st170 gear shift

[Andy70]

Hi all, my partner is interested in a little st 170, unfortunately the ones she has tried have ridiculously, tight or stiff gear changes, this didn't seem like a one off, 3 or 4 that she looked at were exactly the same, granted she isn't very strong bless her but even I thought it was a bit crap, however one came up for sale local to us so thought we'd go and have a prod with this one and it seemed much more manageable, so my question is, I assume they may have a habit of going stiff with age? (surely ford wouldn't sell them brand new this bad?) so therefore is it treatable and how? cheers for your help

Andy

[Andy70]

AdamIndy said:

Anyone who has driven mine says the same, I guess I'm just used to it. Lubing/replacing the gearchange cables I guess would be the only solution.

that's the problem, I was expecting g a load of messages from people saying there is nothing wrong with them, but you do get used to something, I remember my first car was a cavalier SRi and over the years I never noticed the cable clutch getting heavier and heavier until I drove someone else's, so I done mine and it was light again. thanks for that advice she only has a 1.6 focus at the mo, so for her it will be a big jump in power, but like I said the ones she has tried have been impossible for her for every day use, so good news if it is a simple fix, you can pick them up now so cheap too so looking promising for her

[Andy70]

good suggestion Greg, but I think they are a bit smaller? the focus is the smallest she can go really

[Andy70]

clio sport is a bit too small for her, she needs to get kids stuff in the boot, scooters, pushchair etc, so unfortunately not big enough, any way I spoke to a ford specialist today and he seemed puzzled as to what I was saying, he said that the gearbox shouldn't be any different to any other ford and said maybe needs new linkage or something, but my confusion was that for a problem seemingly quite common, I'd have thought a specialist might have had a few in over the years and been aware of it???? I agree they are not very quick, to her it will be almost double the power as it would be her second ever car, so shed love it. personally im not a fan of powerful front wheel drive cars, but each to their own I guess

[Andy70]

Deisel Weisel said:

I don't know if this might be the answer: http://www.pumaspeed.co.uk/product-Focus-ST170-Bil...

What about a Civic EP3 Type-R instead?

Thanks for the input, not sure if a short shifter is the answer, if there is a problem with the linkage/box or anything else, it would just be a very stiff/tight short shifter so same problem, but i'll look into civic's see if she likes them, good call, I just know there are plenty of st170's for a grand or less, not the tidiest in the world I'm sure, but some are advertised as mechanically sound and up together and if I get a grand for her mk2 2005 1.6 ghia with 1 previous owner from new with full dealer history I wont have to actually shell out anything ;-)

[Andy70]

cheers greg, she doesn't like the civics, already looked at those, we've been looking at mondeo st220's today, she likes the big boot, thanks for the advice guys, I do get the impression then that's just how they are, so knock that one on the head, lovely smooth engine in the mondeo, just looks weird a v6 the wrong way around (bloody front wheel drive lol) and the gearbox is lovely and light, just seems bazar that ford made a boo boo with the st170

[Andy70]

I just don't get the logic as to why Ford would make just 1 crap gearbox when the rest seem fine. She is looking at e46 325's now. More power and still reasonable to run.

[Andy70]

Greg- said:

It's not a Ford gearbox in the ST170, it's from Getrag, it's the same 'box that is in the first BMW Mini Cooper S, but I don't think that has the same stiff change problem, it's just ST170 thing.

strange how it is the only one that's tight though, the st220 6 box is as you'd expect, along with the later models of st, but then it probably isn't the box itself as was mentioned in earlier posts probably the linkage somewhere, I was curious as to whether it was an age thing and repairable because as I said earlier I'd be surprised if they came out the factory as bad as some of them seem to be

[Andy70]

She has been nudging towards a 330i at the mo, we looked at mondeo ST's but the 330 is a fair bit quicker as it is quite a bit lighter and has a few more horses but more importantly loads more economical and in my opinion better to have rear drive when you got a bit of go under the bonnet. I had a front wheel drive car once, never again, the wheels just spin in the wet without even trying lol. I suppose if that's all a person has ever owned then they know no different. I'll just be shelling out a fair bit more money than I wanted to pay as the st170 is a bargain really and she has a focus at the moment so a decent upgrade in power from a 1.6