Ford Repair Guides

About Ford Maintenance

Ford guides here cover cambelt and water pump replacement on the Focus 1.6 TDCi Duratorq, clutch master cylinder replacement on the Fiesta, pollen filter replacement on the Fiesta, Kuga, and Transit, brake jobs on the Fiesta and Transit Connect, EGR valve service on the Transit 2.4, alternator replacement on the Transit, coolant loss diagnosis on the Focus, and headlight replacement on the Ranger. Transit Custom guides cover vacuum pump, clutch DMF, headlight bulb, and a full maintenance reference guide.

The engine every Ford owner in the UK needs to understand is the 1.0 EcoBoost, fitted to millions of Fiestas, Focuses and Kugas. Its cambelt runs inside the engine oil - a wet belt - and as the belt ages it can shed material into the oil pick-up, starving the engine of oil pressure. Change it by age, not just mileage: treat eight to ten years as the absolute limit, sooner if the service history is patchy, and use only the exact specification of oil at every service because the wrong oil accelerates belt wear. Early EcoBoost engines also had coolant loss issues from the degas hose and, on the earliest cars, the cooling system itself - so make checking the coolant level a weekly habit. The Focus coolant loss guide above shows how to trace a leak properly before condemning anything expensive.

On the diesel side, the 1.6 TDCi covered in the cambelt guide above is a solid engine with one famous weakness: turbo failure caused by carbon blocking the turbo oil feed pipe. The fix is prevention - strict annual oil changes with the correct oil, and replacing the feed pipe whenever a turbo is changed. The DPF on all the small TDCi and EcoBlue diesels needs regular motorway running; a diesel Fiesta or Focus that never leaves town will eventually clog its filter. Transits work hard for a living, and the jobs covered above - EGR valve on the 2.4, alternator, vacuum pump and the clutch with its dual mass flywheel on the Custom - are exactly the items that wear when a van spends its life loaded. Clutch judder or a rattle at idle on a high-mileage Custom is almost always the DMF making itself known.

Fords are the cheapest mainstream cars to keep on the road in Britain, full stop. Because the Fiesta, Focus and Transit have been best-sellers for decades, every motor factor stocks pattern parts at rock-bottom prices, and the OE suppliers - Motorcraft, Bosch, INA, LuK - sell the same components fitted on the production line for far less than dealer prices. At MOT time the usual advisories are front lower arm bushes, anti-roll bar drop links and corroded brake pipes on older examples - all simple, cheap fixes covered by basic tools. If you are learning DIY maintenance, there is no better-supported car to learn on than a Ford.