Was in the Ford dealer the other day to get bulbs and checked the price of a full set of wind deflectors. They had to order them but it worked out cheaper than buying them online. Basically got a deal. Coulton Ford in Mullingar, I am definitely going back to you guys for parts and service from now on!

This is the box. Just fitted them earlier on in the evening and will have a proper drive tomorrow to see how they do and look.

More pictures to follow along with more mods planned for the year.

I've never been a fan of these... Maybe its because my grandad had these on his cars without fail!! lol

Do they work well?

I've never been a fan of these... Maybe its because my grandad had these on his cars without fail!! lol

Do they work well?

They're good, I had them on since the car was a week old, wouldn't have a car without them now.

me too dont get any water in when it rains i think they look great too set off the car.

I had Climair wind deflectorson my Mondeo ST when I bought it. Came off straight away - annoying things at creating wind noise at speed.

me too dont get any water in when it rains i think they look great too set off the car.

I don't get water in when it rains either.

(Probably as I keep the window shut)

Hm, the ones on mine make no noise whatsoever, probably better with certain car shapes really.

I've never been a fan of these... Maybe its because my grandad had these on his cars without fail!! lol

Do they work well?

That is funny coz my dad had one on every car he owned. I really liked them since I was a kid :)

Here are some pictures of it on the car. I really like them so far and they are the ones that tuck inside the windows. Noise on the motorway has reduced as well as I can now blast my music and enjoy it :)

I have looking at downsizing the 12" sub in the car for a while as I realised that it was a bit of an overkill for my uses. Plus, it would be nice to have a bit of bootspace back along with losing the weight of that sub. Also going to get a capacitor as well for the amp to keep it all the power requirements tidy.

The sub is a fairly cheap and cheerful Vibe Slick SLR10. Should be more than enough for my uses even though I would have loved the 8" JL Audio one, but it's way out of budget.

http://www.vibeaudio.co.uk/car/slick-enclosures/

Capacitor is a Raptor 1 Farad one. Unsure how I will be installing this yet as I have no previous experience. Any help would be appreciated.

Also, I have to decide on the next upgrade. The two options are a remap or rear ant iroll bars.

Remap would most probably be done by Autoremap as there are good reviews of the place so far and the savings from fuel will offset the cost in the long term. Plus, the fun factor of it all

http://www.autoremap.com/index.php?page=homepage

Anti roll bars would be another option. Whiteline do a rear arb for the Focus Mk2 which is about the same price as the remap.

So far, I am leaning more towards getting the remap just because it will be a lot more fun to drive. Later on maybe, I can look into getting the rear arb fitted.

Anyone else has got their cars remapped? Any words of advice/caution before getting this done?

The increases I was quoted were +30 bhp and +70Nm torque. Looks promising so far.

30bhp and 70Nm sound about right to me, though for some extra quid you could get a boost controller and get them to do that for you too, you'd look at about 40bhp and 85 - 90Nm then; just it could wear parts a little faster.

Think I will be cautious and just stick to a remap. Out of curiosity, what is/does a boost controller do? I am guessing it's something to do with boost pressures?

Fools the wastegate into thinking there is less boost than there actually is, allowing pressure to build up higher before it releases anything. Just a manual one costs about £50 - 60 for a decent one. If you don't know what you're doing though you can overboost and blow the lot, which is less fun.

Update:

Over the weekend I got a second hand Vibe SLR 10 sub and a Raptor 1 Farad capacitor,. Got rid of the old sub as it was taking up way too much space and the sound quality was just appalling. Much happier with the new sub. Real punchy bass, nothing overwhelming and usable at low levels. Made me grin all the way down on the way to work today. I have not yet fitted the capacitor and don't really know how to. If anyone has any advice/ideas/tutorial, please let me know.

This is the new sub in the boot:

Also, decided that the next mod will be a remap. Autoremap in Dublin seem to be the place I am going to get it done. Martin Duffy the guy who runs it is well respected here among BMW drivers. Price quoted was €275 and total time taken would be about 1hr. This does not include a run on the dyno (add €75 more for that). Unsure if I am going to get it dynoed at the same time. Anyone got their car on the dyno after a remap? Is it worth the extra bit or not?

Cheers

Dyno remapping is much better, it specifically remaps the car specifically rather than just putting on a generic map.

Are you sure it specifically checks that the specifics are specifically specific?

Sorry, couldn't help it ;)

- Result of having 2 hours sleep last night due to the cat for some reason being hyper >.<

Fair one, anyway lucky you, more sleep than i usually get.

lmao sorry but that made me specifically giggle a specific little bit... specifically :P

join the club when it comes to not sleeping much dave mate i don't even know what decade it is

Update:

Car getting serviced this Thursday since buying it in November. Driven about 8,000 miles in 4 months.

Next in line is a remap to be organised hopefully this coming Saturday at Autoremap, Dublin. Really looking forward to it. Mostly to be honest for the power and torque gains but also for the fuel economy. The way I look at it is that the fuel savings will pay for the remap eventually over the course of the coming months. Fuel savings will be in the region of 10-20% which equates to €338-€676/year for my average mileage. Cost of remap €275.

I think it's a no brainer.

Review of car with new map to follow

So Saturday went to get remap. After 1.5hr, the map was received from Germany but the issue from the guys in Germany was that it has happened that the map doesn't take on my particular car model and year. So, Martin Duffy at Autoremap decided to play it safe and get more information before proceeding ahead.

For now, i have to wait to see if it can be done. Also, another option offered was to fit a tuning box to get similar gains. Pros would be ability to take it off before servicing the car. Apparently it's commonly used on lease or cars still under warranty. Anyone got any experience with these tuning boxes?

Also, in other news, found out at my latest service that I need 4 new tyres. Did a bit of research and so far will need 205/50/r17 tyres.

Any recommendations? Need to be new and about 400 euro with balancing and tracking. One of the options I got from the tyre place here was Starmaxx Ultra Sport. Not much info online about them. Anyone know of the brand? Good/bad?

Cheers

I use Avon ZZ3 tyres and the grip is top notch.

I use Avon ZZ3 tyres and the grip is top notch.

Looks nice. Sadly just outside my budget. If money was no issue, I would be getting Continental Contact Sport that is on the car now. Or another big name brand

I used to stick with budget tyres but after having some ZZ3's fitted to my work car I won.tuegt anything else.

They're worth the extra for the confidence you gain on marginal surface conditions.

You will find sometimes that less expensive tyres are false economy as they can wear quicker and need replacing earlier.

S.

Also, another option offered was to fit a tuning box to get similar gains. Pros would be ability to take it off before servicing the car. Apparently it's commonly used on lease or cars still under warranty. Anyone got any experience with these tuning boxes?

Cheers

Which tuning boxes?

Going back to the wind deflectors I have these on my car and I absolutely love them. But they've scratched the tops of my windows, its probably quite common as you're blocking the original window channel, does anyone else suffer this?

Going back to the wind deflectors I have these on my car and I absolutely love them. But they've scratched the tops of my windows, its probably quite common as you're blocking the original window channel, does anyone else suffer this?

Very common, happened on mine too.