Hi there,

I own a Ford Focus 2016 1.5 EcoBoost with around 70000 miles, and I would like to ask for a few tips related to the coolant issue that intrudes into the cylinder.

How can I keep an eye on the coolant issue?

How can I mitigate the coolant issue?

What are the clear signs that this issue has already started to appear?

 

 

Keep an eye on the coolant level.

If it uses coolant, that's your sign.

Afaik, the advice is to let the engine warm up properly before pushing it (as you should on any car really, but more so on here to avoid uneven warm up of the engine).

And avoid remaps, it seems to be uneven warm up combined with high cylinder pressures that does it.

There is another and much more common reason for coolant level dropping.

The header tanks suffer from hairline cracks at the underside of it. Tell tell signs are water marks on the bodywork below the header tank.

2 hours ago, alexp999 said:

Keep an eye on the coolant level.

If it uses coolant, that's your sign.

Afaik, the advice is to let the engine warm up properly before pushing it (as you should on any car really, but more so on here to avoid uneven warm up of the engine).

And avoid remaps, it seems to be uneven warm up combined with high cylinder pressures that does it.

Yes, I will keep an eye on the coolant level. 

Yes, I'll take this into consideration as well. I believe pushing it means no more than 2500 rpm until the engine reaches a 90-degree temperature.

Yes, the 150 HP are more than enough for me. 🙂

1 hour ago, tazzman600 said:

There is another and much more common reason for coolant level dropping.

The header tanks suffer from hairline cracks at the underside of it. Tell tell signs are water marks on the bodywork below the header tank.

Indeed, the coolant level dropping may come from elsewhere. Still, I will keep an eye on the coolant level. If resuming only the gasket issue, I think it depends on how severe the gasket issue is, and I expect the coolant level drop to be more and more significant over time (in case the gasket issue appears). Feel free to correct me if my expectations are wrong (I would appreciate it very much).

I've understood from small talks that Ford corrected this issue with a new block for the 1.5 EcoBoost (4 cylinders in line, not the 3 cylinders), which has the code M8DB. Can anybody confirm this? 

Anyway, I've always wondered what the difference is between the M8DA and M8DB engines.

 

Does anyone know what is the difference between M8DA and M8DB engines? 

On 10/24/2023 at 12:14 PM, nmu said:

Does anyone know what is the difference between M8DA and M8DB engines? 

There is none. The trailing two letters in this case the DA and DB indicate the car the engine is fitted too. For example, if it's a Estate which is a DG / Hatchback Which is a DB.

The M8 means it's 150bhp. M9 would be the 182 Map and again these engines are 100% the same internally. 

I found all this out when I had to source a replacement engine for my 1.5 when it blew up and was unable to find an M8DB, so I put a lot of time into finding this information out to source and alternative.

Originally my engine code was a M8DB  (DB=Hatchback, M8=150bhp), I replaced it with a M9DG (DG=Estate, M9=182Bbhp) Of course if you simply swap the M9 (182) engine in to a car with a M8 (150) map it will be running at 150. However I have the factory ford 182 map applied to my car.

I believe the D in the prefix also indicates it's fitted to a Focus, the Kuga would be an M (M9MA for example)

I suspect all the 1.5 inline-4 ecoboost blocks are identical from all the research I did.

This website;
https://mymotorlist.com/engines/ford/m9ma/

Helped me a lot to find out much of this.

12 minutes ago, Speedle said:

There is none.

Not forgetting that the 1.0 engine fitted to a manual gearbox is different to the 1.0 engine fitted to an Automatic gearbox.

37 minutes ago, unofix said:

Not forgetting that the 1.0 engine fitted to a manual gearbox is different to the 1.0 engine fitted to an Automatic gearbox.

I'm only talking 1.5's above, not about the 1.0 chocolate engines, the original post is about 1.5's.

1.0's would be M1 or M2 of which I have no real knowledge of. Although from reading the 1.0 class action lawsuit I did see that there was some internal differences on those.

I should have added, I only looked into Manuals, not Autos when I did my research.

On 10/23/2023 at 11:40 AM, nmu said:

I've understood from small talks that Ford corrected this issue with a new block for the 1.5 EcoBoost (4 cylinders in line, not the 3 cylinders), which has the code M8DB. Can anybody confirm this? 

There's some info on this in the following thread (and the one linked in it):

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/132502-ecoboost-15-engine-failure/

I believe the modification was applied to the Kuga, though not the Focus Mk 3 as the Mk 4 had come out by that time.

D'ya know what? I'm personally getting sick and tired of reading threads about 1.5 ecoboost engine failures. Why? After getting put off getting a 1.0 ecoboost focus I bought a 1.5 ecoboost high miler and yes I got it cheap. And yes I've spent about £2.5k on it. My car is on 120k miles nearly. I'm the 2nd owner and I don't know it's service history apart from what's in the service handbook which reads like numerous different garages. 

Yes I was worried about water seepage into the engine but I found seepage under the header tank. 

My car blows out a 'smoke ' in cold weather. 

But my car at 140bhp belies its power. I'm very and pleasantly surprised how my car goes when I put my foot down. 

I've said it before and in other forums. If a car has been looked after from new it'll keep on going for many many years later.

On forums there are far too many 'experts '. Unfortunately those so called experts are trolls who know eff all about cars. 

OMG yes cars have issues from new but for crying out loud those issues are not so gowd daym common.

Just look at how many cars of a particular model are actually on the road.

And yes I've had a few Southern Comfort and ginger ale (asda version which in my opinion is far better) But my head is as clear as a toll of the bell.

I'm sick to the back teeth of interest trolls. They're effing everywhere. In genuine forums bringing doom and gloom.

Yes folk have issues with their cars. Unfortunately buying used holds a myriad of issues. Buying New however is a genuine different ball game and the Manufacturer Has Full Responsibility.

Here endeth my sermon. Ahmem. 

I bought an Oct '19 Galaxy with (supposedly) the modified 1.5 ecoboost engine with only 14k on the clock. On the 3rd visit back to the garage now (with coolant intrusion and probably head gasket / engine gone) at 20k miles. Researching the history shows a history of cracked plugs and engine misfires. Seems Ford haven't fixed the coolant issue - or perhaps they used up a stock of older engines???