Ford Transit Custom - suspected wet belt failure

Tucosalamanca

Tucosalamanca said:

My local dealership has slots from 02nd November, I only know this as I booked a van in for service earlier today.

To follow up on this.

The visit was a return to the dealer who fitted the replacement engine.
I had a complimentary service voucher from Ford UK to use (this was my only compensation for the engine failure).
Since the van has now done 10,000 miles with the new engine, this was the perfect opportunity to  'cash in' the voucher.
The van had a couple of issues that needed investigating. The dealership charge just under £130 to diagnose each fault.
I reluctantly agreed to have one of the faults looked at (the other issue not worth spending on).
I was advised that NS driveshaft was failing and that OS was in a similar condition. Cost to replace £700 each / £1,400 for the pair (on top of the diagnostic fee).
I politely declined and took the vehicle to my trusted mechanics. They're not cheap but are very good at their jobs and I trust them 100%.
The van has just been collected. OS driveshaft was deemed to be fine, the NS replaced for £362.
This included £12 for gearbox oil. On inspection the gearbox was approx 1ltr short of recommended level.
This was not picked up during the dealer service and it seems likely that fluids were not replaced or topped up during the engine replacement.

Unless the new engine fails in the next six months or so (remainder of 12 month warranty), I'll be having no further dealings with Ford or the dealership. Every single step of the journey has been problematic.
I'm struggling to get my head around how a multimillion pound franchise can be so poor and consistently disappoint. 
I do know that I'm done with Ford, never again...

Goudy

It's hard to say, but it appears to me Ford do seem to have a some expensive faults with the vehicles that mainly show up outside of warranty and I'm guessing, but I think they like that!

Duck1234

It seems this issue is wide spread. My 2018 transit custom broke down last Friday, AA said it was the Wet Belt, and took my van to a company that would take on the job, as my regular garage said it was a specialist job! They took engine apart and found that the Wet Belt was in good order, they went on to remove the head and found all in good condition, so after some head scratching they said that I need a new engine, and for me to take the DPF to a specialist company to get it flushed out, which I did, the company said it was blocked solid and took two goes to clean it, so was it back force from the DPF that caused engine to blow? There was no indication of oil pressure nor did any regen sign ever com up, the van has 19,000 miles from new, new filters and oil every year! 

Tucosalamanca

And another one. My scaffolder has just had a 2017 Transit go bang, only 16,000 miles since the engine was replaced by Ford last year (and already been serviced twice). I honestly don't think that they're fit for purpose.
My fleet of Customs have a constant stream of issues. 
Since my last post in November, I've had a turbo and dpf replaced and currently have one with 'vibrations' and another with an intermediate engine management fault (as yet unresolved).
In 30 years of running vans, I've never experienced anything like it.
My day will now be taken up rescheduling works and apologising to clients....

Ganga

Tucosalamanca said:

And another one. My scaffolder has just had a 2017 Transit go bang, only 16,000 miles since the engine was replaced by Ford last year (and already been serviced twice). I honestly don't think that they're fit for purpose.
My fleet of Customs have a constant stream of issues. 
Since my last post in November, I've had a turbo and dpf replaced and currently have one with 'vibrations' and another with an intermediate engine management fault (as yet unresolved).
In 30 years of running vans, I've never experienced anything like it.
My day will now be taken up rescheduling works and apologising to clients....

And i dare say looking for a new supplier of vans ,cannot see you buying another Ford.

Tucosalamanca

I see that once again, Ford were featured on The One Show/BBC Watchdog last night (Wednesday 28th Feb).
The feature was specifically for the Ecoboost Engine but it's very similar issues with the Ecoblue engine. 
BBC One - The One Show - WATCHDOG – Ford Ecoboost