Ford Focus - 2009 Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi dilemma

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Sun 12 Jan 2014 12:17
Ford Focus - 2009 Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi dilemma - Sengoku

Hi. I've recently taken my Focus in for a service expecting everything to be OK.

Unfortunately I was told that the turbo was 'knackered'. I'm not the greatest with car mechanics but the chap at the garage showed me what the issue was. It looked like some turbine blades in a cylinder housing were wearing away. I was told it was a good idea to get it replaced as even thought it is working now it's only a matter of time before it blows.

After reading up on this infamous engine, my issue is that I don't want to pay for the turbo replacement if it's only going to go wrong again soon after.

I was thinking of part exchanging it while it still works and getting a newer used Focus (possibly the petrol ecoboost engine).

Any opinions would be welcome on this. Should I get the repair done and hope for the best? Based on everything that needs to happen for the perfect replacement I don't think Ford or an independent garage will be able to do everything correctly to replace the turbo perfectly.

The other option of getting an ecoboost petrol Ford isn't also straightforward. Is the ecoboost actually any good at delivering the quoted mpg? Are these newer Ford engines a lot better than the older generation? I don't want to pay out more money for a replacement car when the same thing might happen again.

My car has done roughly 68000 miles and I was hoping to keep it for a much longer time than this. I bought it new in 2009.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

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Mon 13 Jan 2014 09:53
Ford Focus - 2009 Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi dilemma - Oli rag

I suppose it would be a balance between the repair cost or the cost of changing the car.

A lot of people have had problems with this engine, but it may be trouble free for a long time if the repairs done properly.

Not sure about mpg of the new small capacity turbo petrol engines, lots of reports that economy is nothing like the figures advertised.

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Mon 13 Jan 2014 11:24
Ford Focus - 2009 Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi dilemma - skidpan

The economy of the ecoboost will be nothing like the official mpg figures, however, the real mpg of your existing Focus will be nothing like the official figures. We had a 1.6 TDCi for 5 years and got 45 mpg.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/ford/focus-2011 Look here for the eco boost, indicates about 41 mpg.

As a comparison I bought a Seat Leon 1.4 TSi 140 PS back in June, over the almost 7 monyjs it has averaged a true 45 mpg with which I am delighted. Shows that some small turbo petrols will deliver good performance and economy.

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Mon 13 Jan 2014 20:38
Ford Focus - 2009 Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi dilemma - Avant

Not just small ones. Skidpan's 1.4 TSI is an excellent engine, and so is the 2.0 TSI in the Golf GTI and my Octavia vRS. I've been to Colchester and back today (from Berkshire) and got 39 mpg on the way there and 40.5 mpg on the way back (from the trip computer, but having done some brim-to-brim checks this seems to be accurate).

Provided that there are no horrors to come with higher mileages, it's engines like this that may well become more popular with buyers at the expense of diesel - particularly if, as I suspect (as does HJ) that the days of diesels holding their valiue better than petrols are numbered.

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Sun 19 Jan 2014 07:56
Ford Focus - 2009 Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi dilemma - Sengoku
Thanks for the replies. There seem to be rumours that Ford have fixed the 1.6 tdci issues on the 2008 model onwards. Any truth in that?

I'm leaning to getting the car repaired now if the 2009 model turbo is OK to fix.
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Fri 7 Feb 2014 23:29
Ford Focus - 2009 Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi dilemma - Sengoku
Any help on the question above would be appreciated, thanks.
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