My £525 Ford Focus

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alex98uk said:

Raises a good question... what is the perceived reliability of the 1.6 Duratec? Are there any massive flaws with it?

They've got a great reputation actually, and you often find them being put in to kit cars.

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One of the rear shocker sleeves fell down and was causing an almighty racket to the point I thought the car was scrap. Took it to my local spanner place and he knew exactly what it was... and fixed it for £40

Also my earlier fix on the armrest didn't last very long as it fell off today; a replacement comes as part of the centre console and that was out of the question so like the dash cubby hole out came the superglue, again, for the repair:


And gave it a vacuum, clean and spray with interior spray shine ste as I'm intending on driving up to Glasgow in it next week.

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Cheers chaps. I always do one big clean when I first buy a used car using toothbrushes and degreaser and carpet and upholstery cleaner so keeping on top of it just requires light work and a vacuum. The interior I’d rate at a 9, while the exterior is most definitely a 2. At best.

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the misgire has returned. So I've ordered some better quality HT leads in the hope that these will fix it. If they don't then I'm afraid my patience has worn incredibly thin with the issue

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Another update on the misfire, which had begun again. Been running on 3 cylinders for a week but now finally had a chance to get some new leads fitted.

It appears that the Volvo water ingress kit which I bought has not fully worked, as I removed the month old plugs to find two of them like this


So water has still been getting down to the plugs, so as well as new leads I needed to fit two new spark plugs as they were also shot; the other two plugs were fine so they stayed. I'm not wanting to fix the effect every month or so, so I set about fixing the cause. A little bit of silicone between the Volvo cover and the cam cover should do the trick - if it doesn't I'm really at a loss as to what else I can do with it.


Now fixed for now, but let's see for how long.

Also thought I'd give it a clean under there, before:


After:

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Yeah I left the rear (adjacent to the bulkhead) unsiliconed.

Here’s hoping it’s sorted it

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p4cks said:

Yeah I left the rear (adjacent to the bulkhead) unsiliconed.

Here’s hoping it’s sorted it

Looking at this photo I posted earlier it seems as though there's a large gap between the plastic cover and the cam cover, which may suggest the continued water ingress issue.


Now with that bead of sealant I do hope that it's fixed. I'll be driving from Newcastle to Glasgow on Friday and back again on Sunday so we shall soon see. It'll be its first 'trip' which is why I've been so keen to clean the interior and sort out the misfire.

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Not a great update, had my first breakdown today. After stopping for a coffee I went to start the car and nothing other than tick tick tick. Quick call to the RAC, 30 minutes later I was on my way.

Diagnosis was a duff battery and an alternator which wasn't 100%

Here's Brian:


Battery confirmation:


New battery ordered... £65

Might get the alternator refurbished sometime too as it wasn't 100% but that can wait.

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I actually declined their offer of them sourcing a battery for me for £112, instead opting for the cheaper CP4L Exide one!

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Frimley111R said:

The battery is knackered so how do they work out the alternator is a bit duff too? Sounds more like a 'it's probably worth replacing' type of thing

He did a load test and you're right, it's probably worth replacing soon but not at the moment. The battery is the priority at the moment.

In other news the sealant fix on the coil cover thingy seems to be working.

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Battery delivered last night at 6pm so was too dark to replace, but managed to do it this morning and we're back in action.

Not going to bother with the alternator at this point

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I forgot to mention that when I was replacing the old battery I noticed that the sealant I'd put around the Volvo water ingress cover was working perfectly as the water was pooling around the oil filler cap as opposed to draining through and down into the plugs. I suppose time will tell but everything looks good at the minute

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CharlieH89 said:

Do you know how much a cambelt is to change by an Indy?
The lady said the car in question hasn’t had it changed but would accept £1150.
To be honest, the mileage and cleanliness of the car doesn’t seem to bad for £1150.
It’s just the potential £300 or so I’d guess extra for the job immediately after buying the car that has me questioning it.
4 new tyres in August apparently too.

I got quoted £200 for the cambelt/waterpump on my 1.6 petrol manual
Slightly more for the clutch at £250

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Sounds like a decent deal

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My pain is your gain

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NY update:
I've recently purchased and fitted a new rear wiper as my old one was sheight, found a genuine Ford Motorcraft one on eBay for £2.99 delivered so I snapped that up. Also topped it up with 1L of oil so will need to keep an eye on that considering it was serviced in June.

The near side suspension top mount sounds as though it's gone but no impact to performance so will not be in any hurry to replace
The clutch will still need replacing in the next year or so
Cambelt in the next couple of years
Interior still immaculate, only issue is the radio clock does not keep the right time and although you can adjust the clock via the radio, the memory is in the dash binnacle so it'll need new clocks to fix - I'll just live with it and look at my watch.

I've grown to really like the car but not enough to fix the cosmetic dents out, and I never will!

Now on 118K

Also considering chopping in the Evora and the Clio V6 for a Gallardo and keeping this, but that'll probably be something I consider when I'm back in to a proper job and not dotting about here and there

newyearsameme

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Bobberoo99 said:

I do find it very amusing that you have those sorts of cars but drive a good old reliable sheddy Focus!!

I do wonder myself sometimes, as neither of my other cars have turned a wheel for about 3-4 months or so!

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My clutch is quite high, but is still usable. When I have the cruise control on and dip the clutch, the revs increase which points to a duff clutch.

Been quoted £150 for the clutch + fitting by my local 'cash only' garage

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Treated it to an interior clean (me) and a wash (local fiver car wash)

Happy to say that the sealant I used under the bonnet has stopped water ingress and the misfire



Total spend is £1,395.37 which equates to £0.27 per mile

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Recent spend is about £20 on a set of Bosch wipers and then applied some Rain-X to the windscreen. Wow what a revelation! I'll no longer scrimp on sheight wipers from now on that's for sure. I actually look forward to it raining now!