Wet belts, why?

[E-bmw]

Just wondering.

I am currently looking to upgrade our motorhome & Fords keep coming up but due to their wet belt system I just will not ever be interested in one.

Reason?

My theory being that due to the fact that I would insist on ONLY Ford servicing & the cost of replacement every 6 years I am estimating that the ADDITIONAL servicing costs over a 6-year belt-cycle would be around £3000.

That is ADDITIONAL over the servicing/belt change on the ubiquitous Boxer/Ducato base vehicle.

This has got me thinking as I cannot for the life of me come up with a positive to the wet-belt engine, but surely the likes of Ford wouldn't use them unless there are benefits.

Does anyone know what they are?

[Jack91F]

I saw a video on YouTube saying a belt in oil allowed the engine to run more freely thus improving economy. However they did the maths and it was only 1% more efficient.

Don’t know how factual this is though.

[Maxdecel]

Is 6 year change schedule correct ? Seem to recall the 3cyl eco boost was 100,000mls/10 years. It occurred to me the cost of replacement would exceed the value of a 10 year old Fiesta or very near make it non viable.

[Athlon]

You are not getting 110K out of those belts unless you are very lucky, in the meantime they start to break up and bugger up the vac pump and block the oil strainer and starve the bearings!

At our place there are transit engines everywhere! Some folk change the oil twice a year and the belt every 30K and they seem to be making it, although part of the change is dropping the sump and changing the strainer. Altogether an bit of a disaster as engines go.

[MC Bodge]

Jack91F said:

I saw a video on YouTube saying a belt in oil allowed the engine to run more freely thus improving economy. However they did the maths and it was only 1% more efficient.

Don’t know how factual this is though.

I believe that it allowed the 1.0 Ecoboost to squeek below 100g CO2/Km on the official tests.

We have one. It had always been serviced correctly by a Ford main dealer before we had it.

When the belt was changed at 70K miles it was in good condition.

I have subsequently used the correct oil and expect the engine to last the life of the car.

[Dazdot]

We have a Ford Transit 2018 (one of five), it was recalled in Dec 2021 and was given a new engine under warranty. This new engine had covered just over 30k miles when the wet belt snapped in November 2024. It had oil and filters changed at or just over 9k miles. We have all the receipts (luckily) and have managed to get Ford to contribute 20% towards the cost to replace again. We will be selling this van within12 months of getting it back and don't think we will trust Ford again for a long time.

[stevieturbo]

E-bmw said:

Just wondering.

I am currently looking to upgrade our motorhome & Fords keep coming up but due to their wet belt system I just will not ever be interested in one.

Reason?

My theory being that due to the fact that I would insist on ONLY Ford servicing & the cost of replacement every 6 years I am estimating that the ADDITIONAL servicing costs over a 6-year belt-cycle would be around £3000.

That is ADDITIONAL over the servicing/belt change on the ubiquitous Boxer/Ducato base vehicle.

This has got me thinking as I cannot for the life of me come up with a positive to the wet-belt engine, but surely the likes of Ford wouldn't use them unless there are benefits.

Does anyone know what they are?

Because, sometimes, often, the odd time, the designers are just plain f'ing stupid, and there isn't anyone around to tell them to wise up.

Wet belts are much like climate bullst....

[stevieturbo]

And whatever their schedule for change is, half it. Because there is every likelihood that around 75% of the schedule, it will fail.

As another said, there are a few videos on Youtube about it.

[Maxdecel]

Ford said said:

the engine underwent 3.4 million miles of endurance testing during its development.

That was time & money well spent then !
Seems "....the set up enhances efficiency" It was 10 Years/150K originally. What a cock up.
https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/ford-ecoblue-timi...
Assuming this is the engine in question ?

[Huntsman]

Maxdecel said:

That was time & money well spent then !
Seems "....the set up enhances efficiency" It was 10 Years/150K originally. What a cock up.
https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/ford-ecoblue-timi...
Assuming this is the engine in question ?

3.4 million miles is 34 vehicles doing 100k. Not much of a sample!

Then they sold hundreds of thousands of them, even 5% failure rate is a big problem.

[Master Bean]

Get a proper 7.3 V8 motorhome. Push rod reliability etc.

[stevemcs]

Out of the Transits that we have done the belts on none have been anywhere close to snapping, it’s not a bad job, it’s just made more expensive because you have to replace the sump and belt cover, well you don’t but given they are sealed on they will leak if you reuse them.

Price wise, yes expensive but I’ve just priced a fiat engine up and that’s over £1000 using genuine belts

The rwd transit is a pain if the fan doesn’t come off and the fwd is a pain as there is not enough clearance for the water pump to come out easy.

Ford have also switched back from the 0w30 to the old 5w30 Synta Z.

[Maxdecel]

stevemcs said:

Out of the Transits that we have done the belts on none have been anywhere close to snapping, .

Do you have any idea of mileage/age ? No doubt they'd reached somewhere near their recommended interval or was it a belt& braces job.

[stevemcs]

Maxdecel said:

Do you have any idea of mileage/age ? No doubt they'd reached somewhere near their recommended interval or was it a belt& braces job.

All over 100k, oldest was a 64 plate, newest 19 plate.

[Maxdecel]

stevemcs said:

All over 100k, oldest was a 64 plate, newest 19 plate.

Thanks Steve, interesting: obviously regular use and serviced to spec. I wonder in other cases the incorrect oil has been used due to ignorance or simply CGaF ? For instance driver checks oil, sticks a litre in as it was on min. after buying the first/cheapest oil he found in Aldi which isn't compatible.

[anonymous-user]

I think its one of those where, it wouldnt stop me buying the car from new...but wouldn't consider one second hand. Even with full Ford history, such is my distrust of main dealers.

Obviously its not an issue exclusive to Ford either.
Even a T6 transporter will have a wet belt driving the oil pump and a wet timing belt extending to PSA engines.

[Shooter McGavin]

OP, why would you insist on only Ford main dealer servicing?

I’ve never owned one of these but am aware it’s a pig of a job to do the wet belts, but plenty indies can do it far less than main dealer costs.

With all my vehicles I’ve always gone the independent specialist route once out of warranty and never had any issues.

[E-bmw]

Maxdecel said:

Is 6 year change schedule correct ? Seem to recall the 3cyl eco boost was 100,000mls/10 years. It occurred to me the cost of replacement would exceed the value of a 10 year old Fiesta or very near make it non viable.

Yes, they were originally 10 years & then after resultant failures Ford changed that to 6 years.

[MC Bodge]

Maxdecel said:

Thanks Steve, interesting: obviously regular use and serviced to spec. I wonder in other cases the incorrect oil has been used due to ignorance or simply CGaF ? For instance driver checks oil, sticks a litre in as it was on min. after buying the first/cheapest oil he found in Aldi which isn't compatible.

I suspect that many people do not have their cars serviced at the suggested intervals and some, when the car is out of warranty, will not have it serviced *at all*. The aged oil may contribute to accelerated degradation of the belts.

Others will not have had the correct oil in their engine.

Wet belts in car engines are still a bad idea.

[E-bmw]

Shooter McGavin said:

OP, why would you insist on only Ford main dealer servicing?

I’ve never owned one of these but am aware it’s a pig of a job to do the wet belts, but plenty indies can do it far less than main dealer costs.

With all my vehicles I’ve always gone the independent specialist route once out of warranty and never had any issues.

The simple answer is "in case it goes bang" at least they will have been the ones to ensure it had been done "correctly".

Yes, others can do it for less but if they were to use the wrong oil (for instance) because the apprentice topped it up, where would you stand?