wet belt cars.

[johnakay]

I've had my ecosport now for about 4 years and considering selling it next year.
2017 model and its coming up to 8 years old ,they only suppose to last 10 years.
it has only 31,000 miles on the clock runs great but fancy a change.
service once a year with correct oil etc.
we don't travel far these days roughly about 6-7,000 miles a year(most longer journeys are done on my m/bikes.
looking on Ebay and other sights it seem that all small suv type cars have 1 ltr wet belt engine's.
why are they all small engines with wet belt if the belt deteriorate and block the oil pump thats the engine gone.
that's my fear.
am I over reacting you recon. what do you lads think?

 

[qwakers]

stay away from wet belt engines unless its under warranty....

 

[barracuda816]

Nope, I don't think you are over reacting. I wouldn't go anywhere near a wet belt unless you are either prepared to pay to change the belt much more frequently (like every 40k /4 years) or can/ will do it yourself.

I am not a fan of the trend to make small high power engines. But sadly there are not many good options these days.

 

[johnik]

i did a bit of research on these wet belts, seems if you use the "wrong" oil, ie not the specified make / grade the belts break down a lot quicker, the cost / time taken to do replacment would put me off so as others have said, best avoided if you can

 

[Trevorleach]

I think there is some merit in the so called wrong oil damaging the belt, I also reckon it is a get out of jail free card to hide how crap the wet belts really are.

 

[Wozzaaah]

One other theory is engine flush treatments causing belt degradation.
My Peugeot has a wet belt, had it changed last year and there was no signs of any degradation whatsoever.

 

[dobbslc]

Brother in law had one go bang in his Transit van. Cost him 8K
Poor idea poorly implemented.
I don't think you can even trust the dealers to put in the correct grade of oil, 5-30 or whatever fully synthetic yes, but which one???

 

[CompoSimmonite]

I've seen aftermarket suppliers are starting to sell wet belt to chain conversions for some vehicles !

 

[bourbon]

Wet belt on the transit connect went bang. Zero clearance engine as well. AA confirmed it. Scrap man called the same day. gone two days later.

 

[brightspark]

Brother in law had one go bang in his Transit van. Cost him 8K
Poor idea poorly implemented.
I don't think you can even trust the dealers to put in the correct grade of oil, 5-30 or whatever fully synthetic yes, but which one???

my van uses 0-30 oil 50 quid a pop everyone says use 5- 30 in much cheaper no thanks its not a banger and its that grade for a good reason

 

[m_c]

Correct servicing is key to wet belt longevity.

As I've said multiple times, all except one wet belt failure I dealt with, had either missed services or the wrong oil had been used.
And chatting to a couple dealers, they said the same thing. Last dealer I chatted to had just had a customer in kicking up hell that his Transit wasn't covered by warranty, but he'd never had it serviced in the 60k that he'd had it.
The other one failed after the engine had been overheated several times, and a cam lobe spun.

The issue is when buying used.
How certain can you be that the engine has been serviced correctly, and that nobody has ever put an engine flush through it?

 

[m_c]

my van uses 0-30 oil 50 quid a pop everyone says use 5- 30 in much cheaper no thanks its not a banger and its that grade for a good reason

If it's a Ford 2.0l, there's a change point where Ford switched back to 5W-30, however it's a newer grade of 5W-30, with a different Ford spec to the old 5-30, but is backward compatible.
However those built prior to the change date should still be 0W-30.

 

[m_c]

Wet belt on the transit connect went bang. Zero clearance engine as well. AA confirmed it. Scrap man called the same day. gone two days later.

Old 1.8?
Where the lower chain/belt* should be changed at the same time as the upper belt?

*Ford switched between them, but they still had identical replacement intervals.

 

[Ubique]

If it's a Ford 2.0l, there's a change point where Ford switched back to 5W-30, however it's a newer grade of 5W-30, with a different Ford spec to the old 5-30, but is backward compatible.
However those built prior to the change date should still be 0W-30.

As I'm nearly sick of saying, not all oil of the same viscosity is the same, only the specification is relevant as that includes the viscosity - and 'meets' is not the same as 'certified to'.
Oil 'flushes', 'additives', 'improvers', etc. are specifically prohibited by Ford from use in wet belt engines, another little known 'gotcha' is VWG TDi engines use a wet belt to drive the oil pumps on most variants, these have also been known to progressively fail leading to sudden lack of oil pressure.

 

[m_c]

As I'm nearly sick of saying, not all oil of the same viscosity is the same, only the specification is relevant as that includes the viscosity - and 'meets' is not the same as 'certified to'.
Oil 'flushes', 'additives', 'improvers', etc. are specifically prohibited by Ford from use in wet belt engines, another little known 'gotcha' is VWG TDi engines use a wet belt to drive the oil pumps on most variants, these have also been known to progressively fail leading to sudden lack of oil pressure.

My gripe is those who use the term Synthetic, thinking it's some kind of magic spec.
Pretty much every modern engine oil is 'synthetic', yet there are multiple oils the same viscosity that are not compatible with each other.
A previous employer used Fuchs, and IIRC at the time they had over 15 individual 5W-30 oils to meet different manufacturers specs.
As a fleet operator, we stocked 3, and still often had to buy in from the local supplier for certain vehicles.

 

[brightspark]

just looked it up. as i thought 0-30 is better for cold starts and lubricates a lot quicker than 5-30 being thinner. at running temperature both do the same job

 

[Bobupndown]

am I over reacting you recon. what do you lads think?

Nope. Wouldn't have one near me. Stupid design with predictable results. Don't trust that dealers won't chuck whatever oil they buy the cheapest into it. Sell it and sleep easy.

 

[sg66]

I know 2 folk who had ecoboost fiesta go pop, can't verify service of either but they were not old cars.

Niece had her Peugeot go just outside of warranty, full service history with pug, under 30k miles, they sorted that as a gesture of good will.

Friends work ford went bang under warranty with 40k on the clock, they had the others looked at and one was saved from destroying the engine more than it was already.

Everyone says ohhhh it's the wrong oil well that appears to extend to main dealers.

They created a problem that never existed.

 

[roblane65]

, another little known 'gotcha' is VWG TDi engines use a wet belt to drive the oil pumps on most variants, these have also been known to progressively fail leading to sudden lack of oil pressure.

you beat me to it , all the smug one's " I wouldn't have a wet belt " when little do they know whats lurking in the bottom of the engine

 

[julianthegypsy]

My local very reliable garage told me that they've changed dozens of wet belts and every time the oil pump strainer is clogged solid with rubber .