Ok,
(I'm not trying to preach here...) remember that this small motor is using a turbo, so don't do; a lot of panic starts, racing lights or other things that make you push the pedal to the floor - keep your foot out of it pretty much guarantees ANY motor will last nearly forever.
You may find later that in keeping the car, this may be a
FAR better option to keep it running and drive-able under you, than to try and bail out to find another used car - that being used, might be someone else's wanting to be bailed out of a problem child and you wind up with more $$ having to get put into THAT one than the Fiesta you had.
So another thing to look at too, change your oil levels more often - keep the viscosity up and the dirt down. Older oil tends to "gum up" from trapping the dirt, fumes and the "ash" from the burn off of the fuel charge leaves as a residue the oil collects and suspends in itself, the oil filter can only hold so much and when we talk turbo, those pressures make both the combustion chamber and the crankcase space where the pistons and crank roam - full of these by-products and the system has to somehow collect and re-burn it or trap it and deposit it somewhere else.
Keep any eye on the level and color of your coolant too - pale or fading color to darker shades usually means contamination and possibly seepage of oil into the coolant - while lower fluid levels in the tank might indicate fluid pressures that mean the oil and coolant seals are not holding up to the driving needs. This usually is from the compression levels that motor makes just to get you where you need to be, the seals can't hold it - like it once did.
- It may be prudent to offset this by changing the coolant during summer to winter and winter to summer seasonal changes to reduce the failure and cross contamination of fluids. You can stop doing that once you see less color-fading or dark fluid in that coolant tank - it means less chances that the head to block seal is going to fail - but again, this requires your due-diligence. You'll have to change it again once that color-change or fade occurs - the sooner it's noticed and changed, the better off you are.
- The coolant - if left alone, by itself can keep the system it uses safe, but when you mix oil and dirt - the ability of that fluid to maintain integrity begins to drop, like; to a major fail if not taken care of.
Also - this deals with the integrity of the motor seals - if the bottom oil pan and it's seals are intact, and not leaking, makes this a simpler problem to solve, being that; stop over-pushing the motor more than you should, can go a long way in keeping the car working as a workhorse longer if you only changed to less aggressive driving habits.
However, as those above screenshots show from a YT vid series from
this group Mend It Mod It (they're brits so they are dealing with an MK7 similar model) show what a 3-cylinder 1.0l Turbo is like and how and why its so hard to mend them...
As they found out, the most likely failure of the motor was due to a head gasket failure, so the motor's salvageable but the cylinder head needs machining (warped) amongst other issues, so the effort of making the vehicle move and the owners driving habits - are two main reasons these motors have problems - not from assembly but from the expectations people have in using these things to get to places faster or quicker than they should be used for.
- In one of the above photos, an edge on view, the head gasket looks to be in two pieces, it's actually a sandwich item. Two plates of metal to mate with the upper and lower surfaces, and the media in the middle keeps the seal and pressures to their sides of operation. So the "edge on view" in the photo plainly shows failure of the media, and so the metal itself was left open to warp under the heat and pressures - causing the fail. This may be the next stage you'll be facing with this motor unless a tear-down and rebuild is done. Which by labor costs alone, puts you into the former condition of having to replace this motor-never an easy choice nor ever a cheap one.
- However, the keeping of the vehicle as a shell for the replacement motor might be the better options than to try and bail out of the older vehicle you came to know and appreciate and trained (by it) to use for everyday means of transportation and the freedoms given by the choice you made.
- I will attest that to simply move onto the next vehicle may leave you disappointed by the level of complexity, options and the styles and actions available to operate the replacement vehicle, it will be vastly different.
- In the past few years there has be a paradigm shift in perception about vehicle ownership and usages - so anticipate that the next generations to follow us, will have different approaches and opinions about your vehicle
- Its best to stay prudent to the choices you made, and will make in the future, for your next purchase - it may be necessary to upgrade without any choice in this. Remember, that to take it or leave it - this action may be the very choice you make for your future.
