Hi all, after car advice and checking what options are: have a 2011 focus eat titanium x with 62000 on the clock. Had 2 incidents of overheating in the last 2 months – apparently a leak on the cooling system so it ran dry and the engine went into safe mode. Called aa they diagnosed a degraded hose (back to the header tank) which I replaced. On sat it happened again, so I took it to the garage. They tell me the engine is **** and it will cost £6.5k to fit a new engine! Seriously? F@@k me!! A quick webuyanycar quote valued the car with a good engine at 5.6k and without engine at 2.5k, therefore seems daft to pay for a new engine if those numbers are even close to accurate. So, sell it without engine? No idea what to do, and need a car pretty quick too. Wasn’t expecting this

Fit a recon engine.

Any ideas on cost etc for that? What about effect on value of car?

What engine?

Recon engine or one out of a write off. Depending on what’s available.
It’ll make your car worth more than scrap to have running engine in.

Sorry, no idea on cost apart from cheaper then new.
It really depends on the condition of the rest of the car. Is it worth spending money on it? Or do you cut your losses and start again?

Get a second opinion from a different garage?

Try engineengineering.co.uk for a quote.

+1. I imagine they’d happily take it off your hands or suddenly say ‘but we’ve stropped it down started work mate’. Get it elsewhere.

I can’t imagine a dead Focus being worth anything like £2.5k. I’m sure a brand new engine from Ford would cost £6.5k though. If it was my car I’d look for one from a breakers then I’d learn to keep an eye on my temperature gauge.

That’s a ridiculous quote for a Ford engine replacement.

What engine is it OP ?

Is it still running or has it cooked itself ?

It’s a 1.6l turbo engine. The rest of the car is in good nick, we’ve had it since months old, and had no plans to move it on. Thanks for the temp gauge advice, appreciated…

It was still running fine when I drove it to the garage!!

Recon engine and get a competent independent to fit it.

Engine blew on a Renault Clio we owned and managed to source a replacement for 800£ with only 19k on the clock. Cost about 500 for an independent to fit.

Depends on your engine I guess. Diesel or petrol? Diesel might cost more.

Short block. Any garage worth its salt should do this. We used to fit them all the time at Ford 🙂

Diesel ?

If it was still running fine when you took it to the garage I would be taking it away again to somewhere else for diagnosis

Oink1 can you explain – I don’t know what that means!

Petrol engine. It’s a top of the range focus, lots of toys for its age

+1 for getting a second opinion, especially consider that it was running fine when you drove it to the garage…

If it really is terminal then I’d also second the recon engine route – I imagine that there are plenty of written off crashed focuses around – if that’s the 1.6 Diesel there’ll be loads, maybe harder if it’s the 1.6 ecoboost petrol though.

BTW – a “short block” is the assembled cyl block, crank and pistons (a “long block” is the same but with the cyl head assy included)

It’s gonna be a ecoboost. I didn’t know that engine went into a Focus so it may not be as straight forward as the old Zetec engines,

I’m guessing the car is at the garage now ?

Yes it is an ecoboost petrol, sorry if I didn’t explain! Not in the best frame of mind! And yes it’s at the garage, I suspect in bits as they left me to think on things overnight, before the y try and get 6.5k out of me to fit a new engine! Thinks that’s not happening under any circumstances! Thanks all for thoughts and advice, this place is great!

If it’s a ecoboost speak to Ford customer services, there may be good will available as that hose is known as a design weakness.the one thing not in your favour is they do release recall bulletins. Unless you look for them you won’t know about them though.

If they have taken it to pieces without your permission they are in the wrong.

No problem, think my head would be mashed if I’d just had that news.

It’s a difficult one as, the way I read it, they have had the car since Saturday so, without wanting to worry you just being realistic, yes it could be in bits now.

The problem is if it is in bits getting it somewhere else for another opinion. I would be tempted to get down to the garage in person first thing tommorow if you can and see what’s going on.

I can second the advice above about short engines etc

OP, which part of the country are you in ?

Not exactly without permission as i knew they were looking for a cooling system leak. They phoned me yesterday and said tut was up to £570 as they couldn’t find the leak without doing the head gasket and that’s when alarm bells started to ring

If you can get the garage to explain the specific reason why the engine is **** that may help – feel free to post on here of course – on the offchance that they’re not playing fair then they may struggle to explain but if it’s genuine then maybe the hive mind can offer some help.

I’m always amazed at the breadth and depth of knowledge available here.

EDIT – I see you’ve posted since I started writing, although the advice still stands.

It shouldn’t take a new engine to resolve a coolant leak. Maybe a head gasket, combined with a head skim at worst. Of course the consequential damage of a leak can easily write an engine off, but in that case you generally notice (i.e. it’s siezed!)

Typical ‘in bits’ but then that’s only parts of the engine. It’ll still have its wheels etc on. Chances are they’ll claim they had to remove the gearbox tomorrow to look at/access for a better look?.. Get it trailered away. It’ll cost c£100.

I’m in Redhill surrey

See some of the reports here – split hoses, hot engines being turned off etc causing problems similar to what you face.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/ford/focus-2011/?section=good

Is the garage a Ford dealer or an independent?

It is a ford dealer yes. Why do I feel bad saying that!?

Well if anything, I’d be happier it is a dealer as, according to the links Matt OAB put up and what Hora had said, it’s a common problem.

I’d be seeing what they say and getting onto Ford customer relations about it. If it’s missed a recall or they know it’s a common fault, you may be able to come to some agreement.

As far as I know, most dealers are franchised so they won’t want Ford after them, I may be wrong though.

I’d still be down there first thing though….

A Ford dealer didn’t do a basic first check of pressure testing the coolant circuit? That would instantly rule in or out a head gasket blow. My second check would be compressed air via the spark plugs

But I ain’t a main stealer

I will be there first thing to find out what I can. Thanks for the stuff about common faults etc, too it’s really helpful. They told me first that they’d do pressure testing, it was after that that they said they needed the extra investigation. I’m going to bed with a headache now, to pick it up with ford im the morning. Thanks all, I feel much more knowledgeable than I did earlier, you guys are awesome!

Be quite firm (but not rude). Some reading and a FB group link: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=1446484&i=300

To be fair, a cooking episode can wreck both the head and the short motor, while the head can be skimmed and crack tested, it’s no guarantee that there is no damage evident that could come to bite your ass at any time in the future… If it’s got hot enough to evidence picking up on the bores or crank, I’d recommend a remanufactured full engine less turbo /anciliaries barring the water pump and timing chain from a specialist engineer

Modern aluminium head engines don’t take kindly to overheating, a head skim to fix it is back in the days of BL A series engines.

Temperature gauge – my Mrs genuinely didn’t know which one it was and when I pointed it out to her she had no recollection of ever having seen it before…..she’s been driving for twenty years and had that particular car for two of them!!

My Fiesta doesn’t have a temperature gauge so I’m guessing the OP’s Focus is the same.

They just tend to throw up faults on the display panel above the radio so it’s easy to not know its getting too hot.

Don’t know at what temperature the display will throw a warning up ? Hope it’s not like a oil warning light when it tends to come on when the damage is done.

I’ve got a Focus Titanium X of the same age as the Op which has a temp gauge. I have a habit of scanning my gauges as i’m driving.

Can someone enlighten me as to this?

I can second the advice above about short engines etc

“Short” means without cylinder heads, usually sold to racing car builders as they’ll work on the head or fit aftermarket ones anyway. But for an overheated engine the head is likely warped anyway, it’s the first thing to go usually, the rest of the engine is usually fine unless you got it hot enough to seize it (unlikely, it would be running like a skeleton having a **** in a biscuit tin).

If the original post meant ‘small’ block, then that different, that’s the smaller (relatively, Ford still made a 5.8l version) of the Ford v8 family (big block was the truck version). Then that won’t fit as it was never AFAIK made in a transverse configuration. I presumed it was a joke anyway?

Other than that I’d second getting onto Ford about it as it’s relatively new, and if no joy there have a look round the online recyclers as someone will be scrapping a car with that engine.