Ecoboost Gamble - Should I Change the Wet Belt Now or Wait?

valueformoneydude1

So your prices tizerbelle are not too far from mine.. 
I had some other quotes back from local independents in the £1200-1400 region today..

valueformoneydude1

If anyone is still following this, I have found a local specialist who openly advertise these for £1400, so I have booked for the next free workshop slot which is in April.. ouch. Got some time to save for it before then!

There were various cheaper quotes but these seemed to be somewhat opaque to me in the sense that I got the feeling these were trade prices where one garage who can't do the work gets a price from one that can.  It was hard to nail down the exact price when calling phone numbers suggested from various facebook groups. 

Thx for all your thoughts! 

Raihana

Just for anyone who may read this thread

i have a Ford fiesta eco boost 2014 from new done 97000. Full service history  initially done with ford dealership, quote to change wet belt from my local garage Leeds £900. It is a day job and they will need to open engine to replace belt.

I hope this can help 

Mildly_Miffed

£900 is merely expensive - ~10hrs labour.

The equally-widely-derided PSA PureTech wet belt engine takes 2.5hrs. If the Ford Ecoboost really DOES take that much longer, then the issue is not just the belt.

On the PSA engine, it's cam cover off, accessory belt off, pulley off, and lift the belt out.

paul_c123

Mildly_Miffed said:

£900 is merely expensive - ~10hrs labour.

The equally-widely-derided PSA PureTech wet belt engine takes 2.5hrs. If the Ford Ecoboost really DOES take that much longer, then the issue is not just the belt.

On the PSA engine, it's cam cover off, accessory belt off, pulley off, and lift the belt out.

Have you done one?

Mildly_Miffed

paul_c123 said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

£900 is merely expensive - ~10hrs labour.

The equally-widely-derided PSA PureTech wet belt engine takes 2.5hrs. If the Ford Ecoboost really DOES take that much longer, then the issue is not just the belt.

On the PSA engine, it's cam cover off, accessory belt off, pulley off, and lift the belt out.

Have you done one?

Puretech?

I've not had actual hands on, but I have watched close-up as one was being done, yes. I drove it in first thing, and drove it out at lunchtime. 1.2T 130 in a Cactus. I gather the non-turbo is a LITTLE bit slower, but not much.

The belt that came out was 5yo and looked like new.

facade

Mildly_Miffed said:

paul_c123 said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

£900 is merely expensive - ~10hrs labour.

The equally-widely-derided PSA PureTech wet belt engine takes 2.5hrs. If the Ford Ecoboost really DOES take that much longer, then the issue is not just the belt.

On the PSA engine, it's cam cover off, accessory belt off, pulley off, and lift the belt out.

Have you done one?

Puretech?

I've not had actual hands on, but I have watched close-up as one was being done, yes. I drove it in first thing, and drove it out at lunchtime. 1.2T 130 in a Cactus. I gather the non-turbo is a LITTLE bit slower, but not much.

The belt that came out was 5yo and looked like new.

The ecoboom is a massively time-consuming job in comparison to the purecrap.

Gazillions of youtube videos on it, here is the first one on my clickbait list https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AndizzCzEpA

If a purecrap/ecoboom has started to shed belt material there is a lot more work cleaning out the oilways and feeds. The oil filter blocks up with belt material and the bypass opens forcing belt material all around the engine which blocks the minute feed to the brake pump, which wears out in minutes and fails......

(In The Olden Days you'd notice the drop in oil pressure on that round instrument with a pointer on, which was the first thing manufacturers abolished- now they have abolished the one that told you if the engine was overheating as well! I could do without a fuel gauge, as I have a trip meter, but no temperature gauge is virtually criminal)

I wouldn't touch either with my own barge pole, unless I was given one to drive into the ground that I could just scrap.

Mildly_Miffed

facade said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

The equally-widely-derided PSA PureTech wet belt engine takes 2.5hrs. If the Ford Ecoboost really DOES take that much longer, then the issue is not just the belt.

The ecoboom is a massively time-consuming job in comparison to the purecrap.

That's kinda my point.

The issue here is not the concept of a wet belt.
The issue is that the Ford engine is very poorly designed for maintainability.

As for the concept of a wet belt - remember that there's been a LOT of engines with wet belts driving the oil pumps, for a couple of decades now, with no scheduled maintenance interval.

Bigphil1474

My Peugeot has a wet cambelt, replaced on it's 6 year service last year, cost £250 in labour and parts were about £150 from memory. 

valueformoneydude1

Mildly_Miffed said:

facade said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

The equally-widely-derided PSA PureTech wet belt engine takes 2.5hrs. If the Ford Ecoboost really DOES take that much longer, then the issue is not just the belt.

The ecoboom is a massively time-consuming job in comparison to the purecrap.

That's kinda my point.

The issue here is not the concept of a wet belt.
The issue is that the Ford engine is very poorly designed for maintainability.

As for the concept of a wet belt - remember that there's been a LOT of engines with wet belts driving the oil pumps, for a couple of decades now, with no scheduled maintenance interval.

I work in the automotive world.
 
It's very likely that Ford thought when they designed the 1L EcoBoost that the belt would last the life of the engine; that's originally what was said when the EcoBoost was released. If the belt lasts the life of the engine, then there's no need to plan any way of maintaining it. 

Of course it's not quite turned out like that. Whatever testing Ford did to justify to themselves the belt would last the life of the engine was seriously flawed. 

In my opinion, wet belts are fine for small things - oil pumps, stuff like that.
However, stressing it and using it to drive camshafts and high pressure fuel pump, not such a great idea.