Ford Focus Mk3 - A Few Things

[lillywhite79]

Hi

New member and just bought a 2012 MK3 Focus 2.0 TDCI Titanium X Estate (163hp version in case that matters)

There’s a couple of things that don’t seem quite right to me and wondered if anyone here that has the same car can hopefully help me with. Just to mention - My previous car was a 2012 MK3 Focus 1.6 TDCI Zetec Hatchback, changed for the 2.0 as needed more space

The first thing is the electric power steering on the new one feels overly light compared to the 1.6. I’m not sure if it has a different steering system or not?

Also the steering wheel doesn’t stay dead centre on a flat surface, it’s very slightly off to the left by a few millimetres. The car doesnt pull to either side on flat road surfaces though. I’ve taken the car in for tracking to be checked, they said it was out and made adjustments, this corrected it a bit but not completely, the steering wheel is still slightly to the left and more noticeable if the road is cambered. Should I take the car to have 4 wheel alignment done or is there anything else I should check?

Second thing is pulling away in first gear. The slightest touch on the accelerator will see the revs climb from rest at around 800/900RPM up to just under 2000RPM and straight back down again. It’s not a major issue but is different again to the 1.6 I had and can cause a jerky take off at times. It’s not even dependant on how hard you depress the accelerator, the slightest pressure will see the revs rise and then decrease higher than I would have expected / am used to. It also does this when reverse gear is selected. Is it just me and something to learn to live with or does this sound like a possible fault?

One last thing, the car does seem to have a lot of torque steer if you decide to make a bit of 'progress' and can mean having a tight grip! I know a certain amount of torque steer should be expected but is this normal for this model? I had an auris t180 2.2td a couple of years back that had (on paper) a fair chunk more torque than the focus, but didntt torque steer nearly as much from what I can recall!

Thanks!

[alexp999]

There is a PCM (ECU) update to fix the unpredictable power.

I had it done in my old Focus, made the world of difference.