Focus Timing Belt Replacement

Focus Timing Belt Replacement

Author
Discussion

bigmanszetec

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

214 months

Wednesday 7th March 2007
quotequote all
The Haynes manual reccommends changing the cambelt at about 37,500 miles, but that seems a bit low to me.
What do you guys recommend, as my car's going to be soon approaching 65,000 miles, and it does do quite a lot of short, stop/start journeys.

Cheers
Will

ChrisRS

1,787 posts

224 months

Wednesday 7th March 2007
quotequote all
On my old 1.6 i had it done at 75k, think Ford say 100k but don't think it's worth the risk.

Current daily hack (03' 2.0 Zetec) has 50k on clock, not been done yet but will have it done before too long.


To be honest i'd get yours done, i payed £75 for mine doing on the 1.6 (Local mechanic needed some beer money), think Ford charge about £250.

ChrisRS

bigmanszetec

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

214 months

Wednesday 7th March 2007
quotequote all
Cheers Chris,

Its due for a service at easter, so I may as well get it done then. I thought Haynes were a bit premature with it, but like you say, I wouldn't really want to wait until 100K.

Will

plfrench

2,891 posts

275 months

Thursday 8th March 2007
quotequote all
I had mine done at 100k. Ford wouldn't recomment 100k lightly. It'll have been thoroughly tested to last that long with a pretty large safety margin built in. If you have had a car serviced as it should be on time with accordance to the schedule, and it's cambelt failed early, then Ford would be in hot water. I wouldn't worry about it.

Mattt

16,663 posts

225 months

Thursday 8th March 2007
quotequote all
Your belt should be fine until 100k, however the tensioner won't be.

I would recommend getting the tensioner done at 80k at the latest, perhaps even towards 70/75 if you have the spare cash. The thing then is, while you are doing the tensioner, you may as well do the belt

Evocator

227 posts

251 months

Friday 9th March 2007
quotequote all
I had a cam belt go on a focus outside of the manufacturer’s warranty.

I did some investigation on the Ford website and it stated it should be changed every 10 years or 100K miles. The ford garage wanted a fortune to do the work and that it wasn't covered by Ford. I pushed a little and asked the dealer to escalate it to Ford and they ended up doing a full top end rebuild to discover the damage sustained on the bottom end.

Two weeks later and I had what was effectively a new engine and all covered by Ford UK.

This by far the best approach to customer service I have experienced from any car manufacturer to date.