I've reached 151,000 miles in my 2013 ford fiesta ecoboost, i've had it serviced religiously but now need to look to get the cam belt changed. I've read it's an involved, long job and have been quoted £1100 by ford. I'm trying to weigh up whether it's worth it, or whether to start looking for a new car. I've chatted to the mechanic who's serviced it over the 8 years i've had the car and he says, once done, it might do another 100,000 miles with only wear and tear costs (break pads, possible clutch etc).

Has anyone bitten the bullet and had it changed? Was it worth it for you? Did anything else go wrong? My mileage has come right down so i've gone from 100 miles a day 5 days a week to 60miles a day 3x a week....

Thanks in advance, Dan

My daughter got the local garage to change cam belt on her Fiesta when it reached 100,000 miles. They did it for around the £500 price. Sad thing was that only a month later the head gasket went !!

So in my opinion I would say its time to look at changing vehicles. It might be your last chance before the goverment bans the sale of any car with a real engine

9 minutes ago, unofix said:

My daughter got the local garage to change cam belt on her Fiesta when it reached 100,000 miles. They did it for around the £500 price. Sad thing was that only a month later the head gasket went !!

So in my opinion I would say its time to look at changing vehicles. It might be your last chance before the goverment bans the sale of any car with a real engine

Ah yes, that's my fear - i'll go to the expense only for something else to go kuput...thanks for your advice. 

Hi, someone on the Fiesta forum might be able to assist?

Replacing the wetbelts on a 1.0 ECOboost engine is a pretty labour intensive job. Especially on a smaller car like the Fiesta with limited working space. £1100 may seem a lot of money but is fully justified by the major amount of work and the large amount of (expensive) special tools that are required to perform this job.

If the car still suits you and is in good technical condition I do not see any reason to not change the wetbelts. If you do decide to sell the car you have to take into account that the fact that the wetbelts are due to be changed will seriously affect the value of the car.

There is always the fingers crossed approch. Due to the mileage and the fact the wetbelts are in need of change the value of your car is probably about £2800 to £3000.

Now you have to consider spending about £1000 on getting the belts changed, with no guarantee that something else major won't fail in a couple of months.

You could just leave things as they are, as you say the mileage you do now is very little so the car could last another 12 months by which time you could part-ex it and get about £1600 plus you would still have the £1000 that you didn't spend on getting the belts changed. Just a thought?

Thank you all so much, i'll probably go for the cam belt change as I'm happy with the car, kept up to date with servicing and I'm not quite ready to let it go yet. Thank you again for all of your advice. 

On 4/4/2021 at 4:03 PM, unofix said:

You could just leave things as they are, as you say the mileage you do now is very little so the car could last another 12 months by which time you could part-ex it and get about £1600 plus you would still have the £1000 that you didn't spend on getting the belts changed. Just a thought?

Or the belt could snap/the tensioner could fail and car will be worth scrap value with a trashed engine.

On 4/1/2021 at 9:21 PM, D Wilson said:

I've reached 151,000 miles in my 2013 ford fiesta ecoboost, i've had it serviced religiously but now need to look to get the cam belt changed. I've read it's an involved, long job and have been quoted £1100 by ford. I'm trying to weigh up whether it's worth it, or whether to start looking for a new car. I've chatted to the mechanic who's serviced it over the 8 years i've had the car and he says, once done, it might do another 100,000 miles with only wear and tear costs (break pads, possible clutch etc).

Has anyone bitten the bullet and had it changed? Was it worth it for you? Did anything else go wrong? My mileage has come right down so i've gone from 100 miles a day 5 days a week to 60miles a day 3x a week....

Thanks in advance, Dan

Hi Dan

Did you have this belt replaced ? 

5 hours ago, Seanreki said:

Hi Dan

Did you have this belt replaced ? 

You're in for a long wait if you expect a reply from Dan who last visited the forum 5th April 2021

On 9/13/2022 at 5:18 AM, Seanreki said:

Hi Dan

Did you have this belt replaced ? 

Hi, i did yes. The garage replaced the belt, found that the starter engine needed to be replaced at the same time so did both. Car has been running well for over a year and a half now and 2 other services later...

Can anybody on this forum recommend somewhere that I can have my wetbelt changed on my fiesta ecoboost 2013 please

Hertfordshire or home counties?

 

Noticed this the other day when looking for a price for a belt and pump change for the other half’s Mk8 1.0L. Anyone know anyone who’s tried it, seems quite cheap although I know this company is supposed to be good for performance parts. 
 

£750ish for a cam belt and water pump inc fitting: https://pumaspeed.co.uk/product-Genuine-Ford-OE-Water-Pump-and-Cam-Belt-Kit-10-EcoBoost_21244.jsp

I'd snap their hand of. Puma Speed have been going a good number of years so I personally wouldn't worry about any work they do.

50 minutes ago, Buxty said:

Noticed this the other day when looking for a price for a belt and pump change for the other half’s Mk8 1.0L. Anyone know anyone who’s tried it, seems quite cheap although I know this company is supposed to be good for performance parts. 
 

£750ish for a cam belt and water pump inc fitting: https://pumaspeed.co.uk/product-Genuine-Ford-OE-Water-Pump-and-Cam-Belt-Kit-10-EcoBoost_21244.jsp

No oil pump belt there. 

4.5 hours also suggests no sump off for oil pump clean.  Might be worth checking that.  If the old belt is already degrading, there will be bits of it in the pump strainer.

I have a Ford focus titanium x 2014 with 31500 miles but because it is a 64 plate it is coming up for 10 years old and was due an mot also. 

I took it to my local garage who replaced the timing belt and oil pump belt, the shim behind the flywheel, the water pump and the rocker cover (cost £250) for the genuine one from ford and changed the oil and filter and also removed and cleaned the sump and oil pump (they showed me all the parts they removed and replaced and mechanic said it was the cleanest one he had seen) and mot as well cost £1300 and we'll worth it as ford were quoting £2500 to do the work. 

Car is now running great again and I feel like I have a new car as it is still in immaculate condition

They also recommended an oil and filter change every 9000 miles to keep it in good condition and to always use the correct oil

. 

 

6 hours ago, Megabyter said:

They also recommended an oil and filter change every 9000 miles to keep it in good condition and to always use the correct oil

......and now a word from our sponsor

I changed the wet belts on my 2013, 61k miles Fiesta a couple of months ago. Both belts were found to be visually in good condition and the oil pickup was perfectly clear so all good. Car has done 1k miles since and is running great.

Great to hear

My BMax is ten years old this year, and has done 72k miles. Have been very lucky with it as only ever had clean MOTs. 

1) Am I right it thinking age more than miles contributes to degradation?

2) AM I playing wetbelt roulette now in a silly way?

3) If I get it changed, what other jobs ought to be done at same time or there's no point? eg oil belt etc

Mine wasn't due for another 40 k miles,but better safe than sorry,plus water pump

1 hour ago, KatieBMAX said:

2) AM I playing wetbelt roulette now in a silly way?

It's due at 10 years. Check out the cost of new engines.

1 hour ago, KatieBMAX said:

3) If I get it changed, what other jobs ought to be done at same time or there's no point? eg oil belt etc

Oil pump belt, oil pump strainer should be examined and cleared of debris, or if seriously blocked, oil pump replaced.

Hi Katie and welcome to the forum. 

Have you had your car from new? Have you had it religiously serviced, that it really regular oil service?

Your car being 10yrs old and done 72k miles and you've had no issues speaks volumes to me. I'm no expert but I've read till I'm blue in the face horror stories about the 1.0 ecoboost. Funny how one Never reads a story like yours.

Ask yourself these questions. I've had the car X amount of years and it's done me good, is it worth spending £2k on it and still look after it like I do and keep it a good number of years? Should I just part ex it for another car who's history I've no idea about and have it break down on me in 6 months? 

I've a 1.5 ecoboost focus. Bought it effing cheap. No history except One owner from new. Spent £2k on it and I'm still in pocket. Just spent another £1.2k on a full service and a full 4 piece clutch. My car is 2015. It's a keeper. Why? Coz I know I'll get another 123k miles out of it. 

Don't let guys on here scare you about your car. Only a couple speak truly. The others jump on the band wagon. Fact. 

Just think of the economics of your cars ownership. Spend £2k at absolute most or spend a few hundred a month for 4 years on a newer car. How much do you love your car. If it's under 70% then get rid. If more then you know what to do.

12 hours ago, tazzman600 said:

Funny how one Never reads a story like yours.

To be fair, quite a few members have posted about their good long term experience - I have a couple of friends in that position and have posted about it elsewhere on here.

It's true, though, that the typical post is either from someone who has already had a disaster or has recently bought a car and then been told of the "ecoboom" issue. It's a shame that more people don't do more research before they buy.

I don't recall seeing many issues from people who have owned their cars from new, and have had them scrupulously maintained - the typical picture is a car bought used where it's difficult to 100% verify the service history.

I was having a conversation with one of my Ecoboost owning friends only the other day. His wife's Fiesta is now 9 years old, has been owned from new, and correctly maintained and serviced and is in good general condition.

He's basically got 3 choices:

a) Play "cambelt roulette" and see how long it lasts (not recommended, obviously!)

b) Get the belt and any other work done and keep the car several more years

c) Sell the car "as is" and be prepared to take a price reduction on account of the cambelt change being due.

I recommended getting the work done and keeping the car, making similar points to yours:

- it's in good condition otherwise and is a known quantity

- swapping for a newer used car could simply buy someone else's problems

- swapping for a new car (even if they could find a reasonably priced equivalent) would still be very expensive given how prices have rocketed in the last few years.

19 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I was having a conversation with one of my Ecoboost owning friends only the other day. His wife's Fiesta is now 9 years old, has been owned from new, and correctly maintained and serviced and is in good general condition.

I concur with everything Eric has said except the mention of the 9 year old vehicle. The problem is, one doesn't know until it's too late. The pump strainer could finally block tomorrow with no warning to most motorists, as it did with my daughters example.