Experiences of Ford Focus 1.8TDCI

[anonymous-user]

[redacted]

[SlowV6]

I say go and drive it from cold. It's the very old design that started out in Escorts and Sierra's I think as opposed to either of the Ford/PSA engines. It is a bit of an old-skool rattlebox as you might expect. Accepting this, does it idle evenly and does it pull cleanly from low revs? Does it smoke?

Does it have a long MOT?

Also, is it cheaper than you could buy on the open market? If not and factoring in relationship with your mate if anything goes wrong soon after buying it then I would be wary of mixing business and pleasure.

If the answers to the above are: Yes (even idle), yes (pulls cleanly), no (smoke), yes (long MOT) and yes (cheap) then might as well go for it. :-)

It won't be ULEZ compliant. I don't know if this is relevant for you?

If you are after a diesel Focus then I would personally recommend the 2.0TDCi with the 6 speed manual. We had that in non-DPF flavour in a CMax and I thought that was great.

[SlowV6]

Sorry - just re-read your OP and you state lending. In which case ignore everything I have written

Just give it back if anything goes wrong!

[stevemcs]

Most important is the cambelt and wet belt, some are chains, some are belts but you don't know what you have until you take it apart. To do it right its about £800

[ZX10R NIN]

They're actually a decent if gruff unit I'd say just give it a service & drive it.

[Fusion777]

SlowV6 said:

I say go and drive it from cold. It's the very old design that started out in Escorts and Sierra's I think as opposed to either of the Ford/PSA engines. It is a bit of an old-skool rattlebox as you might expect.

Sounds like you're talking about the pre-common rail TDDi. TDCi is common rail.