What's the service history of the car? Has it been serviced on schedule? When did it start making the tapping noise, and how long has it been making it?

Unfortunately, random mechanical failures can happen even on engines that are fully serviced and driven carefully .... there may not be a definitive reason for the problem,

Edited by SLO76 on 28/04/2017 at 23:03

My Focus 1l Ecoboost was making a tapping noise........stripped the enginge to discover that the crankshift has broken up ........

??! More details, please. Any chance of a photo of the damage? The duff hose coolant loss is well known - is this another type of problem? Dodgy supplier to the (?Romanian) engine factory?

I find it hard to imagine any servicing items that could cause a crankshaft to break. Oil can’t , it may damage bearings, pistons or valves but break a crankshaft, don’t think so. If its broken its either fatigue, being overloaded or defective from the start which is by far the most likely. A look at the broken bit would give a big clue.

I assume there were on other clues that something was wrong, car running Ok with no noises. If one part breaks the increased stress will cause multipal breaks so all parts need looked at to identify where it started.

As a rule petrol engines use cast crankshafts where as diesel use forged ( much tougher ) Castings are prone to manufacturing defects like gas inclusions or impurities and are sensitive to the way they are cooled once cast. I would be fighting this with Ford insisting that Ford examine the part and pay for the replacement. It would take some other catastrophic failure in the engine to break a sound crankshaft. You need to have a go at Ford about this, they have the facilities to test this.

Edited by Stanb Sevento on 30/04/2017 at 15:52

Does no one rebuild engines anymore ? Firstly it may only need a short engine If the cylinder head and camshaft are OK And a crankshaft is not a particularly expensive thing. There are loads of engineering shops around that specialise in this sort of thing. You cant be sure exactly whats needed till the thing is fully dismantled but just going straight for a new engine seems a bit over the top to me.

If the car was still running then the chances are the pistons and conrods are OK along with the cylinder head and camshaft, all the expensive bits.

Things obviously have moved on since I did anything of this nature, 20 years,. it was a thriving industry at one time. I used to tune engines as a hobby ( long story ) and there was a shop in Glasgow called “Piston and Components” who’s counter only had a pile of reference books they could look up everything you could possibly need to rebuild an engine. Pistons , bearings, rings sets, valves, valve springs you name it, not just standard sizes but plus sizes for rebores and regrinds, and 90% in stock. You could drop off a crankshaft on a Monday and pick it up on a Wednesday reground and with the correct oversize bearings. Sounds like the dark ages now.

Mechanical reliability is better now inspite of a lot of the horror stories, better fuel, better oil, better oil circulation and crank case breathing. Better quality control is likely another but you wonder at times.

I’d say £1K is a reasonable guess for ex works cost, largely automated probably. Its amazing how these nightmare jobs like cam belts become a piece of cake when the engine is out of the car and sitting on a stand.in front of you.