your car done well compare to what others say! Sounds that the 6K oil changes help a lot.  

 

 

4 hours ago, drsdriver said:

All them replies are from people with a mk2 Focus not Mk3.

There is nothing wrong with the Mk3 focus 1.6tdci engines/turbos. 

Enjoy your car and stop worrying about what if ., !

Had my mk3 1.6tdci remapped to 140bhp, 335NM torque over 3 years ago, not had a single issue with it. 

So enjoy your new motor and be proud of it. 

Thanks for your reply, that very reassuring, I will start enjoying my new motor. It's a fab car!

 

 

4 hours ago, alexp999 said:

As long as it has had regular oil changes, I think you should generally be okay.

They improved the design of the problem areas a bit over the years, but just don't skimp on the oil changes.

I normally do about 11K miles a year, so i'll change the oil and filter every 6 months on this one! It's cheap to do so as I'll do it myself.

 

 

3 hours ago, iantt said:

as last 2 posts point out, problems were with older mk2 ,2.5.

mk3 much better now, seem to be quite reliable , only thing to watch out for and keep on top of is fuel filter gets blocked up before the 37.5k replacement interval.

been one or two injector issues either fixed by a software update or failing that renewal. ( but is rare)

normal 12.5k oil changes is sufficient also.

Thanks for removing the doubts and fears. I am planning to replace fuel filter every 2 years(22 K miles). I also always fill up from Shell and never use supermarket fuel.

 

 

2 hours ago, JW1982 said:

The Focus MK3 has the newer 8-valve version of the 1.6 TDCI. Compared to the old  (problematic) 16-valve version of the 1.6 TDCI the new 8-valve version is almost completely re-designed which basically makes it a completely different engine. Very few parts remained the same.

Thanks to you too JW1982 for reassuring, so is this still a citreon/psa engine or did ford take over this one after all the problems?

 

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Only 3 years old, 30K miles only, serviced by Ford 3 times. Stop worrying and enjoy it.

I just bought one the same as yours and I love it! £20 Tax and average 55mpg!! Just spend the tax savings into an extra oil change a year and it will be fine!!

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19 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

I've been thinking the same since buying mine back in sept 2014...  I drive hard though but only when it's warm and change oil at 6k. 

Just done a major service at 8 years and 64k and amazingly the turbo still doesn't have any play and the injector seals aren't blowing yet...

I did have many DPF and EGR issues but they are no longer an issue. 😉

I know it's a ticking time bomb and will eventually break...but for now at least it still seems to be OK..

If it gives you any reassurance mine is a year older and nearly double the mileage, and running as sweetly as ever (touch wood).  Had one problem with each of the dpf and egr but "sorted" it straightaway and no more.  Done oil changes about every 10k but will be increasing the frequency from now on, There are obviously issues with this engine but I think they are sometimes exaggerated (as in you always hear about what went wrong, but never from those just quietly going about their business without problems). 

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Quote

Thanks to you too JW1982 for reassuring, so is this still a citreon/psa engine or did ford take over this one after all the problems?

The 1.6 TDCI of the Focus MK3 and also the 1.5 TDCI of the Focus MK3.5 are designed and produced as a joint venture of Ford and PSA. The 1.6 TDCI of the Focus MK3 is basically a further developed and improved version of the old 1.6 TDCI that was available on the focus MK2/MK2.5.

The old 16-valve version of the 1.6 TDCI has a number of design faults which causes a number of known problems. However applying a reduced service interval and proper servicing prevents most of this problems. If well taken care for and used correctly this is actually a nice, reliable and fuel economic engine.

On the later 8-valve version of the 1.6 TDCI most of the design faults are solved. in my opinion the 115 HP version of this engine is the most reliable. The 95 and 105 HP version have some additional parts/systems to reduce emissions. For example an additional fuel injector inside the exhaust to inject fuel which is needed during regeneration. This fuel injector can become clogged which prevents the car from regenerating correctly which can result in a defective DPF.

 

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22 hours ago, JW1982 said:

The 1.6 TDCI of the Focus MK3 and also the 1.5 TDCI of the Focus MK3.5 are designed and produced as a joint venture of Ford and PSA. The 1.6 TDCI of the Focus MK3 is basically a further developed and improved version of the old 1.6 TDCI that was available on the focus MK2/MK2.5.

The old 16-valve version of the 1.6 TDCI has a number of design faults which causes a number of known problems. However applying a reduced service interval and proper servicing prevents most of this problems. If well taken care for and used correctly this is actually a nice, reliable and fuel economic engine.

On the later 8-valve version of the 1.6 TDCI most of the design faults are solved. in my opinion the 115 HP version of this engine is the most reliable. The 95 and 105 HP version have some additional parts/systems to reduce emissions. For example an additional fuel injector inside the exhaust to inject fuel which is needed during regeneration. This fuel injector can become clogged which prevents the car from regenerating correctly which can result in a defective DPF.

 

Thanks Wilco for explaining all that! Very informative. Mine is the 115 and I always change the oil and filter every 6 months/6K miles on every car, air filter yearly. I do it myself so it's cheap. I also change the fuel filter every 2 years/22K miles too.

It's a fab car and enjoy driving it now! Cheap to run too.

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I think the only thing I would be concerned about is your low millage and the DPF,

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47 minutes ago, Dee_82 said:

I think the only thing I would be concerned about is your low millage and the DPF,

Darren, I have the same car as Peter and do similar millage (11-12K a year). Why would you be concerned about the DPF? My daily commute is 25 mile each way with half (12miles) on an A road (70mph) and the rest 30mph. I have owned the car 2 weeks so far and never noticed any DPF regen yet, but maybe it's happening when i drive on the A road. Do you know how many times a regen happens?

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So the car normally carries out passive regens, these you wont even know about, when the car gets up to temp and is sustained it burns the soot and turns in in to ash.

your 30mph trip wont do this which leaves you on 12miles of A road if that's unobstructed ie, you don't have to lift off a lot then that's probably just enough to get it up to temp and work its magic. 

If this fails and back pressure starts to increase too much and the car will start to carry out active regens to burn that soot.  You will see a mpg hit when its doing this but again it needs time to do it.

The reason cDPFs are much better is that it heats up much quicker which can reduce the time needed to burn that soot and increase the chance of it completing its job before you ease off again, but it will still require you to reach and maintain a temp for a lengthy period of time,  I think its about 500-600c?

I do about 12000 just on my daily commute, I do about another 5 or so on top of that, normally around 18-19k a year, until I fixed the problem mine was struggling to keep up.  Granted mine was an older EuroIV DPF where as 2013 should be the ceramic ones and do a better job.

My concern would be the type of driving his doing, your probably doing enough, your pulling 11-12k, almost all of which is your daily commute and half of that is at speed for a long duration so you wont likely have any bother (until the DPF fills up with ash!)  but if that was made up of short trips, then you may have a problem

 

 

 

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Thanks for the detailed explanation about our DPF. I think that Peter and myself should give our cars a good run on the motorway at least once a month for 30 mins or so! Good excuse for a family day out!! 

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Its well worth considering, just mind that its about temp, not speed, if you have a 6 speed box then doing 70 in 6th wont get it hot enough, you need somewhere between 2500 and 3000 RPM IIRC

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  • 5 years later...

Drsdriver what year is yours ? 2015 here thinking of A remap🤔

On 5/24/2016 at 4:26 PM, drsdriver said:

All them replies are from people with a mk2 Focus not Mk3.

There is nothing wrong with the Mk3 focus 1.6tdci engines/turbos. 

Enjoy your car and stop worrying about what if ., !

Had my mk3 1.6tdci remapped to 140bhp, 335NM torque over 3 years ago, not had a single issue with it. 

So enjoy your new motor and be proud of it. 

 

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It's nice to see a 5 year old post brought back from the dead. Who knows in another 5 years @Smithy 84 might get a reply :sad:

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  • 1 year later...

I know im a few years late but still relevant to people looking to buy.

So just got my first 64 plate 1.6 TDCI focus 75k and was having second thoughts as it was vibrating a lot when I pulled up at lights and at idle, misses also mentioned it.

Assumed and researched engine mount failure so changed it and the engine oil + filter, now she runs a dream. I also have 62 plate ST 275 mountune but love the pull and feel of this engine diesel. Get a Titanium X navigator and you almost have all the ST gadgets inside and a fun reliable economical car.

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  • 5 months later...

I'm going to see a 62 plate tonight if the other guy doesn't turn up first (according to seller).  So it's 125k on the clock, been a motorway communter for 10 years.  Clutch / Turbo should be OK at this mileage?  Has full service history done at Ford dealers although timing belt hasn't been done yet?  does it need doing?  seller reckons he'll knock £400 off for me to do timing belt. thanks for any input.

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6 minutes ago, Bar72 said:

Has full service history done at Ford dealers although timing belt hasn't been done yet?  does it need doing? 

Yes.

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30 minutes ago, Bar72 said:

does it need doing? 

No need to hurry, the engine is only 11 years old and done 125K miles. It must be one of the lucky build ones as most have exploded by that age and miles.

Seriously if you don't get it done in the next 10 minutes or 10 miles, which ever comes first then you can expect big problems in the very near future.

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