My 2019 Focus 1.5d that I bought privately 2 months ago lost power on the motorway yesterday and would not restart. 5 hours later I was recovered home and was told that the cam belt has failed/broke. The vehicle has done 57k and has a full Ford service history all stamped in the book. 

Today the car has gone into my local Ford garage and I have called the customer relations department. 

Been told its going to cost £240 for the diagnostics and fingers crossed the customer relations will pay for the replacement of the engine or whatever actually needs doing or give a goodwill contribution.

Has anybody else been in this situation, need advise please. 

30 minutes ago, shaunb92 said:

Has anybody else been in this situation, need advise please. 

Yes, hundreds of similar cases here on the forum, but you are the first 1.5 diesel Focus Mk4 that I've seen on here. Your engine will be scrap, and no Ford won't replace it for free.

If you are lucky (personally I'd say unlucky) Ford will offer to make a contribution. They will tell you that a new engine plus fitting is between £7000 and £8000. As a good will gesture they will offer to pay half. However they calculate their 'half' at cost price to them, and your 'half' a full retail price. This means they expect you to pay £5400

Out of interest is your car manual or automatic ?

Jesus this is going to financially ruin me, is it possible that there was a recall for this problem if there has been hundreds of cases like this. 

It's a manual 6 speed box.  

1.5 Ecoblue is a dry belt

Probably failure of the tensioner or it's done more mileage than you think, have you checked the service records?

If you bought the car with finance or a credit card I would start a complaint

2 hours ago, shaunb92 said:

Jesus this is going to financially ruin me,

Best case, stick a 2nd hand replacement engine in of the same code, there's plenty about. Make sure you hear it running before removal from the donor and fit a belt before you fit to your vehicle (If Ford won't pay)

Presumably this isn't a common occurrence if it's the first failure of this type heard on this forum ?

Not heard of a (dry belt) 1.5 Ecoblue Diesel snapping it's belt 

Ford may contribute if service record is good, I stand by tensioner has gone down.

Good luck

Wonder if admin could amend the topic title as it is not a wet belt being discussed here, and it may cause confusion?

I have been told by ford that this is a wetbelt 

There isn't a wet belt in the Ecoblue 

12 minutes ago, shaunb92 said:

I have been told by ford that this is a wetbelt 

You'd like to hope they'd know...  But unfortunately they are wrong.

The 1.5 diesel in Mk4 Focus is definitely dry cambelt.  This eBay ad shows the full belt run very well.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/386751520253?

 

21 minutes ago, shaunb92 said:

I have been told by ford that this is a wetbelt 

Hmm, I've been told various things by Ford over the years but that didn't make them true!😀See this earlier thread on the topic:

 

 

So then it must be the dry belt that snapped to cause the OP's misfortune? What's the service interval for changing them on the Ecoblue?

8 minutes ago, smr said:

So then it must be the dry belt that snapped to cause the OP's misfortune? What's the service interval for changing them on the Ecoblue?

120k miles or 10 years for dry belt on 1.5 EcoBlue.

I don't think we can assume the breakdown was caused by any belt breaking until they've done the strip down to confirm.

Well I don't know much really about the four pot Ford engines. But in my 65 plate 1.5 ecoboost I had the timing belt and water pump and aux belt changed at 117k miles. I did it because I didn't know the full history of the car so I did it out of future proofing so to speak. I was told the belt looked like it still had lots of life but better to be safe than sorry.

9 hours ago, smr said:

There isn't a wet belt in the Ecoblue 

Well, not in the 1.5 at least.

What would you say is a high mileage for a diesel engine these days? Is 70k or can they comfortably get to 150-200k as long as properly maintained and serviced?

I'm looking at an Ecoblue 1.5 with 70k on the clock and wondered how much longeivity there would be with the engine

1 hour ago, smr said:

I'm looking at an Ecoblue 1.5 with 70k on the clock and wondered how much longeivity there would be with the engine

I'd say that's about the halfway point. It should do the same again. 

2 hours ago, unofix said:

I'd say that's about the halfway point. It should do the same again. 

Ok thanks, ideally looking for the ST Line X which is around £12k at the moment. Wonder if prices will drop a bit this year.

1 hour ago, smr said:

Ok thanks, ideally looking for the ST Line X which is around £12k at the moment. Wonder if prices will drop a bit this year.

Prices are dropping considerably at the moment.  Though it's all relative - your current part ex price is dropping as well...

The ST Line X will always hold a bit more value than ST-Lines & Titanium's, as they look 'pretty' even to people that know nothing about cars.

 

5 hours ago, smr said:

What would you say is a high mileage for a diesel engine these days? Is 70k or can they comfortably get to 150-200k as long as properly maintained and serviced?

I'm looking at an Ecoblue 1.5 with 70k on the clock and wondered how much longeivity there would be with the engine

Asking that is like asking how long is a piece of string.

A well maintained car can last over one million miles. A neglected car could last 50k miles. Its subjective. 

The car you're looking at I'd get it. I'm sure you'll maintain it properly so it should last you years.

As a note. I bought a 65 plate Zetex S 1.5 ecoboost with 114k miles on it. Very little service history. Yes I got it 3k under market value and yes I've spent 2.5k on it. Yes it had four decent tyres on it but all different. Four new Goodyears and balanced. Full service. Oil and brake fluid changed. Cam and aux and water pump changed. Aircon service. Coolant changed. New floor mats custom made. New TPMS sensors too and re balanced. Upgraded headlight bulbs. 

Now I have a car that runs sweet. Great on fuel and goes quick enough. Looks effing excellent in black. 

What I'm saying is buy the car and be prepared to spend a bit on it to make it as good as possible. Then you'll have a keeper.

 

21 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Prices are dropping considerably at the moment.  Though it's all relative - your current part ex price is dropping as well...

The ST Line X will always hold a bit more value than ST-Lines & Titanium's, as they look 'pretty' even to people that know nothing about cars.

 

My car was written off earlier this year, I got a pretty good settlement from it though, £5.2k for a 2013 97k Focus.

The ST Line X does look fabulous. I've owned quite a lot of Fords and the most refined was an S-Max Titanium X with part leather, a very nice cabin and 18" Alloys, the ride was actually really nice, Eco, Sport and Comfort, for a 7 seater it was a fun to drive in Sport Mode and really comfortable in Comfort mode. Actually most of my cars have been Fords... Fiesta, 306, Mondeo, Mondeo, S-Max, Focus 😄 

A good few years back I was looking for a 7 seater and Top of the list was the S-Max Titanium x sport. Had the mk4.5 mondeo variant at the time which was the best car by far in its class.

For a little less money have you considered the Zetec S? Same car as you're looking at but a year or two older?

Update:

Ford called me today to say that they need me to authorise a further 2 hours of diagnostic time at a cost of £220. 

They said that they had checked the fuel pressure, and that's OK. They have checked the top half of the cambelt, and it is not snapped, but the engine still doesn't have compression, and now they need to strip the engine down further to find the fault. 

I can feel this becoming a rather costly  and lengthy process. 

I don't understand how the AA could say that the camblet had snapped and now ford are saying it hasn't. 

I'm hoping this means that I don't have to purchase a whole new engine then. 

The AA are just a roadside recovery service.  If it won't start with a jump pack or spray of EasyStart they'll often blame the cambelt as it's beyond a roadside repair.

Update:

Ford called me today to say that they need me to authorise a further 2 hours of diagnostic time at a cost of £220. 

They said that they had checked the fuel pressure, and that's OK. They have checked the top half of the cambelt, and it is not snapped, but the engine still doesn't have compression, and now they need to strip the engine down further to find the fault. 

I can feel this becoming a rather costly  and lengthy process. 

I don't understand how the AA could say that the camblet had snapped and now ford are saying it hasn't. 

I'm hoping this means that I don't have to purchase a whole new engine then. 

New update:

Just spoke with ford they are now saying that the cam chain has failed and it requires replacing along with the associated parts. 

I don't understand i thought these engines where belt driven. The service advisor even said he has never heard of a chain failing on one of these.

Just need wait to wait now and see of ford customer relations will help with this.