My £525 Ford Focus

[p4cks]

I needed a daily having sold my A3 to part fund my Clio V6 and after a couple of false starts on Gumtree I decided to get the closest decent car I could.

£525 later and I am the owner of a 113K Ford Focus 'Ghia' with an MOT until October. It claims to be a one-owner from new car but I find that hard to believe given there's a sticker in the rear window for a used car place in Ireland. It's got cruise control, auto lights, auto wipers, air conditioning and a heated wind screen which all were a lovely surprise and especially as they all work. Current spend is 99p for a radio code but other than that I really don't think I'm going to be spending any unnecessary money on it - my other cars are for that!

The interior was absolutely filthy so I spent a couple of hours on Friday evening giving it a liberal spraying of all purpose cleaner and a brush then dried it all and applied some dash shine spray.

Things that don't go in its favour are:
every panel is scraped or dented
front suspension is creaking
the armrest has snapped
the gear gaitor is loose
rusty sills
slow puncture/low tread on front tyres (getting 2 x brand new ditchfinders being fitted tomorrow for £65 all in!)
no service history

It's a great feeling again to own a car that you don't give a st about.

Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

[p4cks]

Hahahaha that did make me laugh!

[p4cks]

helix402 said:

Have fun changing the pollen filter!

Looks fiddly, but doable in about 30 mins?

https://youtu.be/yMc-C1AxYeQ

[p4cks]

Thought I'd give it a service so just been on carparts4less for
oil filter
air filter
sump plug washer
pollen filter
4 x spark plugs

all for £22.51 delivered

I should have 4L of oil lying around that I can also use to save money

Today will have the £65 front tyres fitted (local place) and maybe a £15 wheel alignment (National Tyres with 50% discount code)

[p4cks]

They’re surprisingly well equipped and reliable aren’t they?

I’ve had almost 40 cars and this is my first Ford, strangely enough.

The other options at this price level were Astras and I don’t really think they compare

[p4cks]

Well the front tyres weren’t as easy as I first thought - no locking wheel nut key so had to go home and dremel/hammer/chisel the fkers off.

All done now and now has two new front tyres

[p4cks]

We all love a cheap fix, and this one was approximately 3p

The armrest snapping at its plastic hinges is a known problem and mine was no different, a new armrest comes attached to the centre console and there was no way I was going to pay for/fit a new one.

I went on YouTube and watched a video on plastic welding so thought I would give it a go, which turned out rather satisfying.

You'll need a soldering iron, a tie wrap or something of similar plastic qualities, a few paperclips.

Before:
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

During:
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

After (it's not pretty but it's probably much stronger than the original):
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

Et voila:
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

Edited by p4cks on Tuesday 4th June 12:47

[p4cks]

Hmm, one of the front tyres was 13psi this morning which I suspect is from the inner rim (filled it up with air and sprayed water around the outer rim and couldn’t see anything) so will take it to me local tyre monkeys for them to repair (£25 per wheel)

[p4cks]

Service done, although I forgot my phone so couldn't take any photos.

Needless to say it was quite clear that it hadn't had a service in some time... the air and cabin filter were filthy!

Total cost of the full service was £33.01 (managed to get 4L of oil from Tesco for £10.50 as I didn't have any spare in the garage)

[p4cks]

The plugs were dry as a bone when I removed them, albeit a little blackened.

I’ll check if it’s had the recall done though, thanks for the info

[p4cks]

Mines the 1.6 so maybe it didn’t have an impact on this particular engine

[p4cks]

Aye that does look familiar!

[p4cks]

Not sure if diesels have spark plugs so you might be OK.

Anyway I've just adjusted my loose/poor handbrake by watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtVGTkmLV-c

Total cost £0.00

[p4cks]

p4cks said:

I've just adjusted my loose/poor handbrake by watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtVGTkmLV-c

Total cost £0.00

Didn’t fix it so it’ll need handbrake cables before the MOT in October

[p4cks]

They do seem rather reliable I have to say. Also, everything that's been worked on or fixed thus far has been relatively straightforward

<touch wood>

[p4cks]

Yeah they seem to be quite reliable, the engines certainly aren't under much strain that's for sure.

[p4cks]

Two jobs today:

Repair chipped windscreen (not successful)
Replace heater thermostat (successful).


The heater blower would only work on number 4 of the dial, so after some Googling I found that the thermostat regularly failed so I spent £4.49 delivered on a new one from eBay

New one
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Had to remove the glovebox, again. Also found removing the fuse box made things a little easier:
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

There's the bd. Had to undo the screws using 'feel' only, which was awkward given you're half in the footwell and half out of the car. Torx screw T20 for anyone wondering.
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

This was the old one. fked:
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr


The other job was to repair a chip
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

Using this £3 kit from eBay:
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

Which didn't work and I lost motivation for the job so I will just live with the crack.

[p4cks]

I have to say though it’s not great on fuel. Currently at 36mpg and I’d assumed that it would be better

[p4cks]

The gear stick never returned to the centre which sometimes made going from 2nd to 3rd a bit of a lottery so after a bit of Googling I found that it's quite a common issue with Focuses and whilst the mk1 Focus just needs a spring to fix it the mk2 needs a whole new gear selector mechanism.

Got the part number and found one in mint nick on eBay for £14 which also included a gear knob, gator and surround - all of these were knackered on mine so it turned out to be even more of a bargain.

4 screws to keep the centre console in and another 4 screws holding the mechanism in. 30 minutes later it was in and works perfectly.

New mechanism
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

Centre console removed
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

Scrap
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

Et voila
Untitled by p4cks, on Flickr

Still on the to do list (which will probably be done at MOT time) are:

• new catalytic converter
• new clutch
• identify and fix suspension creaking

[p4cks]

Jobs done today:

Bought a brand new eBay catalytic converter for £86.82 (taking advantage of the 20% eBay sale earlier this month) and a £8.95 gasket kit and it's now with my spanner monkey for fitting for a mere £50

So a new cat fitted all in for just £145.77 - bargaintastic!