I recently picked up a Focus for daily use and have a few questions about it, mostly servicing related.

Car in question is a 55 plate 1.6 Zetec automatic. Its comfortable and quiet, but absolutely gutless. Bought it so I can take my MG's off the road while they get a few more upgrades.

• The heater is only working on speeds 3 & 4. Is this likely to be something simple like a resistor going faulty?
• Theres no service history with the vehicle. I'm happy to do this but have no idea which oil, filters (oil, fuel, air) or spark plugs to get. Anything else worth looking at on an old Focus?
• Is the transmission a sealed unit requiring no service, or is it advisable for owners to change the ATF during its lifetime?
• What is likely to be the size of front brake discs? Any good choices on discs and pads for one of these?

Any help here would be much appreciated.

On 15/04/2018 at 1:48 AM, Ricwin said:

I recently picked up a Focus for daily use and have a few questions about it, mostly servicing related.

Car in question is a 55 plate 1.6 Zetec automatic. Its comfortable and quiet, but absolutely gutless. Bought it so I can take my MG's off the road while they get a few more upgrades.

• The heater is only working on speeds 3 & 4. Is this likely to be something simple like a resistor going faulty?
• Theres no service history with the vehicle. I'm happy to do this but have no idea which oil, filters (oil, fuel, air) or spark plugs to get. Anything else worth looking at on an old Focus?
• Is the transmission a sealed unit requiring no service, or is it advisable for owners to change the ATF during its lifetime?
• What is likely to be the size of front brake discs? Any good choices on discs and pads for one of these?

Any help here would be much appreciated.

The heater/fan speed issue will almost certainly be the resistor, I recently replaced mine which fixed the issue nicely.  In terms service, the non VCT version of the 1.6 (the really slow one) is a pretty straightforward/reliable engine so as far as I know it's just the regular petrol service item type stuff.

I'm not sure on the auto box question, I know a lot of Ford customers in the US change their fluid once they get to a decently high mileage when thye have the older style "slushbox".

Regarding front brake discs and pads, I think your car has 2 potential disc sizes.  Brand wise a fair few on here have used Pagid or Mintex as value for money solutions without any major issues.