omu Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 Hello fellow Ford fans! A few weeks ago I heard that here in my city apparently a bigger than normal amount of time belts snap and/or have to be renewed. I thought it must be a joke since I couldnt see any reason as to why time belts would suddenly snap more easily in here than somewhere else. Fast forward to now, I finally found the car I want: Ford Focus 1,5 TDCi 120 S/S Titanium Wagon 2015 It has 89.000 kilometres on it, price around 19k Euros. I decide to call the previous owner and ask him for any faults and he suddenly says that he had to change the time belt for 3 TIMES already, that is an insane number of time belt repairs when the car has been driven for 89k kilometres only. He then says something related to what I said above, that he was driving this certain road all the time to work and apparently alot of people who use that specific road have time belt issues, because theres some sort of weird dust coming off the road that has all kinds of metals in it that cause the time belts to snap and/or get worn (cant remember if it was chrome or something thats being used in the road, something very odd, its been proven already that the road has this stuff). He says that most likely the time belt issues were caused because of that. (he gets no benefit from the car being sold, he already sold it to the shop, so he has no reason to lie). I then started googling and there were various articles all around my country made by big news papers about this very effect of time belts snapping and/or wearing down in my city and it most likely being caused by the material thats in the road or something. Now, is this car worth buying? Could this actually be a problem in the car itself and NOT because of this odd, mystical road dust that ruins time belts? I really wouldnt like to buy a car that is going to get its time belt snapped 3 times every 100k kilometres. Any opinions here, could there be any truth to this story or is the car just FAULTY and has serious time belt issues for some odd reason? What should be done, this whole thing got be confused real good haha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ_Andy_M Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 First I've heard or seen of this problem, and certainly there are very very few reports of any problems with the 1.5TDCi at present. One of the reasons I got my 1.5TDCi. I cannot believe the engine has had three belts snap already because if a timing belt snaps, that's it. New engine time! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omu Posted March 16, 2017 Author Share Posted March 16, 2017 I think I have to edit the post! English isnt my native language so I wrote incorrectly, the timing belt has been replaced 3 times but it has not snapped 3 times hahah! Going to edit it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilto Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 Don't know what the timing belt change recommendations are for your model, but I would say it should be changed every 90,000 miles (145,000km) so why would someone put 3 belts on in less than that is insane, total waste of money if you ask me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee_82 Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 if the previous owner were recommended to change the belt it might well have been Halfords who recommend that it gets changed ever visit, perhaps the previous owner wasn't that clued up? Timing belts fail, or they don't, they don't produce much in the way of problems other than snapping, snapping a belt will ruin you day! Could it be the Aux belt you mean? typically connected the alternator and the aircon to the crank shaft Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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