Category Archives: workshop

Peugeot 107 Poor Heating on a Cold Winter Morning.

This little Peugeot 107 came into us on a cold January day with no cabin heater blowers, not the best time of year for the heating to fail!

After checking the fuses were OK we had to remove the top section of the dashboard to be able to access the heater blower motor and see if we had battery voltage there.

Once we new we had voltage up to the heater motor we now needed to remove said motor, this wasn’t as easy as it looked!

After removing the pedal box and lowering the steering column it was still a battle to remove the heater motor having to fight wiring looms and numerous brackets.

With the heater motor out of the car we could bench test it and clarify that it was faulty.

New heater motor arrives and time for the rebuild, basically reverse everything we did to strip the car to be able to remove the motor.

Now the new heater motor is fitted the customer is finally able to clear their windscreen on those cold January mornings without any problems.

Aarons Autos car service garage.

Your friendly car garage in Derby

Give us a call at Aarons Autos for more info.

Transit Custom Update For Better And Worse!

Ford has officially changed the replacement interval for Wetbelts fitted to most of its diesel vans as of February 2024.

The service interval for the timing belt on the EcoBlue engine has been reduced to 6 years or 100,000 miles from 10 years or 150,000 miles. This applies to the whole Transit range fitted with the 2.0 litre EcoBlue engine.

Ford’s statement –

“The service interval has been changed in order to address issues with timing belt service life, caused by engine oil dilution/ vehicle operation conditions/ usage. Oil dilution can occur on the latest generation of low-emission diesel engines when the emissions system cleans the diesel particulate filter (DPF) and is influenced by the customer’s vehicle use cycle.“

The change in service interval poses a problem for fleet operators with longer Servicing intervals. One fleet manager told us they now face higher vehicle running costs and additional vehicle downtime to get the required service work carried out.

Ford has previously repaired a number of out-of-warranty vehicles that suffered from premature timing belt failure as a goodwill gesture.

Now the timing belt interval has been changed, affected vehicles that are between six and 10 years old pose a higher-risk of failure to owners and should have there Wetbelts replaced as soon as possible.

Failure to replace your Wetbelt could cause serious engine damage and possibly other faults such as Brake Vacuum Pump Failure and Turbo Failure.

For more information about these changes please don’t hesitate to contact us.

2019 – 1.0 EcoBoost Engine – Better or Worse?

The new revision of Fords 1.0 EcoBoost engine was supposed to eradicate the problems of its predecessor, but it looks like it may still have some of the same issues!

Ford have finally changed the main drive belt to a chain which should eliminate the issues of rubber drive belts being damaged by the incorrect oil being added at service intervals.

But, Some very highly paid individuals at Ford with more mechanical knowledge than you or I decided that the oil pump should still be ran by a rubber belt!

That’s correct, after all the issues with the original 1.0 EcoBoost engine caused by oil degrading the drive belt rubber, they did it again!

Better or Worse?

So, if you own a 2019 or newer Ford with the 1.0 Ecoboost engine all is not lost.

As long as you listen to our advice as per the previous engine, Service, Service, Service and the correct oil.

Not just the grade but the spec, make sure the oil you use on your service has the correct additives to look after the rubber and not cause it to prematurely degrade.

Ford don’t actually give a service interval for replacing the timing chain and oil pump belt but we are still advising 80,000 miles or 8 years (whichever comes first).

We are seeing plenty of posts where people are ignoring the service intervals because they think this newer engine wont have the same issues and are finding out the hard way that servicing does indeed still matter!

For more information on either the older or newer engines please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Aarons Autos car service garage.

Your friendly car garage in Derby

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A Few Simple Steps To Find What Was Causing Fault Code P006A On This Ford Ranger.

This Ford Ranger came into the garage with its EML (engine management light) on and in limp home mode for us to diagnose.

First we carried out a full diagnostic scan of its control modules to see what fault codes were stored.

The first code that we were interested in was P006A – Correlation between MAF (mass air flow) and MAP (manifold absolute pressure) sensors.

We checked the live data to see if the sensors were giving any readings and if they were did they seem right?

Both sensors were reading but the MAP sensors seemed a bit low compared to the MAF sensor.

Next we checked for any obvious splits or leaks in the intake and boost pipes between these sensors.

Once we were happy with the pipework we decided to carry out a smoke test on the intake system to check for leaks we could not see.

Disconnect the pipe to the inlet manifold and fit a blanking plug, then fit the smoke tester end to the pipe from the air box.

It soon became apparent there was a leak from the intercooler as we could see smoke coming from the fins at the front of the cooler.

Ford Ranger Air Leak?

After removing the top cover and looking between the intercooler and the radiator we could see the large split in the intercooler bellowing smoke out.

We needed to remove the front grill and slide the front bumper forward to access the bolts to remove the intercooler.

When the intercooler was removed we could see quite clearly that the cooler had split wide open.

We replaced the cooler, re-checked the live data and finally road tested the Ranger and it was back to full power.

Watch the video below to see how bad it was!

Aarons Autos car service garage.

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FORD AT AARONS AUTOS

What caused this Vacuum pump to fail?

This Ford Fiesta Ecoboost was recovered into us after the customer noticed his oil warning light was staying on whilst the car was still running.

When we got the car into the workshop we always like to give them a quick start just to see if there are any other faults we need to look at whilst stripping it down.

In this case we noticed there was no vacuum assistance for the brakes and after a quick look at the vacuum pump i t became apparent there was a problem.

So, what caused this Vacuum pump to fail?

The rubber debris from the failing wetbelt had traveled through the oil galleries and managed to block the little gauze filter going into the vacuum pump causing it to starve itself of oil.

The engine oil in this particular engine had not been changed regularly and possibly not even been the correct specification oil.

Once we had carried out our wetbelt replacement process which in this case included a new oil pump and replaced the vacuum pump the car ran perfect.

We have recommended the customer has another oil change within 2000 miles just to ensure any rubber particles which we couldn’t remove will be flushed through the system and then removed.

Aarons Autos car service garage.

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Is the 2018 onwards EcoBoost any different?

The early EcoBoost engine has definitely got a following but probably for the wrong reason so is the later EcoBoost engine any better?

Well, yes and no, Ford have made a few changes to the engine the main one being a new oil pump.

The new oil pump is a bigger unit which incorporates a balance shaft to reduce vibration.

And the oil pump drive belt now has a tensioner instead of being a push fit.

Are they more reliable?

Again like the earlier engines if they are well serviced using the correct oil they are fine.

If on the other hand you miss your service intervals or use the incorrect oil you will have problems!

Ford haven’t really done anything to prevent the rubber debris caused by the degrading belts from blocking the oil pump and starving the engines of oil.

This particular 2018 Fiesta Ecoboost with only 30,000 miles on it was brought into us because of a lack of power and the engine being noisy.

As you can see the wetbelt is in very poor condition and was breaking up.

Because bits of rubber had blocked the oil pump it caused the turbo to fail due to oil starvation.

Once all necessary parts had been replaced the car ran as sweet as a nut.

These problems could have been avoided if the car had been serviced properly and the correct oil had been used.

Click the video

For more information on Ford EcoBoost wetbelt replacements please call us on 01332 205070 or email us at info@aaronsautos.co.uk

Aarons Autos car service garage.

Your friendly car garage in Derby

Give us a call at Aarons Autos for more info.

aarons autos ecoboost wetbelt

Why is the correct engine oil important for my wetbelt?

It is becoming very apparent to us that most of the low mileage wetbelt failures on the Ford Ecoboost and Peugeot engines are caused by poor service intervals and incorrect oil.

Garages are using the correct grade of oil but not with the correct additives (specification) which instead of prolonging the life of the wetbelt is actually causing it to fail prematurely.

We urge anyone who has a car with a wetbelt to check with their manufacturer to see exactly what grade and specification oil is required and make sure their garage is using it, it may cost more in the short term but I can guarantee it will save you money long term.

Aarons Autos car service garage.

Your friendly car garage in Derby

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A Citroen DS3 with its Wetbelt Failing!

When your engine oil warning light comes on most people just think the “the engine just needs a bit of oil!” but in some cases it can be a little more serious.

Imagine somebody restricting the the blood flow around your body and how that will affect your performance?

The same goes for your cars engine, if you restrict its oil flow you are causing un-necessary wear and stress on its moving parts!

In the case of any Wetbelt failure what happens is the rubber debris from the Wetbelt collects in the oil and gets sucked up by the oil pump and trapped in the oil pump strainer – watch the video to see what we mean.

Over time the oil pump strainer starts to become blocked causing less oil to be pumped around the engine and the oil pressure to drop.

Most cases the oil warning light does exactly what its supposed to do and warn you before its to late.

That was the case for this Citroen DS3, we got to it just in time before the belt failed completely.

The owner of this car has kept up with its service schedule as required (with another Garage) so all we can suspect is that the wrong oil has been used as it only has 53,000 miles on it.

Aarons Autos car service garage.

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Why is my oil warning light on? – Grandland X Wetbelt

We are seeing more and more wetbelt problems across a range of different manufacturers, this time it was Vauxhall with its 1.2 litre 3 cylinder turbo engine (Peugeot engine).

This Vauxhall Grandland X came in with its oil warning light on and had low oil pressure.

When draining the oil on the engine it became apparent that the wetbelt had degraded quite seriously as large slithers of rubber were coming out with the oil.

Vauxhall Grandland X 1.2 litre 3 cylinder Wetbelt replacement.

Once we had drained the oil we removed the sump to access the the oil pump, the oil pump pick up was full of rubber debris which was blocking the pump and causing the low oil pressure light to come on.

Luckily in this case the customer stopped driving the car and booked in as soon as the light came on, they had it recovered to the garage instead of driving it (which could have lead to serious engine damage).

After cleaning out the oil pump and pick up we stripped the engine and replaced the degraded wetbelt and tensioner, gave it some fresh oil and a new filter and fired her up, she purred like a kitten.

If you watch the video you can see the cracking in the wetbelt suggesting it wouldn’t be long before it would fail causing serious engine failure.

Specific oil must be used in engines running wetbelts, the oil has additives in it which help prolong the life of the wetbelt and reduce the chance of premature degradation and failure.

We advise regular oil changes to help reduce the premature wear of your belt and help reduce the chance of blocking the oil pump, we suggest at least every 10,000 miles or once a year and to make sure the correct oil is used.

Aarons Autos car service garage.

Your friendly car garage in Derby

Give us a call at Aarons Autos for more info.

Ford EcoBoost Cam Pulley Failure

This Fiesta was recovered into us with its oil warning lamp on and a horrendous noise coming from its engine.

Once we had stripped the engine we could see the cause of the noise, the inlet cam pulley had been starved of oil which was allowing excessive free play (variable timing pulley) which as you can imagine is not great when the engine is running!

The cause of the oil starvation was quiet apparent when looking at the oil pump pick up, it was completely blocked with rubber debris from the failing wet belt.

The customer was very honest with us and admitted she had not had the car serviced regularly which would of allowed some of the rubber to be cleaned out with an oil change instead of blocking the oil pump.

Aarons Autos car service garage.

Your friendly car garage in Derby

Give us a call at Aarons Autos for more info.