Back in 1930 Ford needed 2lts to give 28hp in their Model A. I wonder what buyers back then would have said at the suggestion of a reliable 100hp from 1.6lts by the turn of the century.

You will have your answer after a few years, when the European Car of the Year award is a distant fading memory, and the actual engineering starts to make itself known.

Well small engines are nothing new and Turbo's will be Turbo's and go wrong. My SLK 5.4 litre engine like other big engines (Ive had) will most likely out last the rest of the car without issue, but then it spends most of it like ticking over at 1500rpm regardless of speed etc. Small engine needs more rev's and wizing up to 3000-4000 rpm on the motorway etc. Spinning faster means more ware and stress and more problems. Over the year this has been countered to some desgree by better quality and design.

The original Yaris had a 4cylinder 1.0 petrol engine. Notoriously tough even when seriously neglected. No oil changes tended to ruin the timing chain which cost (incl labour) c £500 to change... (factual) . 200k miles achievable easily with scheduled maintenance.

Neglect a turbo enghine and apart from a broken turbo, you may have bits of vane in the engine and oil in teh turbo air ducts and intercooler. So bills incl labour of c £1200,, (Guesstimate) or possibly more.

No idea bout timing bits..

Given Ford's proensity to cost engineer down to a minimum, I would expect other issues..

I see mpg in real life is c 40% below quoted levels.. Makes buying one an expensive pastime

Edited by madf on 19/05/2015 at 18:01

Why? Sounds reasonable to me. I have always thought the belt would last the life of the engine and have been mocked for my practice of applying belt dressing every so often. Perhaps we should be oiling them?

Have you perhaps considered that Ford has manufactured the belt to run in oil. Normal belts are damaged if contaminated by oil and must be changed immediately.

As for belt dressing it amazing how gullible people are. Had my first belt cam engine back in 1976 and since then i have never used any of these dressings. Just changed them at the specified intervals and never had an issue.

As for small turbo petrol engines I think they are great. The 1.4 TSI in my Leon is without doubt the best petrol engine I have ever driven. Diesel torque with a petrol power range with no lag whatsoever. At 70 mph on the motorway its doing 2500 rpm so its hardly stressed, had normally aspirated 2 litres back in the 70's that were doing about 4000 rpm at 70 mph and they lasted with no issues.

Edited by skidpan on 19/05/2015 at 18:39

I cannot really concur with the advise of dressing belts, a common theme for timing belt related issues on Ford Zetec-s and Zetec-e engines is the tensioner heating up and falling to bits. Putting oil on a belt in addition that is not designed to run under such conditions is likely to cause major issues, as contamination of traditional belts with oil makes them weaker.

If a belt is replaced with a full kit including the tensioner it seems to be the most sensible strategy in terms of risk.

They didn't test the 1.6 Diesel of Doom enough either, but not to worry hundreds if not thousands of disappointed customers did it for them, at their own cost too, excellent cost cutting.

If you have a spare day, you could read the several hundred post thread on this very forum.