wet belts - honda civic and ford focus

wet belts - honda civic and ford focus

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Discussion

semisane

Original Poster:

877 posts

89 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Brother is looking at buying Civic 1.0 VTEC Turbo 126 SR 5dr or Focus 1.0 EcoBoost ST-Line X 5dr.

I understand both these models have the wet cam belt which can be 'problematic' / cause complete engine failure

Safe to get one with full main dealer service history (correct oils used / cam belt changed at correct intervals) or avoid completely ?

Thoughts ?

Whataguy

1,033 posts

87 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
I’d avoid the civic, some have failed and taken out the engine.

Even if it lasts, it’s £1,500 odd every 5 years.

Peugeot uses belts in oil, they had issues to start but I believe the 2019+ models are fine. I was looking at 308s and it was only the early models that were a problem.

ZX10R NIN

28,381 posts

132 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Thoughts are that you should avoid all wet belts as they're a nightmare waiting to happen.

semisane

Original Poster:

877 posts

89 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
ZX10R NIN said:
Thoughts are that you should avoid all wet belts as they're a nightmare waiting to happen.
Wow a damming assessment- anyone got anything positive to say or alternate cars to consider ?

Zlat502

127 posts

43 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Kia Ceed or Mazda 3?

2fast748

1,146 posts

202 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
There are literally thousands of them on the roads in the UK, we had a 1.0 Ecoboost Focus for 8 years and had zero trouble with it, Dad has one amd has had zero trouble with it.

A lot of the youtube stuff shows most people don't know oil needs changing.............

Edited by 2fast748 on Tuesday 24th September 20:02

Mr Mill

37 posts

28 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
I think as long as it has a full service history (preferably main dealer because then hopefully the correct oil was used) - and the mileage isn't low for the age (apparently short journeys can exacerbate the issue) then you should be fine.

ZX10R NIN

28,381 posts

132 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
semisane said:
Wow a damming assessment- anyone got anything positive to say or alternate cars to consider ?
It may sound over the top but they're a type of engine I'd personally tell people to avoid, or if they really want that drivetrain they budget to get the belt changed (unless there's proof of it being done recently) not a cheap job but it'll add a lot of peace of mind & avoid the the chance of failure.

_Hoppers

1,380 posts

72 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
semisane said:
Wow a damming assessment- anyone got anything positive to say or alternate cars to consider ?
How about the 1.5 Civic?

AlwynMike

526 posts

94 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
There's a firm in Wakefield that specialise in Ford Puma's.
They say they are averaging 5 engine REPLACEMENTS per week for the 1 litre Eco Boost / Eco Boom engines in various Ford's.

TheWokeBlob

58 posts

15 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
semisane said:
Wow a damming assessment- anyone got anything positive to say or alternate cars to consider ?
You're unlikely to find anyone in or around the motor trade to have a good word to say about them, might get the odd "Mine was fine" but that's a sample of 1 Vs someone in the trade that will come across tens if not hundreds of units of them, with a large percentage of them being knackered.

As someone of the later, absolutely positively avoid. Last 1.0T civic I worked on needed a turbo AND belt due to the welt belt breaking up and blocking the oil pick up - 25k and 4 years old. Colleague at another site had the same issue on another.

As for eco booms? Bahahahaha. Utterly awful, I worked at a busy site but would come across 5-10 units each and every week with everything from knocking bottom ends, no compression, seized, head gasket failures and everything in between.

Peugeot with a wet belt were marginally less bad, but still nothing id advise anyone to buy.

Another vote here for the Mazda 2 or 3, really sweet little engine... Petrol of course unless you want to hear more horror stories (the 2.2d is another pile of junk)

Arnold Cunningham

3,885 posts

260 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
I suppose wet belt engines are one way to get people to switch to electric cars.

wyson

2,700 posts

111 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
_Hoppers said:
How about the 1.5 Civic?
Didn't that engine have oil dilution issues? Honda engines aren't what they used to be.

wyson

2,700 posts

111 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
What about a Toyota Corolla hybrid 2.0 with 190bhp? Proven engine and technology.

Djtemeka

1,873 posts

199 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
TheWokeBlob said:
You're unlikely to find anyone in or around the motor trade to have a good word to say about them, might get the odd "Mine was fine" but that's a sample of 1 Vs someone in the trade that will come across tens if not hundreds of units of them, with a large percentage of them being knackered.

As someone of the later, absolutely positively avoid. Last 1.0T civic I worked on needed a turbo AND belt due to the welt belt breaking up and blocking the oil pick up - 25k and 4 years old. Colleague at another site had the same issue on another.

As for eco booms? Bahahahaha. Utterly awful, I worked at a busy site but would come across 5-10 units each and every week with everything from knocking bottom ends, no compression, seized, head gasket failures and everything in between.

Peugeot with a wet belt were marginally less bad, but still nothing id advise anyone to buy.

Another vote here for the Mazda 2 or 3, really sweet little engine... Petrol of course unless you want to hear more horror stories (the 2.2d is another pile of junk)
Our Mazda 6 2.2d is over 130k now and no issues.

Regular oil changes and a rather expensive cam chain replacement at 120k. Other than that, no issues

ajprice

29,259 posts

203 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Smith & Sniff have been on this for a few weeks. They had info this week that the 'wet belt' is a design by a company who sold it to Ford and Stellantis, they didn't mention Honda but it may be sold to them too.

Simon_GH

403 posts

87 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Another perspective is that a Ford wet belt change is around £1k at an independent garage. It’s only £100 / year or every 10k (I was recommended 10 years or 100k miles interval]. Given the 1.0 ecoboost is low / free tax, it’s not an unreasonable cost.

I know a fair few people with the 1.0 ecoboost and none have had an issue - I appreciate this is a small sample. The key seems to be changing the oil on time with the correct grade.

For most cars, the wet belt change is a once in a lifetime event given the 10 year / 100k interval.

Edited by Simon_GH on Tuesday 24th September 21:49

TheWokeBlob

58 posts

15 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Djtemeka said:
Our Mazda 6 2.2d is over 130k now and no issues.

Regular oil changes and a rather expensive cam chain replacement at 120k. Other than that, no issues
Good to hear.

I've professionally had nothing but problems with them either carboning up the intake and diluting the oil and causing bottom end issues (on top of the aforementioned timing chain issues)... Glad yours hasn't been too much of a bother but when you start seeing the same issues repeating over and over on a particular car/engine its very hard to recommend them.

stevemcs

8,989 posts

100 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
The newer eco boost runs a chain and wet belt for the oil pump, why they cannot create a retro fit kit like they did with the old 1.8 tdci oil pump I’ll never know.

With the eco boost of the ones we have done those with a good service history have shown very little degrading of the belt. The ones with patchy history are the ones very close to failure.

Mr Tidy

24,327 posts

134 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Simon_GH said:
Another perspective is that a Ford wet belt change is around £1k at an independent garage. It’s only £100 / year or every 10k (I was recommended 10 years or 100k miles interval]. Given the 1.0 ecoboost is low / free tax, it’s not an unreasonable cost.

I know a fair few people with the 1.0 ecoboost and none have had an issue - I appreciate this is a small sample. The key seems to be changing the oil on time with the correct grade.

For most cars, the wet belt change is a once in a lifetime event given the 10 year / 100k interval.

Edited by Simon_GH on Tuesday 24th September 21:49
But then £1K is probably about 50% of the value of a 100K mile 10 year old Ford Ecobang, so by then it doesn't seem to make financial sense. confused

I'll just stick to my 2005 BMW 330i with a cam-chain.