Mods and tinkers

[CyberJamSam]

Alright so there must be *something* you've done to your focus that has improved it from factory standard. 

I'll share first:

MK3.5 67-plate, 6-speed 1.5l Petrol Manual

Dynamic Repeater Side Indicators: (I've had absolutely no issues with these, the car knows something's wrong in FORScan but it doesn't warn on the dial screen... ever)

(They are much smoother than this in person)

Bee Sting Antenna: (I don't ever listen to radio but from what I've accidentally listened to, there's no difference in sound quality)

Illuminated Scuff Plates. they're super easy to install, the instructions tell you to remove way too many interior trim panels than you need, and also tell you that you need more parts than what's included in the kit. You can't change their colour but you only see them when the doors are open so the interior lighting goes blue too anyway. So long as you have OEM LED footwell lights you can have these. They look good at night, not the brightest things in the world, but much better than the boring flat sills. The only issue that I think they caused was a 12v charging issue, but the FordPass app only told me about it once and that was it)

And you'll need TWO of these cables (one for each side of the car)

Also there you see Ford's Velour Floor Mats with the 'focus' metal emblem on the front mats.

My focus has the Bi-Xenon lighting pack, so I've changed the Xenon bulbs for LEDs instead. They're so much brighter than the originals. I compared these LED headlights on Amazon (the ones I bought) with these OSRAM 'intense' Xenon bulbs with one on the left and one on the right and the difference was night and day. Nearly literally. This was a few months ago now and I didn't take a picture at the time to show the difference. I pulled over tonight though to get a photo of them in action with a longer exposure on my phone's camera (same exposure time for each image, 2 seconds). I'd just like to point out that technically they're illigal, but the police have bigger fish to fry and to be honest there's no difference between retrofitted LEDs from Xenon on a Focus to OEM LEDs on a Seat Leon, except the Focus's adaptive headlights will auto-level to help avoid dazzling/flashing road users (a legal requirement for Xenon lights) whereas the Leon's do not (from memory anyway).

Low beam

High beam

A distance of around 350m from the car's approximate location to the start of the street lighting seen (according to Google Earth).

They're actually so bright and white that they make the DRLs look yellowish. 

I've also changed the incandescent front fog lamps to these LEDs, but other than moderately improved curb/verge illumination they're basically for looks. When it's late and dark I notice if I've left them off and see better with them on (they go well with low beam) so they're not useless and a cheap investment. They've also worked fine as actual fog lamps a couple times, so I'm not worried there.

To go along with the new front LEDs, I've turned all the rear lights to LED too. Although this required some wire abuse, but nothing major or irreversible.

The reversing lights are almost like how a new Mazda's headlights/sidelights look, with a slight purply twinkle. The indicators are super bright and the rear brake lights are too. They're also instant on/off like all LEDs. 

The resisters required for the indicators to flash correctly are literally just slotted down into air space found below the lighting assembly, on the inside of the rear bumper. It's like they were made to fit in nice and snug to be quite honest.

The brake lights required nothing other than a simple bulb change.

Not really a modification I know, but I used an acrylic plastic restoration kit to restore my reversing camera. It went from blurry mess to crystal clear. I had to sand away at the lense for longer than what felt comfortable but with 2 or 3 good-effort applications, the camera works brilliant. I dare say it allowed the park assist to work better if it searches for parking spot markings. I don't know if it uses the camera or not but it would make sense if it did.

I've also changed the puddle lights to LEDs. Again, the car knows there's an issue, but says nothing.

Original

LED (they don't look brighter but they are, and look much better when unlocking the car at night).

None of these changes I've made cause any errors. Actually, other than the slightly reduced brightness at night in the reversing camera from the smaller reversing bulbs (which the extra bright brake lights make up for), I didn't have to make a compromise between form or function.

All I have left of incandescent bulbs are: front indicators, rear fog lamp, cornering lights, boot light (although I used one of the old reversing bulbs for the boot so it's much brighter anyway), the glove box light and the lights in the vanity mirrors.

I tried to use LEDs for the cornering lights but they don't work as the cornering lights are the only ones to fade on/off which LEDs just don't like.

The front indicators are proving to be a bit of a hassle, and the cornering lights are a shame to be honest but hey, they work:

If I think of anything else or do anything else, I'll edit this post. Feel free to post your changes please!

Sam

 

[Todd Christian Hansen]

This is one of mine. 

[CyberJamSam]

5 hours ago, Todd Christian Hansen said:

This is one of mine. 

Are these illuminated vents? That's kinda cool, do they change colour? What else have you done?

[StephenFord]

I put some lovely door protectors on mine, they were expensive, £3, but I thought, 'what the hell'...

(no, they are not illuminated LOL)

[CyberJamSam]

7 hours ago, StephenFord said:

I put some lovely door protectors on mine, they were expensive, £3, but I thought, 'what the hell'...

(no, they are not illuminated LOL)

They're good! Mine has ones that pop out and retract on their own on door opening/close, so this is a good idea!