Hi guys, 

You might remember me from my last hit, "I can't decide which one of these two blue Focuses to buy and do you have any advice", and now I'm back to confirm that I did in fact not buy either of them but instead plumped for a '13 plate grey 1.6 diesel beaut with 108k miles from a private seller who seemed like a nice chap and was good enough to be flexible on price and put a new MOT and service on it.

So, here it is and here I am with my customary list of questions...

I don't like the centre console - it doesn't have the arm rest. Is it totally mad to get the Titanium (?) version of the centre console from ebay and get it fitted? Is it something that can be fitted by a, uh, novice?

And there's a slight high-pitched noise when the AC is on - my guess it's sound from the pump (??). Normal? Something to worry about or just one to sort next summer?

All the best, Mike.

 

Nice car - I have a 2011 Titanium in silver.

No idea on the AC thing, but my centre console has a 12V outlet on the rear for back seat passengers to use, plus lighting in the back of the cup holder so if your car doesn't currently have any of that, you're likely going to need additional wiring which might make it more hassle than it's worth.

Didn't know the arm rest wasn't standard across the board by Mk3!  If you only want it for resting your arm on, the wiring isn't really necessary.

AC whistle is probably caused by slightly low gas if the AC does actually work.  (Bit of a miracle on a Mk3 if it does!)

At that age & mileage, it's due a cambelt if it hasn't had one yet.

14 hours ago, Darkman said:

Nice car - I have a 2011 Titanium in silver.

No idea on the AC thing, but my centre console has a 12V outlet on the rear for back seat passengers to use, plus lighting in the back of the cup holder so if your car doesn't currently have any of that, you're likely going to need additional wiring which might make it more hassle than it's worth.

 

Yes, it has the 12V outlet by the cup holder and a USB connection I think.

4 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Didn't know the arm rest wasn't standard across the board by Mk3!  If you only want it for resting your arm on, the wiring isn't really necessary.

AC whistle is probably caused by slightly low gas if the AC does actually work.  (Bit of a miracle on a Mk3 if it does!)

At that age & mileage, it's due a cambelt if it hasn't had one yet.

 

Yes, I test drove one before with the arm rest (and one without) and found the arm rest much more comfortable.

AC does run cold so it's working - might try getting it topped up to see if that clears it.

Aaand yes, cambelt is on my list for next month. The seller dropped the price to effectively cover that cost which was good of him. Just need to get it booked in and then that's ticked off.

Giving it a good clean today I came across a soggy boot (fairly wet under the spare wheel) which I read on here seems to be a fairly common problem.

I dried it up, cleaned it and aired it, and I'll read through that thread to see what I need to do to fix it.