MK2 Focus & Astra H 1.6 oil usage

JustAnotherSaver

Those 2.

From what i read there's not a lot in it between these two cars.

Everything is pretty similar. Haven't actually sat in a MK2 Focus before but my mother owns a MK1 1.6 Focus. I know many rave about these (the MK1) but personally i think the interior & exterior is horrendous and the seats are just not comfortable at all. I've driven an Astra H and the interior is not exciting but better than the MK1 Focus at least (again, all my opinion but then i'm the one buying). MK2 Focus improves on the MK1 in terms of looks (again, my opinion).

What bothers me is oil usage.

I've owned 1 petrol Ford in the past (Escort) & my dad owned a petrol Ford (Mondeo) and both drank oil like you wouldn't believe.

I own an Astra G 1.8 which uses at the most 0.5litres every 3.0k-3.5k miles

My sister owns an Astra H and that also seems to like to drink oil. I don't know what miles exactly she's doing per fill up but it's not a vast amount & she's filling up regular. She does 8k per year & i do her oil changes every 6 months like i do mine and she has to fill up a number of times between each oil change.


We're looking at the 1.6 engine in both of these as a possible purchase but if they're known to drink oil then it's going to rule one or both out.

Any owners here or past owners who can post their feedback?

forgotmyname

Your family must buy the wrong cars. On my 5th Mondeo i think and none of them have really used any oil between services.
My last one may have used the most but thats 1mm at most on the dipstick over a year and that includes towing a caravan. And it had over 170k miles on the clock.

Petrol ones used zero oil, even at 150,000 miles.

Johno100

I had a Mk2 1.6 zetec Focus for 3 years and again I never had to top up the oil between services/oil changes. I thought that was the norm for most modern vehicles (unless they are 'misbehaving').

Richard53

My wife has had 2 Focuses and a C-Max, totalling nine years. I had a diesel Mondeo for nine years also. None used more than 1mm or so (on the dipstick) between services. Oil consumption for all four Fords was effectively zero.


With oil consumption as you are describing, something is very definitely wrong with that specific car.

JustAnotherSaver

Hmm i imagine the Astra would fare about the same then

forgotmyname wrote: »

Your family must buy the wrong cars.

Because i gave an example of a few Fords? :rotfl:


My dad used to always spend about £300 MAX on a car, seriously. I remember going back to some terrible looking cavaliers, Austin Princesses and others i don't even know the name of. The thing with his cars, as much as we took the piddle out of him for owning sheds that cost nothing - they were exactly that, they cost nothing & they lasted for years & years, all of them. We didn't know how he did it over so many cars.
The time he spent more than £300 he spent £1000 on his final car - the Mondeo.

My mother also has had very little car trouble.

I had issue with my first couple cars - Citroens, the oil usage in the Ford but after that i've been fine.





Anyway, dare i ask - MK2 Focus 1.6 or Astra H 1.6 ... and why? This will be just for basic A-B motoring. No talk of 'in the twisties' or whatever you read on car forums, just simple A-B motoring.

Strider590

I think if your buying an older car, you want something that's screwed together and easy to dismantle.

Ford build cars full of fragile single use plastic clips, so they're lightning fast to build in the factory, but everything breaks when you try to take it apart.
I wanted to get the centre courtesy light unit out to install power for a dashcam on my Mondeo, but I quickly realised that not only would the plastic clips break, causing me to need a new light fitting, but the whole thing is glued to the headlining as well.

plutoniumpilot

I can't comment on the Astra but I've had my MK2 focus 1.6 for about 8 years and it does use some oil. It's now on 130k and uses maybe 0.5litres per 12000. There are two versions of the 1.6 one with variable cam timing (ti vct) one without. I recommend the one without as there's less to go wrong if you're on a budget. I would suggest buy based on condition and service history.

forgotmyname

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Because i gave an example of a few Fords? :rotfl:

No because you gave an example of they had several cars that all used oil. How about a sub £600 Rover 800 diesel bought with over 230,000 miles on the clock and that didnt use any oil either.

Sold my petrol Mondeo in 2009 with over 150k on the clock and that didnt use any oil.

If your car uses oil these days then you bought the wrong one, whether its £200 or £2000.

onomatopoeia99

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

My dad used to always spend about £300 MAX on a car, seriously. I remember going back to some terrible looking cavaliers, Austin Princesses and others i don't even know the name of. The thing with his cars, as much as we took the piddle out of him for owning sheds that cost nothing - they were exactly that, they cost nothing & they lasted for years & years, all of them. We didn't know how he did it over so many cars. .

Luck. Buying at that end of the market is a lottery, no matter what checks you do you might get something that gives years of trouble free service, only needing normal wearing parts replaced, or you might get something that has loads of obscure / expensive things fail. I had both scenarios in my early years of motoring.

It helps control costs if you're prepared to work on your own car, which I used to be. Nowadays I have too many other things to do, so I'm happy to pay the garage £48+VAT/hour and leave them to it.

As for the OP, it sounds like wear in the valve guides or bores, typically a symptom of using rubbish oil or not changing it often enough, or the cars had done interplanetary mileages.