Simon2022 wrote:Good afternoon, I have recently had an experience with my 2017 Transit where the Cambelt (Wet belt) has deteriorate causing the blockage of the Brake vacuum meaning I lost my brakes completely. Luckily I was only doing around 25mph at the time and there was no traffic around and I managed to bring the van to a standstill using the handbrake. Had It happened earlier on in my journey who knows what the outcome could have been. Ford part accept that it was a problem as the van had only done 100k and was 5 years old and the belt was due for replacement at 150k or 10 years and they contributed £471 towards my £1600 bill. To say that I am not impressed and I am looking at taking it further but don't know which route to go down! Can anyone advise? Thanks
The Exact same happened to myself 2 weeks ago!
I have a Company Fleet owned Transit Custom registered Jan' 2020 with the 2.0l eco blue engine (Wet belt). Driving around 20mph, put my foot on the brake pedal and nothing happened. Luckily I was in traffic with suitable distance between me and the Car Infront I was able to stop via the Handbrake. The pedal was rock solid in the raised position. Absolutely Zero resistance. Was recovered to the local Ford Dealer. They investigated that afternoon and found the Cambelt had shredded, the pieces had completely blocked the Brake vacuum pump, hence the failure. When they dropped the Sump more debris was found so they declared the engine would need to be replaced. The Van was always serviced on time at the 25k service intervals which in my opinion is just not often enough considering a rubber belt is sat in hot oil and with contamination from any failed regens deteriorating the oil further. They took a day or so just to confirm service history but came back to me and said the engine would be replaced under warranty. The engine was ordered, fitted 2 days later and job done. So in my case quite fortunate. I asked the service manager if it was an upgraded Belt or just a like for like swap. He didn't know the answer to this which is a little frustrating as I would like to be re-assured this won't happen again, after all Brakes are pretty important! One thing just to add actually, at the time seemed like nothing, however since reading other posts on here around other symptoms of Cambelt failures is that probably twice in the last 8 months I had a random 'check oil' message pop up on the display (4 weeks after the 50k service), thought this was strange, but I checked the oil level and it was okay as expected. Message self cleared. The same probably around 65k. Checked again and the level was spot on. From all the info on here around the debris blocking the oil pump, it may well be a strong indicator and warning to check the Cambelt regardless for anyone that has one of these engines with the wet belt as apposed to the chain.