BaSTian – Frozen White Fiesta Mk7.5 ST3 – build thread

[Dan P]

I finally got the Mountune MP215 upgrade done last week. I decided to stick with getting it done at Trust Ford Walthamstow as the manager was very good in dealing with my complaint (unfortunately he was away on leave for the second failed attempt), they offered me a good discount and I would have had to wait even longer if I’d decided to take my business elsewhere.
 
I’ve yet to do loads of miles with the upgrade but I’m very happy so far. It’s taken a great car and made it that little bit better. The change is noticeable but it’s not like it’s transformed the car into something completely new.
 
Doing the school run I immediately noticed that the car felt a little more comfortable at lower revs. It felt like it could breathe a little better and felt a bit more willing. Moving on to a dual carriageway the extra torque available at lower revs is very noticeable. Putting my foot down in 6th has a much more marked effect and if I were to spend a lot of time cruising on the motorway I’d be very grateful for this – as fun as it is to shift down and accelerate it’s now no longer necessary for a quick overtake.

Taking Bastian for a thrashing on some country lanes it feels like there is a little more power and again the availability of the power across a wider range of revs is noticeable. The car was always incredibly nippy on the bendy stuff but it now feels just that little bit nippier.

There is also a big change in the sound and I absolutely love it! I think I'm going to need to get some wind deflectors because with the windows down it sounds great. Brrrrmmmmm tshhhhhhhhhhh, vrrrrmmmmm ptschhhhh... It just makes it all a little bit more fun! With the windows up there's not a lot of difference.

In summary I'm very happy so far - enhanced performance and more fun for a reasonable cost and a small change to my insurance premium whilst retaining the warranty.

[JC600]

Glad it's finally been done mate.......enjoy. :D

[Guest]

Hope you're enjoying the car pal!

[Phil 87]

Looks like you're having a similar experience to me with the upgrade, and I'm still enjoying mine after almost 2 years :). It's worth looking at the Mountune exhaust too, it compliments the MP215 perfectly and sounds great.

[Dan P]

On 7/19/2016 at 11:02 PM, JC600 said:

Glad it's finally been done mate.......enjoy. :D

 

On 7/20/2016 at 10:31 AM, fraserrg said:

Hope you're enjoying the car pal!

Thanks guys - I'm loving it, it's even more fun that it was already!

On 7/20/2016 at 10:36 AM, Phil 87 said:

Looks like you're having a similar experience to me with the upgrade, and I'm still enjoying mine after almost 2 years :). It's worth looking at the Mountune exhaust too, it compliments the MP215 perfectly and sounds great.

Glad to hear it provides long term satisfaction! I need to stop with the big upgrades (at least for a while) although it's tempting to buy everything in the Mountune catalogue. If I had the money available I'd get it lowered, add the MR230, a front splitter, the short shift and probably get it wrapped in a lairy colour!

[Dan P]

I bought some 1" webbing and buckles from eBay  to make up straps for a couple of little jobs in Bastian.

Firstly I wanted to try and secure my daughter's car seat a little bit better as it has quite a lot of lateral movement so I used one strap to secure the seat to the head rest.

I then made a longer strap which I fed through the loop in the back of the seat in order to secure the subwoofer.

[Dan P]

Went for a nice little drive this morning but got a bit of a scrape following a little adventure over a humpback bridge...

[OPLxx]

I feel so sorry for you :( won't take much to fix though if you can get the colour code of your car for the paint 

[Dan P]

I feel so sorry for you :( won't take much to fix though if you can get the colour code of your car for the paint 

Thanks. I wasn't even going that fast, it was just a very brutal little bridge! I'm not too worried about about it tbh, it's not really noticeable unless you go looking for it. I'll live with the car a while longer to see if scraping the underside of the bumper is going to be a regular hazard before I decide whether to touch it up.

[Dan P]

I've done a few little bits over the last couple of months but haven't done a proper update owing to some IT issues at home!

I added some Heko wind deflectors which I got from eBay. I installed them using lots of extra 3M double sided tape and didn't bother with the clips.

I upgraded the interior lights to LEDs all from eBay. W5W, 36mm festoon and a 48 SMD panel for the boot.

Before

After

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After

[Dan P]

I added a speaker grille (from eBay) to the subwoofer so I don't have to worry about the speaker getting damaged when I've got stuff in the boot.

I also treated BaSTian to some decent drying towels - Fireball Korea - and microfiber cloths - Chemical Guys Happy Ending Edgeless Buffing Towels - all from Clean + Shiny. They were quite pricey but are good quality items. Certainly not a necessary purchase but nice to have.

[Dan P]

I added a hard-wired phone charger (from eBay) and Brodit phone holder (part 604253). I had a spare piggy back fuse connector which I used on fuse 3 (reversing lamp) and I had the device holder half of the phone holder from Eve (my Focus). I used a USB extension lead and passed the cable behind the dash so it is all hidden from view.

[Dan P]

And finally for today, some pretty pictures...

[b4zz]

looing good

[Dan P]

Not a lot to report over the last couple of months beyond the fact that I'm still loving it although I haven't been out for a proper fun drive for a few weeks now.

 I'm approaching 6,000 miles now and swapped the front and rear wheels over after 5,000. Given the recent weather conditions there's been lots of getting dirty even when just doing the school run...

And the occasional, futile, getting clean again...

[b4zz]

looking good

[Dan P]

I'm approaching one year of ownership and to coincide with my insurance renewal I've just booked BaSTian in at Mountune HQ to have the sports springs (28mm lower at the front, 20mm at the rear) and cat back exhaust fitted in early June.

A few months ago I gave up with the built in SatNav and have installed the TomTom Go app on my mobile as I find its live traffic info to be much better for avoiding delays and it's more user friendly.

I also got myself a tiny USB stick (64GB Sanisk Cruzer Fit) for the car. I loaded it up with tracks and expected the stereo to have issues with the volume of tracks and impose a file limit, however it's happy with what I've put on it.

Other than that, there's not much to report. I bought some Dragon's Breath as I clearly had quite a bit of contamination on the paintwork. It certainly made a difference but now it's left me thinking that I should probably get a clay bar and attack the car with that too! 

I've also accumulated a few little bits of light damage. I have a small dent on each side thanks to inconsiderate ar$eholes allowing their doors to bang into BaSTian in car parks (I am assuming this is the cause, as no one left a note and I didn't witness it happening). I've also got three stone chips down to the undercoat - on the left side skirt, front bumper and bonnet.

And finally, here's a pretty picture!

[Dan P]

Just dropped Bastian off here...

[Dan P]

Last month BaSTian turned one and I had a few birthday treats lined up...

On 4/24/2017 at 5:01 PM, Dan P said:

I'm approaching one year of ownership and to coincide with my insurance renewal I've just booked BaSTian in at Mountune HQ to have the sports springs (28mm lower at the front, 20mm at the rear) and cat back exhaust fitted in early June.

I was very impressed with the customer service and delighted with the results after adding a set of these:

And one of these:

The exhaust sounds fantastic. It took me a while to get used to having a noisy car and for the first couple of days I kept looking around at traffic lights trying to identify which car which was creating a pleasing rumbling noise only to then remember that it was mine! It's probably adding nothing to the performance but it has certainly increased the fun factor and I've spent a lot of time driving around with the windows wide open and no music on!

I'm very impressed and pleasantly surprised with the springs - I can honestly say that there's no real change in ride quality and comfort in everyday driving but there is a noticeable reduction in roll when thrashing it around the bendy bits. They make the car look fab too.

Before:

After:

In a moment of weakness I finally gave in to the appeal of a clear brake light and now I've been living with it for a few weeks am very pleased that I did!

Before:

After:

Illuminated:

I had a few minutes left to kill once I'd got the brake light fitted so as a final little job I wired in the LEDs in my subwoofer to my boot light. I simply got some wire and wedged it into the connectors on the back of the bulb holder before routing it behind the trim and under the carpet.

Silly, but fun. Probably not age appropriate!

That now brings my full list of mods to...

Security

Dummy OBD port installed and original relocated
Rewire Security TK102 tracker and hard-wire kit

Cosmetic

Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 alloys
Rok Blokz Mud flaps
Silvatec indicator bulbs
Plain number plates (held on with 3M tape, not screws)
Clear rear brake light
Interior / boot / number plate lights replaced with LEDs

Performance

Mountune MP215
Mountune cat back exhaust
Mountune sports springs

Audio / Electrical

Alpine SBG-1044BR subwoofer
Alpine MRV-V500 5-Channel Amplifier
Brodit phone holder and hard wired charger

Planned Modifications

Reinstate TPMS sensors

With all of my mods declared, my insurance (through Need to Insure) is about 40% higher than the best price I could find for a standard ST3 MP215.

I've come a long way since first picking up the car last May, I certainly wouldn't recognise this as being my car:

I'm MUCH happier with this!

 

[b4zz]

looking good fella and it has come a long way form when you first got it

[MattHowell]

Those springs make all the difference. 

It's also surprising how much better a car looks with mudguards. 

[Dan P]

In October I took a trip to Scotland, but two days before I left I rotated my tyres and managed to break my locking wheel nut key. Thankfully I was able to order a replacement from McGard and it arrived from Germany within 24hrs - excellent customer service!

In my little trip north of the border I clocked up around 1800 miles in six days. On the first day I simply hacked it up the motorway to Lockerbie and got a good night’s sleep before letting the fun begin. On day two I made a return to a little loop around the Lowther Hills that I found a few years ago (A702, B797, A76 - passing through Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotland) which I think is one of the most beautiful places in the UK and the roads are excellent and then made my way up the west coast to Oban (via Skipness Castle on Kintyre). On day three I continued up the west coast and headed over the Applecross Pass which was truly spectacular and ended up in Ullapool for the night. Day four took me up to the north coast and then back down to Inverness. Day five took me through the Cairngorms and into Edinburgh. The final stage took me from Edinburgh back to London - stopping in Lincoln to watch the football.  It was a brilliant road trip but thoroughly exhausting, possibly a little too much driving to squeeze into 6 days.

Lowther Hills

Eilean Donan Castle

The Applecross Pass

Glen Torridon

Ullapool

North Coast - Ceannabeinne Beach

Cairngorms

In the last couple of weeks my Rewire Security 102 Nano tracker packed up (repeatedly crashing) so I’ve replaced it with a 102 v2. I swapped over my SIM card and set it up in a few minutes. Rewire security were very helpful and swapped over my tracking subscription from my old tracker to its replacement so I don’t have to pay for it again - more great customer service!

I’m currently planning my next upgrade which will be for security - I’m looking at a few options but the Autowatch Ghost immobiliser and Pandora alarms are currently top of my list. I like the Ghost because it means that the car can’t be taken even with the keys but I also like the idea of proximity, break glass and movement sensors that an enhanced alarm offers. 

[alexp999]

Some amazing scenery.

I've always fancied doing a road trip, but worry about where the car will be parked overnight. What sort of places did you stay on the way?

[Dan P]

I didn't feel worried about the car anywhere I stayed. It was probably safer than when it's on my driveway in North London!

I stayed in a B&B in a farmhouse in Lockerbie, a hostel in Oban with a council car park next to it, an inn in Ullapool where I parked on the street, a B&B with private parking in the middle of Inverness and a hostel in a nice suburb of Edinburgh where I parked on the street.

[Dan P]

On 12/02/2018 at 6:52 PM, Dan P said:

I’m currently planning my next upgrade which will be for security - I’m looking at a few options but the Autowatch Ghost immobiliser and Pandora alarms are currently top of my list. I like the Ghost because it means that the car can’t be taken even with the keys but I also like the idea of proximity, break glass and movement sensors that an enhanced alarm offers.

I had a Pandora alarm fitted today - website here. I’ve not had much of a chance to play with it yet as I’m working nights but so far I’m impressed - the installer was incredibly knowledgeable about the system which was very reassuring. Once I’ve had the system for a few weeks I’ll post a few more details.