I have a 1.5 petrol Focus, 4 years old and only 18000 miles, a colleague at work is an ex mechanic, said as I'm retiring soon, think about changing it, because of eco boom, the engine I believe is chain driven and has a rubber pulley to the crank and oil pump, I'm happy with the car so far, should I be worried?

The 1.0 EcoBoost is that bad.  Sure, some of them don't break below 10 years/100k.  But I certainly couldn't trust another one myself now.

The 1.5 EcoBoost generally seems to be much more reliable so far though.

I guess it partly depends on how retirement looks for you as well.  Do you intend to go travelling a lot?  Or will the car get less use?  Could you manage a breakdown situation and being without the car for a week or more?  Could you afford large repairs or would it be better to pay a small monthly fee for an aftermarket warranty?  

If we're purely looking at potential reliability.  I don't think this engine should be tarred with the EcoBoom name. 

My previous car was a MK3 Toyota MR2, there were stories about the precats breaking up and being sucked into the engine, I had no issues after 13 years of ownership, it partly depends how it's been driven and how it's looked after imo.

I'm not so sure.  I've had a lot of used cars and they were always broken, despite me maintaining them as well as a I could.  My Dad doesn't even service his cars, yet they seem to go on for years without an issue.  Both of us were buying older used cars.  His were effectively disposable, bought so cheap they weren't worth repairing when a large bill appeared.

I decided to use his method when I bought the Golf (after wasting a large amount of money on the awful Mk3 Focus I had)...I have given it a couple of oil changes since 2018, but nothing more than that and it never broke down at all.

While I do agree that regularly oil changes are necessary for things like wetbelts and turbos, I think people put far too much trust in a yearly 'service' to prevent vehicle breakdowns.  None of the breakdowns I've had over the years could've been prevented through maintenance.

I've read the whole "EcoBoom" meme, but I've come to the conclusion, that while the early model engines did have some issues, said issues where addressed and the later models became much more reliable. That said, I also think that if one mistreats the engine, then one can expect to have issues.

As an example, I've just bought the 1.0-litre petrol engine model of a 2014 Focus. It's not a "performance car", so I know that if I try to drive it as such, it's going to fail. That engine has to do a lot of work, even if I drive it with care, so for me, I want this car to see me through the next 3 or 4 years, and still have some value as a trade-in. If I do that, and it still fails, then I'll be back here to let others know.

Even on the old wet belt ecoboost, oil pump belt failures on manual cars were not that common compared to cambelt issues and there doesn't seem to be a pattern of problems emerging as yet with the revised 1.0 or the 1.5 which share the chain cam/oil pump belt arrangement, though there have been instances reported.

You don't mention how long you might keep the car, but as you're probably aware, that oil pump belt is due a change at 10 years. You have to remove the cam chain to change the belt, so it's virtually as big/expensive a job as a wet belt change on the old engine.

Otherwise, annual oil/filter changes are a good idea though not a guarantee as Tom says. Agree it might perhaps be worth looking at some form of extended warranty or set up your own "self-insurance pot" in a separate savings account.

If you are contemplating a change shortly, I guess another Toyota with the warranty extension up to 10 years (if serviced within the dealer network) is worth consideration.

 

 

 

28 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Even on the old wet belt ecoboost, oil pump belt failures on manual cars were not that common compared to cambelt issues and there doesn't seem to be a pattern of problems emerging as yet with the revised 1.0 or the 1.5 which share the chain cam/oil pump belt arrangement, though there have been instances reported.

You don't mention how long you might keep the car, but as you're probably aware, that oil pump belt is due a change at 10 years. You have to remove the cam chain to change the belt, so it's virtually as big/expensive a job as a wet belt change on the old engine.

Otherwise, annual oil/filter changes are a good idea though not a guarantee as Tom says. Agree it might perhaps be worth looking at some form of extended warranty or set up your own "self-insurance pot" in a separate savings account.

If you are contemplating a change shortly, I guess another Toyota with the warranty extension up to 10 years (if serviced within the dealer network) is worth consideration.

 

 

 

It wasn't even a thought in head until today, I think that I will keep for a least another couple of years.