Has it been regularly serviced and oil checked regularly?

It was due a full service earlier this year but had put it off because of lock down, otherwise yes fully serviced up until then.

When did you last check the oil?

I can't say I remember doing it recently...likely to have been at it's last MOT September last year.

What was the mileage at the last service? What was the oil level on the dipstick when you broke down? Had you needed to top up the oil since the last service?

Last service at 36,000 miles. I didn't check but garage tells me level is ok. No top up required since last service.

Bit puzzled by this thread. We got a couple of posters up top who seem pretty confident in writing off the engine, yet if there was a diagnosis stated, I missed it.

Since the OP's failure to check his oil level (maybe consider an electric car next time?) isn't a factor, I assume this is felt to be an oil pump failure, and a known generic fault.

Is this correct?

Edited by edlithgow on 27/08/2020 at 05:52

These engines run a bio belt . Cam belt runs in the engine oil . Very commonly what happens is the belt de-laminates and the fibres clog up the oil pump intake . This results in oil starvation to the engine with resulting low oil pressure and variable camshaft codes .

Ah...PROGRESS.

Who on earth ever thought that it would be a good idea to run a cambelt in engine oil??!!!

Probably helps prevent the more intrepid DIY owner who would change their own dry cambelt, much more involved job when there's oil seals and gaskets involved.

If its going to run in oil why not go the distance and design in a rugged duplex timing chain instead.

Lots of fairly recent chain cam engines have had problems with wear and disintegrating chain guides

All that shows is that any design can be made unreliable with long enough service intervals and scrimping on materials. Give me a quality chain design any day.

These days I'd rather have a cambelt than a chain. Lots of fairly recent chain cam engines have had problems with wear and disintegrating chain guides. Duplex would be overkill - even my W12 has only a single chain to each twin cam bank of six cylinders from the duplex driven intermediate shaft. In this engine's nearly twenty years of existence I have never come across chain failure...yet.

Merc duplex designs seldom if ever gave a moment's trouble for the life of the vehicle, the 1.8 engine, they sourced from Mitsubishi apparently, had a single chain which was prone to stretching so they usually ended up needing a new chain and guides around the 80k mark, i can still hear my thoroughly disgusted MB indy chuntering at length about such cost cutting measures, which only served to cost owners more in the long run to fix something that wouldn't have needed fixing had it been designed properly in the first place.

I too am quite happy with standard (dry) cambelts, given they are on north south engines and designed by engineers, bean counter influence unwanted , to be driving the camshafts and as little else as possible, and are simple cheap replacements...the belt on my Toyota 3.0D4D has to be one of the simplest belt changes ever designed, 1 hour first time for a competent DIYer, some £100 buys the full kit only requiring a couple of standard sockets one Allen socket and a spanner to complete the task.

An accountants idea.

Cheaper for the first owner who never has a cambelt to change, good selling point.

Good for the manufacturer as like a chain its a 'fit for life part'. Life in this case being 10 years, 150,000 miles. Except most Fiesta drivers probably do half that in 10 years.

Once it fails after 8-12 years the life of the engine is over as it will be too expensive to fix.

Ford can sell a new car!

Ford look to cost cut to the limit.

Their record with new to them technology is ABYSMAL

See Ford CVT gearboxes..

1.0 Ecoboost engines

etc

Good for the manufacturer as like a chain its a 'fit for life part'. Life in this case being 10 years, 150,000 miles.

It's surprising how long a dry cambelt can last. I am pretty certain my Pug 306 had its first cambelt change at 76K and 25 years.

I'd be surprised if belts didn't last long, especially the modern aramid belts. When people say 'the cambelt broke' it's usually because something the cambelt drove failed and destroyed a perfectly good cambelt. I have never changed a cambelt, apart from an old Passat GL5 when the water pump failed at well over 100,000 miles and it would have been foolish not to have replaced it at the same time. Our old Focus cambelt is nearly twenty years old and just a few thousand miles short of its 150,000 mile design life. It will probably still be OK as it's had an easy life (auto transmission). If anything needs replacing it would be the tensioner pulley. The fan/alternator belt on my TR7 is forty years old. The African elephant skin belt on my jeans is even older.

Edited by John F on 28/08/2020 at 12:29

Who on earth ever thought that it would be a good idea to run a cambelt in engine oil??!!!

Honda. I've got a GX35 SOHC 35 cc four stroke strimmer/brushcutter with an oil immersed timing belt.

1.3 hp @ 7000 rpm - it holds 0.1 litre of oil. It's also got a plastic camshaft!

Never any bother or any sign of wear or deteroration.

Reminds me of when cambelts were first introduced.

"Needs no maintenance whatsoever and will outlast the life of the car" I seem to remember the advertisements saying.

Manufacturers soon changed their minds about that when all the warranty claims started coming in!

Something else for consideration. Electric power steering racks are belt driven . How do feel about that ?

I thought most were an electric motor in the steering column.

Something else for consideration. Electric power steering racks are belt driven . How do feel about that ?

I feel pretty good about it.

I feel pretty good about most automotive technology, because I don't have most automotive technology.

Honda. I've got a GX35 SOHC 35 cc four stroke strimmer/brushcutter with an oil immersed timing belt.

We are an unusual bunch that frequent the backroom, i too spent a considerable amount of money but chose a Kawasaki two stroke strimmer/brush cutter, that too gives no trouble, though i replaced the original cutting line when it ran out with some much tougher semi serrated nylon line.

Most other people seem to buy cheap as chips strimmers instead and replace when broken.

Our Honda strimmer/brushcutter works hard for it's living, we've got about an acre and a quarter of land and about a third of this is a pinewood and rough brush and brambles, so it gets attacked once a year usually, the Honda just ploughs through it all with no apparent effort, and like you I use the heaviest line the spool will take..

That filter says lots of missed oil changes to me.

.

edit. second video comments

"

thecarlovers. channel

The car had covered 50,000 miles but hadn't been serviced for 35,000. As for oil level I can't say as it went to another garage before I owned it. I imagine they would have topped up the oil if it was low"

35k miles with no oil change!

Edited by madf on 07/09/2020 at 18:30