Fiesta timing belt change

Hi all,

The Fiesta is approaching 35k miles and I'm considering having the timing belt changed, so some quick questions - the procedure in the Haynes book covers several pages and involves getting the head off so I'm not doing it! :)

  • The Haynes book says do it at 40k - is that realistic and does it need to be done earlier if it's been driven harder than normal? I live in Milton Keynes and the car rarely leaves the city boundaries - driving here involves frequent accelerations to 60/70. As the Zetec engine is a bit sluggish under 3k RPM I very often use the 3-4k RPM range to accelerate, the power it develops during that range is quite surprising for a 1.25 litre and I have no problem keeping up with anything. The belt is much older than a typical for the same miles (6 years - original belt).

  • How much should an independent garage charge for doing this? I'll obtain the belt from Ford beforehand, don't want to skimp on something like that.

  • Is it worth having anything else done at the same time while the engine is in bits?

Cheers again,

Peter.

Reply to
Peter Spikings
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In message , Peter Spikings writes

The Haynes manual is talking bollox as usual. The official (as prescribed by Ford) interval for your car is 100k miles or 10 years. Do it at 80k if you want to err on the side of caution.

Reply to
Paul Giverin

My local garage charged just over 200 quid. They used a Ford belt it that they provided I think it was the first one they'd done as they had to buy the Ford tool to do it and it took two days! They said they enjoyed learning though.

Yes - the belt comes as a kit so the tensioners MUST be changed. Also worth doing the Auxiliary drivebelt as that's a bitch to do in itself as it drives lots of things and has very little clearance around it. Mine was quite badly worn, as was the cambelt at 70k although I bought the car second had with unverified mileage.

If you decide to do it yourself, beware the lack of woodruff key on the cam pulley and don't even think about trying to do it without the Ford tool - it's just not possible.

Tony

Reply to
Tony Brett

Pah! Chicken! What could possibly go wrong?

(If you haven't seen my recent threads of woe this joke is totally lost....! Anyway, back to sourcing a new engine...)

Steve

Reply to
Stevie

Stevie ( snipped-for-privacy@spam.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Strangely, I thought immediately of you when I read that one...

Fair play to you for laughing at it - I'm damn sure I wouldn't be.

Reply to
Adrian

OK, I can believe the Haynes manual has got it wrong but just found this:

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That says it's 72k-80k / 4-5 years in which case I'm overdue a change because of the age. Is the Ford maintenance schedule online anywhere?

Thanks,

Peter.

Reply to
Peter Spikings

That seems like a good price :)

Yes, the drive belt on mine whines ever so slightly when I accelerate hard in first gear so I got a new belt for it but then looked at how hard it's going to be to change and put it off :) The whine has gone now.

Thanks..

Peter.

Reply to
Peter Spikings

Yes I saw that thread. You have my sympathy ;)

Peter.

Reply to
Peter Spikings

The original interval for all Zetec engines was 80k, but this was raised to

100k some years ago.

For peace of mind, why not ring the service department of your local dealer?

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

Seems like a plan :)

Thanks,

Peter.

Reply to
Peter Spikings

Why are you so keen to accept guidance from everyone *except* from the people who built the engine?

The official recommendation *is* 100k miles or 10 years. By all means do it early on the mileage but don't do it at 35k just because its 5 or 6 years old.

Reply to
Paul Giverin

That was for the Silvertops though. It was never 80k for the Zetec SE AFAIK.

Reply to
Paul Giverin

I'm not, I just asked for the Ford maintenance schedule! :)

I'll check with Ford but looks like a change at 10 years (at which point it'll have done about 60k).

Peter.

Reply to
Peter Spikings

Yeah - I'm sure we all really feel for you. I certainly do as I'm only too aware of how easily that could have been me!

Tony

Reply to
Tony Brett

Anything coming from that Honest John wanker isn't worth a piss either.

--=20 Conor

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Reply to
Conor

=A3150.

No. Make sure they DO fit a replacement pulley kit as well for the=20 =A3150.

--=20 Conor

I'm really a nice guy. If I had friends, they would tell you.

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Reply to
Conor

I've just been quoted by a recommended Ford main dealer, a total of circa £250 (inc vat) for a cam belt kit and auxiliary drive belt for my 51 Ford focus TDCi diesel.

I'm reasoning that it's worth paying the extra rather than going to an independent garage, so that if anything does go wrong during a reasonable time period, then hopefully I will at least I'll have some sort of comeback.

Reply to
Ivan

It's not that much over the odds however don't expect any better=20 service.

--=20 Conor

I'm really a nice guy. If I had friends, they would tell you.

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Reply to
Conor

Tell me about it Conor, I worked in the domestic electronic service industry for many years, and some of the most poorly equipped workshops, often staffed with incompetent technicians, weren't always the ones run by small independent dealers!

Reply to
Ivan

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