A very expensive hobby, my Focus MK3 ...

[Rainydays]

Today marks a full year since I have had my MK3 Focus TITANIUM. What better way to celebrate this than to share some of the little changes I have done to it as it became my little project. Given that I am a menace when assembling things, I chose to let people with skill help me out rather than break things myself.  Without further ado, please find below my little pride and joy. 

 

1. Delivery. 

 

Last year this time, i went to pick up the keys. I was extremely excited and also fed up with the waiting. I ordered my car during a period where the Factory in SAARLOUIS is pretty much closed. Consequently, I had an extra 1.5 months delay on my delivery and when I saw it in the showroom I fell in love with the colour. I chose the DEEP IMPACT BLUE because of the catalogue. I really liked the way it was and in my mind the contrast with all those chrome bits and pieces would work. While this is subjective, I believe the blue suits the Focus perfectly and if you get the extra chrome parts around the car you get some nice results. 

As it was October, I told my dealer to put the winter wheels on straight away. There was no point for 3 weeks of summer tires and then go back to the garage and put the winter tires. In my area, winter tires are a must and the law enforces solid behaviour regarding this. My car arrived with the classic 16 inch alloys with 215 Continental Winter Tires. Not the best but now that I look back, they were solid and I will put them back next week :). Some annoying squeal on rain but grip on ice is good. 

 

This is how the little monster looked on delivery. It had less than 100 km in this picture. 

 

 

2. Spring and Summer

 

When the time arrived, I quickly went to my dealer and told them to put my summer tires on. I chose 18 inch alloys and decided to put Michelin Pilot Sport 3 as i had some experience with them. I am running 235/18/40 W tires and they are fun as hell. Comparing to how it originally looked, the wheels changed the car completely. I have no issue running these wheels contrary to what people say around these forums, when people want to upgrade from 17 to 18. 

 

 

After cruising for thousands of KM with the car, I came to the conclusion that if I am going to enjoy the car more, I needed to get rid of some of the body roll and twitching on braking. As I have the autobahn 40 km away from my house, unlimited speeds are quite common there. My country has a plethora of twisty roads so that body roll had to go or else. I then started looking into the one thing that could help with that : a suspension. 

 

Given that I was no stranger to suspensions, I have a second Ford, clipper, with a Bilstein Eibach combination, I was trying to make up my mind what to get. I looked into Bilstein, I looked into quite a few brands and then I settled for KW. A mate of mine has a TT RS with a KW Clubsport 3 way and after a few laps on the Nurburing with that, I said, KW is the way to go. I then had another dilemma. Which KW to get? They offered 3 possibilities for my car. After a few sleepless nights, I decided to go for the V3. It gave me everything I wanted in terms of adjustments and if decided to go hardcore, I would be able to do some corner balancing as well. 

After 3 days of wait, my KW V3 was built in germany and shipped. Two more days passed and the DHL van arrived with my brand new suspension. 

 

 

 

...and of course the final result. 

 

Once this was on, the car was reborn. I started to lose contact with the brake pedal. Left turn, just accelerate and turn, right turn, press the accelerator and turn the wheel. The stability I gained from this suspension pays for itself every day I get in my car. Funny story, when i went to pick up my car, I wanted to sit down and pretty much fell because after so many months of sitting down in a certain position, the car was significantly lower. The mechanic laughed at me and said i should be careful now because the car is lower. 

After a few weeks, the suspension broke in and lowered a bit more. Springs were not as rough, however, the unavoidable coil rattle at low speeds is present. A small price to pay for a car that corners so well you will pretty much overtake on the inside on the outside above or even under. It goes wherever you point it and will not complain. The roll is minimal and the grip on braking is difficult to describe. Something worth noting here, the suspension is a good way to improve handling and to get confidence at higher speeds. Unfortunately, one does not need to forget that if things do go wrong they will go wrong. No doubt about that. 

 

A month in and i was already thinking of my next change to my car. What could I do to make it even more enjoyable? I made a few phone calls and I was given an offer for a remap. I set up the appointment and went to the guys who offered the service. They looked at my car and said I should not worry, the 1.5 ecoboost, rated at 150 hp, does not have 150 hp. I has between 170 and 175 on the dyno. Ford detuned the 182 version but not as much as some think. I was surprised to hear this and did not actually believe him. He ran my car 3 times and it averaged 175 HP without any modification. He then proceeded to load the new mapping and now the car has over 200 HP @5000 rpm. They also installed a cotton BMC airfilter and advised I change my sparkplugs every 15000 km to make sure all is in good order. 

The original Ford mapping was not bad but it was difficult to access. I drove through the Alps, the Chamonix area, and those hills up required me to constantly keep my car 4500 to 5500 for it to pull when I needed it too. This was annoying on the standard mapping and the new map gives me pretty much everything between 2780 and 5000 rpm. Much better mid range acceleration and lower consumption. 

 

 

3. Winter and short term

I doubt many cars, for the price range, handle the way my car does. I also doubt many, similar engine, burn rubber the same way, however, I must admit, others sound better. I am truly disappointed in the 1.5 Ecoboost and the sound. My significant other has a Fiesta which i helped her choose. We added a 3 cylinder ecoboost engine which sits at 165 hp with a pipe cross air filter. The car sounds beautiful and whenever I am in mine i just cringe. Having said that, I decided to change things a little bit. 

 

Some may have seen, I opened a thread on these boards regarding a rear valence. My car does not have Zetec or ST bumpers. It has the classic MK3 ones and flexibility is not really there if I want to change the exhaust. I ordered a duplex exhaust and realised that it will not be the best choice. The guys I ordered from were nice enough to let me change it given that they hand craft them for my car. I went for a single exhaust due to the limitation I have. For the time being, the car looks like this :

 

 

As you can see, even if I custom cut the left side for an exhaust I have the risk of making my car look like really bad. The guys I ordered my parts were going to cut my valence and make sure everything would be perfect. I saw some pictures as to how it will look on a similar car to mine and decided to change the order. This does not look very good for me. Consequently, I will go for a single system. It is also more discreet and in case i do have a slight rear bumper issue, it will be an easy fix rather than have it custom cut again. 

 

I do not have any pictures yet of the new exhaust but I believe some specs will suffice for the time being. 

 

76mm catback-system, right side

114mm round straight wide edge

200 cells HJS sport-catalyst / Euro 6 approved

 

I get the exhaust installed at the beginning of November so I will continue my car log then. 

 

If you managed to get this far in the post, I thank you. 

Happy cruising!

[Joss max]

What an excellent post Ervin.

The car looks very nice and now looks low and squat to hug the road. Great pictures and detail always makes for a good read.

[Incontro]

That was better than reading a car magazine! Good job on the post, and on the mods!

[mikeyd1]

Yep a real pleasure to read👍

[awp868]

Really good post and I like the honest feedback on parts / engine noise etc. Ive just fitted a BC Coilover kit to my Fiesta and it's one of the best mods I've done (if not the best). Look forward to seeing what you do in the future!

[Rainydays]

Thank you all for the kind replies.  I will update the thread with good or bad so other users may benefit from my experience . Given that I started my first post with good, it is only fitting that, I make a post with bad .

 

Last June I drove a car that had stainless steel brake lines. Knowing that I will be driving at higher speeds when some of my mods were finished, I decided to put some brake lines on my car as well. I love the brake pedal feel and decided to contact Goodridge. They said they have no parts for my car and I needed to send my original ones to them for a custom manufacturing. When I heard this, I said too much hassle, so I went to HEL performance and got 4 lines. HEL assured me that they will fit and after a few days, I got my lines.

Took my lines to the garage, wanted to put them on, they wobbled all over the place. I looked in the package with him, no additional parts. HEL stated that they should fit without any issue event hough on their website it said 1.6l. I contacted HEL, they were surprised to say the least. They have never had this issue, I sent them a video of how it wobbled and looked for a solution. A few days later they sent me some circlips. I got the parts but had to wait 3 weeks for a new appointment. Summer is horrible in my area with too many cars and everyone on holiday.

I took my car again to the mechanic. He started work on my lines, used the circlips, they still wobbled. Granted, they wobbled less than before but still far from the 'plug and play' the original have. I was getting annoyed now and asked my guy to find a way, bend the Ford factory moving part and he refused. No perfect match no line as he does not want me to have an issue on braking. He knows I drive a tad faster than the average bear and did not clear my car for the road.

He put my old lines back and I got back to HEL. They were quiet a few days and came back with another suggestion. It seems that some modding is needed to make these fit. The ford wobble thingie , the one that clips the line, needs to be bent and twisted so these stick well. I went back to my mechanic and told him to do that. He refused because of safety reasons.

 

Now I have 4 HEL stainless steel lines which ( I am willing to sell ) cost me the price of the item with shipping, various labour charges to try to put them on, and of course the fluid replacement due to the procedure. Overall I spent 150 euros for labour, fluid, appointments, etc.  If anyone is interested in the lines, do let me know. I am sure we can work out a ford owners club price + shipping.

 

Part of my frustration comes from the fact that the aftermarket shops rarely focus on models outside the ST and RS moniker. I spend a significant amount of time to look for the part and when I do find it, I still have a slight chance that it may not fit.  In addition to this, Ford keeps changing these little things from one model to the next making my life more difficult .

[Bannko]

Hallo Rainydays...could you please share with us your dynorun after remapping? Did you check with OBD if engine is not overheating after remap? I am also thinking about a remap but i do not know how much can take the OEM water cooler in ours 1.5EB. 

And regarding to the brakes - you can just change the brake callipers from the ST. It is P&P and you will be able to feel the difference.

[Rainydays]

Hey Bannko, 

I do not use OBD on my car. I did over 2000 km since my remap and I can confirm that the 1.5 Ecoboost has adequate cooling for this remap. You should not worry. I have driven the car hard at times and even got into a mano-a-mano with a 2.0 TFSI on the German highway. We drove together 35-40 minutes non stop 180-220 km/h and the temperature was just where it should be. This is not my first Ford with a remap. I have had 2 others in the past and apart from 2 clutch changes on a 2.0 TDCI due to the high torque, nothing happened. In any case, you can breathe easily and go for a remap. You will not have any temperature problems or any overheating. 

Please find below my current mapping. I censored out my license plate due to privacy reasons. I am planning some modifications to my mapping once the exhaust is up. My new down pipe and higher flow exhaust should give me better results. My tuner estimates 12 more horsepower.

On a closing note, this ecoboost engine is exceptional, however, I can see that Ford has cut some corners with it. If you look at my dyno graphs, both stock and remap have some issues which could be fixed with a better turbo for example. 

 

 

 

 

[Rainydays]

I have contacted a few shops regarding my brake lines. I seem to be quite unfortunate with them because people just do not want to install them as they are not 100% plug and play. I guess I will put them on eBay to cut my loses. HEL does not seem to be very keen to accept a return.  On one side I see their point, almost 2 months since the original purchase, however, they have never been used. Hopefully I find a way to make them fit or find a seller.

Counting down the days to my new exhaust is not really helping my current state of mind. I am a bit restless and having to wait 3 weeks for my parts to be built gives me too much time to reconsider. In any other circumstance I would welcome this delay, however, in this case it is more of a curse rather than a blessing. Doubts come into play and I start asking myself the proverbial question 'do I truly need this'? I then look at the big picture and tell myself it will only benefit the car in terms of performance. In addition, I will change that god awful sound note and make those 4 cylinders shine. Two days pass and the aforementioned scenario repeats itself. 'Do I truly need it'? I weigh the pros and cons again for some peace. The bill is also quite steep and the damn downpipe is priced almost as high as the catback !

This morning I got an e-mail from the shop I ordered my catback and downpipe. They have confirmed receipt of my exhaust. Fully built, boxed and waiting my little focus to drop by. The 76 mm downpipe with 200 cells HJS catalyst, has yet to be finalized. I was assured it will be completed by the end of next week. All parts should be ready on my arrival. Installation time will be two days due to the downpipe. The mechanic I spoke too on the phone said he does not really look forward to the downpipe manoeuvre because Ford has not made it extremely accessible. I expect loads of cursing and melodic swearing. Germans do have a nice flair when they curse, don't they? :).

I asked the shop to provide a visual representation of the parts I will have installed. They were kind enough to send me pictures that will reflect my choice of modifications to a tee.

[Spud100]

Fully agree,

with another make of car I did the exhaust system from the CAT backwards with better manifolds. Although it was much better I felt that somethings was lacking.

A month later I had the CAT replaced with a larger, higher flow version.

Definitely was worth doing.

Gerry

[Dal.]

What a lovely post style you have! A pleasure to read!

Car looks fab too! 

[Bannko]

I have seen some 1.6EB engines with sport air filter + DP + hybrid turbo + better FMIC = 270HP 

Non of them did the catback so i am pretty impatient to see your results :) by any means i would still love to see some better cooling upgrade to our system as we cannot just simply change the FMIC.

And what fuel do you drive? 95OCT ?

[Rainydays]

4 hours ago, Spud100 said:

Fully agree,

with another make of car I did the exhaust system from the CAT backwards with better manifolds. Although it was much better I felt that somethings was lacking.

A month later I had the CAT replaced with a larger, higher flow version.

Definitely was worth doing.

Gerry

 

What diameter did you choose? I am interested in finding out how loud your car became. Was it bearable on long drives? This is another item on my 'why the hell do you wanna get an exhaust like this' list.

 

 

3 hours ago, Dal. said:

What a lovely post style you have! A pleasure to read!

Car looks fab too! 

 

Thanks for the kind words. Looks nice for a tiny blue focus. I often find myself looking at it from different angles thinking if I should lower it a bit more. Then I get a reality check and realise that the car won't be legal. Even so it is borderline and I am not sure it will pass MOT in my country. I may end up failing, going to the garage, raising the car, passing the MOT, going back to the garage and lowering the car.

 

 

1 hour ago, Bannko said:

I have seen some 1.6EB engines with sport air filter + DP + hybrid turbo + better FMIC = 270HP 

Non of them did the catback so i am pretty impatient to see your results :) by any means i would still love to see some better cooling upgrade to our system as we cannot just simply change the FMIC.

And what fuel do you drive? 95OCT ?

 

 

I have a sport air filter, which will need cleaning in 10.000 km, I have a stock Continental low inertia Turbo and stock cooling. I would love to have 270 HP and 20 inch wheels on the car. Unfortunately, it has to serve as a daily driver, so certain compromises have to be made. For example, I truly dislike the amount of plastic Ford uses. Every squeal and creak can be heard at low speeds when my coils rattle on the rear. Above 50 km/h the coils stop their rattling and you are in a completely different zone.  I am hoping that the next Focus will have much better padding all over and less plastic, so people who purchase coilovers will have a better time.

Regarding the fuel, in my area we have 2 types 95 and 98. I have never filled my car with 95 and my remap requires me to use 98. I tank from an Aral petrol station which is 100m away from my place and I pay 1.210 eur / litre.

 

 

[Rainydays]

Happy Saturday everyone! 

 

I think I can summarise this log entry in a simple sentence : good things come to those who wait. If you want to read past the first sentence, then without gilding the lily, I may have found a solution to my brake line problem. A few days ago, I contacted en-masse, like we do for job interviews, all the tuning companies in the country. I got a very brief e-mail to my question, 'please drop by with the car and tell us what the problem with your brake lines is'. I got this e-mail last night at 22:30. 

I had no clue where this shop was, so I put the coordinates in my 10 year old GPS, extremely reliable thing, shows invisible left and right turns at times, but that is neither here nor there, and got to the garage. I park my car and next to me I saw modified AMGs, modified BMWs, modified, imprezas, and the sticker on the trash can H&R. I tell myself, finally, this is what I was looking for. I enter the shop, they had everything. From, rims, mufflers, cats, to pretty much stickers. I go to the counter and on the way there I notice the tailpipe section. Given that I have never seen my tailpipe, the one I will install, I decided to finally hold it in real life. I know what you are thinking, wasn't this post about brake lines? Why are we talking about tail pipes. Patience padawan, I am getting there. So I leave the missus to queue up at the counter and I go to the tailpipe zone. 

I skim through, 76mm, 80mm, 90mm, 100mm, OH MY DEAR LORD, what is this? I look at the 114mm(size wise of course not the exact model), the one I ordered for my car and freeze! My significant other looks at me, I look at her all pale and white. She says, are you okay, I said, OH MY DEAR LORD! I think a picture is worth 1000 words and suffice it to say, I will call the store on Monday to get a 90 mm one!

 

Once my fear and panic let me grasp reality again, I went to the counter. I asked for the guy who wrote me the e-mail and I had a nice chat with him. He explained that stainless steel brake lines are rarely plug and play. Modding is required but given that they do these very often, I should not worry, they will put them on. I then explained, I tried with Ford and it cost me money. I do not want to pay a lot of money here and not have brake lines. He was confident they will put them on and advised I do a full brake fluid change as well. 

He knew his way around brake lines and we made an appointment. Once I am back from holiday at the end of November, I will go to the garage and have my lines fitted. I hope i will not have problems because they are asking me for quite a bit of money. They will also give me ATE racing brake liquid to improve braking performance. I will keep everyone posted and share my views on how the car will perform if I do manage to get those lines up. 

 

[Rainydays]

Hey there,

It has been a while since my last post here. Funny how whenever you have some good news , the bad just keeps creeping in. I will start with the bad.

Both rear shock absorbers are broken. The "expert" who installed them on the car made a mistake. Because of this, I got horrible clunk noises on the rear at low speeds. I originally assumed it is coil over behaviour but not in this case. The absorbers were over tightened and they broke inside. None of the rebound and bump settings are working. I drove 500 km to get this fixed just to find out that the damage is too severe and new shock absorbers have to be built. Lesson learned, expensive toys break as well and trust no one !!

Having started with the bad, let me continue with the good. In 2 hours I get to turn on my car for the first time :). You know what they say , out with the old and in with the new.

1. The old

Not impressive at all to be honest. Quite a small diameter and not surprised the 4 cylinders sound like they are scared to death. Ford uses quantity not quality in this case so I can't blame them 100 %.

2. The new.

Is that a downpipe i see ???

I am still missing a few pieces and when they are up I will post them. Until then, size does matter and bigger is better :).

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rainydays]

Hey there,

It has been a while since my last post here. Funny how whenever you have some good news , the bad just keeps creeping in. I will start with the bad.

Both rear shock absorbers are broken. The "expert" who installed them on the car made a mistake. Because of this, I got horrible clunk noises on the rear at low speeds. I originally assumed it is coil over behaviour but not in this case. The absorbers were over tightened and they broke inside. None of the rebound and bump settings are working. I drove 500 km to get this fixed just to find out that the damage is too severe and new shock absorbers have to be built. Lesson learned, expensive toys break as well and trust no one !!

Having started with the bad, let me continue with the good. In 2 hours I get to turn on my car for the first time :). You know what they say , out with the old and in with the new.

1. The old

Not impressive at all to be honest. Quite a small diameter and not surprised the 4 cylinders sound like they are scared to death. Ford uses quantity not quality in this case so I can't blame them 100 %.

2. The new.

Is that a downpipe i see ???

I am still missing a few pieces and when they are up I will post them. Until then, size does matter and bigger is better :).

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rainydays]

As promised the missing pieces of the puzzle in this post. I had the chance to drive 500 km with it and its damn loud now.

Starting the engine cold will massage your chest due to the vibration. I noticed that the car has a very loud noise between 2000 and 3000 rpm. Once you exceed 3000 it sounds loud but closer to standard. I guess on high velocity exhaust the engine is more prominent than the noise the pipes give it at lower velocity exhaust.

I believe once this will break in I may need to hand earplugs to people getting in my car. Quite unique the signature from this 4 cylinder and 3 inch exhaust. It has a very low growl and god forbid to be in a tunnel at 2000 in 5th gear going up a hill . You will shake the whole tunnel :).

All of the above can be summarised with : I think the downpipe was too much :). Performance vs noise and noise should have won in my case. Sadly it did not and people start to stare when I leave my parking lot.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lenny]

A K&N57s would compliment the exhaust and gains nicely 👍

[Rainydays]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mikeyd1]

11 hours ago, Rainydays said:

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I thinks it's sounds nice it's got a nice deep burble

[Bannko]

So it is time to add a hybrid turbo to your down pipe :D

http://www.pumaspeed.co.uk/product-15-Ecoboost-X-27-280-Billet-7-Blade-Hybrid-Turbocharger_17001.jsp

[Rainydays]

December already and I have not posted here for over a month. Work was hectic and Cuba barely had any internet so I could not keep you guys in the loop with a rather pressing matter. My suspension was broken and I had to fix it. More details to follow below.

Before I left for holidays, I was driving back home with the lady. At one point I get some attention from a Mini Cooper S and we start to tango. I followed him on some Twisties where he tried to get rid of me but I was stalking him like a predator. At one point, in a right hander, I felt something happen with my car and got a huge dose of body roll. I then stopped our dance and played it safe.

This was mid October and my car was due for the yearly revision. I took it to the mechanic who installed my suspension and told him to have a look as I feel something has happened. He confirmed he will have a look and surprise surprise everything was fine with the car. I was not very sure that the verdict was accurate. I took my car for a spin and the body roll was there. Being busy with work, I said, I will look into it a it later.

At the end of October I decided to get my issues fixed or I would have a nervous breakdown.  Going home from work was horrible. I got a private garage under the bank and going up from -3 with clank clank was driving me over the edge and not in a good way. Parking in my driveway was like  an Alien vs Predator movie. The body roll was the icing on the cake and I decided to investigate. I found out the mechanic who installed my KW V3 during the summer broke my rear shocks. Installing them on the rear multiple times to have my rattle fixed made it even worse. He also drilled the wrong way to have my shocks installed on the rear. In addition, the front left ROD that stiffens the car was busted. It banged into the KW front left shock and the feedback from the shock was not being sent to the car as it should.

The garage was very embarrassed to find out that they missed something so important in their check. They gave me some crap excuse where they lifted the car with a different tool and there the wheels seemed fine. Long story short, they will never touch my car ever again. They also annoyed me with the 'it should rattle because all coilovers do'. I explained that this is beyond a rattle sound, this is the next level which is banging into something. Again, nothing faulty on their side. So I then asked them to lift the car and showed how bump and rebound was not working on my two shocks and the thingies were spinning without any resistance. They said it is not their fault and they have done nothing wrong.

I call KW and explain the situation. They tell me the terms of my warranty and guide me to the store I bought my shocks from. The store is very nice offers me two solutions. Send the old shocks in and after investigation I get two new ones or pay a deposit for two new ones while I get to use my car. I chose the latter and I need to send to KW the old shocks. Hopefully I get some of my money back from this operation.

After 2 weeks of waiting, I get everything I need delivered. I go to Ford, I buy the rear parts needed to install the shock absorbers. KW does not offer any parts for the rear. I then take the car to a racing garage and explain the situation. They schedule me after their visit to the Essen Motorshow. I lost all faith at this point and they could see this. I told them that if my car is not fixed, I may not be the nicest client they have. To turn my frown into a smile, I get an additional service at a discounted rate : corner balancing.

They spent 6 hours on my car to give it an acceptable cross weight distribution. I went to pick up my car and the guy sat down with me. He went into everything they did and then gave me the keys. He said if I am not happy, they will give me my money back. I opened my car door and noticed I have a different height on the rear. I sat down and I could feel the stiffness from the moment my 75kg ***** hit the seat. I drove for 10m and I was stunned. No clank or any noise that would bother me. I then took some twisty roads and the car is nothing like I remembered. Agile, precise and comfortable. Responds so well to direction changes and I can not recommend enough this procedure.

Contrary to popular belief, corner balancing has great benefits on the road and not only on track. The driver will benefit from the extra advantage on braking, turning, cross winds and any unforeseen scenarios where you might need to avoid something extremely fast.

 

[Bannko]

Did you get use to the louder sound from your exhaust ? 

[JIMMWX]

That was a nice read, and I hope you get it sorted, looks nice :)

[Rainydays]

2 hours ago, Bannko said:

Did you get use to the louder sound from your exhaust ? 

The exhaust has broken in nicely and keeps me company especially during these cold times. I like the cold start of my car when the rev counter is at 1500 rpm and the noise just massages my chest in the driver's seat. When the exhaust gas travels at high velocity, over 3500 rpm and above, the sound is pretty much stock but probably 5 times louder due to the system and downpipe.

@Jim,

 

So far so good with the fix and my next purchase will probably be a Ford that has a much better base for modifications. The current one is very demanding in terms of effort and skill to make things work.