The Focus strikes back again possibly.

[simcor]

Just went out got in the car went to start to be greeted with an awful crunching grinding noise and no start, tuned the key a second time and fired into life.

Sounded like the starter motor to me and is the first time it has done it since I have owned it, 

What is even more annoying is when a work colleague has not had her car serviced once in 6 years she has owned it and it has never let her down, I look after mine and try and keep on top of stuff and they still let me down, so guess I am gonna need a new starter motor on it very soon.

I actually had less trouble in 6 years of owning my MG ZTT which had 117k miles on it when I bought it than I have had with my Focus in 2 years which had 68K miles on the clock from memory, it has recently passed 92K miles but still a fairly low mileage car for its age.

Just a rant really.

[TomsFocus]

Its not that the un-looked-after cars don't break, it's just that the owners don't notice or care!  Amazes me how much people can ignore.  My Dad doesn't look after cars at all, just waits until they're so broken its impossible drive and then trades them in for another cheap one!  

 

[simcor]

You say that Tom but it had not been serviced once in the 6 years she has had it, failed its last MOT for the first time and need both lower control arms replacing, she said the oil light had come on, I checked it not showing a drop of oil on the dipstick, I had to put 3 litres of oil in it for her, not sure how much it takes being a Mazda 1.6 petrol but I bet if mine lost that amount of oil it would die. less than a litre of oil in it as it seems they hold 3.9 litres by a quick Google. Even before the oil went it it still sounded a sweet runner and very quiet, no noticeable difference to the negine sound once it was properly topped up.

Sods law really. Oh her car is a 56 plate so about that same age as mine just marginally newer by maybe a few months.

[Tdci-Peter]

Seems to me that the more often a car goes into a Garage, including for servicing, the more often it needs to go into a Garage, for repairs!

Or am I just being a grumpy old cynic

[TomsFocus]

19 hours ago, simcor said:

You say that Tom but it had not been serviced once in the 6 years she has had it, failed its last MOT for the first time and need both lower control arms replacing, she said the oil light had come on, I checked it not showing a drop of oil on the dipstick, I had to put 3 litres of oil in it for her, not sure how much it takes being a Mazda 1.6 petrol but I bet if mine lost that amount of oil it would die. less than a litre of oil in it as it seems they hold 3.9 litres by a quick Google. Even before the oil went it it still sounded a sweet runner and very quiet, no noticeable difference to the negine sound once it was properly topped up.

Sods law really. Oh her car is a 56 plate so about that same age as mine just marginally newer by maybe a few months.

You've hit the nail on the head though...1.6 petrol, non turbo in those presumably...what's gonna break!?  Running a diesel, with a turbo, and a DPF, EGR, one that's known to be crap, will give you problems! :tongue: Dads previous car was a 2.5V6 petrol Mondeo...no servicing at all in the 5 years he owned it.  Did have to have suspension and brakes done for MOTs but other that that it cost him nothing!  Mum had a 1.0 Micra, drove it right across the country with the oil light on as she didn't know what the light meant...topped it up and it was fine for years after.  She's since had other small petrols, albeit newer, but none had had problems...  Yet I buy powerful turbo diesels and am constantly getting issues, the most reliable cars I've had were petrols (1.4/1.8/2.0 all non turbo) but I just couldn't afford to run one daily...although with all the DPF etc stuff it would probably have been cheaper for me to run a 2.0 petrol for the last 20k that I've run the Focus lol.

9 hours ago, Tdci-Peter said:

Seems to me that the more often a car goes into a Garage, including for servicing, the more often it needs to go into a Garage, for repairs!

Or am I just being a grumpy old cynic

Mine never goes to a garage (bar MOT which my mate does)...but maybe theres my problem haha.  

[Tdci-Peter]

My most reliable cars were all Fords!

But then I started with a Hillman Imp: A characterful little car, and ahead of its time, still loved by some, but notorious as one of the least reliable cars ever made! I had to strip & rebuild the entire engine, but all you needed to remove the engine was an old go-kart, or just a low platform on wheels.

Three Triumphs followed, wonders of British Leyland, quite nice to drive, but reliable and long lasting - Not!

Then 3 Fords (Cortina, Sierra 1.6, Sierra 1.8), each one better than the last.

Then an experiment with Vauxhall, a 2L Vectra. (Sorry). Not great, really. Steering stiff & unresponsive, suspension clanky, engine problems like exhaust manifold, Cat, Head gasket, Cat & O2 sensor, Head gasket again, Crankshaft Sensor, Cat & maybe O2 sensor again, this last set killed the car, & I got the Focus.

Perhaps you should have got the 1.8, a proper Ford engine, the Lynx, evolved in stages to its current level, but still a tough, basic 8 valve, cast iron block & cyl. head. Not a fancy French project, all full of new & untested ideas?

Interestingly, I seem to recall reading that the later 1.6TDCI engine is back to 8 valves (I doubt if road going turbo engines benefit from more), and the new EcoBoost engine has a cast iron block. Both my cars with aluminium blocks (Imp & Vectra) had repetitive head gasket problems.

Weakest point of the 1.8 that I have found is the EGR valve being built (partly) into the inlet manifold, but that is fixable. So far it has been a very good car. (Touch wood!).

 

 

[TomsFocus]

My most reliable cars have been Peugeots...

However equally my most unreliable cars were other Peugeots...

Moral of the story, it has nothing to with the badge on the front and is down to the individual car.

Peugeot were good at making engines back in the day, very rarely break a 2.0 8v HDi (DW10), even less so the large petrols (XU7/XU10)...but let Ford join in and somehow between them they make an awful engine with the 1.6!  I have wondered if they were both trying to push eachothers reliability ratings down.   I never had any engine faults on Pugs, was all the poorly built cars around the engine!  Buy a Focus and get the opposite haha.

 

And yes, the latest 1.6HDi/TDCi are down to 8 valves, as well as having a coated DPF, smaller turbo and a few other things to increase reliability.  Not sure about the latest ecoboost using a cast block, I'd be surprised if it did as it'd add quite a bit of weight, unless it is only the bigger ecoboosts maybe?  Will have to look into that.

[alexp999]

The 1.0 ecoboost uses a cast iron block to aid warm up times. Added weight is negligible due to its already small size and weight.

All other ecoboosts are aluminium blocks afaik.

[TomsFocus]

Ah that's interesting, Alex, I've learnt something there!  

[iantt]

I had 21 yrs of jap cars, never had any problems, except for my last jap car(crunching 2nd gear) just pads , tyres and oil changes. Even prior to those I had reliable astras and cavaliers,

Ive obviously been lucky .my 2nd car was the only bag of nails that needed fixing daily, austin metro, one of the first produced!!

[Tdci-Peter]

Two good examples of French - UK collaboration were Concorde (7.5 times over budget, about 10 years late), and Channel Tunnel (£2 bn over budget, & well delayed) I do not know of French - US collaborations, perhaps both sides have generally avoided each other!

The French are very nice people (those I have met, anyway), and pretty good engineers on their own, but they do not work well with others. I have been a little involved with some aerospace engineering on a French - English project, and it was a prickly arrangement.

Perhaps that explains why Peugot engines are good, but the Ford-Peugot effort is not quite up to the same standard