hi all, im looking at a ford fiesta 1.6L TDCi Zetec Climate 5dr Diesel tomorrow and i was just wondering what sort of things should i be looking out for and what parts of the car i need to check as its my first car and i dont want it to break within a week. The car has done just over 92,000 miles so should i be making sure that certain parts of the engine have been changed such as a cam-belt or something, any other tips would be very helpful. thanks in advance :)

Service history, the DV6 engine has a HUGE number of issues.

A good start would be a service history, you've hit the nail on the head with the cambelt, out of curiosity why the Diesel? Do you do a lot of miles if not it could cost you a lot more in the long run.

ive been and looked at it today and all was good ford have said that the cambelt only needs changing at 125000 miles no problems with the car so im buying it tomorrow and ive been deciding between diesel or petrol for ages and decided that diesel would be best for me and yes id be doing quite a few miles and long runs

What year is the car? Has the DPF (if fitted) been changed?

12 hours ago, JamieK said:

ive been and looked at it today and all was good ford have said that the cambelt only needs changing at 125000 miles no problems with the car so im buying it tomorrow and ive been deciding between diesel or petrol for ages and decided that diesel would be best for me and yes id be doing quite a few miles and long runs

Ignore the Ford recommended interval, its just there to keep fleet managers happy, cambelt should be changed at normal interval lengths of around 70k miles - it's a rubber belt which perishes over time. Option is to either change the belt at a sensible mileage (along with the water pump) or just wait for the cambelt to snap and replace the engine.

sometimes cam belts go early, sometimes they don't. on my 2007 fiesta 1.6tdci which had 1,600 miles on it when I got it, I changed the belt at 120k miles. 75% of my mileage was fairly steady motorway miles. if your mileage has been more town / rapid acceleration it will have been more stress on the belt.

If it does fail it is major disaster , bent , broken valves etc. major work needed.

These engines are known for turbo failure. at 146k miles I sold car to my brother. it now has over 150k on. no sign of turbo problems. I always changing oil regularly with Castrol magnetic and a genuine ford oil filter. this might be why it has had not problems, but we will never know for sure.   I understand turbo failure is down to oil sludge restricting high pressure oil feed to the turbo bearings.

Another problem, which I had a few times is injectors leaking so you get a chuffing sound, and a pool of diesel around the injector. this diesel starts to cook into black goo and you can smell it if you have the heater on.

Mine was a 16valve twin cam. later ones are 8 valve single cam. mine did not have a dpf.  I loved that car, it went some much better then my 2015 1.5tdci fiesta that I have now.

 

On 03/01/2017 at 11:19 AM, DieselPig said:

What year is the car? Has the DPF (if fitted) been changed?

its 2006 and whats a DPF and how can i find out if it has been fitted?

2006 won't have one.

I agree it won't have one.  but so you know, a DPF is a diesel particle filter. it's in the exhaust, it collects the soot particles and then burns them off at a higher temperature periodically when you are driving. they have been compulsory since about 2010 I think but some cars had them earlier eg. Focus 1.6tdci had them before the fiesta 1.6tdci did.  They have been a constant source of problems for many owners and you are much better off without one (as long as you don't care about the soot pollution which apparently is bad for asthma etc.)