Modern Vespa

Does anyone here own a Ford vehicle with the EcoBoost engine, or have knowledgeable opinions on it? I am mildly interested in an Escape with the small EcoBoost engine, but it is new enough that I'm concerned about its reliability. It's been out for a couple years, so I hope that someone here has beat me to it and tested the concept for me.

why an escape?

Are you going to be towing? if so how much and what weight/load?

Tell us more of what your plans are on how your going to use it.

Might be something better out there like a Subaru Outback or Forester.

I own a 2012 Ford Edge with the eco-boost option. I have found the fuel mileage reaults to be a bit less impressive than claimed. I get about 27mpg in the city and up to 34mpg highway. I too am concerned but really only about the longevity of the turbo. I'm hoping that by the time it kicks the bucket there will be options for a reconditioned or aftermarket turbo.

What I got out of it while recently shopping for cars was that eco-boost mainly limits your revs to save gas and thereby limits your acceleration. If you're willing to give up a little pick up it's just fine.

Buy a GMC and call it a day.

The old school said that if you had your foot in the turbo and then came to a stop, it was best to idle it for a minute or so before shutting down. That gave a little time for the circulating oil to cool the shaft bearings so they wouldn't coke up. I did that religiously when I had a turbo car and never had a problem. My cousin had a Saab 9000 Turbo and cooked his to the tune of several K. The dealer asked if he idled prior to shutting off. His reply was no, why should he have to. The dealer replied with to save several K.

My car was an '89 Toyota Supra Turbo. I owned it 4 years and barely had 11K when I traded it in. I babied that car and had the dealer service it exclusively. Their top tech was usually assigned at my request. Whenever he would do an oil and filter change, he would disconnect the ignition and just crank the engine until the oil pressure came up. That was what Toyota said to do, so as to prevent a dry start up of the turbo.

Now, today it might be different, but a small motor with a turbo is probably going to see boost more often than a more powerful car. In my mind, I would be sure to idle a bit before shutting off. Oh, and I would only use synthetic oil.

I have a GMC, an '01 Sierra 1500 2WD. 111,000 miles on the original disks. I love that truck. The Escape would be for my LW who has a RAV4 that we both are disappointed with. I'd just rather not trade bad for worse.

I gots no clue,had Gm my whole life.

I can tell you that the CHP just ordered 752 Ford Explorers with the 3.7 Turbo V6 engine.. (I'm not sure if it is the ecoboost engine). There is a lot of testing that goes into a vehicle for the CHP. I am not a Ford guy, but I drive a Crown Vic at work. It is doubtful that they would pick something that would be problematic. I don't think you could go wrong with the Escape. The flexfuel option (if they still have it) when you run it on E85 will give you less economy. Here is some interesting reading that is a little dated.
http://www.motortrend.com/features/auto_news/2012/1205_ford_police_interceptor_utility_is_california_highway_patrols_next_cruiser/

Despite the marketing there is nothing particularly special about the ecoboost engine options from Ford. What's old is new again, basically they just utilizing small displacement engines with turbochargers to get their claimed mpg. The only problem is most people don't drive like granny without any positive pressure engagement from the the turbo and don't really appreciate any real fuel savings at all. As soon as you really step on the gas the car has to dump more fuel to meet the additional air supply. I have worked around turbos quite a bit and a modern turbo really should be fine from a reliability perspective. I personally think they are great in a heavy engine or performance market I am just not sure I am sold that is the best option in the general econo consumer market.

I have a 2011 Ford Fusion (company car) but it's not EcoBoost. It's been pretty reliable in the 58,000 miles that I've driven it. I've never been much of a Ford fan, but I can't complain about the Fords I've had over the years. They've all been pretty good.

My stepson is a mechanic at a GM dealership. He was showing me an engine he had just pulled out of a fairly new GM SUV that had a connecting rod sticking out the side of the block. It was neither connected to the piston or the crank. Looking at the intake valves, which were mangled, I asked him why there was so much carbon build up. I don't have much experience looking at that stuff, but it looked excessive to me. He said that's very common on direct injection engines. The fuel additives designed to reduce carbon buildup no longer pass over the intake valves....... I just thought that was interesting any wanted to share it.

For the more engine savvy people here, how would you maintain a direct injection engine to keep the carbon buildup to a minimum? Should you periodically spray some injector cleaner in the air filter every now and then? Maybe carbon buildup isn't as bad of an issue as I assumed it was.

Thad

I have a 2001 Ford Ranger pickup. After 100,000 miles the check engine light came on. Took it to a mechanic who diagnosed it as carbon buildup in the fuel injector system. He replaced the EGR valve (whatever that is) and recommended running some Seafoam in the gas tank. I had been using Chevron (with Techron!) gasoline so I had neglected the fuel injector system. About 3 treatments with Seafoam, a couple with STP and Gumout fuel injector cleaner and she has been running fine (no more check engine light). Throwing in some random fuel injector cleaner/Seafoam is now a basic maintenance item....

The problem I see is with a direct injected engine the valves never see what's added to the fuel tank. That will clean the injectors, but does nothing for the valves......

Why would you get carbon build-up on the intake valves? Surely they are firmly closed when combustion takes place...

Well, I don't think there is an answer to your question then other than taking apart the motor and manually cleaning the valves.

Ecoboost is fords line of turbocharged engines, no limiting going on, its much more efficient to have a small turbo engine than a bigger one of the same power

My dad has a 2013 f150 ecoboost twin turbo v6 3.5l with the top tow package, highest towing capacity of any truck in its class at 11,500lbs and he gets upwards of 24mpg which is damn impressive, I have a non turbo (ecoboost) 2012 ford fiesta and get about 44mpg average they have a new ecoboost fiesta called the st out for 2014 but its competition to the civic si and vw Gti, its pushing 200+ hp but still gets an estimated 36-37mpg out of a 1.6l turbo

I once had an 05 vw Gti 1.8 turbo it pulled like a freight train and got 33 mpg no matter how hard I pushed it

My F-I-L has a Ford Focus ( http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01803/Ford-Focus-3_1803022b.jpg ) Eco boost with a 1000cc 3 cylinder Turbo and it is an incredible engine. You would not believe you were in a car with such a small engine, you would be convinced you were in a car with at least a 1600cc engine. He gets a 43mpg average as well.

Get a Subaru. great for adverse conditions. Can haul a bunch of stuff in the back for like going to yards sales and such. Don't know of a recent recall, like other manufactures are consistently having done.
Resale value is among the best, Crash ratings have been 5 star consistently over the years.

I also worry about the way that cars are going the way of the rest of this disposable world. Don't get me wrong, I love my toys, and I'm one of those who actually uses all of them on a car. But even relatively cheap cars are quickly accumulating many components, all of them likely to be £1k/$2k or more to fix when they go, and the car won't work without them.

Case in point - the current VW group small hot hatches (e.g. Polo GTi, Fabia VRS, Seat whaddayoucallit). I can think of at least these:

1. Turbocharger
2. Supercharger (yes they have both)
3. High pressure common rail fuel injection
4. Dual clutch automated gearbox.

And that's on a car that is comparable in price to a decently specced Ford Focus. I have a feeling that the average age of cars on the road will just get younger and younger...

Most modern cars recycle some of the exhaust gasses back through the cylinders to reduce emissions.

Volkswagen have been trying to sort this out on their new EA888 engine. Apparently it has direct injection and indirect injection plus EGR which does lead to carbon build up.

Had a '79 and drove it into the ground (it was totaled twice!). Loved that car. Don't love the new ones and don't want 4WD.

I Had a Volvo V70 that I sold at 215k miles still on the original turbo... Ford owned Volvo at the time...

Ford is making some of the most impressive vehicles right now.

I don't think you can go wrong with it.

If you buy one just do the maintenance as required and all should be well.

Ford does have some nice vehicles, these days. I have a 2012 Focus, sport pkg, dual clutch tranny, not an eco boost, but man it runs great, and really good on gas! Almost bought the Escape, they're nice, just didn't need all that room. Can't go wrong.

they are not 4wd all the time, only when it needs to be. The new ones are pretty darn nice. And when you compare them head to head to anything else they are hard to beat dollar to dollar, feature to feature.

And the CVT trans is awesome too.

My fiance has the eco boost escape. Pretty solid overall. Has a sport mode which makes it hold revs longer. I found that my Mustang v6'13 gets better gas mileage on longer drives. I had a GLI vw previously and its turbo IL4 is a bit torquier, and with an ecu reflash it gets a boost missing from the factory.

I hear that they are fun to put your foot in it .....
That there is a little turbo lag yet .... not as bad as the first turbos.
They pull like advertised and use plenty of gas to make all that pulling power.


The plan is to pull for recreation/ or on weekends and are easy on the gas while driving to work you will be using the truck what it is designed for.

If you need to pull all the time I would opt for the bigger engines.

I dream of the Eco-boost engine from a F150 in a Mustang.......

This is my biggest concern.

ecoboost is the marketing term that embodies essentially two concepts--staged turbos, and direct injection...very much like the latest in turbo-diesel technologies.

The staged turbos make the most of a relatively small displacement. The real value isn't so much in the overall hp boost, but rather the awesomely broad torque characteristics, coming on very early and low in the rpm range, and then extending into the range where you would typically expect a gas engine to produce its torque. If you're heavy on your gas, or have lots of stop 'n go traffice, this aspect of the engine will drop your fuel efficiency numbers pretty drastically. But boy will it surprise you wrt the power delivered.

Direct injection makes the most of your coasting efficiency, giving a very very efficient burn, and really improving your fuel efficiency when coasting, or under very light load.

So, the Eco-tech engines will deliver polarized results...rewarding you heavily for long cruising highway travel, and penalizing heavily for stop 'n go travel. YMMV with respect to any official fuel efficiency rating. YMMV *MORE DRASTICALLY* with direct injection and staged turbos.



Lots of dated thoughts in this thread.

Like with any current turbo motor you have to learn how to drive it efficiently

I have a '12 Ram 3500 with the Cummins and I can get 18+ MPG combined , and 20+ on the road. My wife keeps her foot in it (even though she doesn't actually drive faster) and usually gets 2-3 mpg less than I

With a modern turbo the trick is to get it to speed and feather the throttle allowing the vehicle to maintain speed but not boost...

Same thing works on my VW Passat 1.8T.

This same technique allows me to get my GTS (with Dr. Pulley sliders) to turn only 6k RPM at 68 mph and makes the bike very efficient at Interstate speeds