Ford Focus 1.8 TDCI

tight_arze

Just wanted some advice on a possible car purchase for my wife. We had a test drive in a 2004 Focus 1.8 TDCI and were impressed. It had a good consistent service history and was in good condition.

I have read a few horror stories about about the 1.6 TDCI engine in the Focus but is the 1.8 more reliable? The car has 90k on it and was wondering if anyone has owned one with this engine and did you have any problems with it?

We currently have a very reliable 02 Focus 1.8 TDDI which has the older engine but is unfortunately starting to rust badly.

Any advice would be much appreciated :-)

Exemplar

Great engine, great car. No major issues but be sure that he service history shows that its all proper.

Ultrasonic

Has the timing been changed yet? If not I think it's due at 10 years. Something to bear in mind when negotiating the price.

tight_arze

Ultrasonic wrote: »

Has the timing been changed yet? If not I think it's due at 10 years. Something to bear in mind when negotiating the price.

No it hasn't been changed yet. That would likely be a £200-£300 job so I will definitely factor that in.

Graham_Devon

Just check the clutch/flywheel on that one. If it hasn't been done at 90k, you are likely looking at an £800 bill in the next 40k. (That's if it has a DMF....I think it does).

Otherwise a decent engine. Noisy, but old school, which is good when it comes to diesels! The new ones are pretty terrible reliability wise.

Lost nearly 2k trying to fix an 80,000 mile peugeot 1.6 diesel engine myself. It's the same one as used in the focus. Don't touch them with a bargepole.

gabbleRatchet

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Just check the clutch/flywheel on that one. If it hasn't been done at 90k, you are likely looking at an £800 bill in the next 40k. (That's if it has a DMF....I think it does).

Yeah it does. I had to do mine at 80K.

I've had a few problems with it but it's coming up for 180,000 so I'd say it's been pretty reliable overall.

They are very nice cars to drive. If it's been looked after I'd definitely recommend one.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

1.8 TDCI engine is a good solid unit, DMF is pain but there are reversion kits available at cheaper costs to go back to a solid flywheel wich eliminates the need to change it again 90-110k down the line.

make sure timing belt is done or factor the cost and never let slide the factor that it needs a timing kit and water pump, if the garage offers to do it, more likely it will just have a belt done as this lowers his payout costs so you wont just be looking at belt youd be looking at antifreeze bleeding the system, etc witc pushes up labour costs slightly.

tight_arze

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

1.8 TDCI engine is a good solid unit, DMF is pain but there are reversion kits available at cheaper costs to go back to a solid flywheel wich eliminates the need to change it again 90-110k down the line.

make sure timing belt is done or factor the cost and never let slide the factor that it needs a timing kit and water pump

I spoke with a garage yesterday about the cost of changing the timing belt and they said the water pump is not run off the timing belt but off a separate auxillary belt so there is no need to change the wp.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

tight_arze wrote: »

I spoke with a garage yesterday about the cost of changing the timing belt and they said the water pump is not run off the timing belt but off a separate auxillary belt so there is no need to change the wp.

agree'd, but even a auxilliary driven pump needs to be changed, it has a pully and impellar that fail in same ways but its not as catastrophic as timing belt driven one.

all the same id rather it changed when the belt is taken off.

SLITHER99

Make sure the mileage is complimentary to the year. I know of two of these cars in my immediate circle.

The higher miler (1.8) seems to be fairly decent. The low-mileage 07 is giving its owner a fair few headaches.

Personally, I'm sticking to petrol! Can't be bothered messing with diesels!

harveybobbles

I'd always chose petrol over diesel. Even a modern 2.0 petrol engine can do 40mpg these days.

The same deisel might do 50 on a run, but for the rest of its life it will trundle around town blocking up its DPF and smashing its DMF pieces.