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My Mk7 Fiesta Titanium Diary


mattiff
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As with all my motors I like to keep a diary up of how it evolves as no matter how much I say I won't change it a bit as it's brand new, I know I !Removed! well will. Currently the car looks like this:

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It's a 1.6 TDCI Titanium with one of those new DPF things on it. Been getting 62 mpg with it so far (4500 miles) mainly on motorway commuting, which I'm pretty happy with although a little bit more would be nice. Only came with two optional extras, those being the dress up kit and the spare wheel in the boot. Would have liked a few more but money restricted my chances.

Plans for it really are not huge as I love it as it is really, but I have a few things I'd like to do, including the debadging I've just done, to just make it perfect in my eyes and they are:

Get the alloys off and give them a couple of coats of wheel sealant.

De tango the lights.

Lower it on Eibach springs.

Possibly remove all the plastic chrome crap (not a fan of this stuff).

If I can find one cheap enough and in decent nick, a black leather interior.

Sound proofing.

Maybe look at ICE but fairly happy with current setup in all honesty.

As above with leather, the 17" wheels which I couldn't afford when I bought :(

That's it really. Just looking to enjoy it and enjoy the cheapness of having it, £30 annual tax FTW instead of previous 200 odd. Hoping to use this site as these forums are great at getting info on various things i.e. like the problem with buckled alloys.

If any one on here is a member of FFOC I used to own a black Mk1 Focus LX that I lavished attention on. Diary is here if you fancy a look:

http://www.ffoc/modules.php?name= ... c&t=222761

Cheers, Matty

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Right then, another job that no doubt everybody does but I like to do this to all my cars is de-tango the bulbs. First thing to say on it what a blooming nightmare the front indicators are, massive ball ache getting them out. I was amazed how easy the headlights were to remove and once removed how much room there is, I would say an engine swap on a Mk7 must be very easy access wise.

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Anyway, fronts before:

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After:

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Wing mirrors before:

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After:

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Forgot to take a before one of the rears but you've all seen them before, all done then:

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Cost me £17 for the six bulbs from www.hids4u.co.uk and they came on a next day delivery even though I selected the cheap free one so that was good. Looks much better now and another job done. Just need to save the pennies for the Eibach springs now.

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Another job done this morning, got out the wheel sealant:

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This stuff is great and really helps keep the tar etc off the wheels, figured it best to do it as early as possible after getting the car. Wheels were rough:

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Two coats later they came up mint:

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While the wheels were off I noticed that there is rust on the hubs already :evil::evil: Not happy.

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Got all fours alloys done with two coats and back on. Should help keep them clean for quite a while.

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Right then, not an update as such as to be honest I've just been enjoying driving it and money has been used else where on silly things like saving for a wedding :lol: . But it's gone in the dealers this morning for its first fault. This:

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Never seen a door go like that before, especially on a new car. My missus assures me she hasn't caught it on anything but looks like the glue was weak or something. Very random. Any how the new year will bring some lowering and sound stuff as Crimbo is here :twisted:

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Got my birthday present out today :)

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Going to fit it this afternoon. I'm obviously not wanting to fit a induction system so this will do nicely. I'll be keeping old standard filter just in case it needs to go back into the dealer :d

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Well the last few days have been spent in the garage, giving the car a good clean up. Gave it a coat of Wolf's Hard Body Sealant as this looks like an amazing product an though i'd give it a bash. Very impressed with the results:

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All done with a mix of Aero 303, Megs, Auto Finesse and of course Wolf's Chemicals. Love the results and if the protection of the sealant is as good as it looks then i'll be well happy.

I also took the chance to fit the mist spray washer jets, haven't looked into wiring in them up yet but will get round to it in due course.

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Right been a while since I posted anything on this, mainly because any sort of project type work has been on a major back burner due to attempting to clear some debt before me and the missus start a family. Car is still pretty much as I got it from the factory aside from a hefty amount of milage on it. A month or so ago I had the front tyres changed for the first time and when they were rebalanced the garage left the old sticky crap on and have been waiting for a day to get it off. Decided whilst I was at it I would have a go at cleaning inside the arches as well.

So the obvious first job was to get the wheel off but mine on the front passenger was stuck fast, after much swearing, kicking and mallet hitting I got it off and it is clear why.

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So got the wire brush on it and before I refitted the wheel I gave it a smear of copper slip on the middle. Amazes me that things like that rust so fast.

Wheel off and the dirt and grime can be seen:

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Gave them a good wash with so halfrods wheel cleaner I had in the garage and then let Iron X do it's thing.

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I then had to get the remaining tar off with some Autoglym Tar remover as I've not bought any clay in a while. Got the desired result though, then it was two coats of Poorboys wheel sealant, still love the smell of it. I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of the inside of the clean wheel doh.

I then cleaned the wheel arch out and again gave it a spray of Iron X and then Tar remover. Plastic trim was spruced up with Auto Finese revive and the paint was given a coat of Wolfs Hard Body. Came up rather well :)

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After that it was back on with the Wheel and back on the ground.

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I did both sides of the front, but ran out of time for the rears as I wanted to watch the QPR v Wigan game. Will tackle them another day. Chuffed with how it all turned out, just looks odd now having sparkling front alloys and grubby rears :lol:.

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looking good and great job on the clean up.

cant go wrong with silver tec bulbs to get rid of the fried egg look

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  • 1 month later...

Right then after what seems like ages, I've finally got round to getting something for the Fez that I set out to get from day one of ownership.

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Eibach Springs, all thanks to my good lady wife. She came into a little bit of money and wanted to buy something so why not eh smile.png. These will hopefully be getting fitted this weekend so long as there are no problems.

Another thing I bought for the car was a second hand boot handle. I wanted this as i'm no fan of the plastic chrome that adorns the titanium/ghia models of Fords and my stuff is no exception. It was descibed as having scratches but I was still tempted that with a bit of wet sanding and polishing I may be able to remove them so I went ahead and bought it.

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Gave it a wash straight away and had some leftover Iron X and chucked that on.

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Not to bad at all really. So anyway I attempted to sort the scratches out and succeeded with 90% of them but as this picture show some deeper ones remain.

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Please excuse my poor photography skills with the focus but you should be able to make out the scratches on the very top of handle. Now this could be because I'm no pro when it comes to this or just simply that the scratches are to deep but I've either going to have someone who really
knows their stuff look at it or just get it resprayed. Or maybe just chuck it in the bin lol.


One thing I noticed the other day when cleaning the car was a large amount of dirt behind this cover in the front arches.

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I took it off and there was a fair amount behind there, not as much as I suspected but still enough that I had to pull ot off the sill with my fingers so if you have a similiar car it mya be worth checking yours

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So today was the day to fit the springs, wanted to get started on them so I had the rest of the weekend to sort any problems should any arise. So got up and first job was the rear springs so whiped off the rear wheels.

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With both wheels off I could put the spring compressors on the right hand side, wound them up a bit and it was then time to undo shock absorber lower bolt and slowly release the jack to let the spring come out.

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I didn't wind the compressors up as much as I could have so the spring took a little fiddling
to get out but nothing major. Here it is out and on the floor, I have it on the carpet to stop the tarmac scratching the paint off it whilst I undo the compressors.

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The seat of the spring was full of muck.

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So that got a good clean out and then it was time to fit the new spring. Quick comparision shot before fitting.

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I was expecting to have to put the compressors on the spring so that it could be fitted but I found that due to the lesser height of them and with the other rear spring off I could simply slide it into place. Jobs a good un.

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It was then simply a job of jacking it up to bring it up level with the shock absorber and refit the bolt with a touch of loctite. I did take the chance to fit my Eibach spacers, which fitted on like a glove. I would expect nothing less from them, Excellent quality. I did take some pictures but I think old camera is on the blink as it obviously decided it didn't like them and has deleted them.

It was then time to move onto the front springs. These were slightly more complex as there was a lot more to remove in order to gain good access to the three retaining nuts on the top. :doublesho

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It's a good job these Fiestas are so easy to strip down as removing that lot took me all of ten minutes lol. The shocks on the Fiesta are dead easy to work on as they stay as one unit when removed so the compressors can be put on away from the car which is far less awkward than trying to do them under the arch. Got the first one off, two big bolts on the hub, three nuts on top and undo the 10mm brake pipe bolt and the drop links as well and bobs your uncle it's off.

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Again another quick comparision shot before fitting.

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Whilst removing all the cowling from the back of the engine bay I noticed it was covered in manky mold.

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Not entirely sure how it's gone moldy but I gave it a scrub anyway. It's sort of clean now but needs a real good going over again to get it back to it's best. I'll come back to it on another day when I've got some spare time. Anyway both sides done and all back together.

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And so time for some rather poor shots of it how it now sits with the Eibach Pro Springs (-30mm) and the Eibach Pro Spacers (15mm) fitted front and back.

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Apologises for the poor photos and the terrible state of the car, but time was short as the wife wanted to go to Tesco for some peas and some other crude. Will give it a good wash and spruce up over the weekend and post some better pics. I just need to save up for the 17" Street Pack alloys now :) Then it's time for some speaker upgrades/sound deadening.

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liking what you have to the fez so far fella looks good

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Took a couple more pics as it got a good drive to Swansea yesterday and I think it's settled in a bit more as a result. So this was the car before the changes.

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And After:

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Sits nice now, Will hopefully look spot on with the 17" wheels on but even without them it looks a lot better to me. Next job is the EGR blanking plate once I get paid.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Made a cheeky purchase today. There are a couple of factory options that I want to fit that I didn't get the chance to when I bought the car because I bought it ready built rather than to order. One of these has been a leather interior. Almost every car I've owned has ended up with one of them in one way or another as I love leather interiors over cloth, even on red hot summer days.

A set got put up on eBay the other day and whilst the original asking price was far to much I made an offer that I expected to be rejected but to my surprise he said yes to it. Sadly it was miles away in London which would have meant a 11 hour round trip but thankfully my in-laws live 20 minutes away so they went and got it for me. They don't know how to take pictures with their Ipad so I can only show the pictures that I did a screen grab from eBay.

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It's come from a late 2012 car that was in a front end smash so is in mint condition, as new really. Heated seats as well. They even threw in the gear knob gaiter too :). I'm not going to London until the end of the month but will be fitting them as soon as I get there. I'll stick much better pictures up then.

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Well as they say about buses, you wait ages for one to come and then two come at once. Well that happened to me this week as I've been after the 17" ford wheels for ages with some either too far away or too much money. After getting a leather interior for a good price a decent set of wheels came up on eBay and they were only half an hour drive away. So for again a decent price compared to previous sales I've seen I managed to win them. Straight up and picked them up and here they are this morning sat outside my garage.

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Fronts are not too bad, some scuffing on two of them that have been touched up. One has a decent gouge out of it again touched up but obvious. Certainly not as good as I want them to look but decent enought for now. Inside was a different story. These pics are taken after I've given them a quick wash.

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Lots of old wheel weights stickers left on.

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God knows what that stuff was but it all over two of the wheels and was not tar as the trix didn't budge it.

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That was probably the best of them.

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There were a few spots like this, most appeared to be caused by gouges made by cowboy garages removing previous weights with screwdrivers etc. So after the inital clean it was time to bust out the trix as mentioned:

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Liberal spraying of this gave the following bleeding action shot.

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This got rid of most of the tar etc, but a few stubborn spot remaining. Not least the weight residue and the black spray. I wiped all the wheels down with AG bug and tar remover which finshed them off aside from those. So it was time to bring out the big gun:

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This made mincemeat of the weight stuff and the black spray as well. Stinks but does the job, it forms a gel over whatever you spray it on so was able to leave it to soak into the weight stickers and then simply wiped them away. This meant they were as clean as I was going to get them.

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After the cleaning it was protecting what I had, so two coats of poorboys wheel sealant was applied to them.

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Once that was finally done, wheels went straight on, well as soon as it stopped raining here in West Wales :mad:.

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Sits spot on now for me. Have to take the car out now as I want to feel how the tyres are as the front two are some make I've never heard of and I suspect they are cheapy tyres, I would rather replace them even with the good amount of tread on them than skid into a hedge or wall. Rears will definitely be getting replaced as they as worn on the sides on one and close to limit on the other, which I was aware of when I bought the wheels. Can't wait to fit the interior now :).

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the wheels have made a big difference fella and it is sitting very nice

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Previous wheels are now up sale elsewhere so hopefully they will go for what I want and I can recoup some money for more stuff.

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I kind of had a rush of blood to the head as was just perusing eBay and saw some illuminated scuff plates for just over a third of the price Ford charge, so I bought them. Was definitely planning on getting the gear knob but wasn't willing to pay Fords price for the scuff plates but this was much more acceptable. They are brand new, with all the wiring and instructions. So the jobs coming up are:

1. Fit heated leather interior and sell old seats.

2. Fit EGR blanking piece.

3. Buy and fit Ford Steering Rack Limiter Kit (Due to fitting the 17" alloys).

4. Fit illuminated scuff plates.

5. Earn some money to pay off credit card for this stuff :o.

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So yesterday I took it for some new boots:

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despite the tyres on the rear wheels being legal they were on or near the limit and I didn't fancy doing the big journeys I've got coming up on them so trawled around for some idea as to what the best tyre might be and Michelin pilot sport 3's seem to one of the best choices so I went for them. Will see how they go.

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Had a package come today, the illuminated scuff plates that I bought off eBay.

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They were sold as used and so there are a couple of minor issues with them. It appears that guy tried to fit them and either didn't know how to properly or read the instructions and gave up as one side was definitely fitted, or ay least stuck down due to the tape being all torn up and missing. The seller to his credit has tried to replace it with some standard B&Q type foam adhesive but this is about 2-3mm thick so the plates would sit proud of the paint surface, increasing any chance of moisture or dirt collecting under them. Here's some pics to show what I mean:

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Not the best quality sorry but you get the idea. The last issue is that for some reason they had cut the wires on one side:

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Not entirely sure why but these were covered in black electrical tape so I'll cover them in heat shrink for neater finish. I'll fit these when I have the seats out as they will be a very easy with the extra room. The Ford instructions make it quite clear what to do.

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Spur of the moment thing really today as at 6 Oclock I randomly decided that it would be a good time to go out and fit my EGR blanking plate as I have a big drive to London tomorrow and thought that would be a great chance to see if it helps fuel consumption etc.

So having read through Lenny's excellent how to found HERE. Now I knew that this how to described the job on a Focus but figured they were the same engine so would be the same job. Errrrr no.

First thing was to remove loads of plastic panels to get decentish access.

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Thats when the dramas started. When I got my head behind the block it looked nothing like the pictures on Lenny's Focus. After a quick rummage around there was a metal pipe coming out of the inlet pipe work what went to a similar area. Upon more inspection it was clear where the EGR valve was. This is a picture of said pipe from inlet into EGR valve.

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Now just looking at that you might think that looks dead easy to do. Two bolts and hey presto, again not quite. This metal bracket which the loom clips into and is attached to the EGR coolant pipe prevents you getting good access from the back.

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What a stupid thing to do by Ford but hey. This is the bolt that needs loosening to slip the blanking plate in.

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After much swearing and annoyance the only way to move it was an 8mm spanner. If you do this job then please make sure you have an 8mm flexi joint ratchet spanner as you'd do this job in about ten minutes. I did not have said tool and had to squeeze my hand down the back and turn a standard spanner a quarter turn before taking it off and back to the start for another quarter turn etc etc. Finally after loosening the bolt enough the blanking plate can be slipped under here.

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It is just then a case of tightening it all back up again at you guessed it a quarter of a turn at a time :(:(.

What was probably, with a ratchet spanner a half an hour job, took me three hours and my left arm is shredded from squeezing it through stuff. What a complete nightmare, but now it's done that should be it forever now.

I only took the car out for a quick spin and the response it definitely better, there was a little bit of laggy ness before hand but thats gone. Once its done Haverfordwest to London tomorrow I'll see how it gets on for the MPG.

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liking the look of the scuff plates fella

Cheers, looking forward to fitting them. Just got to get the illuminated gear knob then :).

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Glad you got it fitted in the end mate and hopefully the increase in torque has made up for the pig of a job it has been for you to fit,

I'd appreciate it, if and when you get time

If you could copy that detailed post about fitting to your 1.6tdci fiesta

And paste it in t a post on the egr fitting guide thread please

It would greatly help other ford users.

Hope you see an increase tomorrow aswell.

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Yeah can do Lenny, will do it tomorrow when I get the chance. Cheers for doing it in the first place.

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