2012 Ford Focus Titanium
Discussion
geraintthomas said:
AJ5641 said:
Lights look nice, have you got links or product codes for the dipped, full beam and side lights in those nice white colours. I don't want to install HIDS in my Mk3 focus either.
I've not got any different full beams as they don't really need to be white - no one's going to see them so I'm never bothered.Side lights:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07D8RCW2H/ref...
Dipped beam:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XXGGQ8J/ref...
PS; don't clean your car, it looks beautiful when dirty
The garage has the car, and has given me a call to tell me that there's no play in the bearing. They couldn't heard the noise (it's hammering down with rain here) but the noise wouldn't happen until half hour or so of driving. They don't think it's the bearing and are skeptical about the hub, so they're going to look for whatever they can. I've discussed that if they can't find much to just fit the hub and bearing anyway as it rules that out at least.
Car should be back with me tomorrow morning.
Car should be back with me tomorrow morning.
Update:
The garage has told me that the flange/bearing kit I've given them is the wrong one, and it's the separate ones that's used on my car, rather than the all-in-one part. No bother, I can get a refund on that part and the garage is ordering in the correct flange and bearing for tomorrow.
They're a bit puzzled by the issue too. They've checked the brakes and all is well, and the bearing has no play. We're in agreement that it must be the flange that's bad, causing the disc and wheel to sit on a slight angle.
Bearing is £29, flange is around £120 (Ford wanted £250+ apparently), and then labour on top of that. Not cheap, but at this stage I'd rather pay more knowing it's fixed than keep throwing money at it.
I'll let you know what happens tomorrow when I get the car back.
The garage has told me that the flange/bearing kit I've given them is the wrong one, and it's the separate ones that's used on my car, rather than the all-in-one part. No bother, I can get a refund on that part and the garage is ordering in the correct flange and bearing for tomorrow.
They're a bit puzzled by the issue too. They've checked the brakes and all is well, and the bearing has no play. We're in agreement that it must be the flange that's bad, causing the disc and wheel to sit on a slight angle.
Bearing is £29, flange is around £120 (Ford wanted £250+ apparently), and then labour on top of that. Not cheap, but at this stage I'd rather pay more knowing it's fixed than keep throwing money at it.
I'll let you know what happens tomorrow when I get the car back.
Car has been returned, problem fixed.
Until half an hour later.
The wobble and squeak have gone, replaced with a groaning noise on certain angles of the wheel when driving, and when pulling away. It sounds like you're blowing the top of a beer bottle, kind of a harmonic resonance. It goes as soon as you touch the brake.
I have Eicher pads and I've read online these are shocking quality and can cause noises and vibrations due to a poor fit. The garage also told me the pads moved a lot more than they should. At this point I'm tempted to put brembo's in to see if that fixes it.
I'm completely disheartened by the car at the moment.
Until half an hour later.
The wobble and squeak have gone, replaced with a groaning noise on certain angles of the wheel when driving, and when pulling away. It sounds like you're blowing the top of a beer bottle, kind of a harmonic resonance. It goes as soon as you touch the brake.
I have Eicher pads and I've read online these are shocking quality and can cause noises and vibrations due to a poor fit. The garage also told me the pads moved a lot more than they should. At this point I'm tempted to put brembo's in to see if that fixes it.
I'm completely disheartened by the car at the moment.
Was going to say the mk3 has moved away from the front hub bearing set up of the mk2. Back to a bearing pressed in & secured by a circlip.
If you've got groaning noises. Jack up each wheel & spin them. Hold onto the road spring at front. Any roughness will be felt through the suspension.
Possibly the groaning noises could be if a new bearing has been fitted & they have caught the old flange when removing the old race from the old bearing. It can cause roughness when drive is being taken up.
If you've got groaning noises. Jack up each wheel & spin them. Hold onto the road spring at front. Any roughness will be felt through the suspension.
Possibly the groaning noises could be if a new bearing has been fitted & they have caught the old flange when removing the old race from the old bearing. It can cause roughness when drive is being taken up.
Interesting... I'll see what they say tomorrow.
This is the sound:
https://youtu.be/FM-qAtaKAps
Happens sometimes when pulling away, and sometimes when simply driving. Disappears when braking.
This used to happen a while back, but only when reversing.
This is the sound:
https://youtu.be/FM-qAtaKAps
Happens sometimes when pulling away, and sometimes when simply driving. Disappears when braking.
This used to happen a while back, but only when reversing.
Hi,
For your info, there was no play with my failed wheel bearing. I think it was a result of only one of the two races collapsing whilst the other kept it in alignment. Even on a dial gauge there was no run out detectable.
In terms of the noise when pulling away, mine did exactly that sometimes reversing. Never did resolve it before the car was moved on and replaced by my current (and older) X-Type Estate. The X-Type did make some noises akin to that which I discovered to be a sticking handbrake caused by corrosion building up on the caliper's handbrake lever shaft where it enters into the caliper. I am not sure if you have looked at the handbrake mechanism on the car but perhaps worth checking the levers on both rear calipers move freely with pads removed?
(p.s. my X-Type had done around 140,000 miles when the problem became audible)
Thanks,
For your info, there was no play with my failed wheel bearing. I think it was a result of only one of the two races collapsing whilst the other kept it in alignment. Even on a dial gauge there was no run out detectable.
In terms of the noise when pulling away, mine did exactly that sometimes reversing. Never did resolve it before the car was moved on and replaced by my current (and older) X-Type Estate. The X-Type did make some noises akin to that which I discovered to be a sticking handbrake caused by corrosion building up on the caliper's handbrake lever shaft where it enters into the caliper. I am not sure if you have looked at the handbrake mechanism on the car but perhaps worth checking the levers on both rear calipers move freely with pads removed?
(p.s. my X-Type had done around 140,000 miles when the problem became audible)
Thanks,
Interesting... I'll see what they say tomorrow.
This is the sound:
https://youtu.be/FM-qAtaKAps
Happens sometimes when pulling away, and sometimes when simply driving. Disappears when braking.
This used to happen a while back, but only when reversing.
This is the sound:
https://youtu.be/FM-qAtaKAps
Happens sometimes when pulling away, and sometimes when simply driving. Disappears when braking.
This used to happen a while back, but only when reversing.
Another video of the sound:
https://youtu.be/zRh0EskdasM
Update: IT'S FINALLY FIXED.
As you can tell from the video above, it was happening when driving without touching the brakes. After some research, here's what I think was happening...
Now that there is a new flange/bearing on the car, the disc no longer wobbles and is perfectly true. Because of this, the pads are able to sit closer to the disc (the wobble would have pushed them out slightly). The Eicher pads that I have in there are known to be horrendous quality, and they even look slightly different (as pointed out by someone a while back), which could cause them to rattle and vibrate if not seated properly. The garage even told me there was a lot of movement of the pad the carrier. Because they're now sitting closer/touching the disc as they should, they're vibrating more and causing that sort of harmonic resonance sound you can hear in the video. I realised that I still had the Brembo pads that I took off the car when I first changed it's brakes; they still had a lot of meat left on them and looked relatively new. I cleaned them up, swapped the Eicher's to the Brembo's and the sound is gone. I drove it for a good 40 minutes around town and there's no noise of vibration at all.
So there we go; a warped flange caused the brakes to wobble and squeak, and poor quality pads caused a groan/vibration when they were functioning as they should. I'm really hopeful that it's all done and I can forget about it. It's been 5 months of issues with this one brake since the day I've bought it, so now I can concentrate on other areas of it.
Thanks for the help everyone!
https://youtu.be/zRh0EskdasM
Update: IT'S FINALLY FIXED.
As you can tell from the video above, it was happening when driving without touching the brakes. After some research, here's what I think was happening...
Now that there is a new flange/bearing on the car, the disc no longer wobbles and is perfectly true. Because of this, the pads are able to sit closer to the disc (the wobble would have pushed them out slightly). The Eicher pads that I have in there are known to be horrendous quality, and they even look slightly different (as pointed out by someone a while back), which could cause them to rattle and vibrate if not seated properly. The garage even told me there was a lot of movement of the pad the carrier. Because they're now sitting closer/touching the disc as they should, they're vibrating more and causing that sort of harmonic resonance sound you can hear in the video. I realised that I still had the Brembo pads that I took off the car when I first changed it's brakes; they still had a lot of meat left on them and looked relatively new. I cleaned them up, swapped the Eicher's to the Brembo's and the sound is gone. I drove it for a good 40 minutes around town and there's no noise of vibration at all.
So there we go; a warped flange caused the brakes to wobble and squeak, and poor quality pads caused a groan/vibration when they were functioning as they should. I'm really hopeful that it's all done and I can forget about it. It's been 5 months of issues with this one brake since the day I've bought it, so now I can concentrate on other areas of it.
Thanks for the help everyone!
BricktopST205 said:
I would say the sticking caliper at some point caused a lot of heat to warp the flange.
You're probably right there, good shout. Had not thought of that...Considering it was for sale with new discs and pads and a wobble when I drove it, I'd imagine they gave up and sold the car.
Just to say that I've been driving it quite a lot recently, it looks like brake-gate is finally over. Horray! Now that it's over, I need to re-paint the calipers back to silver as the amount of times I've taken them on and off has spoiled the finish. I'll only be painting the most obvious faces though, and won't be going anywhere near the pads, just in case.
Moving on (finally). I've fitted some Osram Cool Blue Boost headlight bulbs to suit the LED's I have. I'll have to get a better photo tonight, but they're very white and very bright compared to standard halogen's.
Before (you can see the difference in the sidelight and headlight in this photo):
After:
They're on Amazon for £14.
The sidelights and puddle lights are LED as you know, and the headlights now suit them. I didn't think I'd be able to get as close of a match as I have without going Xenon. For the price, they're a no brainer. You can't see a horrible blue reflection in the housing either, which I thought would be the case.
Very impressed, thoroughly recommend to anyone with halogens.
Moving on (finally). I've fitted some Osram Cool Blue Boost headlight bulbs to suit the LED's I have. I'll have to get a better photo tonight, but they're very white and very bright compared to standard halogen's.
Before (you can see the difference in the sidelight and headlight in this photo):
After:
They're on Amazon for £14.
The sidelights and puddle lights are LED as you know, and the headlights now suit them. I didn't think I'd be able to get as close of a match as I have without going Xenon. For the price, they're a no brainer. You can't see a horrible blue reflection in the housing either, which I thought would be the case.
Very impressed, thoroughly recommend to anyone with halogens.
Edited by geraintthomas on Tuesday 22 December 10:24
Edited by geraintthomas on Tuesday 22 December 10:24
geraintthomas said:
Reasons not to buy a white car:
Reasons to buy a white car:
I do love a clean white car. This winter's been harsh on it, but it hasn't let me down at all. Flywheel is very quiet, battery's been superb, nothing has put a foot wrong.
Good to hear. Can I buy it now it's sorted?Reasons to buy a white car:
I do love a clean white car. This winter's been harsh on it, but it hasn't let me down at all. Flywheel is very quiet, battery's been superb, nothing has put a foot wrong.
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