2005 Ford Focus TDCi 1.6 continental snotter
Discussion
I’m moving to France in a couple of weeks. My beloved DB9 was sold to pay for the house, but it’s France, right? We’re still going to need a car. Preferably with the steering wheel on the left.
Onto Auto Trader, EBay and Gumtree we go. It’s surprising just how many foreign plated cars that I cannot legally drive as a Brit there are. However, looking into all the details it’s clear that I need it to have British plates.
It’s also surprising just how many people with things to sell don’t bother responding to messages or phone calls. However one guy did and that’s how I found myself standing in front of a Spanish market Focus with scrapes on every corner and 4 non matching ditchfinder tyres.
Reader, I bought it.
Onto Auto Trader, EBay and Gumtree we go. It’s surprising just how many foreign plated cars that I cannot legally drive as a Brit there are. However, looking into all the details it’s clear that I need it to have British plates.
It’s also surprising just how many people with things to sell don’t bother responding to messages or phone calls. However one guy did and that’s how I found myself standing in front of a Spanish market Focus with scrapes on every corner and 4 non matching ditchfinder tyres.
Reader, I bought it.
Edited by Sebastian Tombs on Friday 16th October 10:57
So, to continue...
Good points:
Being Spanish it’s almost rust-free, even where the paint has been massaged off.
The injectors look like they are sealing properly. One was replaced In 2018, and it has had a new turbo already in 2015 at a Ford main dealer. So that big TDCi problem should not be a big TDCi problem for me. Now I’ve jinxed it.
In 2013 it had a new water pump, battery, alternator and cam belt.
It has cruise control that works, dual zone climate control that is certainly giving it a go, and the fancy Sony 6 CD changer with a working aux input, and 8 speakers.
The interior is very clean and the spare wheel and toolkit have never been removed.
The gear change and clutch are really good.
You can adjust the steering from a menu. What does that even do?
The engine doesn’t smoke. And it comes up as a 110ps ‘2000 EEC’ which apparently means Euro 3, which I think means no DPF.
The bad points:
Passenger side window switch doesn’t work. The one on the driver’s side works for both, however.
That 6 cd changer only accepted 2 CDs before going wrong.
The car steams up a lot. Thankfully the air con defrosts it super fast, but that won’t do. The side of the boot carpet is very wet. I’ve seen these leak from vents behind the rear bumper. Are there other places to check? There is no sunroof.
Do they leak at the front too?
I checked the VIN and it should have alloys. They’ve gone. Boo.
The aircon doesn’t really blow very cold. Regas or more?
One cracked fog light lens.
Lamps and clocks have been changed for UK which means the mileage is inaccurate and the lamps need changing.
Oh, and this:
Good points:
Being Spanish it’s almost rust-free, even where the paint has been massaged off.
The injectors look like they are sealing properly. One was replaced In 2018, and it has had a new turbo already in 2015 at a Ford main dealer. So that big TDCi problem should not be a big TDCi problem for me. Now I’ve jinxed it.
In 2013 it had a new water pump, battery, alternator and cam belt.
It has cruise control that works, dual zone climate control that is certainly giving it a go, and the fancy Sony 6 CD changer with a working aux input, and 8 speakers.
The interior is very clean and the spare wheel and toolkit have never been removed.
The gear change and clutch are really good.
You can adjust the steering from a menu. What does that even do?
The engine doesn’t smoke. And it comes up as a 110ps ‘2000 EEC’ which apparently means Euro 3, which I think means no DPF.
The bad points:
Passenger side window switch doesn’t work. The one on the driver’s side works for both, however.
That 6 cd changer only accepted 2 CDs before going wrong.
The car steams up a lot. Thankfully the air con defrosts it super fast, but that won’t do. The side of the boot carpet is very wet. I’ve seen these leak from vents behind the rear bumper. Are there other places to check? There is no sunroof.
Do they leak at the front too?
I checked the VIN and it should have alloys. They’ve gone. Boo.
The aircon doesn’t really blow very cold. Regas or more?
One cracked fog light lens.
Lamps and clocks have been changed for UK which means the mileage is inaccurate and the lamps need changing.
Oh, and this:
I expect that gaffer taped over pipe between turbo output and engine intake is the reason why once I got to the motorway every time I put my foot down it made a noise like a dentist's drill? Lots of oil seemed to have escaped through it by the time I got home.
It's not exactly fast either. I'm coming from a 6 litre V12 so I'm kind of lost here as to whether its losing horses through the big hole in the pipe, or whether that's just as fast as it will go.
It's not exactly fast either. I'm coming from a 6 litre V12 so I'm kind of lost here as to whether its losing horses through the big hole in the pipe, or whether that's just as fast as it will go.
Small diesel, France, all over it. Fortunately any French mechanic will be able to get ahold of parts for the DV6 and fix it. As mentioned, the unfortunate is that they're a bit poor.
The home office has a fiesta with this engine in it after it came up very cheap. £600 with sub 30,000 miles cheap. It was a good winter car until hers got nicked, so now it's her daily runner. I often say to her if we do move over there it would be the only car coming with us.
The home office has a fiesta with this engine in it after it came up very cheap. £600 with sub 30,000 miles cheap. It was a good winter car until hers got nicked, so now it's her daily runner. I often say to her if we do move over there it would be the only car coming with us.
My original plan was go on the train, rent something initially and then buy a Twingo, but then the idea of already having a car that we could put some stuff in seemed like a good idea. I am having my doubts this morning :-D
I hope that big pipe thing is easy for me to replace, as the part itself can be had for just over a tenner.
Other bad points are that there are no manuals or service book, just some receipts, and only one key.
I hope that big pipe thing is easy for me to replace, as the part itself can be had for just over a tenner.
Other bad points are that there are no manuals or service book, just some receipts, and only one key.
Terry Tibbs said:
I ran one of these for 3 years and 25000 miles. Just before I got it it had a new turbo, I blanked off the egr valve and gave it regular oil changes - it ran perfectly and although not very powerful it wasn’t a bad engine and gave good fuel economy.
What does blanking off the EGR valve do?Missus had one from new back in 2005, covering the first 100k miles with no hassle whatsoever in 3 years, then came the fun - airbag modules, bonnet release mechanism, rear wheel bearings, EGR faults and the turbo failed (which turned out to be the now common/well understood leaking injector seal coking up the oil which subsequently blocks the gauze in the banjo on the turbo supply line).
I persevered with the car, repairing the faults as they came and keeping on top of the bits falling off, as it felt like a bit of a family member. It eventually became the winter/dog/tip run car and even then clung on to existence for a few more years before finally being condemned after both front springs broke within a week of each other and a look underneath revealed a rotten floorpan (at 13 years old).
I gave it to a colleague who welded it up/replaced springs and uses it for the school run.
As above, absolutely gutless engine with no evidence of a power or torque curve but very economical with 55-60mpg everywhere. With decent tyres on a very grippy chassis with nice characteristics.
Good luck OP, one from a warm climate that's rust free would solve half the issues I had with ours. Look forward to reading more about yours.
I persevered with the car, repairing the faults as they came and keeping on top of the bits falling off, as it felt like a bit of a family member. It eventually became the winter/dog/tip run car and even then clung on to existence for a few more years before finally being condemned after both front springs broke within a week of each other and a look underneath revealed a rotten floorpan (at 13 years old).
I gave it to a colleague who welded it up/replaced springs and uses it for the school run.
As above, absolutely gutless engine with no evidence of a power or torque curve but very economical with 55-60mpg everywhere. With decent tyres on a very grippy chassis with nice characteristics.
Good luck OP, one from a warm climate that's rust free would solve half the issues I had with ours. Look forward to reading more about yours.
Today I have mostly been cleaning, hoovering, identifying issues and fixing things.
First thing was to order some new Bosch wiper blades and a cheap pattern turbo outlet hose.
The rocker cover breather has a broken clip so I taped it back up for now.
Then some leak investigation. The taillights had lots of wet gunk around them and I suspect the water is getting in there.
I removed them and this greeted me:
The other side was much the same.
I cleaned all that up, wiped and dried it and set about sealing all the screw holes, rubber bungs etc with Dow Corning’s finest white domestic bathroom sealant.
I attempted to remove the bumper too but I’m missing something as it didn’t budge.
Finally I removed the trim holding the carpets back so I could lift them, and hoovered every part I could with my trusty Titan wet & dry shop vac, then blew the wet carpets with a ghetto air line. (My hoover plus a narrow behind-the-radiator cleaning hose) with the hose in the ‘blow’ hole rather than the ‘suck’ one)
Finally I fixed the passenger window switch by the liberal application of contact cleaner spray.
First thing was to order some new Bosch wiper blades and a cheap pattern turbo outlet hose.
The rocker cover breather has a broken clip so I taped it back up for now.
Then some leak investigation. The taillights had lots of wet gunk around them and I suspect the water is getting in there.
I removed them and this greeted me:
The other side was much the same.
I cleaned all that up, wiped and dried it and set about sealing all the screw holes, rubber bungs etc with Dow Corning’s finest white domestic bathroom sealant.
I attempted to remove the bumper too but I’m missing something as it didn’t budge.
Finally I removed the trim holding the carpets back so I could lift them, and hoovered every part I could with my trusty Titan wet & dry shop vac, then blew the wet carpets with a ghetto air line. (My hoover plus a narrow behind-the-radiator cleaning hose) with the hose in the ‘blow’ hole rather than the ‘suck’ one)
Finally I fixed the passenger window switch by the liberal application of contact cleaner spray.
Edited by Sebastian Tombs on Friday 16th October 17:03
Wife has an old 55 plate 2.0 TDCI ghia 130bhp 6 spd gearbox. It's on 172k miles on origional clutch! We've had it since around 125k miles. Replaced a few bushes and a battery, but other than that just annual oil change and tyres. It has dpf and is a bit smokey on start up so we have to give it a long run every now an again. The air con doesnt work but never bothered us. The pixels on trip computer sometimes go out but then come back. The pass door sometimes doesnt unlock but then will. It squeaks and rattles but has always got us to where we need to when more modern cars have let us down.
The high pressure fuel pump is not in best of shape, which means cranking 2 or 3 times before it fires, but it always does. We run on the good diesel and chanhe the fuel filter which helps. Unfortunately clutch is now slipping and there is doubt it will pass the MOT in January without significant funds. So we are enjoying the last few months before weighing it in. Shame as gearbox and engine are spot on. Part of me is tempted to throw some cash at it to keep it going but where do you stop..
The high pressure fuel pump is not in best of shape, which means cranking 2 or 3 times before it fires, but it always does. We run on the good diesel and chanhe the fuel filter which helps. Unfortunately clutch is now slipping and there is doubt it will pass the MOT in January without significant funds. So we are enjoying the last few months before weighing it in. Shame as gearbox and engine are spot on. Part of me is tempted to throw some cash at it to keep it going but where do you stop..
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