Hi, ive recently bought a 2020 1.5ecoboost ford focus, specifically the model with 180bhp and st line x trim. It is high mileage at 105,000 and i bought it as it was one owner from new and had good service history, with the car being in very good and clean condition, both inside and out. I wanted some advice on maintaining these engines as personally I haven't seen much other focus' of the same spec and higher mileage and so I'm unsure and how reliable they are if i wanted to keep this for a few years and put, say upto 150k miles on the car. Would I need to get oil changed more often, i've heard of an oil intrusion issue on these but apparently they were fixed in 2019/20 on these, what would i need to stay on top of. If it's not worth it in the long term to keep this car, i was looking to sell it when it in a years time when it should have done around 115k miles and get a saloon next. But i'm open to any advice, and i'd really appreciate whatever knowledge you can share with me. Thanks

These engines use a wetbelt for the oil pump.  Ford give this a recommend replacement interval of 150,000 miles or 10 years, whichever comes first.  Though you might choose to have it done earlier for peace of mind.  It's likely to cost over £2000 as the timing chain needs to removed for access, so gets replaced at the same.

Personally I wouldn't do any other additional servicing.  Just oil change once a year.  And air filter & spark plugs every 3-4 years.

If the car has done an average of 20,000 miles a year it is likely to have only had long journeys so I doubt if your Wet Oil Pump Belt will need changed any time soon.

If it had done only a fraction of that mileage I would be worried because it seems to be short journeys that cause the deterioration of the Belts.

They seem to be well designed and built Engines and I don't think you will have any problems up to 150,000 miles as long as you don't do too many short journeys.

As long as it's not automatic

On 12/10/2025 at 7:58 PM, TomsFocus said:

These engines use a wetbelt for the oil pump.  Ford give this a recommend replacement interval of 150,000 miles or 10 years, whichever comes first.  Though you might choose to have it done earlier for peace of mind.  It's likely to cost over £2000 as the timing chain needs to removed for access, so gets replaced at the same.

Personally I wouldn't do any other additional servicing.  Just oil change once a year.  And air filter & spark plugs every 3-4 years.

Hi, thanks for getting back to me. That's great to hear as i hope to keep this for hopefully another 2 years and realistically, I think that'll take the car upto around 130,000 miles so hopefully i wouldn't need to change the wet belt although i will definitely consider it for the reason you mentioned, that added peace of mind. 

On 12/10/2025 at 10:36 PM, Tizer said:

If the car has done an average of 20,000 miles a year it is likely to have only had long journeys so I doubt if your Wet Oil Pump Belt will need changed any time soon.

If it had done only a fraction of that mileage I would be worried because it seems to be short journeys that cause the deterioration of the Belts.

They seem to be well designed and built Engines and I don't think you will have any problems up to 150,000 miles as long as you don't do too many short journeys.

Hi, it's only had one previous owner and has averaged around 21,000 miles annually so i agree that it's only done long journeys. I personally don't do that much mileage and do a lot more shorter journeys such as for local shopping or for work which is only a 10-15 minute drive. I'll keep in mind to take more frequent long journeys and will try to keep do so weekly. Although do you think the short journeys that i make will make much of an impact on the wetbelt considering it's had its fair share of long journeys or will i need to keep up on those. 

On 12/11/2025 at 9:12 AM, DaveT70 said:

As long as it's not automatic

Hi Dave, mine is a manual. How much would this affect the engine's reliability if it was an automatic?

1 hour ago, Daiyan said:

Hi, it's only had one previous owner and has averaged around 21,000 miles annually so i agree that it's only done long journeys. I personally don't do that much mileage and do a lot more shorter journeys such as for local shopping or for work which is only a 10-15 minute drive. I'll keep in mind to take more frequent long journeys and will try to keep do so weekly. Although do you think the short journeys that i make will make much of an impact on the wetbelt considering it's had its fair share of long journeys or will i need to keep up on those. 

If you do your own servicing then buy a cheap very fine Kitchen Sieve and filter your old Oil at Oil change time to see if there are any bits falling off the Belt like I do.

With the number of short journeys you do I would recommend 6 or 9 month Oil changes.