MK1 Focus TDCi Project
Discussion
Decided I should really do a post on this one seeing as I've had it 3 months.
I got offered a car cheap and I bought it - mainly as it was diesel and the Mondeo was drinking fuel like no-one elses business.
Car in question is a 2003 Focus TDCi 1.8 Ghia 115. Panther black, with black leather interior and all the toys (full electric windows, heated seats, trip computer, climate control etc etc). It had done 112,000 miles with a wad of invoices including clutch and flywheel, timing belts etc etc. What could possibly go wrong! For £400 anyway! Drove alright and pulled well so snapped the hand off the person selling it! I knew it was tatty and needed work and it was bought on a strictly spares or repair basis. It was his old car that he'd given to his mum who'd driven it with the bare minimum of maintenance.
This is where it starts going wrong. Upon closer inspection it was quite obvious that this car was headed one way, and thats to the scrapyard. The rust was the main thing. Rusty bootlid around the handle, rear doors are getting flaky along the bottom edge and the nearside sill. This was the worst part. The whole way along the passenger side it was non existent. Ford in their wisdom fitted a rubber underseal type thing that traps and soaks in water. This then rots the metal. The right hand side is completely solid however.
Moving on I found it needed a drivers side front spring. The rear anti roll bar link on the drivers side had actually sheared right off, but had wedged itself so it didn't knock. The rear gearbox mount had failed. It needed a service. The washer jets didn't work and the wipers didn't park. It smoked heavily and had the wrong size tyres fitted, one of which was illegal. The reverse light didn't work and the factory fit parking sensors didn't work. Add to that the flexi pipe had completely detached leaving the rest of the exhaust detached. Finally to add insult to injury above 60mph it juddered from the rear.
So where do we start! With the help of a mate we got cracking (god knows why - as given the list above I nearly broke it).
The sill was far worse than we thought. The inner sill had also corroded. However the availability of parts is what saved this car. New sill from a well known budget car parts supplier for £17 along with a bit of hammering, filling and other metal to weld the inner sill up and it would finally pass an MOT. Well that issue. Coat of black stone chip and its ugly but legal.
Now onto the other issues. New gearbox mount from said same supplier was about £25, screenwash pump for pence, new rear drop links were also pence, front springs were £9 per side and an exhaust flexi from eBay sorted the exhaust. Swapping the relays over sorted the wiper parking issue out. Reverse light switch solved the reverse light but alas not the parking sensors.
Also managed to obtain some Focus Edge 16" alloy wheels with decent tread from eBay which sorted the tyre issue out and I had hoped would sort the juddering. I always hated the wheels that were on the car so I wasnt to worried about changing the wheels as a gamble.
Finally it was roadworthy and back at mine on the drive...
Another thing I hated was the chrome strip on the boot, always looked awful. Needed to change the boot anyway for rust so again got shopping and managed to pick up an ST170 boot lid in the same colour with minor scratching for £30.
Also whilst there, some ST170 fog lights and surrounds fell into my car (with an exchange for money of course) along with a wiper relay. Quick service including a fuel filter and eventually the smoke has reduced along with
Next up on the hit list was the juddering. Really got on my nerves as well as passengers. Only Focus in the world with massage seats as standard though! Checked the bearings, no issues. Checked the balancing on the rear wheels - catastrophically out. The tyres were so out of shape it wasn't funny. Typical for infinity really! Ordered up 4 Dunlop Sport BluResponse and had them fitted. The car was transformed. Quiet at speed, no more wheel-spinning as soon as the turbo kicked in and felt a lot more sure-footed.
Drives very well now. Only the rear door rust to sort now! And of course make the sill look pretty. I'm intending to find some plastic sill covers from the MK1 prefacelift Focus and fit to both sides to make it look universal both sides however they appear to be quite difficult. It developed a slight hesitation on stupidly light throttle which I think is the EGR valve.
Took it on a 500 mile run to clear it out and it performed perfectly with only a couple of hiccups!
Now nice and smooth so lets see what happens.
Resulting dirt from said drive!
Next up - MOP and wax, aircon fix and then lets see what happens!
I got offered a car cheap and I bought it - mainly as it was diesel and the Mondeo was drinking fuel like no-one elses business.
Car in question is a 2003 Focus TDCi 1.8 Ghia 115. Panther black, with black leather interior and all the toys (full electric windows, heated seats, trip computer, climate control etc etc). It had done 112,000 miles with a wad of invoices including clutch and flywheel, timing belts etc etc. What could possibly go wrong! For £400 anyway! Drove alright and pulled well so snapped the hand off the person selling it! I knew it was tatty and needed work and it was bought on a strictly spares or repair basis. It was his old car that he'd given to his mum who'd driven it with the bare minimum of maintenance.
This is where it starts going wrong. Upon closer inspection it was quite obvious that this car was headed one way, and thats to the scrapyard. The rust was the main thing. Rusty bootlid around the handle, rear doors are getting flaky along the bottom edge and the nearside sill. This was the worst part. The whole way along the passenger side it was non existent. Ford in their wisdom fitted a rubber underseal type thing that traps and soaks in water. This then rots the metal. The right hand side is completely solid however.
Moving on I found it needed a drivers side front spring. The rear anti roll bar link on the drivers side had actually sheared right off, but had wedged itself so it didn't knock. The rear gearbox mount had failed. It needed a service. The washer jets didn't work and the wipers didn't park. It smoked heavily and had the wrong size tyres fitted, one of which was illegal. The reverse light didn't work and the factory fit parking sensors didn't work. Add to that the flexi pipe had completely detached leaving the rest of the exhaust detached. Finally to add insult to injury above 60mph it juddered from the rear.
So where do we start! With the help of a mate we got cracking (god knows why - as given the list above I nearly broke it).
The sill was far worse than we thought. The inner sill had also corroded. However the availability of parts is what saved this car. New sill from a well known budget car parts supplier for £17 along with a bit of hammering, filling and other metal to weld the inner sill up and it would finally pass an MOT. Well that issue. Coat of black stone chip and its ugly but legal.
Now onto the other issues. New gearbox mount from said same supplier was about £25, screenwash pump for pence, new rear drop links were also pence, front springs were £9 per side and an exhaust flexi from eBay sorted the exhaust. Swapping the relays over sorted the wiper parking issue out. Reverse light switch solved the reverse light but alas not the parking sensors.
Also managed to obtain some Focus Edge 16" alloy wheels with decent tread from eBay which sorted the tyre issue out and I had hoped would sort the juddering. I always hated the wheels that were on the car so I wasnt to worried about changing the wheels as a gamble.
Finally it was roadworthy and back at mine on the drive...
Another thing I hated was the chrome strip on the boot, always looked awful. Needed to change the boot anyway for rust so again got shopping and managed to pick up an ST170 boot lid in the same colour with minor scratching for £30.
Also whilst there, some ST170 fog lights and surrounds fell into my car (with an exchange for money of course) along with a wiper relay. Quick service including a fuel filter and eventually the smoke has reduced along with
Next up on the hit list was the juddering. Really got on my nerves as well as passengers. Only Focus in the world with massage seats as standard though! Checked the bearings, no issues. Checked the balancing on the rear wheels - catastrophically out. The tyres were so out of shape it wasn't funny. Typical for infinity really! Ordered up 4 Dunlop Sport BluResponse and had them fitted. The car was transformed. Quiet at speed, no more wheel-spinning as soon as the turbo kicked in and felt a lot more sure-footed.
Drives very well now. Only the rear door rust to sort now! And of course make the sill look pretty. I'm intending to find some plastic sill covers from the MK1 prefacelift Focus and fit to both sides to make it look universal both sides however they appear to be quite difficult. It developed a slight hesitation on stupidly light throttle which I think is the EGR valve.
Took it on a 500 mile run to clear it out and it performed perfectly with only a couple of hiccups!
Now nice and smooth so lets see what happens.
Resulting dirt from said drive!
Next up - MOP and wax, aircon fix and then lets see what happens!
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