I am currently in the market for a circa 2011-13 connect and, knowing that models form 2008 onwards have the wet timing belt at the bottom of the engine, have been utterly surprised that most people selling them have no idea they exist.
Just been messaging a seller on ebay, yes dusktilldawn2011 that you, who got on his high horse, and quite abusive, telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about and there is no such thing as a ‘wet belt’ and his 2011 Connect has a chain.
Digging a little further, he is selling with the proviso that the van has had a recent belt change, (at 120K) but the bottom belt won’t have been touched as he admitted doing the belt change himself and he doesn’t know it’s there. The van is now on 158K so must surely be on very borrowed time unless the previous owner to him had it done.
This ignorant seller is not the first either. I have lost count of the number of people who own these vans who do not think that theirs has a wet timing belt. I am almost giving up hope of finding one that is either not due or has been done with evidence. I wouldn’t mind if they just said its not been done. I could adjust my bid accordingly and get it done myself.
Considering the damage that is caused by a wet belt going, surely everyone should be specifically asking about it, rather than just relying on being told the timing belt has been changed, which seems to nearly always mean the top one.