Just bought this as a first owned car and heard concerning things about coolant leaking into the engine. It’s done 130,000 miles so I’m hoping this issue has been and gone. Also, looking at car vertical, it did above average miles when it was first bought before it went down to a normal average. Should I still be on the look out? Is there anything that can be done to prevent this?

Initially the 1.6 EcoBoost suffered from degas hose failure. The original degas hose design consisted of a vulcanized plastic rubber material combination. After a few Years the plastic became brittle due to the high coolant temperature which eventually caused the degas hose to break.

A broken degas hose will cause the coolant to drain within minutes. The 1.6 EcoBoost only has a coolant temperature sensor. In case of coolant loss the coolant temperature sensor will measure air instead of coolant. Air does not conduct heat very well so in case of severe coolant loss the PCM will not detect overheating. In this case engine damage will occur very quick without a warning (temperature gauge or warming message).

Because overheating can cause the engine block to crack, causing fire due to engine oil leaking onto the hot exhaust this was considered to be a safety hazard. To solve this problem Ford released the 17S09 recall in 2017. This recall introduced redesigned coolant hoses (the degas hose was completely redesigned), a coolant level sensor, modified software and an additional CANbus module. The recall basically consists of a warning system to detect coolant loss. Once a low coolant level is detected a warning message is shown on the instrument cluster display.


It is a well-known fact that the direct injected, turbocharged EcoBoost engines run considerably hotter than the older naturally aspirated engines. This causes both the coolant and the plastic parts of the cooling system to deteriorate much quicker. 

In my opinion it is a good habit to replace parts like the coolant reservoir, coolant reservoir cap, plastic lines periodically as a preventive measure. Replacement of these parts is quite cost effective and can prevent a lot of issues.


The 1.6 EcoBoost was designed as a turbocharged, direct injected version of the old 1.6 TI-VCT engine. It was designed to replace the older, larger displacement naturally aspirated engines like the 2.0 and 2.3 Duratec HE engines. Therefore, it must be considered to be a downsize engine. However, despite the new technology it was basically still an old engine. The original Sigma engine was introduced in 1995 when fuel economy was not really important. Because of the old design the 1.6 EcoBoost is not the most fuel-efficient engine.

As usual, Ford was in danger of missing the boat when it came to downsized engines. Other car manufacturers had been offering small displacement, turbocharged engines for Years while Ford still used larger displacement, naturally aspirated engines that at the time were already showing their age.

When the 1.6 EcoBoost was introduced, it was far from perfect. During a relatively small production period (2011 --> 2014) the 1.6 EcoBoost received several technical changes. At some point even the complete design of the cilinder head was changed. Because of the technical changes there are basically several different versions of the 1.6 EcoBoost. Many parts that are specific to the earlier designs have become obsolete/no longer available.  


In my opinion the 1.6 EcoBoost is considered to be one of the least problematic EcoBoost engines. It has a conventional dry timing belt and does not suffer from desperate measures to reduce emissions like the newer 4-cylinder 1.5 EcoBoost. After the 17S09 recall there are basically very little vehicles that suffer from cooling system problems or engine failures.  

How can I check if my car was part of the D17SO9 recall?

How often should the coolant reservoir and pipes be changed? 10,000 miles for example?

29 minutes ago, ChrisCB said:

How can I check if my car was part of the D17SO9 recall?

Quite a few places to check for recalls, eg:

https://www.ford.co.uk/support/how-tos/recall/recalls-and-faqs/is-there-a-recall-on-my-ford-vehicle

https://www.themotorombudsman.org/vehicle-recalls/

https://www.check-vehicle-recalls.service.gov.uk/recall-type

There's quite a long old thread on D17S09 here:

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/98586-17s09-recall-for-16l-gtdi-cooling-system/

 

28 minutes ago, ChrisCB said:

How often should the coolant reservoir and pipes be changed?

That's almost like asking 'how often should I change my windscreen ?'

Replace the Ford coolant/antifreeze every 10 years. Replace anything else when it fails.

36 minutes ago, ChrisCB said:

How can I check if my car was part of the D17SO9 recall?

How often should the coolant reservoir and pipes be changed? 10,000 miles for example?

All Focus MK3 1.6 EcoBoost vehicles should have had the 17S09 recall.



This is how it should look like after the recall. The coolant level sensor is the located at the right side of the reservoir.


I always replace the coolant reservoir, coolant reservoir cap and hard plastic coolant pipes every 3 Years (every major service).

Most of the coolant reservoirs I replaced already showed (micro)cracks after just 3 Years.

 

 

 

Checked the website linked and the gov.uk site (thanks for the links) and it seems it is not due for one. Odd as I heard it was for the mk3 1.6 ecoboost. I’ll check the connectors to the coolant tomorrow (thanks for the pics) but it seems mine dodged it. Happy days. I did not want my first car to erupt into flames suddenly.