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Stiff Ride

Featured Replies

My Mk3 focus feels that it has stiff suspensions. It feels really rough over pot holes. Has anyone notices this before or is just me??



bigger wheels with low profile tyres will feel worse as less tyre depth between the road and wheel rim  to cushion it

  • Author

Mine are only normal 16" and the tyre pressure is correct!

What spec?  The sporty specs like Zetec get stiffer sports suspension but then you'd usually get at least 17" wheels as well for even less comfort. 

Must admit, my mk3 Titanium is a bit less comfortable than my previous mk2 Titanium was...and I swapped the wheels from the mk2 so it's not the wheels in my case.

  • Author

Mine is only the Zetec one with 16" wheels. You can feel every little pot hole in the road making it uncomfortable and not a nice smooth ride. 

14 minutes ago, MaxDee said:

Mine is only the Zetec one with 16" wheels. You can feel every little pot hole in the road making it uncomfortable and not a nice smooth ride. 

Ah ok, as said above the Zetec is a 'sports' model so comes with stiffer suspension as standard.  Is it a lot worse than your C-Max though?  

16"s are as small as you can go with the wheels on these, so that should be helping the ride a bit compared to 17s or larger, what tyre pressures are you using out of interest?  

13 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Ah ok, as said above the Zetec is a 'sports' model so comes with stiffer suspension as standard.  Is it a lot worse than your C-Max though?  

16"s are as small as you can go with the wheels on these, so that should be helping the ride a bit compared to 17s or larger, what tyre pressures are you using out of interest?  

Zetec isn't sports suspension, that's only the Zetec S.

On the Mk3, the Zetec has the same suspension as the titanium, etc. Ford's are setup a bit sportier than other brands, but it shouldn't be uncomfortable.

My mum's Mk3 Zetec with 17's had a good ride.

Can't imagine a 2013 still having it's suspension shipping chocks in and not being noticed by now. Might be worth OP test driving another MK3 to compare then maybe book it in for inspection if it's not the same.

12 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

Zetec isn't sports suspension, that's only the Zetec S.

On the Mk3, the Zetec has the same suspension as the titanium, etc. Ford's are setup a bit sportier than other brands, but it shouldn't be uncomfortable.

My mum's Mk3 Zetec with 17's had a good ride.

Can't imagine a 2013 still having it's suspension shipping chocks in and not being noticed by now. Might be worth OP test driving another MK3 to compare then maybe book it in for inspection if it's not the same.

That's odd, I've just checked ETIS and you're right, Titanium and Zetec are the same on mk3.  The Mk2 Zetec came with sports suspension, I wonder why they changed that.

Ride comfort is a personal thing though, I found the 17s on the mk3 a bit harsh personally, so bought one on 16s instead.  But it still isn't as comfortable as the Mk2.5 on the same 16s.  Though the seats don't help either, I had full leathers in the Mk2.5 which were quite 'plump' and bouncy, just got standard cloth rubbish in the Mk3 (apparently 'premium' cloth, whatever that is lol :tongue: ) but the seats themselves are pretty hard comparatively.  

I guess I'm used to 18s and ST suspension now, so the Zetec Focus on 17s was nice and soft in comparison. 😅

Selection of the right suspension with the matching set of tires will do the trick in your case.

 

 

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