Could anyone tell me if the 1.4 TDCI engine in a 2002 Fiesta is belt driven or has a timing chain? I have looked all over the internet and have not had any luck.
I'll be test driving one tomorrow that has 130,000 miles on it so, naturally enough, I was wondering about the belt/chain situation.
The trader wants £3295 for it and it only has a partial service history. I had a look at it today and my gut feeling was that it was in a fair and honest condition but if anyone can tell me particular things to watch for during the test drive I'd be very grateful for the information.
Patrick
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">Could anyone tell me if the 1.4 TDCI engine in a 2002 Fiesta is belt driven<"
I think it might be diesel driven.
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Frantic semantics ;-)
I should have said, " Does the engine have a timing chain or timing belt?"
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Isn't it the PSA (Pug/Cit ) engine? In which case I think it is belt. If so, should have been changed at 100k max??
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Phil
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i think it is, I had a look on wikipedia and it seems it was developed in conjunction with PSA.
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It definitely a belt on these - 10 years/120k or something like that. At 130k it needs doing unless its been done recently.
TBH a four year old small car with those sort of miles and potentially high repair costs certainly doesn't appeal at a price of over £3k.
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Thank you very much for the information. Based on what you have said, I will go along for the test drive, view the service history, ask him about the belt, haggle with him, he won't budge on the price and I'll leave.
In view of this, any suggestions for what I should be looking for in this price range?
I'll update on this early pm tomorrow.
Patrick
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TBH a four year old small car with those sort of miles and potentially high repair costs certainly doesn't appeal at a price of over £3k.
i totally agree in fact it doesnt appeal at all
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According to Channel4 car site the Cit C2 with 1.4 diesel has "cambelt changes 150,000 miles for diesel models,"
but that sounds a heck of a long time to me.
Perhaps you could negotiate a cambelt change on purchase just for safety's (and peace of mind's) sake? On the other hand, Cit diesels seem to have a reasonably good reputation in the cambelt area (if you see what I mean!)
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Phil
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Sounds like an ex driving school car. My dad has had two of these, his first did just shy of 100,000 miles without any problems.
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IMO any price over £2500 is likely to mean no-one with any commercial sense will buy it - and the seller is relying on a muppet to pay the full price (falling in love with the colour/spec etc.
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To be blunt it's a car that will be very difficult to resell and early TDCIs had a history of engine electronic problems (ECU reprogramming).
I'd run a mile.
madf
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Sounds like an ex driving school car.
SWMBO bought a '95 N reg 1.1 Fiesta (43,000 miles) when it was IIRC about 18 months old. Some months later, my mate pointed out the tell-tale sign that it was ex-driving school - i.e. the cuts in the passenger side carpet where the dual controls had been previously located!
Since then, all the usual 1.1 Fiesta things have happened to it (judging by the BR technical postings) - but, my son now has it, it's still going and on its original clutch at 111,000 miles.
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Perhaps you could negotiate a cambelt change on purchase just for safety's (and peace of mind's) sake?
I would personally go for a discount and get the belt done myself. That's after a botched belt change by the supplying (indie) dealer on the Mondeo where the tensioners weren't replaced and the belt was significantly overtensioned. In fact of the four things I found when I looked the car over (cambelt due, headlamp leveller not working, idle speed too low, air-con not cold), they fixed two properly (air-con and headlamp), and bodged the other two.
If you don't know the dealer, don't risk it. From now on I want sensible money off to get the job done myself, or I walk away. I might possibly bend this for a main agent because I can go directly to the manufacturer if they screw things up.
Cheers
DP
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I walked away.
Two stamps in the service book, one at 1008 miles, the next at 54k miles. No indication whatsoever of any other work done. The car was blocked in by other cars at his garage when I turned up at the appointed time for the test drive, and then he started talking about how the tarmac at the front of his premise had just been relaid so he wouldn't be able to get the car out anyway.
Now looking at an 88k mile 2003 03 Skoda Fabia 1.4 16v Comfort estate, for £3k. It is an ex company car. It drove nicely on the test drive and the air conditioning worked well. 2 small faults, both familiar VW ones, ie, the electric wing mirrors move in unison when trying to adjust the offside mirror and then the nearside mirror won't move at all and remains at an unsuitable angle. Also the fuel filler catch is out of commission. I remember having both these faults when I had a Golf. Just waiting for the trader to check to see if the timing belt has been replaced at the scheduled interval, but I am already much happier with this vehicle.
Still, any opinions would be welcome.
Thanks again for the earlier advice
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