Ford Focus Mk2 [ST] Estate Sleeper - Build Thread
Discussion
ARAF said:
Fantastic read from start to finish - after clicking on it by mistake after looking for the next 'Thor' update.
Well done Chris.
Get your finger out Storer. 
BTW, to stop cabin drone, some companies fit a damping weight to the exhaust, others fit a resonator silencer in the centre.
Haha, thank you, even if it was by mistake. I too love the Thor story.Well done Chris.
Get your finger out Storer. BTW, to stop cabin drone, some companies fit a damping weight to the exhaust, others fit a resonator silencer in the centre.
Edited by ARAF on Thursday 19th November 22:20
Thanks for the advise, I spoke to Milltek last weekend at the Classic Car show and they too said that I needed a resonator silencer and explained how it worked too.
CHR15 G said:
Muzzer79 said:
Superb
Got any pics of the finished interior?
Not right now, but I'll take some for you. Got any pics of the finished interior?
Rear seats match and so do the door cards, all from a base model 5 door ST. I opted for the cloth seats (of the base model) over the leather, as I'm not a fan of leather in this type of car- S Class or Range Rover yes, this no. I also got a set of fitted mats made up in black with the same coloured grey trim. Only thing left to do is get a spare steering wheel that I bought trimmed in black alcantara with a grey centre stripe (I have a centre stripe on my Clio and find it quite useful).
jamiem555 said:
That's really nice. Well done!
Muzzer79 said:
CHR15 G said:
CHR15 G said:
Muzzer79 said:
Superb
Got any pics of the finished interior?
Not right now, but I'll take some for you. Got any pics of the finished interior?
Stuballs said:
Awesome project. Just read right from the beginning.
I'm a converted fan of sleepers and now want one! Actually, I want yours!
Top work!
Thanks guysI'm a converted fan of sleepers and now want one! Actually, I want yours!
Top work!
So the other thing I decided I needed was wheel spacers, which I suspect will get a mixed reaction on here. The two main reasons for them are:
1. Aid brake cooling. The wheels sit very close to the calipers on the front face of the wheel and they have been getting quite hot on country roads. I hope that by spacing them out a bit it will draw in more air and cool the brakes.
2. Looks. I know everyone has said to keep it looking standard, but I'm finding it hard to bond with the car because it looks so normal. I want to add a little aggression to the car by bring the wheels out and filling the arches, please don't judge too harshly until you've seen the results!
Anyway, wheel spacers are custom made by Super Forma who said they would take 10 working days plus postage, but I actually ordered them on a Wednesday afternoon and they turned up on Friday morning! A really great service by them and I would thoroughly recommend them.
As said before, springs are -30mm by Eibach on the rear and dampers are standard fitment Sachs items.
New parts...
The car beforehand, the ride height at the rear actually looks ok here.
Working on the rear end.
I spent about 12 hours trying the remove the old springs and fitting the new one by using spring compressors, but every time I was close to compressing them far enough the spring compressors would bottom out on another suspension component. In the end the I put the jack under the outside edge of the lower wishbone and undid the bolt there and lowered the wishbone down. Doing it this way would have taken about an hour total, at least I know for next time!
Old spring and new spring.
And the new damper. The old one wasn't leaking, that's just WD40.
Wheel spacers front (20mm)...
and rear (25mm).
And for the finished result you'll have to wait until next time!
1. Aid brake cooling. The wheels sit very close to the calipers on the front face of the wheel and they have been getting quite hot on country roads. I hope that by spacing them out a bit it will draw in more air and cool the brakes.
2. Looks. I know everyone has said to keep it looking standard, but I'm finding it hard to bond with the car because it looks so normal. I want to add a little aggression to the car by bring the wheels out and filling the arches, please don't judge too harshly until you've seen the results!
Anyway, wheel spacers are custom made by Super Forma who said they would take 10 working days plus postage, but I actually ordered them on a Wednesday afternoon and they turned up on Friday morning! A really great service by them and I would thoroughly recommend them.
As said before, springs are -30mm by Eibach on the rear and dampers are standard fitment Sachs items.
New parts...
The car beforehand, the ride height at the rear actually looks ok here.
Working on the rear end.
I spent about 12 hours trying the remove the old springs and fitting the new one by using spring compressors, but every time I was close to compressing them far enough the spring compressors would bottom out on another suspension component. In the end the I put the jack under the outside edge of the lower wishbone and undid the bolt there and lowered the wishbone down. Doing it this way would have taken about an hour total, at least I know for next time!
Old spring and new spring.
And the new damper. The old one wasn't leaking, that's just WD40.
Wheel spacers front (20mm)...
and rear (25mm).
And for the finished result you'll have to wait until next time!
GrumpyTwig said:
Only issue might be the spacers could ruin the rather well executed look of bogo standard entirely average looking hack.
One of the more satisfying build threads one here recently, well done.
It will no longer look completely bogo standard average looking, but I hope that 99% of the population won't notice!One of the more satisfying build threads one here recently, well done.
And, thank you.
neilbauer said:
When it's lowered OP do you need to get the tracking checked?
Digitalize said:
Also yes it will need to be tracked ideally.
Yes, I will get the tracking done. I tend to get the tracking done every time I do any sort of suspension work, which is approximately every other day on the Clio.Sf_Manta said:
CHR15 G said:
chrisnic0 said:
Hi Chris,
Great sleeper!
Are you based near Chester? I am sure I spotted you on the A55 the other day
Nico
Thank you!Great sleeper!
Are you based near Chester? I am sure I spotted you on the A55 the other day
Nico
No, I'm in Silverstone, A5, haven't been up to Chester in a little while. I hope someone else has also built a Focus sleeper!
I'm going to call it nearly done for the time being. Apart from:
Wing indicators
New driveshaft
MoT soon
Full service
Maybe some sound deadening
Wiring the towbar
and many other things...
I absolutely love it, and it is everything I hoped it would be when I thought of the idea almost two years ago.
Wing indicators
New driveshaft
MoT soon
Full service
Maybe some sound deadening
Wiring the towbar
and many other things...
I absolutely love it, and it is everything I hoped it would be when I thought of the idea almost two years ago.
rohrl said:
On the exhaust noise thing. If it's causing a resonating boom through the bodyshell at an annoying rpm point then I'm not sure that wrapping the exhaust or adding sound deadening will cause the problem. To get to the root cause of the booming you might well need to add another box to the system or at the very least another hanger to try and change the exhaust system's harmonic frequency. This is just the sort of issue that manufacturers spend a lot of time and money working out and home modifiers have to find out by trial and error.
Yes, I also believe that this is a natural frequency (resonance) of the system, therefore the two best ways to change this would be to 1) change the length of the system or 2) can the amount of gas flowing through the system. But as both of these are fundamentals of the system that cannot be changed I think the next best thing is to add a central silencer or to add a resonator. Unfortunately I believe that there will be a bit of trial and error involved.I have bought 10kg of DynaMat as a general improvement to the car for road noise etc anyway, but I don't think it would ever get rid of the exhaust boom by itself.
I got the nod of approval from a '14 plate RS4 Avant this morning. I managed to keep him behind me for a while, until we got to a set of traffic light and I got many wheel spins when the boost came on in third and he was able to over take. I then stayed with him for a bit, me not catching but him not getting away, until my turning where I got a flash of his hazards. Very happy with that.
Also, the car rides and handles as perfectly as I can tell on its new springs and dampers. The front and rear both respond to bumps in the same way, the same amount of roll from both ends and fairly neutral handling.
Also, the car rides and handles as perfectly as I can tell on its new springs and dampers. The front and rear both respond to bumps in the same way, the same amount of roll from both ends and fairly neutral handling.
MOT prep work, just finishing off a few parts.
When we were assembling the rear brakes I put the hand brake cable on incorrectly, and adjusted it, and only one side worked. Slackened off the cable at the hand brake lever, reconnected it at the caliper, then spent ages trying to get the tension correct!
Because the estate doesn't have the wiring loom for the ESP then I couldn't fit the ESP module, which meant the ESP light was on on the dash which is an automatic fail. I already had an ELM OBDII cable, so I downloaded some new software and followed the excellent guide from James Simpson (http://www.jamessimpson.co.uk/elmconfig-enable-ford-ecu-functions/) to get into the Focus ECU. I think that the ESP and ABS are both operated through the same module as the ESP uses pulses of brakes to adjust the slide of the car, so I probably don't have an ABS either, but I decided just to tell the car that it didn't have ABS any more, which also turned off the ESP light. I guess in some countries they sell the Focus without ABS...
I also had to wire in the towbar which I had fitted earlier. It was second hand and the wiring had been chopped out of another car so I already had the correct coloured wires to wire into. It had scotch connectors on it which meant it just snapped together.
Last thing to sort for the MOT was the wing indicators as the ST engine loom didn't have connectors, as the indicators were in the body loom of the ST, but as I was using the body loom from the estate I didn't have any wing indicator connectors. I got a friend from work to help who knows much much more and wires and stuff. We tapped into wiring loom next to the headlights and ran the wires back to the wing indicators.
The wiring is just visible on the left hand side, following the seem, wrapped in electrical tape. All worked perfectly!
Next up: MOT!
When we were assembling the rear brakes I put the hand brake cable on incorrectly, and adjusted it, and only one side worked. Slackened off the cable at the hand brake lever, reconnected it at the caliper, then spent ages trying to get the tension correct!
Because the estate doesn't have the wiring loom for the ESP then I couldn't fit the ESP module, which meant the ESP light was on on the dash which is an automatic fail. I already had an ELM OBDII cable, so I downloaded some new software and followed the excellent guide from James Simpson (http://www.jamessimpson.co.uk/elmconfig-enable-ford-ecu-functions/) to get into the Focus ECU. I think that the ESP and ABS are both operated through the same module as the ESP uses pulses of brakes to adjust the slide of the car, so I probably don't have an ABS either, but I decided just to tell the car that it didn't have ABS any more, which also turned off the ESP light. I guess in some countries they sell the Focus without ABS...
I also had to wire in the towbar which I had fitted earlier. It was second hand and the wiring had been chopped out of another car so I already had the correct coloured wires to wire into. It had scotch connectors on it which meant it just snapped together.
Last thing to sort for the MOT was the wing indicators as the ST engine loom didn't have connectors, as the indicators were in the body loom of the ST, but as I was using the body loom from the estate I didn't have any wing indicator connectors. I got a friend from work to help who knows much much more and wires and stuff. We tapped into wiring loom next to the headlights and ran the wires back to the wing indicators.
The wiring is just visible on the left hand side, following the seem, wrapped in electrical tape. All worked perfectly!
Next up: MOT!
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