Ford wet belt engines

[Gas1883]

I was always under the impression these welt belts were only fitted to the 1.0 ecoboost engine , but neighbour was telling wife he’s had big issues with the wet belt in his Ford transit , I’ve not spoke to him about cars / vans but his van sounds diesel to me .
I’ve had 2 1.0 focuses with welt belt , was looking at retirement car of diesel kuga ( or electric ) but I’m starting to think if Ford diesels have wet belts it’s not the best of idea to get one , though to be fare other than loss of power at 90 k + on 1 st focus that was never proven to be wet belt related we’ve had no issues .but don’t want a lad of issues with retirement cars , so has anyone a list of what Ford engines have welt belt , what done , I googled & came up with all ecoboost / eco blue engines , is that correct ? . Thankyou .

[Richard-D]

It's definitely not that simple I'm afraid. Some ecoboost engines have a cam chain so that rule isn't correct.

Your neighbour's transit must be 2015 or later. I believe they moved to a wet belt when they went from 2.2 to 2.0l and still have one. I'm not convinced they're as bad as everyone makes out but I'm inclined to avoid them too. Whenever I buy a vehicle that's famous for a specific fault mine suffers from it. It does't matter if it's all blown out of proportion and only 10% fail, mine will be one of that 10%

[ZX10R NIN]

Gas1883 said:

I was always under the impression these welt belts were only fitted to the 1.0 ecoboost engine , but neighbour was telling wife he’s had big issues with the wet belt in his Ford transit , I’ve not spoke to him about cars / vans but his van sounds diesel to me .
I’ve had 2 1.0 focuses with welt belt , was looking at retirement car of diesel kuga ( or electric ) but I’m starting to think if Ford diesels have wet belts it’s not the best of idea to get one , though to be fare other than loss of power at 90 k + on 1 st focus that was never proven to be wet belt related we’ve had no issues .but don’t want a lad of issues with retirement cars , so has anyone a list of what Ford engines have welt belt , what done , I googled & came up with all ecoboost / eco blue engines , is that correct ? . Thankyou .

What car are you looking at & budget?

[Gas1883]

ZX10R NIN said:

What car are you looking at & budget?

Ford kuga diesel , budget would be 20 k , I just thought it was the 1.0 petrol ecoboost that had a wet belt .

[Gas1883]

Richard-D said:

It's definitely not that simple I'm afraid. Some ecoboost engines have a cam chain so that rule isn't correct.

Your neighbour's transit must be 2015 or later. I believe they moved to a wet belt when they went from 2.2 to 2.0l and still have one. I'm not convinced they're as bad as everyone makes out but I'm inclined to avoid them too. Whenever I buy a vehicle that's famous for a specific fault mine suffers from it. It does't matter if it's all blown out of proportion and only 10% fail, mine will be one of that 10%

I believe it’s a 17 plate , we’ve been lucky upto now with 2 x 1.0 focuses , but no doubt it will get us eventually , I just assumed Ford diesels were normal cam - belt .

[ZX10R NIN]

That will be a wet belt but you don't have to not buy one but make sure you negotiate/budget the cost of a belt change into your costings & then get the best one you can find.

Or take a good look at the diesel DS7.

[Fastdruid]

I believe there is one of the Ford diesels (I think its the 1.8) where they went from a chain to a wet belt, a number of owners retro-fit the older chain parts to swap it back to a chain again. There is also allegedly a kit for the Ford 2.0 TDDi/TDCi/TDi/Di diesel engines to convert to a chain.

Doing a search on it and I got this back:

Ford engines with wet timing belts include:
1.0L EcoBoost engine (since 2012)
1.5L EcoBlue Diesel engine
2.0L EcoBlue Diesel engine
2.2L TDCi Diesel engine
1.8L TDCi Diesel engine (European-market)

[Master Bean]

Just buy a petrol Kuga instead.

[b19rak]

Check out some of the repairs and maintenance these guys have done on wet belts.

https://youtube.com/@thecareditionltd?si=fOrgGRQFf...

[Dog Biscuit]

Buying a car for retirement and its a ford Kuga diesel - living the dream eh?

Joking aside, we looked at a Ford Ranger recently and the first thing the Ford dealer said was 'its the later 2.0 and has the wet belt engine'

I asked him the significance and he said its a question he always gets asked and a lot of people won't buy them.

Edited by Dog Biscuit on Sunday 9th February 07:20

[Venisonpie]

I used to run a fleet of vans, circa 40% Merc/60% Ford. The 2.2 Ford diesel was a match in robustness to the 2.1 Merc. The 2.0 Ford wet belt was a backwards game changer that led to a partial change of strategy away fron the brand.

A real case of when not if.

[Sir Bagalot]

b19rak said:

Check out some of the repairs and maintenance these guys have done on wet belts.

https://youtube.com/@thecareditionltd?si=fOrgGRQFf...

I was going to link to them.

[Richard-D]

Dog Biscuit said:

Buying a car for retirement and its a ford Kuga diesel - living the dream eh?

I bought a cheap 2.0 diesel Kuga a few years ago. I thought it was a brilliant car, drove well, plenty of power, comfortable, plenty of room but not too big for modern parking spaces. If the missus hadn't wanted something that looked flashier I'd have kept it.

[Joe M]

My family day got rid of a wet belt 2.0 Kuga. There was a lot of noise/clatter from the crank pulley area, wet belt done, crank pulley changed (it's a dual mass thing and fell apart) and another pulley was changed. Horrendous job and about £1500 for parts.
It was still noisy after the work.

[Old Merc]

I’ve had no experience with the Ford wet belt engines.
If they are anything like the Peugeot/Citroen Puretech engine, forget it.
Cam belts running in oil, ridiculous, they degrade and particles block the oil system.

[A500leroy]

I think the key to them is to half the service intervals of the belt and double the interval of oil changes

[Snow and Rocks]

A500leroy said:

I think the key to them is to half the service intervals of the belt and double the interval of oil changes

I think the real answer is not to buy one in the first place.

Lots of options without inherent crap engineering.

[Mr Mill]

Fastdruid said:

Ford engines with wet timing belts include:
1.0L EcoBoost engine (since 2012)
1.5L EcoBlue Diesel engine
2.0L EcoBlue Diesel engine
2.2L TDCi Diesel engine
1.8L TDCi Diesel engine (European-market)

The 1.5 ecoblue is a standard dry timing belt. The 1.0 ecoboost got a timing chain but when each model got that new engine varies between 2018 and 2021.

[soad]

Snow and Rocks said:

I think the real answer is not to buy one in the first place.

Lots of options without inherent crap engineering.

[Patch1875]

I recently changed mines on my 2016 transit custom.

For the last few years I’ve over serviced it doing it every year and about 10k and made sure the correct oil was used.

Belt change was about £700 at 70k mileage and apparently the belt was in as new condition with no signs of degradation so have been lucky!