[Holmsie]

Hi all,

been a member a while because of my ownership of previous mk2’s but having 2 children the misses wouldn’t allow another money pit as she described it

but long story short I picked up a used 2016 focus st3 with 39.900 miles 2 weeks ago car seems fine and to be fair I love it nearly as much as the mk2.5’s I’ve owned.

but long story short I took it to kms in Wigan to get a service as well as a once over along with a de res pipe fitted and to my surprise they commented saying “what made you get one of these” my response was, what do you mean? The fella said well have a look at this grey one and proceeded to show me a engineless car along with a cracked piston which also had a nice chip by the Ringland, then proceeded to tell me they are Quite unreliable and this is a common problem! The car was only on 37k andI will add that it looked heavily modified.

I have been looking all last night and today doing research trying to put my worries to bed but I’m getting very mixed results with some people saying user error and some people blaming dodgy re maps and setups along with people saying this has happened on a completely stock engine with very little hard driving.

I’m just after some advice or if anyone has had any experience with this themselves, I would prefer it comes from the horses mouth than he said she said sort of thing but I’m open to anyones input.

So my questions are:
1 how common is this?
2:how common is this on the facelift version?
3:what millage is everyone getting out these ecoboost/ eco boom engines as I’ve learnt they are called?
4:is there any preventative measures you can take other than not causing LSPI?

i apologise now if I have made any spelling mistakes and I know there are many threads on this but none that really have a straight up answer I am looking for.

Thank you in advance for anyone’s reply

Andy

 

[the radman]

i had around 70k on my mk2, another couple of mk3 after that and my current mk3 is on 49k and no problems with any of them at all

 

[jameo]

It’s not that common, you certainly don’t here many people on here suffering from it, lspi is the killer and as long as you drive with this in mind you shouldn’t have any issues, i along with many others have fitted oil catch cans to filter out the oil vapours from the crank case breather that can cause lspi ( and clog up your intake valves) so that’s a worth whilst investment but basically just enjoy it, don’t lug the engine and don’t worry about what hasn’t happened because unless you are really unlucky it won’t !!

 

[Holmsie]

Cheers for the reply’s lads I really appreciate it, yeah that was 1 thing that kept coming up is the catch cans and I’ve seen they catch quite a bit of **** aswel definitely worth an investment. if you don’t mind me asking what kit did you go for? I’ve also heard a few things about the mountune breather plate and intake manifold being a good option for the mk3 ST have you done any of these mods?

 

[trevorb]

You don't want to do things such as opening to wide open throttle at very low revs which cause engine to "pink"/pre ignition (which you should not do with any vehicle)
Here are some threads off the site (which you should not do on any veh)

Blown engine

I would be surprised if the ECU didn't keep logs of when configurations change, with filenames, dates etc. A log Ford apparently can read with some diagnostics tool most dealers not seem to have. Im not sure how far they would look into it.Obviously if you turn up at the dealers with mods...

www.focusstoc.com

Blown engine

I would be surprised if the ECU didn't keep logs of when configurations change, with filenames, dates etc. A log Ford apparently can read with some diagnostics tool most dealers not seem to have. Im not sure how far they would look into it.Obviously if you turn up at the dealers with mods...

www.focusstoc.com

 

[kiemuloly]

Did you get a cracked liner I'm your mk2's?

It's a "common" problem you might have heard of.

As I understand it ringland failure is the same, a horror story that many people with a 2l EcoBoost wouldn't even have heard of.

I think virtually every car has some sort of "common" expensive issue

 

[jameo]

I have the Mountune breather plate fitted and radium catch cans, I assume the breather plate helps but I can confirm that the catch cans still collect a lot of oily slime even with the plate fitted so maybe just fit the catch cans! As for the Mountune cast intake, I also have that fitted, it is a nice bit of kit but does ****** all for lspi reduction, it looks nice in the engine bay and no doubt has benefits for running higher boost and adding water meth or a 2nd fuel rail but at the end of the day it’s just an expensive shiney bit under the bonnet with negligible benefits unless you are throwing thousands of pounds at high horse power!

 

[sttwoton]

This after only 3k miles.

 

[Holmsie]

Cheers once again for all the reply’s lads I appreciate all of your input, tbf my mk2’s where hit and miss but that’s another story…. yeah I’ve seen that pic a few times with the 3k miles worth of sludge it’s crazy how much actually accumulates! The catch can is definitely going to get done asap as I’ve seen them recommended a good few times, am I rite in thinking there is 2 types of catch cans is it pcv/ cvv? I may or should I say be completely wrong as I don’t now basically anything about them other than they catch all of that **** you don’t want In your engine.
Are any of you near the Liverpool area by any chance??

 

[jameo]

Yes there are 2 types, the pcv attaches between the crank case breather and the inlet manifold and it’s that one that catches the most crud and the other goes between the cam cover and the intake (cross over) pipe before the turbo, I have both fitted to mine, definitely a must have imo, I’m near Bristol so not close I’m afraid

 

[Holmsie]

Yes there are 2 types, the pcv attaches between the crank case breather and the inlet manifold and it’s that one that catches the most crud and the other goes between the cam cover and the intake (cross over) pipe before the turbo, I have both fitted to mine, definitely a must have imo, I’m near Bristol so not close I’m afraid

cheers Jameo, I think I’ll just get the pcv one for now until I save up to get the beaST forged then I’ll get the other one and get it fitted. Thanks for all your advice it’s really appreciated. 👌🏼

 

[sttwoton]

Tbh the rear can catches virtually nothing, I did buy a second one but didn’t bother fitting it, as I found no evidence of moisture in the pipe work, the pcv one is definitely the one you want to fit.

 

[Holmsie]

Tbh the rear can catches virtually nothing, I did buy a second one but didn’t bother fitting it, as I found no evidence of moisture in the pipe work, the pcv one is definitely the one you want to fit.

cheers for your reply sttwoton, yeah going of Jameo’s input I’m going to order the radium kit they have a offer on their website at the moment it’s around £200 (saving about £70) so I will be ordering that on Monday and to be fair I’ve seen a couple of stock high millage cars so that has helped put my mind at ease 😂

 

[Pitsparky]

The use of the word “common” is a massive exaggeration of the situation itself. Any major failure of the 20 year old Mazda L derived engine is extremely rare, 100,000’s if not millions produced without any issues whatsoever. You get the rare failure, probably on modified cars with possibly questionable treatment and maintenance and somehow it’s common. Complete bull****. You also often get people who have a car with a “common” problem just trying to get some form of satisfaction trying to convince others that their engines are “just as bad!”

 

[Holmsie]

The use of the word “common” is a massive exaggeration of the situation itself. Any major failure of the 20 year old Mazda L derived engine is extremely rare, 100,000’s if not millions produced without any issues whatsoever. You get the rare failure, probably on modified cars with possibly questionable treatment and maintenance and somehow it’s common. Complete bull****. You also often get people who have a car with a “common” problem just trying to get some form of satisfaction trying to convince others that their engines are “just as bad!”

Thanks for that pitsparky, I did research a lot about piston/ Ringland failure and it does seem to be POP and BANG maps and as you said modified cars that seem to suffer, I also watched a video I think maybe AIB posted which showed a fella strip down one of these engines with about 175.000 miles on it that had been in a accident and to be fair the engine was in really good condition inside, I feel it’s like you have basically said you treat it good, service it on time and be mindful of LSPI and all should be well. Thanks again for commenting it’s very much appreciated.

Andy

 

[macca2017]

My business is selling used car engines and gearboxes , and have never seen a request for a used R9DC engine fitted to the ST , this doesnt confirm that they do not blow-up , maybe customers get their engines repaired , which is very unlikely with an ecoboost derived engine , my engine reconditioner will not touch them and orders new cylinder blocks from Ford.for the 3 cylinder M1DA ecoboost engine which has a shelf life of 80.000 miles.
By far the worst engine is the 5FV and 5FU fitted to Citroen/Peugeot/Mini etc , only make between 160bhp and 200bhp but is made of chocolate i could sell a dozen of these a week. Most BMW & Jaguar engines have common timing chain issues , VAG engines also get plenty of requests because the likes of Golf R's and Cupra's are tuned to death.
If you are sensible and dont chase silly bhp figures and maintain the engine i think the Ford ST engine is a gem , you will always get the odd one like the garage you visited in Wigan and some mechanic spouting how **** they are when the car has been modified to destruction, in general its a reliable engine if looked after.
That my ten penneth !!

 

[Holmsie]

My business is selling used car engines and gearboxes , and have never seen a request for a used R9DC engine fitted to the ST , this doesnt confirm that they do not blow-up , maybe customers get their engines repaired , which is very unlikely with an ecoboost derived engine , my engine reconditioner will not touch them and orders new cylinder blocks from Ford.for the 3 cylinder M1DA ecoboost engine which has a shelf life of 80.000 miles.
By far the worst engine is the 5FV and 5FU fitted to Citroen/Peugeot/Mini etc , only make between 160bhp and 200bhp but is made of chocolate i could sell a dozen of these a week. Most BMW & Jaguar engines have common timing chain issues , VAG engines also get plenty of requests because the likes of Golf R's and Cupra's are tuned to death.
If you are sensible and dont chase silly bhp figures and maintain the engine i think the Ford ST engine is a gem , you will always get the odd one like the garage you visited in Wigan and some mechanic spouting how **** they are when the car has been modified to destruction, in general its a reliable engine if looked after.
That my ten penneth !!

cheers for that macca it’s very much appreciated.

 

[Phill P]

Do you get many requests for the M8DA / M8DB

 

[macca2017]

Do you get many requests for the M8DA / M8DB

No , none at all , but do get a few requests for the earlier 1.6 ecoboost JQDB (147bhp) and the 6 speed gearboxes also fail , i supply my engines through 1st choice spares , Breakerlink & Breakeryard , deal with approx 300-400 engine /gearbox requests per day , so do have a fair representation of the common engines/gearboxes that fail.