Friday 7th April 2017

Shed Of The Week: Ford Focus ST170

Perhaps not the finest fast Ford ever, but certainly worth a look at £850 with a fresh cambelt...

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A nice looking Focus ST draws into view this week. The first problem we have to report is not to do with the car, but to do with where it is. It's in Flintshire, which is in a strange place many many miles away called Scot Land [Turns out Shed's road atlas may be missing a few pages so we've had an office whip round and are sending him a new one! - Ed.].

At our Shedly level, travelling from afar tends to knock on the head any idea of viewing without buying. You'll be wanting to buy a single on the train and then looking for any reason to drive the thing home. This puts you in a weak negotiating position, and the Scotch are canny folk who will spot that a mile off.

Hang on, is that spoiler standard?

Getting to it from Engerland will at the very least add three figures to whatever price you might be thinking of paying for it, unless you're Scotch yourself of course, in which case it will be much cheaper.

Anyway, what can you expect from the car, if and when you ever get there?

Launched in 2002, the Focus ST170 was something of a bitsa. Its Duratec 2.0 engine was built in Mexico. Bumped up from 127hp to 170hp by the addition of Cosworth mods to the cylinder head, new intake and exhaust manifolds, high-comp pistons, variable valve timing, a sports cat and a big-bore stainless steel exhaust, the engines were shipped to Saarlouis in Germany where final ST170 assembly took place. Connected to a Getrag six-speed manual gearbox and sat on model-specific alloys with enlarged brake discs, the finished product looked the bizzo, as we can all agree from the smart images of this still fresh-looking example from 2005.

Unfortunately a few things went wrong somewhere along the ST170 line. Weight, for a start. It tipped the scales at 1,314kg, which was about 100kg more than Vauxhall's contemporary 2.2 Astra. As a result you had the slightly odd situation in which a 145hp Vauxhall was capable of the same low 8-second 0-60 time as a 170hp Ford. A ridiculously stodgy gearchange didn't help the Ford's cause either. Nor did the poor set of ratios or the asthmatic nature of the long-stroking Cossie engine.

Focus still looking smart as it approaches 20!

All a bit of a shame really as at the end of the day you've still got a practical and good looking Focus with a neat half-leather interior and riding on the excellent Control Blade suspension.

Known issues? Clutches, water in the headlamps and pollen filters, loose camshaft actuator bolts, broken manifolds and cat heatshield brackets. Dirty throttle bodies can graunch up your pedal action, as can a worn cable.

Flickering dash lights can often be sorted by trimming down the brightness. If the EML is lit, that could indicate a broken lambda sensor or a stuck cable-operated butterfly valve in the inlet manifold (the IMRC). Or it could just be a lying sensor. They're not too clever on this car. If the coolant temperature sensor goes missing it will put the car into a failsafe limp-home mode that cuts the fuel supply to alternate cylinders and creates a very odd noise that sounds expensive. Obviously it will cost you money to fix it anyway, but perhaps not as much as you might have thought from the din.

An offer around £850 and you could be here...

There's something needing to be checked as regards the number plate of this one, as the number doesn't come up on the MOT history website. Usually there's a perfectly innocent explanation for this sort of thing. Communications failure, most likely. It's not uncommon. After all, Mrs Shed's mum never told her that condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.

Even more likely though would be Shed not using his Amstrad correctly. He's never really enjoyed touching it after it gave him Mrs Shed on a dating website.

Here's the ad.

2005 Ford Focus ST170 5DR Petrol.  12 months MOT and 2 new tyres.  84,000 miles, part service history, full electric pack including ABS & Air Con. Half leather interior, in great condition. Radio & CD player. Cambelt changed at 79,000 miles and well maintained. Age relative marks on rear arch, but apart from this very good condition. V5 present with 3 careful owners. Drives A1 also HPI checkers & AA welcome. New car forces reluctant sale. Open to sensible offers. Please phone for further details.

 

[Interioricons]

Flintshire is in Wales. Not Scotchland.

Not sure if this makes it more or less attractive...

[dannyDC2]

Wasn't this SOTW recently?

Always had a weird soft spot for these. I think they look great in that pale, almost french racing, blue.

[Blackpuddin]

Shed needs to invest in an atlas
Wales is far away too, mind, if you live in Kent.

[hornetrider]

Interioricons said:

Flintshire is in Wales. Not Scotchland.

Good old Mr Shed! The hike to Chester is long and arduous

[J4CKO]

Interioricons said:

Flintshire is in Wales. Not Scotchland.

Not sure if this makes it more or less attractive...

Lol, "Flint, sound Scottish, its in Northern Monkey land, near enough"

[IanCress]

I've managed to get MOT history for it and it doesn't look too bad. It has been on sale recently for £1600, so it looks like a bargain. Or there's something hideously wrong with it which means people don't want to touch it.

I liked my ST170, but it was never quite the car it should have been. Overly long gear ratios (70mph in 2nd) and an engine that didn't come on song until 5500rpm were to blame.

[Drive Blind]

the gearbox ruined the ST170 experience for me. Poor change quality and silly long ratio's.

[molineux1980]

I was looking for one of these as our second car when we had kids and I had to sell my MX5. Settled on a Fiesta Zetec S in the end but I do still ponder these, especially as my Fiestas arches are getting a little crumbly.

[pSyCoSiS]

Flintshire in Scotland?! I'm assuming that's a late April Fool's wind up. But, I'd be worried if it isn't!

Decent SOTW overall, and I think these will soon start to gain popularity and values should bottom out and even increase.

[alorotom]

dannyDC2 said:

Wasn't this SOTW recently?

I thought the exact same thing ... it may have been a YKYWT article?!

[Eighteeteewhy]

[Smitters]

Shed said:

A nice looking Focus ST draws into view this week. The first problem we have to report is not to do with the car, but to do with where it is. It's in Flintshire, which is in a strange place many many miles away called Scot Land.

Devolution is getting out of hand. They're selling bits of their countries to one another now? I blame Brexit.

Also, will the "I'm just going for a test drive.... all the way round Snowdonia" line work? Probably not. Would make a good TD car perhaps, or nice budget summer fun.

[nismo48]

Reckon this is worth a pop at £850 or perhaps a bit less..
Low ownership and service history a bonus too..

[BFleming]

Shed said:

There's something needing to be checked as regards the number plate of this one, as the number doesn't come up on the MOT history website.

It's on there now!

MOT history of this vehicle
Test date 21 March 2017
Expiry date 30 March 2018
Test Result Pass
Odometer reading 84,255 miles
Advisory notice item(s) rear brake disc inner faces heavily corroded

[Jefferson Steelflex]

These make a great purchase, I had one from new in 2005 and I loved it. Like all Mk1 Focus it's a great car to chuck around, and even with the terrible fuel economy should be cheapish to run.

This article didn't mention that these cars came with very few options, if you can source one with the Premium Pack (I think?) then you get heated leather recaro seats, climate control, upgraded stereo with subwoofer, and xenon headlights. These make the car, for me, much more desirable and are worth paying extra for.. They also only came in 4 colours (black, silver, grey and blue).

Also available in 3dr and Estate.

[dufunk]

170bhp was very little considering the modding to this engine and VVT it was 2002 after all. You had the jap guys making more than that in mid 1990's without VVT. Allow this did handle well.

[IanCress]

Jefferson Steelflex said:

These make a great purchase, I had one from new in 2005 and I loved it. Like all Mk1 Focus it's a great car to chuck around, and even with the terrible fuel economy should be cheapish to run.

This article didn't mention that these cars came with very few options, if you can source one with the Premium Pack (I think?) then you get heated leather recaro seats, climate control, upgraded stereo with subwoofer, and xenon headlights. These make the car, for me, much more desirable and are worth paying extra for.. They also only came in 4 colours (black, silver, grey and blue).

Also available in 3dr and Estate.

The two option packs were the comfort and the custom pack. One added Xenon lights and the Ford 9006 audio with subwoofer, and the other added heated Recaro seats and climate control with heated windscreen. My car had both and it elevated it above the standard Focus interior. Cars with neither just feel like a standard Focus Zetec inside.

[chonok]

Flintshire in Scotland and a million miles away??!

Its about 5 mins down the road from me in fking wales you morons!

[Limpet]

I recently had a less than stellar experience with a mk1 Focus. Had it four months as a snotter, with a view to hanging on to it as a third car, but ended up almost giving it away at the earliest opportunity just to be shot of it. Horrible thing. Mechanically reliable, but the rolling chassis was a joke. And even a superficially tidy one will be hiding rust.

It seemed to me that it has expensive suspension that has been built with cheap components, and as a result it doesn't age well. I got sick of mine developing clonks and creaks from underneath. One after the other after the other, and nothing ever wanted to come apart. I reckon 50% of fasteners I tried to remove were seized or broke when undoing, and had to be extracted or heated out and replaced. Unreliable suspension sounds like a ridiculous thing to say, but that's what mine had. I guess most people just turn the stereo up and ignore the groans and clonks.

Yes, they are good to drive when everything is in good order, but I wouldn't have another. And the ST170 loses the mechanical reliability as well from what I've read.

Edited by Limpet on Friday 7th April 11:12

[TrivsTom]

dannyDC2 said:

Wasn't this SOTW recently?

Always had a weird soft spot for these. I think they look great in that pale, almost french racing, blue.

It's called Capri Blue iirc. Used to own an estate one (rare) with a silly exhaust. Decent car but not very quick. Handling is better than the boatiness suggests too. And you learn to live with the EML showing.