This Ford Fiesta Ecoboost was recovered into us after the customer noticed his oil warning light was staying on whilst the car was still running.
When we got the car into the workshop we always like to give them a quick start just to see if there are any other faults we need to look at whilst stripping it down.
In this case we noticed there was no vacuum assistance for the brakes and after a quick look at the vacuum pump i t became apparent there was a problem.
So, what caused this Vacuum pump to fail?
The rubber debris from the failing wetbelt had traveled through the oil galleries and managed to block the little gauze filter going into the vacuum pump causing it to starve itself of oil.
The engine oil in this particular engine had not been changed regularly and possibly not even been the correct specification oil.
Once we had carried out our wetbelt replacement process which in this case included a new oil pump and replaced the vacuum pump the car ran perfect.
We have recommended the customer has another oil change within 2000 miles just to ensure any rubber particles which we couldn’t remove will be flushed through the system and then removed.
It is becoming very apparent to us that most of the low mileage wetbelt failures on the Ford Ecoboost and Peugeot engines are caused by poor service intervals and incorrect oil.
Garages are using the correct grade of oil but not with the correct additives (specification) which instead of prolonging the life of the wetbelt is actually causing it to fail prematurely.
We urge anyone who has a car with a wetbelt to check with their manufacturer to see exactly what grade and specification oil is required and make sure their garage is using it, it may cost more in the short term but I can guarantee it will save you money long term.
When your engine oil warning light comes on most people just think the “the engine just needs a bit of oil!” but in some cases it can be a little more serious.
Imagine somebody restricting the the blood flow around your body and how that will affect your performance?
The same goes for your cars engine, if you restrict its oil flow you are causing un-necessary wear and stress on its moving parts!
In the case of any Wetbelt failure what happens is the rubber debris from the Wetbelt collects in the oil and gets sucked up by the oil pump and trapped in the oil pump strainer – watch the video to see what we mean.
Over time the oil pump strainer starts to become blocked causing less oil to be pumped around the engine and the oil pressure to drop.
Most cases the oil warning light does exactly what its supposed to do and warn you before its to late.
That was the case for this Citroen DS3, we got to it just in time before the belt failed completely.
The owner of this car has kept up with its service schedule as required (with another Garage) so all we can suspect is that the wrong oil has been used as it only has 53,000 miles on it.
This Fiesta was recovered into us with its oil warning lamp on and a horrendous noise coming from its engine.
Once we had stripped the engine we could see the cause of the noise, the inlet cam pulley had been starved of oil which was allowing excessive free play (variable timing pulley) which as you can imagine is not great when the engine is running!
The cause of the oil starvation was quiet apparent when looking at the oil pump pick up, it was completely blocked with rubber debris from the failing wet belt.
The customer was very honest with us and admitted she had not had the car serviced regularly which would of allowed some of the rubber to be cleaned out with an oil change instead of blocking the oil pump.
This Ford Transit came into us with its Engine Management Light (EML) on and running in Limp Mode, after a quick diagnostic plug in we could see that the DPF soot content was well over 100% and it was unable to carry out a dynamic regeneration.
Vehicles with DPF’s require a long run at least once a fortnight to allow for a Dynamic Regeneration of the DPF.
We cleared the codes and attempted to carry out a static regeneration of the DPF which again was unsuccessful.
By monitoring the voltage of the exhaust temperature sensors we could see there was no change during the whole procedure and the exhaust temperature didn’t go above 170 degrees.
The first thing to check at this point is the Diesel Vaporizer which is located in the exhaust front pipe (normally seized).
Once we had removed the Vaporizer it was obviously blocked (see video).
We cleaned the Vaporizer and made sure the feed pipe wasn’t blocked and also checked the heater element was working by spraying WD40 into the Vaporizer and powering up the heater element with a 12v power probe, the WD40 should start to mist out of the little hole.
Next we refitted the Vaporizer and attempted the static regeneration again.
Success, the voltage of the temperature sensors dropped and the DPF temperature went up to over 600 degrees and you could smell the soot and carbon being burnt out of the DPF.
Lastly was a long road test to make sure it didn’t go back into Limp Mode and no codes returned.
This Ford Fiesta 1.0 EcoBoost was brought into us with its oil pressure warning light on and its engine sounding a bit noisier than it should.
After stripping the engine our previous guesses turned out to be correct, the wetbelt had been degrading (as they do over time) leaving deposits of rubber in the oil which were being sucked into the oil pump pick up and causing it to block subsequently causing low oil pressure.
OIL PICK UP FULL OF RUBBER
If this problem is left to long it can cause serious engine damage as it is starving the engine of its lubrication.
On this EcoBoost engine we replaced its wetbelt kit and oil pump belt and also decided it would be a good idea to replace the oil pump itself rather than clean out the pick up (as it was so bad).
Once the job was completed it was time to see if the repair had worked and turn the engine over on the key!!
Success, the engine started, oil warning light went out and it purred like a kitten.
WETBELT DEGRADED AND SPLITTING
We think the biggest issue with this particular engine was caused by a lack of servicing, we know the wetbelts degrade over time leaving rubber deposits in the oil but with regular oil changes most of those deposits would be removed from the engine and not be allowed to block the oil pick up.
This Ford Transit EcoBlue was recovered into us with a very hard brake pedal and no brakes which sounded like a brake servo fault.
To test the brake servo we removed the vacuum feed to it to see if it was holding pressure but instantly found out that there was no vacuum to it.
Tracing the vacuum pipe back checking for leaks or breakages to the vacuum pump we found no vacuum at all.
After removing and stripping the vacuum pump we could see the plastic internals of the pump had broken up into several pieces.
Vacuum pump
We replaced the vacuum pump and carried out a road test, everything seemed OK so we handed the van back to its customer.
Unfortunately the customer only managed about 60 miles before the exact same fault occurred again.
Once the van was back with us we removed the new (genuine Ford) vacuum pump to find it had broken up exactly the same as before.
We carried out an oil pressure test on the van and check for oil pressure up to the vacuum pump which all seemed OK.
After speaking to Ford technical services we were told this is know a known problem by Ford and is caused by ‘wet belt degradation‘, bassicaly the wetbelt is breaking up and the small parts off rubber are blocking oil ways and pick ups and intermitantly starving parts of the engine of oil, the main one being the vacuum pump.
The Fix
Even though this van has only covered 90,000 miles and is a 2017 and Ford recommend the wetbelt to be replaced at 144,000 or 10 years they are now saying they will not cover the warranty of the vacuum pump unless the wetbelt is replaced at the same time.
Rubber deposits
The first thing we did was to remove the sump to access the oil pump and check for the rubber deposits, we were amazed at what we found, we have been replacing the wetbelts on the Transit EcoBlue and EcoBoost engines for quite some time now but have not seen deposits like this before.
After removing all parts required to carry out the wetbelt and oil pump belt replacement we had to vigorously wash out all accessible galleries, pipes and engine internals.
Wetbelt
We replaced the wetbelt kit, oil pump belt, front cover and sump then ran the engine up to see if we still had good oil pressure, which we did.
it is not recommended to use oil flushes with engines that run wetbelts as this can also damage the belt so we ran the engine for 60 miles and drained the oil again to get as much debris out as we could.
Warning!!
If you have a Ford Transit EcoBlue or a Ford car using the EcoBoost engine make sure to keep on top of the servicing and use the correct oil, if you have brought one recently and have no service history get the wetbelt replaced as the consequences are very expensive compared to replacing the belts.
Ignore Fords recommended change interval and aim for 8 years or 80,000 miles, and even if you are not doing massive miles every year still at least have your oil and filter replaced as a preventative measure.
This little Peugeot 208 1.2 vti was booked in to have its wet belt replaced due to another garage noticing rubber in the oil when it was serviced.
”Make sure to use vehicle specific oil when Servicing”
Once we had stripped down the engine to access the wetbelt we had to fit the timing tools to the camshafts and flywheel.
Camshaft Timing Tool
When we removed the wetbelt you could clearly see its poor condition and by gently pinching the belt see the cracks.
Cracked Wetbelt
After replacing the wetbelt kit on any vehicle it is good practice to clean out the oil pump pick up due to the rubber debris blocking it and causing oil pressure issues.
Make sure to use the specific oil for the car due to their additives which help prevent premature belt wear.
The Ford 1.0 EcoBoost engine fitted to the Fiesta, Focus, B Max and some Ford Connect vans is ran by a wet belt (runs inside the engine) and Ford recommend it should be replaced at 150,000 miles or 10 years.
This Fiesta was 8 years old and had only done 80,000 miles and you can see by the pictures the condition of the belt and the debris inside the oil pump pick up caused by the failing belt.
Wetbelt cracked and ready to fail
Replacing the wetbelt and oil pump belt is a time consuming job, you have to remove about 90% of the engines ancillaries to be able to access the wet belt and to be able to fit the timing kit which ensures the new belt goes on in exactly the right place.
Wetbelt strip down process
Remove coil packs, fuel rail and rocker cover
Remove AC compressor, AC pipes, alternator and catalytic converter
Drain engine oil, drain coolant, remove drive shaft, starter motor and sump
Remove water pump and aux belt tensioner
Rotate engine to TDC and fit crank timing tools and flywheel locking tool
Fit camshaft timing tools
Remove crank pulley using a Torque Multiplier
Remove front engine cover
Remove wetbelt, oil pump belt and oil pump and inspect
Torque Multiplier
Normally we can just clean out the oil pump pick up but in this case we decided it would be a good idea to replace the oil pump whilst it was stripped down because it was so bad.
Belt debris inside oil pump pick up
There are several other seals and washers we replace when rebuilding the engine such as the block to front cover seal behind the water pump and the crank bolt friction washer (Ford advise fitting this due to early problems of crank slip).
New belt kit and oil pump fitted
Wetbelts are becoming a big problem in all makes and models of vehicles and we advise you get yours replaced well before the recommended interval to reduce the chance of failure.
Our customer brought his Ford Transit Custom to us with the clutch pedal a lot higher than it should be but the biting point was still ok?
A lot of cars and vans have a ‘stop’ for the clutch pedal in the form of a bracket or a rubber but in the case of the Transit Custom it is built into the Clutch Master Cylinder itself.
Once we had removed the Master Cylinder we could see that the operating arm inside had broken allowing the return spring to make the pedal sit high.
Clutch Master Cylinder
When we replaced the clutch master cylinder and bled the hydraulic system we could see the pedal was now sitting in its correct position and felt a lot more natural to drive.
