18 minutes ago, Hackney said:

Why do you say that?

As above, the belt was supposed to last the life of the engine. It never originally had a service interval. That was introduced later as engines started aging and they realised it wasn’t going to last as planned. 

1 minute ago, alexp999 said:

As above, it was supposed to last the life of the engine. It never originally had a service interval. That was introduced later as engines started aging and they realised it wasn’t going to last as planned. 

As far as I am aware, it has always been a serviceable item.240,000km or 10years.There are still quite a few getting around with no failures & well over the 100,000 mark.Luck of the draw?

11 minutes ago, Hackney said:

As far as I am aware, it has always been a serviceable item.240,000km or 10years.There are still quite a few getting around with no failures & well over the 100,000 mark.Luck of the draw?

Not from my understanding. When the engine launched it was for the life of the engine. No service interval. That’s why it’s so hard to change as it was never designed to be changed. 

I find it somewhat amusing the 'statement that the belt was intended to last the lifetime of the engine'.

As I see it, the statement is still very much correct. The wet cam belt does last the lifetime of the engine and when it fails the engine life has ended.

Is what is being implied that it would be fine for the engine to fail and come to the end of its life so long as the problem is not the wet cam belt?

 

 

Everything has a design life. Even a chain will eventually fail. 
 

But if Ford design an engine for let’s say 200k miles before it’s no longer useful that is the intended life of the engine, and how long the components which don’t have intervals are intended last. 
 

 

42 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

. When the engine launched it was for the life of the engine. No service interval.

Yes, I'm sure that was the case when the 1.0 ecoboost was first launched (it's a good while ago now).

It's very hard to find any proof now though, as if someone had gone back and destroyed the evidence of what was said then. Reminds me of Winston Smith in "1984" whose job at the Ministry of Truth was to go back and alter things to make sure the records tallied with what was being said now!😃

56 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Reminds me of Winston Smith in "1984" whose job at the Ministry of Truth was to go back and alter things to make sure the records tallied with what was being said now!

Presumably his grandson Justin Trudeau in "2023" is still trying to do the same job 🤣

Challenge accepted. 😄

Well that didn’t take long. Second page:

 

Automotive Design Europe Feature.pdf

 

Some quotes, for TL;DR

…with a timing belt, running in oil, with the durability to last the life of the engine.…

The Ford powertrain development manager, Andrew Fraser told Automotive Design, “We think it’s the best of both worlds: the longevity of a chain, but with the quietness and low friction of a belt!
 

Just noticed the sub heading 🤣

The days of changing timing belts are over.
 

 

13 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

Well that didn’t take long. Second page:

Quick! Get back and alter it before someone else spots that it conflicts with today's "truth"!😃

That’s why I attached it instead of linking it. Lol. Also got it saved should it need reuploading

And I guess it should now be changed to:

We think it’s the worst of both worlds: the difficulty of replacing a chain, but with the shorter lifetime of a belt!

When I Google Ecoboost failures, all I can find are references to:

 

The EcoBoost engine features only direct fuel injection with no fuel to naturally clean leading to a build up of carbon on the intake valve stems, which restricts airflow.

High-mileage EcoBoost engines also can suffer from fuel pressure problems. Low pressure produced by the fuel injector pump restricts the engine, hampering its performance. This can often be resolved by simply replacing the fuel pump.

The most significant and notorious issue with EcoBost engines is related to overheating. Early Ford models fitted with EcoBoost engines had coolant pipes made of nylon, which were to prone to failing at high temperatures.

 

No mention of belt failures  - exactly how many belts have failed over the last 10 years and how many of them were due to lack of proper servicing?

Ecoboost is a generic term for a range of ford engines. Carbon build up is known to affect the 2.7 v6 , so taking Google info at face value is not a good idea unless your more specific with which ecoboost. Even then there's still a lot of nonsense from keyboard warriors who read headlines without investigating first. 

4 minutes ago, iantt said:

Ecoboost is a generic term for a range of ford engines.

Yes, I've seen a lot of US stuff which, on investigation, refers to the 4 cylinder ecoboost (1.6 and 1.5) though timing belt does get mentioned in those too.

It looks as if someone has made a FoE request to the DVSA  about the 1.0 specifically and it seems they don't know either:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ford_focus_10_ecoboost_engine_ca

1 hour ago, iantt said:

Ecoboost is a generic term for a range of ford engines. Carbon build up is known to affect the 2.7 v6 , so taking Google info at face value is not a good idea unless your more specific with which ecoboost. Even then there's still a lot of nonsense from keyboard warriors who read headlines without investigating first. 

But as this is a Fiesta forum I'm talking about the 1lt and more specifically where are all the claims of belt failure, how many per 100,00 have failed?

Well, the DVSA apparently don't know. I guess it's not necessarily a safety issue (other than the risk of cardiac arrest when owners get the bill for a new engine).  I doubt Ford will tell us either - what we need is a whistleblower.

No-one will know.  DVSA won't have any idea at all.  Ford will only know about the ones that they've repaired.  AA/RAC may keep records of the number they've recovered.

I have no idea how many it is per 100k, but you only have to look at the numbers of threads on here, as well as other forums, and Facebook, to see how many it's happening to.  Even if it's a small percentage, the actual numbers are visibly higher than any other major engine failure I can think of within recent years.

On 4/17/2023 at 9:35 AM, TomsFocus said:

Have you checked to make sure you still have the 'old' type engine?  We've seen a few chain driven engines sneak into the Mk8 Fiesta's earlier than previously thought.

As the car is used for driving lessons, I'm going to assume it's gets driven long distances every day - so the oil will be getting nice and hot, burning off any moisture that would otherwise contribute to wetbelt degradation.  In this case, I wouldn't suggest replacement is necessary at 60k, I agree with Unofix's suggestion of around 90k on a vehicle that will manage that long before 10 years.

Yes check your engine, I have a May 2020 registered Fiesta Vignale which has the later chain driven unit. Easy to check. On the Belt driven ecoboost the Silver Turbo heat shield sits directly at the front as you open the bonnet it's there in front of you, the later engine it's reverse to this.

22 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Yes, I'm sure that was the case when the 1.0 ecoboost was first launched (it's a good while ago now).

It's very hard to find any proof now though, as if someone had gone back and destroyed the evidence of what was said then. Reminds me of Winston Smith in "1984" whose job at the Ministry of Truth was to go back and alter things to make sure the records tallied with what was being said now!😃

Watched a video yesterday when the engine was launched, claiming the timing belt was a lifetime part.

On 6/5/2023 at 10:51 AM, Tiexen said:

 

No mention of belt failures  - exactly how many belts have failed over the last 10 years and how many of them were due to lack of proper servicing? 

Interestingly, I am from Bulgaria, and in our Ford Forum we have only one /1/ complaint for wet belt failure for the recent 2-3 years. I am far from thinking it is the only one, but is not as common. It is well known that with proper oil and oil servicing interval we can have some control in preventing premature failure. What we can not control is petrol contaminating oil with predominantly short trips or high pressure fuel pump failure. To my experience  the best way to prevent this issue is: 1/ more close monitoring of low oil pressure warning light. It should go off within a second on cold start. Any delay or flickering suggests oil pomp strainer is  blocked. 2/ At around 7-8 years of age or 100 K km dropping of the sump and inspection of the belts condition and oil pump strainer. If the strainer is clear you can safely run the car for another 2 years.

 

Thought I'd post here instead of starting a new thread.

My car is a 2018 1 litre Ecoboost.  I have 72,000 miles now and just had the car fully serviced.  I was speaking with my independent mechanic about the wet belt and he said I should look at doing it at the next service for peace of mind.  That will be in December as I change the oil every 6 months or 6,000 miles - whichever is sooner.

I have a few questions - when I am getting this done, am I just getting the wet belt changed?  Is there anything else I should get done while the engine is out?  Also, I presume buying the wet belt replacement from Ford is the best thing to do?

34 minutes ago, Newbie229 said:

Thought I'd post here instead of starting a new thread.

My car is a 2018 1 litre Ecoboost.  I have 72,000 miles now and just had the car fully serviced.  I was speaking with my independent mechanic about the wet belt and he said I should look at doing it at the next service for peace of mind.  That will be in December as I change the oil every 6 months or 6,000 miles - whichever is sooner.

I have a few questions - when I am getting this done, am I just getting the wet belt changed?  Is there anything else I should get done while the engine is out?  Also, I presume buying the wet belt replacement from Ford is the best thing to do?

You should consider also replacing the water pump, oil pump wet belt, several gaskets. I think your mechanic should inform you. However you can buy OEM Ford parts from other sellers at much better prices. Here is an example TIMING BELT WITH WATER PUMP 1.0 EB ECOSPORT FOCUS _ 2210970 _ E3BJ-8B596-AA | MOTORCRAFT WATER PUMP TIMING KITS | Ford Original Parts .

One more thing, it is a good idea to ask your mechanic first to inspect the both belts condition by removing the sump. This is a fairly simple procedure witch will take few hours and then to decide when to get the belts replaced. Sorry for my English! Obviously not native.

Thank you for the reply.

I'll buy everything you mentioned there.  Is it worth replacing the ignition coils also, or is this not needed?

If they work fine - no. Take a look at the spark plugs, they should be replaced every 60 000 km.