All the Ecoboost have issues. But yeah, that 3 cylinder is specifically terrible.

2.0 Ecoboost as fitted to my Focus ST here. Oil changed every 5000 klms with fully synthetic SP grade oil, being GDI turbo I don’t lug the engine in 6th from ~2200 RPM onwards when accelerating on the freeway (I always change down to fifth in the instance I’m really loading up the engine). Just ticked over 125,000 klms without a single issue. Granted the 3 cylinder engine is problematic with it’s wet timing belt, but I’ve had no problem with the 2.0 EcoBoost.

Wet timing belt!? Gets irrationally angry

Wet belt?

Ye

Wet belts are something where I get the theory behind it, reduction in friction losses leads to efficiency increases, but it shouldn’t be implemented in practice because oil eats rubber, just use dry belts or chains like everyone else, or even geartrains like heavy truck engines or high-RPM race engines use, the idea behind geartrains for the former being greater long-term reliability than belts or chains, and the idea behind them for the latter being better responsiveness at high RPMs.

I get why manufacturers did it.Wet belt perishes outside warranty or after the lease contract ends. Customer ends up footing the bill and increased cost over a dry belt. Lower emission under test conditions for regulatory compliance.

This being said, I just replaced the belt on my vw at less than 150k km/ 93k miles and coming up on 10 years. VW recommends it. Some markets they recommend replacing it much sooner. That’s arguably a shorter interval than some wet belts. But it is much cheaper to replace than a wet belt, much much cheaper than a new engine, so a no brainer. (400E/$)

I’ll be glad to move to an electric car. Hopefully be able to avoid some of that nonsense.

And whatever efficiency increases you get from the friction loss reduction that wet belts offer are minuscule to boot, and probably won’t even show up on your fuel bill, I’m pretty sure Ford went this route with the 1.0 EB just to appease bean counters and the EPA.

That said, the idea to use an unbalanced flywheel to functionally replace a balance shaft and reduce engine weight is kinda cool, ngl.

I owned a Citroen with a 1.0TSI engine that was supposedly more efficient than the 1.4TSI in my VW. In reality the VW was and still is far more fuel efficient, even though it’s a significantly more powerful engine. Could be that the Citroen was shaped like a brick though. LOL.

i hear its transmissions, even the manuals, are sealed and don’t allow for regular fluid changes. that’s atop of the cylinder head wet belt or whatever issues these are known for.

talk about planned obsolescence right there.

Nah, fluid changes are no biggie, but for wet timing belt replacement you have to take half the engine apart. If you don’t, the engine might seize up doing 90 on the freeway giving you a generous 5 seconds to react after the oil pressure light comes on.

wait is the wet belt also running the oil pump? that’s worse than i thought.