Ford Focus ST3
Discussion
I've had my new car for about a week now, so figured it's about time I started a thread on here about it!
Before I got the focus I had a 2006 Fabia vRS:
(Yes, I'm aware that the wheels are a bit marmite!)
but as I moved jobs & my commute pretty much halved, I thought I'd go for something a bit quicker!
I was quite specific about what I wanted (a performance blue ST3 with reasonable mileage) and there was only 1 or 2 listed on the PH classifieds within my budget - but they both were at opposite ends of the country.
By complete co-incidence I stumbled across a suitable sounding car at a local dealership, so thought it would be rude not to go and have a look! Long story short, I now own it
Enough waffle, time for some pics!
The night I collected it:
Waited for a bit of sunshine and got some semi-tarty pics:
Found this in the boot - Nice to see that the last owner looked after the car!
inside the envelope are receipts from 2010 to 2014, it must have been a receipt for every time the car has been filled!
I had these knocking about, so thought they'd suit the car:
(please ignore the budget tyre, they will be getting changed shortly!)
First plans are to put in a decent headunit & an amp/sub, and then eventually get round to some performance mods!
Before I got the focus I had a 2006 Fabia vRS:
(Yes, I'm aware that the wheels are a bit marmite!)
but as I moved jobs & my commute pretty much halved, I thought I'd go for something a bit quicker!
I was quite specific about what I wanted (a performance blue ST3 with reasonable mileage) and there was only 1 or 2 listed on the PH classifieds within my budget - but they both were at opposite ends of the country.
By complete co-incidence I stumbled across a suitable sounding car at a local dealership, so thought it would be rude not to go and have a look! Long story short, I now own it
Enough waffle, time for some pics!
The night I collected it:
Waited for a bit of sunshine and got some semi-tarty pics:
Found this in the boot - Nice to see that the last owner looked after the car!
inside the envelope are receipts from 2010 to 2014, it must have been a receipt for every time the car has been filled!
I had these knocking about, so thought they'd suit the car:
(please ignore the budget tyre, they will be getting changed shortly!)
First plans are to put in a decent headunit & an amp/sub, and then eventually get round to some performance mods!
Edited by brockovrs on Thursday 8th May 21:51
Captainawesome said:
Only ever had v-power but budget tyres??? Priorities previous sad owner…priorities!!
It was the dealer that stuck the budget tyres on the rear, as "the MOT showed them as an advisory, so we did you a favor and put new ones on"Had I have known they were going to do that, I'd have told them to leave it & I'll sort it myself!
Carlos24 said:
Looks like you have got a good one :-) the modding bug is a very addictive one with these haha...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
For inspiration!
Carlos
Haha, funnily enough I read your thread (along with pretty much every focus ST thread on here!) whilst I was waiting to pick mine up - looks bloody good!http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
For inspiration!
Carlos
Not sure I'll end up with as many mods as you though (although knowing what I'm like, i'll end up doing most of it anyway!)
Do you really find that the MPG hasn't decreased with the extra power? I'm getting about 22/23 at the moment, so if it stays like that with an extra 100bhp, I could definitely put up with it!
I've had the car for a couple of months now, so thought I'd do a bit of an update!
First thing I did was take this out:
and replaced it with this:
I then replaced all 4 tyres as the front 2 were getting a bit worn & the rear 2 were a crappy budget make, it's now wearing vredestein ultrac sessanta's and they are pretty bloody good!!
The brake disks were quite worn & as I'm off to the nurburgring at the end of June, I thought that I'd be best of to change them now, so the disks & pads got changed all round (that was a loooong day!)
Whilst I was doing the brakes, I replaced the standard gearbox torque mount with an uprated one:
Annoyingly, I've also seen that the front wishbone rear bush on both sides of the car has gone - allowing a lot of movement. An uprated bush (from the same people that make the torque mount) was a decent price, but I'd need to pay someone to fit it as I don't have a press, so what do I do?
That's right, buy whole new bottom arms!
My man math justification being A) its got both bushes already installed, so it'll save me having to replace the front one when that goes and B) It's powdercoated, shiny and blue... I've just got to wait for the next dry weekend to fit them.
I also took it to the PHSS at merc world, but as it's pretty boring in comparison to most of the other stuff that was there, I don't think anyone noticed it!
First thing I did was take this out:
and replaced it with this:
I then replaced all 4 tyres as the front 2 were getting a bit worn & the rear 2 were a crappy budget make, it's now wearing vredestein ultrac sessanta's and they are pretty bloody good!!
The brake disks were quite worn & as I'm off to the nurburgring at the end of June, I thought that I'd be best of to change them now, so the disks & pads got changed all round (that was a loooong day!)
Whilst I was doing the brakes, I replaced the standard gearbox torque mount with an uprated one:
Annoyingly, I've also seen that the front wishbone rear bush on both sides of the car has gone - allowing a lot of movement. An uprated bush (from the same people that make the torque mount) was a decent price, but I'd need to pay someone to fit it as I don't have a press, so what do I do?
That's right, buy whole new bottom arms!
My man math justification being A) its got both bushes already installed, so it'll save me having to replace the front one when that goes and B) It's powdercoated, shiny and blue... I've just got to wait for the next dry weekend to fit them.
I also took it to the PHSS at merc world, but as it's pretty boring in comparison to most of the other stuff that was there, I don't think anyone noticed it!
d kids!As it was decent weather, I thought I'd do the wishbones on Saturday - its only 4 bolts each side, it'll be simple, right?
Wrong.
8 fecking hours it took me - although that does include taking the noisy spanner to my balljoint splitter to make it big enough to actually split the balljoint & bending a spanner to fit inside the new wishbone so I could attach the headlamp levelling bracket thingy
Before:
Ahh, so *thats* why I got wheel wobble (video):
After:
Not driven the car too much as I'm waiting until I get alignment done (tomorrow) but from the short drive that I have done, it feels a lot better!
Wrong.
8 fecking hours it took me - although that does include taking the noisy spanner to my balljoint splitter to make it big enough to actually split the balljoint & bending a spanner to fit inside the new wishbone so I could attach the headlamp levelling bracket thingy
Before:
Ahh, so *thats* why I got wheel wobble (video):
After:
Not driven the car too much as I'm waiting until I get alignment done (tomorrow) but from the short drive that I have done, it feels a lot better!
Podie said:
Those hard race wishbones are supposed to be good - be interested to see what you think.
Got the alignment done this morning & took it out for a proper blast.It feels like a whole different car, the steering is so much more immediate & the front end feels much happier to change direction.
Not sure if this is because of the hard race wishbones or just the fact the old ones were buggered, but I'd still recommend them to anyone that's thinking about it!
Thanks for all the comments!
The Alpine head unit was about £260 (I got it here: http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/alpine-ive-w530bt)
As for the fascia, I cocked up and bought the wrong one (and only realised it was the wrong one after spending £50 on getting it hydrodipped
) as its a pre-facelift model it's a bit iffy in finding the right one , in the end I used something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DFP-07-09-Ford-C-Max-Foc...
All in it probably cost me about £350, by the time I bought the extra leads to connect the ipod & be able to control the headunit from the stalk by the steering wheel.
No more mods as of yet - I'm still skint from doing the brakes & bushes! but I'm very impressed with the hardrace bits.
Annoyingly, I've got really bad brake squeal coming from the rear, so the pads will be coming off & getting copper slip plastered all over the backs & hopefully that should sort it.
I'm off to the Nurburgring next weekend so I'll stick some pictures up when I get back, if you could all keep your fingers crossed that I don't bin it, I'd be very appreciative!
The Alpine head unit was about £260 (I got it here: http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/alpine-ive-w530bt)
As for the fascia, I cocked up and bought the wrong one (and only realised it was the wrong one after spending £50 on getting it hydrodipped
) as its a pre-facelift model it's a bit iffy in finding the right one , in the end I used something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DFP-07-09-Ford-C-Max-Foc...All in it probably cost me about £350, by the time I bought the extra leads to connect the ipod & be able to control the headunit from the stalk by the steering wheel.
No more mods as of yet - I'm still skint from doing the brakes & bushes! but I'm very impressed with the hardrace bits.
Annoyingly, I've got really bad brake squeal coming from the rear, so the pads will be coming off & getting copper slip plastered all over the backs & hopefully that should sort it.
I'm off to the Nurburgring next weekend so I'll stick some pictures up when I get back, if you could all keep your fingers crossed that I don't bin it, I'd be very appreciative!
Well I'm back & didn't stick it into any armco - which is always a bonus!
There appeared to be a massive ST/RS gathering at the ring, there were bloody hundreds of them!
I also spotted a couple of PH stickers - one on the back of a white 1 series that I had a bit of a battle with on track, which was nice!
It was a little bit wet...
but still managed a tarty posing picture
I'm now hunting through the thousands of pictures from the photographers that often lurk around the ring to see if any of them make me look decent!
There appeared to be a massive ST/RS gathering at the ring, there were bloody hundreds of them!
I also spotted a couple of PH stickers - one on the back of a white 1 series that I had a bit of a battle with on track, which was nice!
It was a little bit wet...
but still managed a tarty posing picture
I'm now hunting through the thousands of pictures from the photographers that often lurk around the ring to see if any of them make me look decent!
Finally found a couple of photos that were taken by people at the 'ring, I'm pretty chuffed:
Had an interesting weekend, I was driving on friday night and about 2 miles from home & I hear a horrible squeaking noise that sounded like a cross between a belt forcing itself over a seized pulley and a steam train. I slowly drove home (keeping it off boost) and with the engine running I pulled out the dipstick. The sound went away but it was pulling quite a lot of air in through the dipstick tube - so that's a split diaphragm in the oil filter housing then.
Arse.
9am sat morning I phone the local ford dealership, borrow a car & head over there to hand them £lots in exchange for this:
3 and a half hours later the car looked like this:
Changing the housing wasn't too bad - just a bit fiddly, but getting the bloody airbox off was a complete twunt, ECU has to be removed from its position (meaning battery needs to be disconnected), the rad/intercooler need to be lowered to get enough room. All the bloody rain didn't help!
On slightly better news I'm booked in on a rolling road day with the northwest lot from the focusSTOC forum next weekend, so it'll be nice to see what the car is putting out as standard
Had an interesting weekend, I was driving on friday night and about 2 miles from home & I hear a horrible squeaking noise that sounded like a cross between a belt forcing itself over a seized pulley and a steam train. I slowly drove home (keeping it off boost) and with the engine running I pulled out the dipstick. The sound went away but it was pulling quite a lot of air in through the dipstick tube - so that's a split diaphragm in the oil filter housing then.
Arse.
9am sat morning I phone the local ford dealership, borrow a car & head over there to hand them £lots in exchange for this:
3 and a half hours later the car looked like this:
Changing the housing wasn't too bad - just a bit fiddly, but getting the bloody airbox off was a complete twunt, ECU has to be removed from its position (meaning battery needs to be disconnected), the rad/intercooler need to be lowered to get enough room. All the bloody rain didn't help!
On slightly better news I'm booked in on a rolling road day with the northwest lot from the focusSTOC forum next weekend, so it'll be nice to see what the car is putting out as standard
Edited by brockovrs on Sunday 20th July 12:47
Just realised I've not updated this in a while!
I went to the RR day with the owners club back in August-ish & got a fairly respectable 218hp at the flywheel - not bad for a standard car on a very hot day.
Since then I've not really done anything else with the car, bar replace both driveshafts as they were causing a godawful wheel wobble.
I've now had the car for just over a year & I'm bored of it. Whilst I like the noise, the toys & the comfort, the sheer thirst of the thing is annoying (I get about 20/22mpg on my stop/start commute) as is the lack of power in 1st/2nd meaning it's only really "fun" in 3rd gear onwards, which means you're doing silly speeds.
So I've now got a 2005 EP3 type R, I'm just waiting for the DVLA to sort out my private plate transfer & then I'll be prepping the ST for sale!
I went to the RR day with the owners club back in August-ish & got a fairly respectable 218hp at the flywheel - not bad for a standard car on a very hot day.
Since then I've not really done anything else with the car, bar replace both driveshafts as they were causing a godawful wheel wobble.
I've now had the car for just over a year & I'm bored of it. Whilst I like the noise, the toys & the comfort, the sheer thirst of the thing is annoying (I get about 20/22mpg on my stop/start commute) as is the lack of power in 1st/2nd meaning it's only really "fun" in 3rd gear onwards, which means you're doing silly speeds.
So I've now got a 2005 EP3 type R, I'm just waiting for the DVLA to sort out my private plate transfer & then I'll be prepping the ST for sale!
Gdgd said:
How did the dice fair in the end 
?
The front two lasted about 2 months, then they were gone - so I took the rear two off and binned them, I knew they'd go eventually so I wasn't too bothered (especially as I used to make/sell them on ebay & had a load of them left, so I was just trying to get rid!) ?As for the MPG stuff, it's not that there is a problem with the car, on a run I can get 30ish, its just that my commute sucks as its an awful lot of stop/start driving, even in my Fabia I wasn't getting fantastic mileage from a tank!
I was thinking about a remap, but then an opportunity to buy a mates Civic came up (long story short, I was selling a Smart ForTwo Brabus on behalf of a friend, another friend had an EP3 civic and wanted a change, so we swapped)
Edited by brockovrs on Friday 6th March 08:28
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