1.5L Dragon Reliability

[zedsdead]

I ordered a Big Bend for my wife yesterday. Turns out a 1994 Z28 Camaro isn't the greatest daily driver especially when your office is your car!

This is actually the first new car I've bought. The plan is to own it and take it to 200k.
This being said, what's the buzz on the 1.5L dragon?
My research shows this has been the motor to have in the Euro Fiesta STs. Reliability seems good.
I suppose time will tell as for long term reliability, but that's a risk we take.

I've been reading some things about the wet timing belt catastrophically destroying the engine? Is this true?

Sorry for the unorganized post--these are just my thoughts and questions that pop up into my head.

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[TheDude]

The Dragon has been around for awhile and is actually quite reliable. The 1.6L's were the ones with a lot of issues. The 1.5L is no different then any other engine really. All can have issues. Just take care of it and maintain when required.

 

[HorseHog]

Taking an American car to 200K can be done, but it’s not going to happen without a lot of repairs.

Your best bet would’ve been a Honda or Toyota.

 

[zedsdead]

Had to throw in a Dude reference for you.

Thanks for the info. I'm an engineer and handy with a wrench. I've mainly owned junkers my whole life, and drive an 88' Ford daily.

As long as the engine isn't prone to blowing up, I'm game to do any maintenance or repairs required of it.

 

[zedsdead]

Taking an American car to 200K can be done, but it’s not going to happen without a lot of repairs.

Your best bet would’ve been a Honda or Toyota.

Tell that to the many Fords I've owned--many of which had 250k+ miles. The body rusted away before the engine quit.

 

[HorseHog]

Tell that to the many Fords I've owned--many of which had 250k+ miles before the body rusted away before the engine quit.

It’s not 1990 anymore. These cars are full of electronic components that go bad all the time.

 

[MaxVelocity]

It’s not 1990 anymore. These cars are full of electronic components that go bad all the time.

Which cars and what electronic components are you referring to?

 

[69cuda340s]

Some bad water pumps showing up lately on the 1.5s but have not heard of any other issues. A lot of ppl seem to be happy with them.

 

[o0260o]

It's a turbo engine. Usually not the most long lasting. Are there any good examples of super reliable turbos that are not diesels?
That being said I'm not too worried about it being worn out prematurely.

 

[RSH]

Without keeping up with the maintenance requirements of the EcoBoost engines, 200k without any issues will be a stretch.

 

[zedsdead]

Without keeping up with the maintenance requirements of the EcoBoost engines, 200k without any issues will be a stretch.

What makes you say that? Are there known major components of this engine that fail pre-200k?
I'm assuming 150k+ you'd begin to worry about the transmission, timing belt, and turbo.
All replaceable with a fat wallet and a repair manual.

 

[Mark S.]

Questions about the reliability of modern, small-displacement turbocharged engines are common, especially with people who've been around for awhile. Turbocharged engines used to be considered "cheating," and everyone knew they would eventually blow up. There was a modicum of truth to these concerns back in the day. Before computer-controlled ignition and fuel injection, there was a certain level of guess work when it came to designing a turbocharged engine for production. And failure of the right (wrong?) component often meant utter disaster.

Today's engines are comprehensively instrumented, and all the critical data goes to a computer. Besides controlling the engine to keep it operating within design parameters, the computer can use the data collected to shut everything down--placing the engine into limp mode--at the first sign of trouble. A minor component failure resulting in catastrophic engine failure in the past is now a few days (well, maybe more until we get the supply chain stuff figured out) of inconvenience until the part can be replaced.

Ford's EcoBoost series engines have been operating worldwide for over a decade, giving Ford a massive trove of real-world data with which to continue refining the technology. There isn't much new in the 1.5L model over previous versions, making it a fairly well-understood platform. Given the number in operation around the world and the ease with which owners may share data with one another using the Internet, I think if there were any issues with long-term reliability we'd know about them by now.

 

[Mark S.]

It's a turbo engine. Usually not the most long lasting. Are there any good examples of super reliable turbos that are not diesels?
That being said I'm not too worried about it being worn out prematurely.

Ford did a tremendous amount of testing before putting these engines into production to assuage such fears. This MotorTrend article from 2008 describes some of the reliability testing Ford conducted.

 

[69cuda340s]

There are some 3.5 ecoboost F150s running around with over 200k miles.

 

[69cuda340s]

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