Hi - thought this would be a good place to be a member of to pick up hints and tips that would save me a bob or two! And maybe pass on my own experiences.

Ive been the owner of a 2013 Focus Titanium 1.0 Ecoboost for about seven years. It's done 72K miles to date. In that time I think I've collected the full "set" of apparently common problems associated with the model: perished coolant hose (luckily spotted before engine seized), perished rubber seals on heater matrix (driver footwell still drying out), replacement cambelt/wetbelt  (yes it's maintenance after 10 years, but the £1600 price tag was an eye-opener - at least it never snapped or clogged the oil filter), and the door seals occasionally dropping off and needing re-glueing.

Apart from that, simply from the driving perspective I still think its the best car I've had in fifty years of motoring. Especially the handling, and for all its faults, the ecoboost engine and gearbox are very forgiving and smooth. Its almost like driving a diesel (of which I've had a few ) in that you often find you're in a lower or higher gear that you should be, yet the engine isn't giving you any grief. At 125 bhp it's also got plenty of oomph if needed.

I can't say I'm very impressed with Ford's attitude to its customers when high numbers of owners are reporting what is obviously a design failure, but maybe most manufacturers are in the same boat these days. In more recent years I've started to use local garages for servicing and maintenance, but know that as a result any future problems would be blamed by Ford on using non-Ford parts/lubricants/brake fluid/ coolant or anything that gives them a get-out. Swings and roundabouts I guess.

Oh, and the glass on my nearside wing mirror has just popped out - anyone know how to reattach it - apart from my solution of using double-sided stick pads?

Cheers

 

 

 

Hi Tony,

Welcome to the forum.  Good to see you have had a generally positive experience with your ecoboost - I note you had got the belt done!  Was that main dealer or independent btw?

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Hi Tony,

Welcome to the forum.  Good to see you have had a generally positive experience with your ecoboost - I note you had got the belt done!  Was that main dealer or independent btw?

 

 

 

Hi - I did eventually find a company that seemed to have the tooling/knowledge to do the cambelt, and it would have been cheaper, but in the end the horror stories I'd read regarding the cambelt mishaps, and the desire to have a decent guarantee on a job of this scale, led me to going to a main dealer. They had the car for several days. Despite my best efforts to get sympathy from them for the amount I had to pay, they kept a very straight face and wouldn't have a word said against the wetbelt design!

7 hours ago, tonywick said:

Hi - thought this would be a good place to be a member of to pick up hints and tips that would save me a bob or two! And maybe pass on my own experiences.

Ive been the owner of a 2013 Focus Titanium 1.0 Ecoboost for about seven years. It's done 72K miles to date. In that time I think I've collected the full "set" of apparently common problems associated with the model: perished coolant hose (luckily spotted before engine seized), perished rubber seals on heater matrix (driver footwell still drying out), replacement cambelt/wetbelt  (yes it's maintenance after 10 years, but the £1600 price tag was an eye-opener - at least it never snapped or clogged the oil filter), and the door seals occasionally dropping off and needing re-glueing.

Apart from that, simply from the driving perspective I still think its the best car I've had in fifty years of motoring. Especially the handling, and for all its faults, the ecoboost engine and gearbox are very forgiving and smooth. Its almost like driving a diesel (of which I've had a few ) in that you often find you're in a lower or higher gear that you should be, yet the engine isn't giving you any grief. At 125 bhp it's also got plenty of oomph if needed.

I can't say I'm very impressed with Ford's attitude to its customers when high numbers of owners are reporting what is obviously a design failure, but maybe most manufacturers are in the same boat these days. In more recent years I've started to use local garages for servicing and maintenance, but know that as a result any future problems would be blamed by Ford on using non-Ford parts/lubricants/brake fluid/ coolant or anything that gives them a get-out. Swings and roundabouts I guess.

Oh, and the glass on my nearside wing mirror has just popped out - anyone know how to reattach it - apart from my solution of using double-sided stick pads?

Cheers

 

 

 

Hi welcome