What have you done to your Focus today?

[DJM83]

With all the 'What have you done to your car today' threads around. I thought id post one for us Focus owners.
What have i done lately? not a lot Dont forget your pics too.

[ConradP]

Not today, but I've tried dressing up the front and rear a little in the past week or so..

Firstly yellow tint on the fogs and a tow sticker (to hide the crack someone left there 3 months after i got the car.)


Then I decided I wanted darker lights all around, and have been looking at the flyeye stuff from the UK for ages!

[DJM83]

Not to take the wee wee out of myself and this thread, but more so our crappy weather.
My latest mod.

[DZFord]

Big effort on the car today. I (with the help of a mate) replaced the front discs and pads, and the rear pads as well. Then we flushed the brake fluid and bled all calipers. The old brake fluid was in bad condition. Should be replaced every 2 years, I think mine had been 4. Replaced it with some fresh Nulon Super Dot 4.

Here's a tip for bleeding: 5mm ID clear hose required front and rear, with a 9mm bleeder nut on the rear and 10mm on the front (I think - possibly the other way around? Haha)

[casabonka]

I washed mine yesterday... and removed my rego label as we are no longer required to show them in NSW.

I really lost the modding bug once I bought my bike... nearly sold it but couldnt get enough for her. still enjoy going for a spin after spending all week in my company car holden/daewoo viva...

[casabonka]

*sorry double post*

[Franco Cozzo]

Was testing out something with the cruise control today, I set cruise control and put the car into some water on the road to get it to aquaplane, when the traction control light kicks in the cruise turns off, which is good.

[LVzetec]

Damo,

"The cruise turns off" That would not be good, that would be great! I've often wondered what might happen in that situation. Would make for an interest couple of seconds in your day

[Yellow_Festiva]

Replaced the rear pads.... at 60k km. Pretty decent life from factory pads... till you see the fronts!

Comments regarding the pads during my last few services @ Ford:

* 35k service "Rear pads @ 50%, fronts @ 70%"
* 45K service "Rear pads have 2,000km left, suggest immediant replacement"
* 52.5K service "Rear pads have 7,000km left, suggest replacement soon"
* Inspection soon after above service by independant mechanic "What kind of driving do you do? Your answer will tell me what life you have left in the pads"... Great... someone who didn't tell me WW3 will start if I drive out of the place without changing my rear pads. Told me to come back just prior to my 60K service.. which I just did.

So... this is what we found...

Rear pads: Yup, well worn, to be expected of course.



Front pads: Ummm these are factory fitment... they look to have lost 2-3mm (if that) in 3 years! Should I be happy or worried?



I remember there was a thread floating around about how the Focus and some other European cars have a brake bias towards the rear but this is a little much isn't it? Seems the fronts are doing 25% of the stopping.....

[Marquis]

Drove to the Servo to fill up the girlies Focus and checked the tyres and clocked over 9111 klms. Bit depressing watching the kays go up and up

[DZFord]

Yellow_Festiva, that was my experience as well. My rears wore out before the fronts. Beats me as to why the Focus was set up like this.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by LVzetec

Damo,

"The cruise turns off" That would not be good, that would be great! I've often wondered what might happen in that situation. Would make for an interest couple of seconds in your day

I was expected the engine to rev up hard and wheel to spin but it looks like it has the smarts to detect when its slipping.

Which is great.

Anyone here with diesels, particularily manuals, when you change gear, when you release the throttle, it holds it momentarily before it drops down? If you go from off accelerator to clutch quickly, it actually revs up slightly then falls down.

Throttle response on these cars is crap, there is a big delay on it registering what you are doing with the accelerator, and it seems to vary, some days its bad, other days its fine, you can be pressing on the accelerator to bring up revs and go to release clutch, it will go to stall, clutch in, more accelerator, nothing, then it revs up hard if you go anymore.

Sometimes you can go 1/2 throttle and it won't rev up off idle, then it shoots up past 2K+ if you go anymore.

Or try clutch in and stomp on the accelerator quickly and release, it won't even rev.

No codes logged or lights showing on the dash.

[tasdex]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

Replaced the rear pads.... at 60k km. Pretty decent life from factory pads... till you see the fronts!

Comments regarding the pads during my last few services @ Ford:

* 35k service "Rear pads @ 50%, fronts @ 70%"
* 45K service "Rear pads have 2,000km left, suggest immediant replacement"
* 52.5K service "Rear pads have 7,000km left, suggest replacement soon"
* Inspection soon after above service by independant mechanic "What kind of driving do you do? Your answer will tell me what life you have left in the pads"... Great... someone who didn't tell me WW3 will start if I drive out of the place without changing my rear pads. Told me to come back just prior to my 60K service.. which I just did.

So... this is what we found...

Rear pads: Yup, well worn, to be expected of course.

image

Front pads: Ummm these are factory fitment... they look to have lost 2-3mm (if that) in 3 years! Should I be happy or worried?

image

I remember there was a thread floating around about how the Focus and some other European cars have a brake bias towards the rear but this is a little much isn't it? Seems the fronts are doing 25% of the stopping.....

do you like near the beach yellow festiva ???
daang theres some rust on that hub ..

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by tasdex

do you like near the beach yellow festiva ???
daang theres some rust on that hub ..

Well, I guess I'm a few km from a beach but I think they are a little rusty as the car is hardly ever undercover.

Then again, we I'm at the inlaws every 2nd weekend and they are 300m from the beach.

Never considered it to be honest. When I do my next rotation I may treat and paint em.

[gassed250]

got the windows tinted today, looks uber smexy now

[rand0mn00b]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

I remember there was a thread floating around about how the Focus and some other European cars have a brake bias towards the rear but this is a little much isn't it? Seems the fronts are doing 25% of the stopping.....

yeah my rears wore out quicker too but my goodness! those fronts don't look like they've been doing any braking at all?!?!

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by rand0mn00b

yeah my rears wore out quicker too but my goodness! those fronts don't look like they've been doing any braking at all?!?!

Which is why I'm a little concerned to be honest. My mechanic point blank didn't believe me that they were still factory pads after 60k.. especially after seeing the factory rears.

Will be taking the car in for its B service next week, will show them the pics and see what they think.

[Marquis]

My mates 06 is the same. The rear wheels are always dirty and the fronts clean. He changed the rear pads 2 weeks ago (just under a quarter left) and the front had very low use. Dodgy

[rand0mn00b]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

Which is why I'm a little concerned to be honest. My mechanic point blank didn't believe me that they were still factory pads after 60k.. especially after seeing the factory rears.

Will be taking the car in for its B service next week, will show them the pics and see what they think.

does your car's braking performance seem less than it should? compared to any other similarly sized cars you own/drive?

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by rand0mn00b

does your car's braking performance seem less than it should? compared to any other similarly sized cars you own/drive?

Not really, but then again I can't recall ever needing to mash on the brakes in an emergency situation either. I will refer it to the service manager, if they say it is normal than I guess I'll be swapping rear pads 3 times as often as front pads, as weird as that sounds......

[DZFord]

Major service today. I did the spark plugs, throttle body clean, air filter washed and re-oiled, new oil and oil filter.

It doesn't feel right though - doing a major service without changing the fuel filter. I hate how the fuel filter on these cars are hidden within the tank, as part of the fuel sender unit.

[marg99]

should have got a diesel where you can change the fuel filter and enjoy the fuel getting everywhere.

[Russ]

I gave the car a good clean inside today and decided I'd remove a wheel and try one of the XR5 rims on, holy crap batman there's not a lot of clearance on the inside, I wouldn't be surprised if I have a set of XR5 rims with brand new Nitto Invo's up for sale shortly. I have my doubts they will clear on the inside, there's only about 15mm max clearance from the strut housing with just the bare 18" rim so once the 225 tyre goes on it's gonna be awfully close. I was under the impression that the stock Zetec rims were a 17 x 7" but they're only a 6.5" with an offset of 52.1, compared to the XR5 of 8" and 52.5 offset. Also noticed the OEM front tyres are scrubbing on the inside too, only 35000 k's on the Goodyear Eagle NCT's :(

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Russ

Also noticed the OEM front tyres are scrubbing on the inside too, only 35000 k's on the Goodyear Eagle NCT's :(

I've got a feeling the wear is due to the lowering and I think Ford might have rotated the wheels at the 30,000 k service. Makes sense to put the tyres with the least tread onto the front of a fwd car, that explains why I have had poor grip in the wet lately. The guys that fitted my SL springs said it didn't need a camber kit but i think it does myself :(

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by DZFord

Major service today. I did the spark plugs, throttle body clean, air filter washed and re-oiled, new oil and oil filter.

It doesn't feel right though - doing a major service without changing the fuel filter. I hate how the fuel filter on these cars are hidden within the tank, as part of the fuel sender unit.

Honda went the same direction in the late 90s/2000s, such a bastard to change.

You buy the lower assembly which is the filter, and you change over the fuel pump and reg, change o-rings, connectors at the same time etc.

I hated assisting on that job, especially in DC5 Integra's, you had to be Asian or a 5 foot midget to be able to do it easily.

Originally Posted by Russ

I've got a feeling the wear is due to the lowering and I think Ford might have rotated the wheels at the 30,000 k service. Makes sense to put the tyres with the least tread onto the front of a fwd car, that explains why I have had poor grip in the wet lately. The guys that fitted my SL springs said it didn't need a camber kit but i think it does myself :(

I did a camber kit in the rear with mine when I lowered it, no noticeable inside wear yet and thats about 30,000km on these tyres.

I had a quick look at my rear pads today, looks to be around 50% on the rears with 51,000km on the clock.

[Franco Cozzo]

Double post

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

I did a camber kit in the rear with mine when I lowered it, no noticeable inside wear yet and thats about 30,000km on these tyres.

Thanks Damo, yeah I always thought the rear wheels looked to be splaying a bit more than they should, what kit did you use, the whiteline one ? Found one on eBay for about $140 delivered, any idea what sort of time is needed having them fitted ?

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Russ

Thanks Damo, yeah I always thought the rear wheels looked to be splaying a bit more than they should, what kit did you use, the whiteline one ? Found one on eBay for about $140 delivered, any idea what sort of time is needed having them fitted ?

I got the whiteline one suggested here, try Tuff Car Parts, a sponsor on here, Justin has excellent customer service and good prices.

I took my Focus into the local mechanic the day before and picked it up close of business the next day, so they had plenty of time to do it, unsure on how long it took them as it was a while ago but single day turn over

Might be worth getting any of your other suspension mods done at the same time if you have any planned.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

I got the whiteline one suggested here, try Tuff Car Parts, a sponsor on here, Justin has excellent customer service and good prices.

I took my Focus into the local mechanic the day before and picked it up close of business the next day, so they had plenty of time to do it, unsure on how long it took them as it was a while ago but single day turn over

Might be worth getting any of your other suspension mods done at the same time if you have any planned.

I don't have anything else suspension wise planned for it, I am hopefully putting the 18" XR5 rims on next week but the camber kit and a decent wheel alignment will have to be a priority for the sake of the new tyres

[DZFord]

Originally Posted by marg99

should have got a diesel where you can change the fuel filter and enjoy the fuel getting everywhere.

At least you can change without pulling the fuel tank out!

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Honda went the same direction in the late 90s/2000s, such a bastard to change.

You buy the lower assembly which is the filter, and you change over the fuel pump and reg, change o-rings, connectors at the same time etc.

I hated assisting on that job, especially in DC5 Integra's, you had to be Asian or a 5 foot midget to be able to do it easily.

Sounds like no fun at all. I think it would be the same with Focus - pull the tank out and replace the whole unit. Sounds expensive, and probably not something that I'd want to tackle.

Originally Posted by Russ

I've got a feeling the wear is due to the lowering and I think Ford might have rotated the wheels at the 30,000 k service. Makes sense to put the tyres with the least tread onto the front of a fwd car, that explains why I have had poor grip in the wet lately. The guys that fitted my SL springs said it didn't need a camber kit but i think it does myself :(

I don't know if its any different with the King Springs, but when I had Eibach springs on my car, and no camber kit, I had increased inner wear on my tyres. So when I had the Koni kit fitted, I made sure the Whiteline camber kit went on too - not from a handling perspective, but more so just to look after my rear tyres / prolong tyre life.