A bit of a survey...

 

You own a 9 yr old 1.0 ecoboost 125 Ford Focus with 40,000 on clock. Family run around. FSH. In one year it will be due it's timing belt change, which costs +/- £1,200. Belt is due at 10 yrs or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first.

 

Do you:

 

A. Change the belt.

B. Trade in before its due.

C. Ignore the belt change and carry on, knowing you'll sell within 2-3 years with max. 70,000 on the clock.

 

Answers on a post card..

 

Thanks!

Buy the tools and change it yourself after doing lot's of research

6 minutes ago, cx7117 said:

A bit of a survey...

 

You own a 9 yr old 1.0 ecoboost 125 Ford Focus with 40,000 on clock. Family run around. FSH. In one year it will be due it's timing belt change, which costs +/- £1,200. Belt is due at 10 yrs or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first.

 

Do you:

 

A. Change the belt.

B. Trade in before its due.

C. Ignore the belt change and carry on, knowing you'll sell within 2-3 years with max. 70,000 on the clock.

 

Answers on a post card..

 

Thanks!

 Belt? I believe there are two. Don’t forget the oil pump drive belt.  Quite a major job hence the cost.  Belt failure would wreck the engine and be an uneconomic repair.

10 minutes ago, DaveT70 said:

Buy the tools and change it yourself after doing lot's of research

Not an option. 2 jobs. 2 toddlers. House renovation ongoing. It's A, B or C. Which do you fancy?

7 minutes ago, RL123 said:

 Belt? I believe there are two. Don’t forget the oil pump drive belt.  Quite a major job hence the cost.  Belt failure would wreck the engine and be an uneconomic repair.

Agree on all points. But A,B or C - which are you going for?

@unofix.

You may laugh but it's got to be doable.

Anything that goes in has to come out.

2 minutes ago, cx7117 said:

Not an option. 2 jobs. 2 toddlers. House renovation ongoing. It's A, B or C. Which do you fancy?

A

But myself.

 

1 minute ago, DaveT70 said:

You may laugh but it's got to be doable.

Anything that goes in has to come out.

Oh I'm 100% sure it's doable, but the cost of the tools would make any savings very minimal.

Cheapest option is to find a small independent who will possibly do the job for around £800

'B' got every intention of getting the partner to sell her car on in 2 yrs time at 8 yrs old. Then there's no conversation to be had to the buyer as there's another 2 yrs before due. 

I did pre warn her of the cost to replace and no I wasn't going to do it for her

I was in the same situation 2 Months ago.

Despite being a former mechanic and enough tools and knowledge to perform the job I decided to buy another car for the following reasons.

1. The Focus MK3 did still have great value ( I traded it in for almost €9000,-).
2. After being over 10 Years old the devaluation will increase rapidly.
3. After I had Covid at the end of January I lost a lot of energy. I do simply not have the energy to perform bigger jobs.
 

So I decided that is was time for a change. 

I've got the knowledge and ability to do the job but not got access to the tools to do the job any more. Previous ford  garage I worked at had the tools. 

So I would have to get the tools and do the job on the drive. At 58 my days of groveling on the floor are numbered . 

Thanks all. Great input!

So far we are at 1 (maybe 2) takers for A. Change the belt.

And 2 for B. Trade in before its due.

Anymore for anymore....?

I’m in exactly the same position my car has 29K on yesterday I’m selling today I’m coming on here thinking about asking who’s the best independent in Mcr to do it ! 

B - My daughter was in a similar position a few months back...'63 plate with around 80k on the clock so I advised her to get rid and they now drive a '67 plate Sportage. It just wasn't worth the hassle of getting it done 👍

After doing a bit of research and owning one myself, I have decided that mine is going at 8 years old.

Correct, the tools are way too expensive to do the job yourself.

So I have changed my vote to:

B - get rid

There's also 'D'...the engine suffers catastrophic failure while you're considering what to do.  

Personally, would be B for me though.  Changed plenty of dry belts in the past, but even if I still had the ability, would not be attempting a 1.0EB wetbelt, and I certainly wouldn't trust a backstreet garage to do it properly either.  However, as time goes on, my personal opinion is that traders and car buying services will get wise to that option, and will either refuse to purchase, or values on 9+ year old 1.0's without a belt change will plummet...

7 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

However, as time goes on, my personal opinion is that traders and car buying services will get wise to that option, and will either refuse to purchase, or values on 9+ year old 1.0's without a belt change will plummet...

I'm in option B camp also.

As Tom mentions, still a lot of people who are totally unaware of the potential issues with the  ecoboost, Friends of mine  had two (a 125 Focus (his) and a 100 Fiesta (hers) ) and they didn't have a clue about any of it. That said, both cars were faultless over 6 years and around 50k miles (I'm pretty sure he didn't even have the degas hose recall on the Focus) so they were very happy with them!

If you want to keep the car then option A. If not then B, but as prices are high then you'd need to weigh it up.

My Friend's 2014 Fiesta 1.0 ecoboost is due soon, currently on approx 117,000 miles (covered 32k miles since September 2021) , and he has decided to get it changed as getting replacement car would cost way more. He's a driving instructor.

Option B, provided you can get a sale or trade in value you're happy with.

My personal opinion is that there are too many issues associated with the engine in question to select A. Selecting C could lead to complete engine failure, primarily due to oil starvation or overheating.

I've changed the belts on a car this year* and there's a lot to consider (mechanical knowledge, special tool availability/cost, time).

 

* I chose to do it because of other factors, not relevant to your circumstances.

Thanks all. Great input! Much appreciated. I think I am at B also. Which brings the next survey question!!!...

I need a +/- 5 yr old economic petrol run around to replace it!!! Do I go for:

A. another 1.0 ecoboost (knowing i'll run into the same belt problem when that hits 10 yrs) or

B. Switch to a VAG 1.0 or 1.2 TSI powered Seat/skoda/VW??

56 minutes ago, cx7117 said:

A. another 1.0 ecoboost (knowing i'll run into the same belt problem when that hits 10 yrs) or

B. Switch to a VAG 1.0 or 1.2 TSI powered Seat/skoda/VW??

So you're not thinking of option 'C' ---  Nissan Leaf 🤣

More multiple choice! 

VAG TSI belts are recommended every 4/5 years...though they are much cheaper to replace in fairness.

If you're looking at something Focus sized, the 1.0 TSI isn't really up to the job, and won't be as economical as you'd hope because of that. 

Another Ecoboost? ....... I'll just nip out and buy you a straightjacket 😁

B

Last Year I drove a Skoda Rapid with the 110 HP 1.0 TSI for a few weeks on holiday. 

What a disapointment.  Compared to the 1.0 ECOboost the 1.0 TSI felt gutless, underpowered and noisy. 

30 minutes ago, JW1982 said:

What a disapointment.  Compared to the 1.0 ECOboost the 1.0 TSI felt gutless, underpowered and noisy. 

I test drove a VW Up! GTI with the same engine a couple of years back and that didn't feel very quick either, despite the low weight. We (well I!) was thinking of upgrading my wife's normally aspirated SEAT Mii version but we didn't bother. Oddly I've driven 95 and 110 versions of the 1.0 TSI in SEAT Ibizas which seemed ok. I wonder if the gearing differs on the various models or if some demonstrators are run in better than others?

 

39 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

If you're looking at something Focus sized, the 1.0 TSI isn't really up to the job, and won't be as economical as you'd hope because of that. 

Yes, the 1.5TSI would certainly be a better bet in a Golf/Leon/A3/Octavia etc, imo.