1.0 Ecoboost Fiesta - what to look out for

[Legend83]

In our hunt for low-cost motoring for the wife a 1.0 Ecoboost Fiesta with 74k on the clock has come up in budget. I know nothing about these engines other than they were well regarded on release and are in a lot of Ford cars so I shouldn't be too worried...however reading on line there are several instances of turbo and cooling failure.

Is there anything I should specifically check / questions I should ask when I go and view it? It is a private sale so obviously no warranty back-up...

[bungz]

Limited knowledge but:

Early ones had a plastic cooling return to the expansion, went brittle and snapped. No low coolant sensor so cooked engines.

5 Speed boxes are not as strong as the later 6 speed ones, especially if you fancy a cheeky map.

They have a "belt in oil" config for the timing belt. Was originally supposed to last the life of the vehicle but these dayco belts do degrade, ford retrospectively changed the interval to 150K or ten years AFAIK.

Personally wouldn't trust that as they start cracking way before that.

Someone else will know more

[MarkwG]

bungz said:

Limited knowledge but:

Early ones had a plastic cooling return to the expansion, went brittle and snapped. No low coolant sensor so cooked engines.

Someone else will know more

Nope

That was the Focus, fixed for the Fiesta

Yep

[Legend83]

Went to see a car yesterday and this was a pic of under the bonnet. No expert but this was the pipe from the coolant tank into the engine...was a bit spooked by that corrosion on the bend!

20200308_125846 by Ed Reeve, on Flickr

[M4cruiser]

Legend83 said:

Went to see a car yesterday and this was a pic of under the bonnet. No expert but this was the pipe from the coolant tank into the engine...was a bit spooked by that corrosion on the bend!

Best build up your knowledge a bit by going to see a couple more similar cars and seeing if they're all the same.

[MarkwG]

Legend83 said:

Went to see a car yesterday and this was a pic of under the bonnet. No expert but this was the pipe from the coolant tank into the engine...was a bit spooked by that corrosion on the bend!

Just compared your photo with ours: @ 52k & 4.75 years, it's still as nature intended. That's right where the pipe joins the turbo, so is subject to extremes of temperature, but I'd get it changed or move on to another one. That's not the bit that fails, as far as I know, that was the plastic bit onto the coolant tank, & as above, the Fiesta isn't affected.