Just bought a Ford Fiesta 1.0 ecoboost (2016).. would appreciate if someone could help answer my q’s please, thanks.

[Blue12304]

Hiii, I recently purchased a Ford Fiesta 1.0 ecoboost (2016) and really wanted to hear some opinions from some people who know about these cars.

Just a few quick questions..

1) Is it true the ecoboost engine breaks after a few months/years use? Should I be worried? I bought from Bristol Street Motors and have a 3 year warranty with them so would it cover it?

2) I’m struggling to really know what gear to use for what speed. In my old car, you could clearly hear the engine making a loud sound and struggling when it was in the wrong gear. But this car is so much more efficient I can’t really hear much noise. Is this accurate? 1st gear 0-15mph 2nd gear 15-30mph 3rd gear 30-40mph 4th gear 40-50mph 5th gear 50-70mph.

3) Finally, when moving around in first gear I can hear a weird noise in my car can’t really describe it… but the car was just fully serviced so is it normal noises?

 

if anyone can answer these questions for me, I would be grateful thank you!

[anon]

1 Did you do any research before buying?Have you read your warranty documents?

2 Is the car fitted with a rev counter and if so, do you know how to use one?

3 Our clairvoyant is pretty good on weird and indescribable noises but is busy due to Halloween. You might ask again on Monday.

[Luke4efc]

22 minutes ago, Blue12304 said:

Is it true the ecoboost engine breaks after a few months/years use? Should I be worried? I bought from Bristol Street Motors and have a 3 year warranty with them so would it cover it?

A few months is a bit extreme lol. As long as you service it on time, and using high quality parts/ the required spec oil, you shouldn't have any issues. Most issues with these engines have been caused by poor servicing. You can get away with it on other cars without causing too many issues, but not on the 1.0L ecoboost.

Your warranty won't cover any engine damage unless you can prove you serviced it correctly.

22 minutes ago, Blue12304 said:

I’m struggling to really know what gear to use for what speed.

Use the rev counter? You don't want to be cruising at more than 2000rpm (unless you've ran out of gears, obviously).

[Blue12304]

10 minutes ago, anon said:

1 Did you do any research before buying?Have you read your warranty documents?

2 Is the car fitted with a rev counter and if so, do you know how to use one?

3 Our clairvoyant is pretty good on weird and indescribable noises but is busy due to Halloween. You might ask again on Monday.

Hi, thanks for your reply. Yes I read the documents but truthfully I do not know if it would cover it. There’s a lot of information and I don’t know all the technical details. I don’t know if it has a rev counter nor do I know what that is, but that sounds interesting and useful.

[isetta]

I have never driven one. I have been reading posts on here for years, two ‘problems’,   The metal coolant pipes on the turbo can rust badly, they can’t be changed separately, it would need new turbo to fix. Ford had been trying to slow down the rust by cleaning them up and painting them when people complained.   Other thing which is major.   oil light comes on so people check the oil level and think that’s ok it must be a sensor fault. It a pressure warning light not a level warning light. So they carry on driving and wreck the engine.  The oil strainer in sump gets bunged up/blocked with what looks like  granules of rubber from what seems to be decaying rubber timing belt which runs in oil. Hence low oil pressure and warning light on. This is a highly tuned complicated engine. On this site people say a new timing belt is about 1100 quid to fit as it’s a major job. So even if you don’t have the blocked oil problem it’s still a large expense when it needs doing at the recommended interval (if you dare to leave it that long).   If you get any coolant leaks the engine may sell destruct before you realise eg going fast on motorway and can’t pull over in a few seconds. I understand it is a brilliant performing engine (although fuel consumption everyone says is much lower than advertised) but it seems to be a highly tuned delicate sensitive engine that can really hurt your pocket if anything bad occurs

[Blue12304]

6 minutes ago, Luke4efc said:

A few months is a bit extreme lol. As long as you service it on time, and using high quality parts/ the required spec oil, you shouldn't have any issues. Most issues with these engines have been caused by poor servicing. You can get away with it on other cars without causing too many issues, but not on the 1.0L ecoboost.

Your warranty won't cover any engine damage unless you can prove you serviced it correctly.

Use the rev counter? You don't want to be cruising at more than 2000rpm (unless you've ran out of gears, obviously).

Thanks for your reply. Okay that’s good to know. I want to make sure I service it correctly and I’m actually due to contact Bristol Street Motors on the actual correct servicing intervals. Also, this rev counter sounds really useful which I had no idea about. So if it’s above the number 2000 that means change gear? 

[isetta]

There are lots of horror stories about it but it’s a very common engine in fiesta and focus so it’s probably still a low percentage overall

[Blue12304]

4 minutes ago, isetta said:

I have never driven one. I have been reading posts on here for years, two ‘problems’,   The metal coolant pipes on the turbo can rust badly, they can’t be changed separately, it would need new turbo to fix. Ford had been trying to slow down the rust by cleaning them up and painting them when people complained.   Other thing which is major.   Oil light comes on so people check the oil level and think that’s ok it must be a sensor fault. It a pressure warning light not a level warning light. So they carry on driving and wreck the engine.  The oil strainer in sump gets bunged up/blocked with what looks like  granules of rubber from what seems to be decaying rubber timing belt which runs in oil. Hence low oil pressure and warning light on. This is a highly tuned complicated engine. On this site people say a new timing belt is about 1100 quid to fit as it’s a major job. So even if you don’t have the blocked oil problem it’s still a large expense when it needs doing at the recommended interval (if you dare to leave it that long).   If you get any coolant leaks the engine may sell destruct before you realise eg going fast on motorway and can’t pull over in a few seconds. I understand it is a brilliant performing engine (although fuel consumption everyone says is much lower than advertised) but it seems to be a highly tuned delicate sensitive engine that can really hurt your pocket if anything bad occurs

Thanks for your reply. Oh wow ironically enough my oil light does come on the dashboard but it disappears when the engine is switched on. I got it checked and it was filled up. So I stopped worrying about it. Should I keep an eye on it then?

 

Those problems sound really scary to the point I dont know if I should cancel my finance plan (it’s only been 1-2 weeks) or is that too extreme?

[Luke4efc]

1 minute ago, Blue12304 said:

and I’m actually due to contact Bristol Street Motors on the actual correct servicing intervals.

You don't need to contact them. It should be in the owners manual.

2 minutes ago, Blue12304 said:

So if it’s above the number 2000 that means change gear?

It doesn't mean that, it's just the ideal number for keeping the best fuel economy. If you put your foot down when the engine speed is too low, you'll bog the engine down as the gearing is wrong. Surely you picked this up when you learnt to drive?

[Blue12304]

3 minutes ago, Luke4efc said:

You don't need to contact them. It should be in the owners manual.

It doesn't mean that, it's just the ideal number for keeping the best fuel economy. If you put your foot down when the engine speed is too low, you'll bog the engine down as the gearing is wrong. Surely you picked this up when you learnt to drive?

Yes I do notice it but honestly I don’t really understand why it does that. I’ve been driving for a year so maybe I should’ve clocked this earlier but I haven’t. Is there a place I can read about this in more detail to help me learn more about it?

[anon]

This is clearly a wind-up. If you are bright enough to post here, you will have read the owner' s handbook.

[pcaouolte]

As a fairly new driver with a new car it might be worth taking some more lessons with a driving instructor. Many instructors offer the Pass Plus course which is designed to be useful to new drivers in the first year after passing their test. You should be able to do this in your own car. It will take about 6 hours and probably cost about £200 but should improve the standard of your driving significantly and the driving instructor will be able to explain when to change gear and how the instruments work in your own vehicle.

[isetta]

Re the oil light. It should be on when the engine is not running. It should go off as soon as the engine is started, maybe a second later. If it ever comes on when engine is running it means there is inadequate oil pressure (the pump is not pushing the oil around the engine well enough to stop damage occurring) . Never keep the engine running if the oil pressure light is on. It means damage is occurring, do not think I am near home I will carry on- damage will occur. Hopefully it will never happen to you , but I’m stressing it as many people do not understand how important this point is.   Oil pressure light on means stop the engine right now. As I said above it’s a low percentage of people have problems so don’t panic and think you bought the wrong car.

[Blue12304]

13 minutes ago, isetta said:

Re the oil light. It should be on when the engine is not running. It should go off as soon as the engine is started, maybe a second later. If it ever comes on when engine is running it means there is inadequate oil pressure (the pump is not pushing the oil around the engine well enough to stop damage occurring) . Never keep the engine running if the oil pressure light is on. It means damage is occurring, do not think I am near home I will carry on- damage will occur. Hopefully it will never happen to you , but I’m stressing it as many people do not understand how important this point is.   Oil pressure light on means stop the engine right now. As I said above it’s a low percentage of people have problems so don’t panic and think you bought the wrong car.

Thanks for your reply. Thanks for all the information you have provided me I appreciate it. I’ll be honest it has put me off the car slightly, for financial reasons to fix these problems, but also now I would be slightly scared to drive this car on the motorway!

I think I have less than a week before the 14 day cooling off period to really think whether this is the car I want. 
 

I do just have one more question if that’s ok. I did honestly want to use this car for the next 7+ years. Is that realistic for the age and mileage (40000)? 

[Blue12304]

27 minutes ago, pcaouolte said:

As a fairly new driver with a new car it might be worth taking some more lessons with a driving instructor. Many instructors offer the Pass Plus course which is designed to be useful to new drivers in the first year after passing their test. You should be able to do this in your own car. It will take about 6 hours and probably cost about £200 but should improve the standard of your driving significantly and the driving instructor will be able to explain when to change gear and how the instruments work in your own vehicle.

Thanks for your post, I appreciate it. Yes this is something that I will consider to help improve my driving, thank you.

[Blue12304]

.

[isetta]

5 minutes ago, Blue12304 said:

Thanks for your reply. Thanks for all the information you have provided me I appreciate it. I’ll be honest it has put me off the car slightly, for financial reasons to fix these problems, but also now I would be slightly scared to drive this car on the motorway!

I think I have less than a week before the 14 day cooling off period to really think whether this is the car I want. 
 

I do just have one more question if that’s ok. I did honestly want to use this car for the next 7+ years. Is that realistic for the age and mileage (40000)? 

After 7 years it will be 12 years old which shouldn’t be a problem but we don’t know how many miles you are going to do each year. I think it sounds a bit rash to back out of the deal using the cooling off period.you are going to have to replace the timing belt before it’s 12 years old . But if you buy a different car that will also need stuff doing at some point. There’s a lot of luck involved in buying a car, you just don’t know what might occur on any car. But I don’t think you should panic

[Blue12304]

2 minutes ago, isetta said:

After 7 years it will be 12 years old which shouldn’t be a problem but we don’t know how many miles you are going to do each year. I think it sounds a bit rash to back out of the deal using the cooling off period.you are going to have to replace the timing belt before it’s 12 years old . But if you buy a different car that will also need stuff doing at some point. There’s a lot of luck involved in buying a car, you just don’t know what might occur on any car. But I don’t think you should panic

Thanks again for your reply. Yeah I understand what you mean. Is there any pointers that you can give me to preserve the life and engine of the car? Like should I service the car every 6 months as opposed to once a year? Should there be anything I should check for 30 seconds once a week? I don’t really know much about cars so anything would be appreciated, thank you.

[williamweb]

You could look at all the short comings of the ecoboost engine usually through lack of maintenance and using the wrong oil, understand them through this forum and turn it into a positive ownership experience👍

[pcaouolte]

These engines are usually fine if they are serviced properly, thousands of them give no trouble at all, we only hear about the small percentage that break. The key is correct servicing using only the oil specified by Ford and never having an engine flush done. It will need a fairly expensive (£1100) cam belt when it is 10 years old but otherwise similar things break on this model as on any other that you might buy.

Will it last 7 more years? No idea. If you only do 8000 miles a year then probably yes. If you do more than that then probably no.

[TomsFocus]

Personally I think 7 years expectancy is a bit much for a 5 year old car.  I've found 9/10 years old is about the time when the most expensive repairs & maintenance are needed across the board.  Id' be looking more towards changing in it's 9th year myself.  If you go to the expense of the cambelt change (and probably a clutch change) you'd have to keep the car for many more years afterwards to make that financially worthwhile.  When I was buying older/cheaper cars, I'd always buy older than 10 years old so that they had a new clutch and cambelt etc paid for by the previous owner!

Unrelated to the car, your posts sound like you're a bit of a worrier in general...I'd honestly suggest that you don't start reading up about all of the potential faults and failures on any car as it'll just make you a more nervous driver.  Things can and do go wrong with every car, but not for the majority of cars, the majority of the time.  Just check the coolant, oil and tyres regularly and forget about anything else.  

[Blue12304]

45 minutes ago, williamweb said:

You could look at all the short comings of the ecoboost engine usually through lack of maintenance and using the wrong oil, understand them through this forum and turn it into a positive ownership experience👍

 

39 minutes ago, pcaouolte said:

These engines are usually fine if they are serviced properly, thousands of them give no trouble at all, we only hear about the small percentage that break. The key is correct servicing using only the oil specified by Ford and never having an engine flush done. It will need a fairly expensive (£1100) cam belt when it is 10 years old but otherwise similar things break on this model as on any other that you might buy.

Will it last 7 more years? No idea. If you only do 8000 miles a year then probably yes. If you do more than that then probably no.

 

36 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Personally I think 7 years expectancy is a bit much for a 5 year old car.  I've found 9/10 years old is about the time when the most expensive repairs & maintenance are needed across the board.  Id' be looking more towards changing in it's 9th year myself.  If you go to the expense of the cambelt change (and probably a clutch change) you'd have to keep the car for many more years afterwards to make that financially worthwhile.  When I was buying older/cheaper cars, I'd always buy older than 10 years old so that they had a new clutch and cambelt etc paid for by the previous owner!

Unrelated to the car, your posts sound like you're a bit of a worrier in general...I'd honestly suggest that you don't start reading up about all of the potential faults and failures on any car as it'll just make you a more nervous driver.  Things can and do go wrong with every car, but not for the majority of cars, the majority of the time.  Just check the coolant, oil and tyres regularly and forget about anything else.  

Thanks for all your replies. Everything you’ve said is right and it’s very true that I am a worrier. But I’m going to stay positive and enjoy my new car, I’m really happy with it and will do everything I can to make sure it’s maintained well.

I would like to ask a few follow up questions if that’s okay though.

This car will be doing around 10,000 mileage annually, mainly via the motorway.

Because I don’t know a lot about cars, my initial plan was to just book a full service and MOT with Halfords once a year and let them take care of everything.

Is that a good idea? Should I do an interim service every 6 months as well?

In terms of using the correct oil, and also not performing an engine flush, would Halfords be aware of this and proceed correctly, or would I need to tell them the oil to use? 

Is Halfords a good choice? Should I check in their description if their full service provide an oil, tire and coolant check? 

Thanks again everyone, and sorry if I’m being a little bit annoying and asking too many questions. I’m just a young driver who wants to make all the right decisions and really do appreciate people’s time into helping me. 🙂

[anon]

Your warranty may have terms regarding who services it. Even if it doesn't, have the servicing done by the dealer. I would normally say don't because it costs a lot more but You get peace of mind and the dealer has no getout if the car should fail under warranty. 

[pcaouolte]

At 10,000 miles a year I would have it serviced once a year by a Ford dealer. See if you can find a small Ford dealer locally, then you won't pay the high labour rates for glass showrooms and marble floors but you will get someone who knows how to service these engines properly.

Don't worry about asking questions, we were all young once (although some of us can only just remember it) and we were all new drivers once.

 

[Bobr]

4 hours ago, Blue12304 said:

1) Is it true the ecoboost engine breaks after a few months/years use? Should I be worried? I bought from Bristol Street Motors and have a 3 year warranty with them so would it cover it?

I've had six Fiestas and I've had them serviced regularly.   I've never had one break down.