I've got a 2014 1.0 ecoboost with 54k on the clock. Never had any issues at all until recently when it felt a bit sluggish so I took it for an oil and filter change as there seemed to be a bit of grit in the oil.

Since then it's been running fine but the garage made me aware of the wet belt needing to be changed.

I've rang round a few place with quotes from anywhere between £1000 and £1500 (still waiting for main dealer to get back to me with theirs)

My main query is, has anyone had the belt changed and then been hit with a load of other issues. I'm in two minds as to whether to have the belt replaced or chop the car in but with it always running fine and never costing me a penny bar a few tyres, I don't really want to go back to having a car on finance. A local garage told me it's too good to scrap or chop in and to have the belt replaced but recommended I use a main dealer as its a hell of a job and I'd be covered with a better warranty.

Can anyone shed any light on what the better option is here?

I'm guessing by the age of the car and the crap in the oil that it doesn't have long before its going to go so I need to make a decision sharpish

If you have the time I'd recommend you do a search for Ecoboost problems on the Forum and read the many threads. The 1.0L Ecoboost is not one of Fords finest moments. Unless the service requirements are strictly adhered to, using the specified oil and avoiding engine flushes, the wetbelt will degrade and block the oil pump strainer. At that point it's game over.

51 minutes ago, mjt said:

If you have the time I'd recommend you do a search for Ecoboost problems on the Forum and read the many threads. The 1.0L Ecoboost is not one of Fords finest moments. Unless the service requirements are strictly adhered to, using the specified oil and avoiding engine flushes, the wetbelt will degrade and block the oil pump strainer. At that point it's game over.

I've read so much about it that I wished I'd never bought the ***** car now. As I say, aside from needing this belt replacement it's never been an issue in the 6 years I've had it. 

If I were to get the belt replaced, am I likely to run into further issues with other belt related problems or does the replacement literally keep me going for another good few years?

57 minutes ago, Lisa3004 said:

If I were to get the belt replaced, am I likely to run into further issues with other belt related problems or does the replacement literally keep me going for another good few years?

Buy a lottery ticket !!!

You have more chance wining that than ever been sure of anything with an Ecoboom 1.0

I'd clarify that the clogging is something that's going to happen over time, and it's only game over once the oil pump's filter has gotten so clogged up that it can't deliver enough oil to the top of the engine and damage has occurred. I'd expect that the oil pressure warning would be showing by the time the pump is getting so badly clogged, right? So as long as this warning has not cropped up yet, I'd think that it's probably going to be okay.

4 hours ago, Lisa3004 said:

A local garage told me it's too good to scrap or chop in and to have the belt replaced but recommended I use a main dealer as its a hell of a job and I'd be covered with a better warranty

Hmm. I don't know what difference a main dealer's warranty would make. Consumer rights require garages to carry out work with reasonable care and skill, and gives you some power to demand mistakes are put right (e.g. problems resulting from a bolt they forgot to tighten, or something they broke during dismantling due to carelessness). Warranties add to this. Warranties from the parts manufacturers cover the possibility of a new part failing due to a manufacturing defect. What more would a garage warranty offer? I don't recall ever having actually looked at one. And what more would a main dealer offer above that? As you can read about in other threads Ford really don't like to pay out for replacement ecoboost engines, and in the rare case when they do they only pay 50%, which actually turns out to be less than 50% of the total it actually ends up costing you.

1 hour ago, Lisa3004 said:

If I were to get the belt replaced, am I likely to run into further issues with other belt related problems or does the replacement literally keep me going for another good few years?

Belts always need replacing after a certain number of miles/years. These engines, with the belts essentially inside the engine and running through its oil, have a weakness where tiny bits of belt fall off over time which can clog up the oil pump's filter. If you always use the proper oil and avoid oil flush products, you can help minimise or possibly even avoid this from happening. If you also take care to follow the belt change intervals and always have the oil pump filter cleaned out at the same time, you should be fine with respect to the timing belt(s). It's lasted this long on this belt, so you could expect it to last about the same amount of time/miles again on the next if you treat it the same.

6 hours ago, Lisa3004 said:

quotes from anywhere between £1000 and £1500

Yep there's a lot more work involved than for most engines.

There are some things you need to be careful about when getting your quotes. In addition to the timing belt (aka cambelt) you also want the oil pump belt replaced. Do the quotes include this? Are they actually including cleaning or replacing the oil pump and if so which? Note that replacing the pump should be unnecessary and a new one is expensive (~£250 if I recall correctly). Are they including replacing the water pump? Are they intending to use only genuine Ford parts? Parts from other manufactures vary in quality but some actually supply to brands like Ford, and getting them without the Ford branding can save money, though some garages will refuse to use anything other than genuine Ford parts.

I'm kinda interested in offering to do this timing belt job for you. The weather's putting me off the idea a little. I'd do it in my driveway as a DIY type project. It would perhaps take me a few days. I'd use a Dayco kit, do both belts, clean the pump filter, replace the water pump and a few other ancillary pieces as necessary. It'd require around £250 in parts, I'd need to buy about £100 of additional tools. We could perhaps agree upon something a little under £1000 to save you something over a garage. (I know I'm a stranger on the internet, but if it helps, I run an instrument cluster repair service via ebay I've linked to a bunch of times here).

17 hours ago, Lisa3004 said:

I'm in two minds as to whether to have the belt replaced or chop the car in

Chop it in

Hi Lisa. Don't get bamboozled by what you've read. On forums you only read bad news. 

I've spoken to many owners of the 1.0 ecoboost and I mean many. None have said they've had issues except for tyres.

You obviously like your car so by all means get the belt changed aswell as the oil and water pump and auxiliary belt too. Yes it's expensive but you'll have another 55k miles of trouble free motoring.

Google engine specialists in your area. Not a garage but a place that only does engines. You'll get a proper job done at about 75% of the price. 

My advice is to get it to an Ecoboost specialist for a diagnostic and then see what you want to do.

There are two that I'm aware of, Ecopro in Lincoln and North West Engines in Rochdale.

I have a 1.0L Ecoboost on a 14 plate with around 65K miloes on the clock. Never had any problems with it and it gets regularly serviced but I thought I'd get the wet belt done rather than be sorry.

I took mine to North West Engines in Rochdale last May, they did the wet belt, water pump and all the oil seals etc for £850.00 all in, with warranty too.

The car has been absolutely perfect since, no further or additional issues so I'd recommend you go down this route to save shelling out a fortune with Ford.

There's another engine specialist in Rochdale that I got recommended by 6 other local garages who wouldn't touch doing the cambelt on my 1.5 4 pot ecoboost. The place is Walker's Engines. They're doing mine all in for £751. That's for cambelt Aux belt and water pump. Not touching oil pump because as I've stated elsewhere it looks like they're made like brick out houses and they're ruddy expensive.

15 minutes ago, tazzman600 said:

There's another engine specialist in Rochdale that I got recommended by 6 other local garages who wouldn't touch doing the cambelt on my 1.5 4 pot ecoboost. The place is Walker's Engines. They're doing mine all in for £751. That's for cambelt Aux belt and water pump. Not touching oil pump because as I've stated elsewhere it looks like they're made like brick out houses and they're ruddy expensive.

1.5 ecoboost (4 pot) is a normal dry belt though.

51 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

1.5 ecoboost (4 pot) is a normal dry belt though.

£750 sounds very expensive for the 4 pot...I wonder if they think it's the 3 pot 1.0 instead? 🤔

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

£750 sounds very expensive for the 4 pot..

Can't seem to find a price on the Ford website these days without inputting reg or vin, but haven't we seen that sort of price from main dealers recently? 

Can't comment from my own experience - as you know, the only one I've had done recently was the Mrs's SEAT Mii (£300).

2 hours ago, tazzman600 said:

engine specialist in Rochdale that I got recommended by 6 other local garages who wouldn't touch doing the cambelt on my 1.5 4 pot ecoboost. The place is Walker's Engines.

It'll be interesting to hear how you get on - always good to (hopefully) get a recommendation based on a members actual experience.

Back on the topic  - do they do the 1.0 ecoboost? From their site, they look a very competent outfit but seem to specialise more in BMW etc.

On Tom's point - presumably the price compared favourably with others?

 

2 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

£750 sounds very expensive for the 4 pot..

The going rate for that job here in Durham is between £360 and £400 depending on the brand of the parts used.

Two dealers have quoted over £900 just to do the cambelt on my car. An extra 150 to do the aux belt and water pump. Therefore 750 is ruddy cheap. And yes they know its a 4 pot. They used my registration number. 

I will enquire when I go week after next about the 1.0 ecoboost what they'd charge.

Yes they are a BMW specialist but they do all engine types but only engines.

On 10/18/2023 at 11:03 PM, rd457 said:

I'd clarify that the clogging is something that's going to happen over time, and it's only game over once the oil pump's filter has gotten so clogged up that it can't deliver enough oil to the top of the engine and damage has occurred. I'd expect that the oil pressure warning would be showing by the time the pump is getting so badly clogged, right? So as long as this warning has not cropped up yet, I'd think that it's probably going to be okay.

Hmm. I don't know what difference a main dealer's warranty would make. Consumer rights require garages to carry out work with reasonable care and skill, and gives you some power to demand mistakes are put right (e.g. problems resulting from a bolt they forgot to tighten, or something they broke during dismantling due to carelessness). Warranties add to this. Warranties from the parts manufacturers cover the possibility of a new part failing due to a manufacturing defect. What more would a garage warranty offer? I don't recall ever having actually looked at one. And what more would a main dealer offer above that? As you can read about in other threads Ford really don't like to pay out for replacement ecoboost engines, and in the rare case when they do they only pay 50%, which actually turns out to be less than 50% of the total it actually ends up costing you.

Belts always need replacing after a certain number of miles/years. These engines, with the belts essentially inside the engine and running through its oil, have a weakness where tiny bits of belt fall off over time which can clog up the oil pump's filter. If you always use the proper oil and avoid oil flush products, you can help minimise or possibly even avoid this from happening. If you also take care to follow the belt change intervals and always have the oil pump filter cleaned out at the same time, you should be fine with respect to the timing belt(s). It's lasted this long on this belt, so you could expect it to last about the same amount of time/miles again on the next if you treat it the same.

Yep there's a lot more work involved than for most engines.

There are some things you need to be careful about when getting your quotes. In addition to the timing belt (aka cambelt) you also want the oil pump belt replaced. Do the quotes include this? Are they actually including cleaning or replacing the oil pump and if so which? Note that replacing the pump should be unnecessary and a new one is expensive (~£250 if I recall correctly). Are they including replacing the water pump? Are they intending to use only genuine Ford parts? Parts from other manufactures vary in quality but some actually supply to brands like Ford, and getting them without the Ford branding can save money, though some garages will refuse to use anything other than genuine Ford parts.

I'm kinda interested in offering to do this timing belt job for you. The weather's putting me off the idea a little. I'd do it in my driveway as a DIY type project. It would perhaps take me a few days. I'd use a Dayco kit, do both belts, clean the pump filter, replace the water pump and a few other ancillary pieces as necessary. It'd require around £250 in parts, I'd need to buy about £100 of additional tools. We could perhaps agree upon something a little under £1000 to save you something over a garage. (I know I'm a stranger on the internet, but if it helps, I run an instrument cluster repair service via ebay I've linked to a bunch of times here).

Ahhh I hadn't realised this about the oil pump and the belt on this also needing to be done. The quotes I keep being given were all for the timing belt alone. I rang and spoke to my local Ford store and they've got it booked it first thing tomorrow morning for the timing belt and water pump. The guy at Ford actually mentioned the water pump when I called for a quote. I'm surprised he didn't say anything about the oil pump belt.

I think I'm going to cancel the work tomorrow and speak to them again to see how much the oil pump belt would be. I just don't want to have all this work done and miss anything.

I really have weighed up the options of chopping it in but financially I don't want to be tied in to another finance deal and the price of cars has shot up so I'd have to settle for something on par with what I already have. Might as well bite the bullet and just get this one repaired to keep me going another 3-5 years (fingers crossed)

So, just to clarify, I need the timing belt, water pump and oil pump belt replacing? Do I need the entire oil pump replacing too?

7 hours ago, Lisa3004 said:

So, just to clarify, I need the timing belt, water pump and oil pump belt replacing? Do I need the entire oil pump replacing too?

Timing belt (aka cambelt) + water pump + oil pump belt + either cleaning out the oil pump's filter or replacing the whole oil pump.

They might well be intending to replace the oil pump belt without bothering to explicitly speak of it. It's a relatively cheap component, and it takes no effort to swap over if they're already doing the timing belt and taking the sump off to clean/replace the oil pump itself. Definitely worth checking with them that they do plan to do it though. It's a wet belt just like the timing belt and could contribute to blocking up the filter in the exact same way.

Also worth explicitly checking that they intend to either clean the oil pump's filter or replace the oil pump. You don't want them just replacing the belts without having done something about the clogged filter. Cleaning should be sufficient. New oil pumps are expensive and should be unnecessary.

I'd just give them a call to clarify these details of what you're paying for.

7 hours ago, Lisa3004 said:

The quotes I keep being given were all for the timing belt alone.

Most/all quotes given for a timing belt job on an 1.0 ecoboost should implicitly include the extra effort involved in getting at the oil pump to clean or replace it and replace the oil pump belt. I just meant that it's best though to be explicit and make absolutely sure that they are going to do these things, and that you need to factor in such potential differences to comparing the quoted prices. The water pump would not be included without explicit discussion.

3 hours ago, rd457 said:

Most/all quotes given for a timing belt job on an 1.0 ecoboost should implicitly include the extra effort involved in getting at the oil pump to clean or replace it and replace the oil pump belt. I just meant that it's best though to be explicit and make absolutely sure that they are going to do these things, and that you need to factor in such potential differences to comparing the quoted prices. The water pump would not be included without explicit discussion.

You're a star, thank you so much for all your help.

I'll be ringing first thing to see exactly what's included in the agreed price. I have a feeling its literally just the timing belt and the water pump however I obviously need to ensure they do the oil pump belt and clean the pump out at least whilst they're going to all this effort. 

Any ideas if the oil pump belt is likely to add much more to the price?

 

1 hour ago, Lisa3004 said:

Any ideas if the oil pump belt is likely to add much more to the price?

I believe a genuine one direct from Ford is about £30. I would not expect them to add any labour for fitting it since it's literally just a momentary task of slip off and slip on when done during the rest of this work. Again though, they've probably already accounted for doing these things in the price they gave you, you're just making sure, so I wouldn't expect any change in price.

10 hours ago, rd457 said:

I believe a genuine one direct from Ford is about £30. I would not expect them to add any labour for fitting it since it's literally just a momentary task of slip off and slip on when done during the rest of this work. Again though, they've probably already accounted for doing these things in the price they gave you, you're just making sure, so I wouldn't expect any change in price.

So according to Ford, its only the diesels that have the oil pump belt 🤔

After a conversation with a very snotty person at my local Ford store who is adamant there is no oil pump belt on my car (they're only on the diesel ecoboosts according to her) I decided to call another Ford dealer who has confirmed that my car most certainly does have the belt and it does need replacing at the same time. Just awaiting a callback from my local to see their take on it but it looks like I'll be travelling a little further afield to take it somewhere that knows what they're talking about 

19 minutes ago, Lisa3004 said:

After a conversation with a very snotty person at my local Ford store who is adamant there is no oil pump belt on my car (they're only on the diesel ecoboosts according to her) I decided to call another Ford dealer who has confirmed that my car most certainly does have the belt and it does need replacing at the same time. Just awaiting a callback from my local to see their take on it but it looks like I'll be travelling a little further afield to take it somewhere that knows what they're talking about 

You should report that to Ford CRC as wrongful, misleading advise like that could cause a customer to sustain serious damage to their engine

Had my belt changed by an indipendent garage for £1.2k in May this year, done about 2k miles on it since, mix of short and long journeys, no problems. Happy with spending the money considering it hasn't given me any problems in the 5 years I've owned it.

They did try to make up some problems I just said I'd think on it, got it checked by my local trusted indie (who couldn't do the belt) and said no problems. Just need to be careful where you go.

10 minutes ago, mburdett555 said:

Had my belt changed by an indipendent garage for £1.2k in May this year, done about 2k miles on it since, mix of short and long journeys, no problems. Happy with spending the money considering it hasn't given me any problems in the 5 years I've owned it.

They did try to make up some problems I just said I'd think on it, got it checked by my local trusted indie (who couldn't do the belt) and said no problems. Just need to be careful where you go.

Ah that's great to hear. I still keep getting the odd doubt about whether or not to spend the money and have it changed but I think deep down its the better option for me and knowing you've had no problems so far is always good to know

22 minutes ago, DaveT70 said:

You should report that to Ford CRC as wrongful, misleading advise like that could cause a customer to sustain serious damage to their engine

Honestly, her attitude was shocking. She gave it the whole "with all due respect, we are a registered dealership and we know everything about these cars compared to other garages so I'm not going to tell you again.." 

She wasn't quite so chipper when I called back 30 minutes later to cancel the job and told her I'd be having it done at the other Ford dealership 10 minutes down the road.

Never had a problem at this one before but the rudeness from her and lack of knowledge from the guy running the workshop claiming its only the diesel ecoboosts that need the belt has definitely put me off.