Hello

 

I’m about to purchase a second hand Ford focus (150bph 1L mild hybrid 2021 plate) and was wondering whether it’s wet belt or not. I don’t think it is but just a wet oil pump drive, but my mechanic friend thinks it’s still wet belt and not worth touching.

is this engine likely to be a problem going forward?

Chain engine.

Oil pump wetbelts do still fail occasionally.  And have a recommended recommended replacement interval of 10 years or 144k miles.  Will most likely cost £2000+ to replace by that age as it requires chain removal for access.

considering the reputational hit Ford have taken with wet belt technology, it begs the question: why are they still using them in some vehicles?

 

That’s my question. I’ve put a deposit down in this focus but half my mechanic friends think it’s more or less fixed. Others think it’s still a disaster 

I really do not know how widespread the problem is (that is, engines failing prior to Ford's recommended replacement time/mileage).

But even if it is a small number of engines (as a percentage) it is obviously still enough for reputational damage.

My mate's transit blew up yesterday. 60,000 miles. 

It's almost as if Ford couldn't care less about their customers...

But seriously, engine design costs a huge amount of money and has to go through a lot of red tape for emissions regulations, among other things.  They're not going to bother redesigning an engine now with an upcoming ICE ban.

However, it is baffling that Ford replaced the timing belt with a chain on the redesigned 1.0 EcoBoost, yet left the oil pump belt, which is fitted behind the chain.  They did know the wetbelts weren't a 'lifetime' part by that point as they put them into the service schedules at 10 years.

So far we haven't seen many oil pump belts fail on chain engines with manual transmission.  Though if you need an auto, definitely look elsewhere!  Auto's have an additional tensioner for the oil pump belt, along with a balance shaft.  This extra strain seems to wreck the belts on the autos more frequently than the manuals with no balance shaft or tensioner.

re: Ford's attitude to customers.

I get that. Their marketing has baffled me. They have stopped making the sort of cars that made them Britains' most popular brand. Stopping making the Fiesta and offering the ugly and anonymous Kuga/Puma is.....crazy.

As for re-design. Swapping out wet belts for chains and gears is not the biggest engineering challenge in the world for a company like Ford. Especially since they already have used and do use chains and gears. If I was the boss, it would be a no brainer.

1 hour ago, weesam said:

As for re-design. Swapping out wet belts for chains and gears is not the biggest engineering challenge in the world for a company like Ford. Especially since they already have used and do use chains and gears

They did have a Direct Drive Oil Pump set up with the early 1.5 Three Cylinder Dragon Engines in the mK4 Focus and other cars I think but when the Balance Shaft set up was redesigned they changed to a Wet Oil Pump Belt.

I believe that there were reported problems with the Oil Pump Drive on the earlier designed Engines.