HJ
I currently and doing about 500 miles a week of motorway driving in a Fiesta Zetec 1.25, and have attempted to be meticulous with the cars servicing. As a result, I was taking the car to Reg Vardy (Rapid Fit) in Reading, on average every four or so months for the correct interval servicing.
On top of their appaulling customer care, every single service (10,000 mile intervals) the pollen filter was being replaced, the spark plugs were replaced at 30,000.
The other Ford dealer in my area, Gowrings, has an equally dubious reputation, gained over many years of lacklustre service. (Known even before I owned a Ford!)
Determined to begin to take control of some of these servicing costs, I bought a Haines Manual, (for the 1997 Model Year) and am determined to start with simple oil changes at 5000 mile intervals. However, upon reading the Haines manual, and the Ford Service guide, it states that spark plugs only need be changed at 100,000 miles, and the Pollen Filter at 20,000.
What is your recommendation?
On the question of the timing belt on the Zetec 1.25, what would be the right interval for a change?
All the best
Simon
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Ford originally said 5 years or 80,000 miles for the timing belt, then extended it to 100,000 miles. I'm not aware of any history of Zetec S engines snapping their belts prematurely, but they do have plastic timing belt rollers. The spark plugs do need to be changed every 30,000 miles (preferably the leads as well - they're cheap) and the pollen filter only needs to be changed when it's starting to get clogged up, which is time rather than mileage related. But your e-mail to me had come through to The Backroom so you're open to a lot more suggestions.
HJ
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pollen occurs once a year and if you take the filter out yourself and give it a good pounding once in a while it will last forever.If you change the oil often enough a good mineral oil along with the filter there is no reason why the car will not go on for along long time.We have a fiesta diesel that has now covered 310000km same engine ,one clutch and lots of oil
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Andy
Thanks - it's been waxoylled and resin coated, so a life expectancy of 310000 km's sounds good to me.
The pounding routine sounds easy enough, I can handle that!!
Appreciate the feedback!
Simon
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HJ
Thanks... brilliant site!
Talk about a fast reply!!!
All the best
Simon
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Sorry to disagree with Andy, but a pollen filter not only traps pollen but also dust down to a finite size. As such it is operating all the time the fan is on. I agree that they can be shaken clean, but for my Primera they are only £13.
Don't forget about the filter though, I took my car to a Nissan dealer for 3 years whilst it was under warrenty, and paid for the filter to be replaced every 18K miles as part of the servicing. However the car 6 months later, the car was getting stuffy and misting up in rainy weather, so I thought that I would replace the filter myself. On finding the filter (would you believe that you have to remove the complete glovebox !!), I found that it was caked solid with dust and I assume had never been changed, probably because it's a pain to get to.
Hopely it is easier to get to in a Fiesta, also Halfords now sell filters, which should be cheaper than a main dealer.
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13 pounds !!!
Pollen filters have a filtration rate designed to catch pollen for the asthma suffers of this world .pollen particles by air born particle standards are quite large and are quite easily caught.If you are bothered by pollen as I now many people are pull the polen filter out and cover the input side with a babys bottom wipe they are big enough for most filters .Change it once a week or two weeks ,no pollen no other fumes and costs zilch
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We change air intake filters every 15K, as per the service schedule.
They come out of every car completely black. I doubt banging them would clean them up much.
Yes, they filter out the pollen to a degree but all of the other c**p that gets caught by them can be quite startling.
Pollen filters were a 'Trendy' accessory back along - they are now standard fitment on vehicles with a/c and are now known as air intake filters or cabin filters.
David
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The pollen filter on our Xantia gets so caked up it reduces the airflow noticeable when it is coming up for replacement. This also seems to make the A/C not run as cool, presumably because of the reduced flow - shows it is actually doing something useful.
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