My Focus Mk3 Champions Edition

[JW1982]

After driving my Focus MK2 for over 6 1/2 Years it was time for something new. Of course it had to be a Focus MK3. Unfortunately there were only a few (very young,low mileage) used cars for same in the country which met my requirements. After a long search and even considering a brand new lower spec car I finally found a suitable replacement for my Focus MK2:

2013 Focus MK3 5-doors Champions Edition

My car is a German spec Focus MK3 Champions Edition. Because of the Ford sponsorship of the Champions Leage in 2013 Ford Germany offered this special (limited) edition for a few months.

My car has the following options:

Engine: 1.0 ECOboost 125 PS with 6-speed manual transmission.

Color: Midnicht Sky metallic.

Interior: Ultimate/Lux / Charcoal Black

Options:

Front and Rear Parking Sensors.

Active Park Assist.

Active City stop.

Powerfold Mirrors.

Power 1-shot Up/Down Front & Rear Windows.

Global opening/closing (remote control)

Rear Privacy Glass.

Dual Zone Climate Control.

Heated Windshield.

Heated Washer jets.

Heated Seats.

Start/Stop System.

Rain Sensor.

Light Sensor.

Front Fog Lights.

SYNC with APPlink.

DDS Tyre Deflation Warning System.

Hill Start Assist.

 

 

 

The car did have 16 inch alloy wheels as standard but because I like my own 17 inch alloy Focus MK2.5 wheels a bit more I decided to install my own wheels instead of the original 16 inch alloy wheels.

 

 

In my opinion these wheels look great on the Focus MK3.

During winter I drive on a set of 15 inch steel Focus MK2/MK2.5 wheels with Goodyear Ultragrip winter tyres.

 

 

Despite 15 inch wheels were officially never available for the European Focus MK3 they fit without any problems on the 1.0 ECOboost models. The 1.6 TI-VCT and 1.0 ECOboost versions have 278 mm front disc brakes. This is exactly the same disc size as the Focus MK2/MK2.5 versions which were available with 15 inch wheels. On other Focus MK3 engine types Ford used bigger brakes which require at least 16 inch wheels.

My Focus MK3 did originally not have Cruise Control. Cruise Control was not a standard feature on the German spec Champions Edition. Strange enough the first owner did order all possible options which were available on the Champions edition except Cruise Control. Because I am used to have Cruise Control and I really miss it I decided to retrofit Cruise Control to my car. There are some aftermarket solutions to retrofit Cruise Control to a Focus MK3 but personally I do not want an extra stalk or aftermarket buttons. So I decided to retrofit the OEM Cruise Control system.

 

 

Because I could not find a mint condition replacement Cruise Control steering wheel for my car I decided to modify my own steering wheel instead of buying a new one.

 

 

In my opinion it looks very good. The Cruise Control switch fits perfectly into the cutout I made at the side of the steering wheel. The Cruise Control switch is a very snug fit and all edges line up perfectly. The steering wheel does look exactly the same as an original Cruise Control steering wheel. From the outside there are no visible differences.

I wrote a guide about retrofitting Cruise Control to a Focus MK3. This guide can be found on the following weblink:

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/tutorials/article/274-retrofitting-original-cruise-control-on-a-focus-mk3/

After a few weeks I really missed the HID lights I had in my previous Focus MK2 so I decided to install new headlights. After a long search I decided to buy a pair of Sky Wing projector headlights.

 

 

I installed a 4300K HID Kit into the Sky Wing headlights. The light image and the light output are very good and the Sky Wing headlights look great.

Next I decided to install DRL lights.

 

 

I bought these lights from a Taiwanese seller on the AliExpress website. The DRL lights are made of high quality materials and look very good.

Some time ago I found some illuminated rear bumper reflectors on eBay. However the price was ridiculous so I decided to wait a little longer. A few weeks later I found the same reflectors in an internet auction. I made the seller an offer and bought the reflectors for a really good price.

 

 

The illuminated rear bumper reflectors look really nice. The light output is about the same as the original taillights.

I also made the following modifications to the car:

 

Early 2017 I decided to upgrade to 18 inch wheels:

 

 

After a long search I bought myself a set of 8x18 Anzio Turn wheels. in my opinion these wheels look really nice on a Focus MK3. I installed 225-40-18 Dunlop Sport Max RT2 tyres which are a perfect fit on these wheels.

 

 

* I installed a Level 3 instrument cluster with a large full color display. This is a USA instrument cluster that I fully converted and reprogrammed into an European instrument cluster.

 

 

* I changed the 3.5 Inch monochrome MFD display to a 5 inch Sat Nav colour display. Afterwards I retrofitted the complete OEM Sat Nav system.

 

 

* The "Focus" and "Econetic Technologies" badges are removed from the tailgate.

* The "Champions League" badges are removed from the B-pillars.

* Rear seat hinge covers installed (originally used on a focus MK1.5).

* I installed front and rear Titanium interior lights with LED lights and reading lights. Because of the different wiring/connectors I made an adapter wiring loom to connect the Titanium interior lights to the standard wiring loom.

* I installed the original footwell lights. I changed the red LED's to ice blue LED's (same color as original).

* I changed the red/orange control lights of all switches to ice blue LED's (same color as original).

* I installed LED Bulbs into the puddle lights.

* I installed LED Bulbs into the reverse lights.

* I installed a LED bulb into the glove box light.

* I installed LED Bulbs into the boot lights.

* K&N 57S air filter element.

* I installed the original perimeter alarm system.

* I installed the additional electric water pump.

 

In the future I plan to do some more modifications on the car. The next modifications are on my wish list:

 

* OEM rearview camera.

* SYNC 3 retrofit.

[b4zz]

liking the sound of the planed mods.

you don't have to worrie about salt making a mess of your alloys with them wheels on

[JW1982]

The last 2 months I spend searching online for a pair of headlights for my Focus MK3 .In my opinion there are only very few good looking aftermarket projector headlights available for the Focus MK3.

In the USA there are some good looking projector headlights available but many reviews mention a poor quality and USA headlights are not adjustable from inside the car.

Finally I found a pair of good looking projector headlights. The reviews were very good so I decided to order them last week from a company in Germany.

 

 

These headlights are called "Sky Wing" and are produced by Eagle Eyes which is a Taiwanese manufacturer. These headlights are plug and play and already have built in height adjustment motors.

After 2 days I already received the headlights. The headlights were very well packed in a box surrounded by foam. After I unpacked the headlights I took a closer look at them. In my opinion the Sky Wing headlights look very good. The overall build quality looks very good and the materials used on these headlights seems to be very good also. The quality of and the materials used on these headlights seems to be even better than the original Ford headlights. The original Ford headlights have lots of plastic parts like the bulb holders which break easily. On the Sky Wing headlights the bulb holders are made of metal wich is a lot stronger.

 

 

Like the original Ford headlights the Sky Wing headlights are also sealed with permaseal. Most other manufacturers of aftermarket headlights use a butyl sealant.

 

 

Next to the normal air vent openings the Sky Wing headlights have 2 additional air vent openings covered with mesh to easily remove possible condensation.

 

 

Both the H7 projector and H1 reflector are made of casted aluminium and look/feel very solid.

Next I connected the headlights to a 12 Volt power source to test the light output of the LED beam and the projector.

 

 

The light output of these headlights looks very good. The LED beams of these headlights are originally used as sidelights but can also be connected as DRL easily by changing 1 connector pin.

 

 

Light output of the projector using the supplied H7 halogen bulb.

I am going to install an aftermarket H7 HID Kit into the Sky Wing headlights instead of the supplied H7 halogen bulbs. I ordered the HID Kit yesterday which will hopefully be delivered tomorrow.

After the headlights are isntalled I also have to reprogram the bulb check system to accept the HID headlights. The Focus MK3 has a bulb check system which checks for defective light bulbs. A HID Kit with a much lower power comsumpion than a halogen light bulb will be recognised by the system as a defective light bulb which will result in a warning message on the display of the car. Next to the bulb check system the Focus MK3 also has a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) system to increase the lifetime of the light bulbs. Most of the HID kits do not function correctly on this PWM signal. They will simply not start at all or switch off after a few seconds.

To solve both the bulb check system and the PWM system many people use warning cancelers and/or relay cables with resistors. These resistors will use the same power as the halogen headlight which makes the bulb system think that a normal halogen bulb is connected. A downside of this solution is that the resistor will become very hot.

Personally I do not like to use warning cancelers or a relay cable with resistors so I decided to reprogram the Central Configuration of the car. By reprogramming the BCM a steady 12 Volt signal is used to the headlights instead of the PWM signal and the light check system will accept the HID kit.

Theoretically this should work perfectly but I can not test it before the Sky Wing headlights and HID kit are installed into the car.

[iantt]

nice write up, are the headlamps adjustable for lhd/rhd markets?

[JW1982]

No, these headlights are made for LHD vehicles only. It is not possible to adjust the headlights for RHD vehicles.

Until now I have not found a RHD version of the Sky Wing headlights (to be honest most aftermarket headlights for the Focus MK3 are LHD only). The projectors that are used in these headlights are pretty common so it should be possible for the manufacturer to produce both LHD and RHD versions. Another possibility is to change the projector but to do this the headlights must be disassembled.

[JW1982]

This week I installed the HID Kit to the Sky Wing headlights. The brand of the HID Kit is Kingco. I also used this brand of aftermarket HID kits for my previous Focus MK2 and was very satisfied with it.

This HID Kit uses very small HID ballasts and on both the 12 Volt wiring and the high voltage wiring a small box. These small boxes makes it a lot more difficult to install the ballasts onto the headlight housing. I decided to make fiberglass plates which are attached to the original mounting points of the headlights. On these fiberglass plates I installed the ballasts and the small boxes.

 

 

Today I installed the headlights to the car to test them and they fit perfectly. There is just enough space for the ballasts under the headlights.

Next I tested the lights. The LED beams which functions as sidelights work without any problems. Next I tested the HID lights. I was really amazed to seethat the HID lights did also work without any problems or warning messages. Most of the aftermarket HID kits are causing errors of the bulb check system, do not start at all or stop burning after the engine has been running for a few seconds.

Next I reprogrammed BCM module of the car for aftermarket HID. With this setting the light system is programmed for HID lightning. This will give a steady 12 Volt output to the HID kit instead of the PWM signal that is used on the Halogen lights. By reprogramming the system for aftermarket HID the manual height adjustment of the lights will still be functional.

[JW1982]

A few pictures of the new Sky Wing headlights:

 

 

More pictures will follow next weekend.

The next modification will be the front grill. Personally I do not like the chrome inserts of the grill. My plan is to remove the inserts and wrap them with 3M Di-NOC carbon foil.

[JW1982]

 

The LED beams are a nice match to the color of the 4300K HID lights. First I thought about installing 5000K HID lights but now I am glad I decided to install the 4300K HID lights.

[JW1982]

My car was equipped with the standard 3.5 Inch monochrome MFD display. Because I did not really like the looks of this display I decided to upgrade to a larger display. Some time ago I bought a display for a few Euro's which was advertised as being a 4.2 Inch Color display. Because it was a real bargain I bought the display unseen. After I got the display it turned out to be the 5 Inch Sat nav color display instead of the 4.2 Inch display.

The display came from a scrap car and was covered with pieces of glass from the windshield. I decided to take the display housing apart to give it a good clean. Even inside the display housing I found a lot of small pieces of glass. After I cleaned and reassembled all parts the display was in mint (like new) condition.

Yesterday I installed the display into my car. Officially the 5 Inch display has a different surrounding panel but the panel of the 3.5 Inch display can only be used with some minor modifications. Strange enough the 3.5 Inch panel is actually a bit larger than the 5 Inch panel.

After I installed the 5 Inch display it turned out to be a bit too low for the surrounding panel. I solved this by adding spacers between the mounting screws. Next the opening of the surrounding panel turned out to be wider than the width of the 5 Inch screen. I solved this by covering the metal frame of the display with 3M Carbon foil.

After I changed the display setting in the car's Central Configuration the display was fully functional. All radio and SYNC function work like before. Because the display is a Sat nav version with the SD slot it also released the Sat nav settings menu in the radio menu.

 

 

Next I am going to search for the other parts of the Sat nav system. I already have a suitable GPS antenna and the SD card with maps so the main thing missing will be the control panel.

[b4zz]

liking the new lights.

keep up the good work

[JW1982]

Yesterday I changed the interior lights. Originally my car had the standard interior lights with light bulbs at the back and the front of the car. I changed these standard interior lights for the LED Titanium interior lights with reading lights at the back and the front of the car.

The wiring of the LED Titanium interior lights is different from the standard interior lights. The standard front interior light has a only 4 wires while the Titanium front interior light has 6 wires. The standard rear interior light has a only 2 wires while the Titanium rear interior light has 5 wires.

To solve this I made an adapter wiring loom which connect between the standard 4-pole connector and both the front and rear Titanium interior lights. This way the LED Titanium interior lights are fully functional without the need to modify the roof wiring loom of the car. Because the standard interior lights do not have illuminated switches there is no wire for switch illumination. To solve this I have to connect a wire to the light switch in the future.

[JW1982]

After I installed the 5 Inch color display of the Sat Nav system I decided to retrofit the complete Sat Nav system. My car has the "High Level" audio system with SYNC and APPlink. The radio unit of this system turned out to be exactly the same as the radio unit of the Sat Nav system.

To retrofit the system I needed the following parts:

* SD-card with maps.

* GPS antenna.

* FM connection cable with Fakra connectors between the radio unit and the display. This cable is needed for TMC reception.

* Wiring and connector pins to connect the Navigation audio output from the display to the radio unit.

Officially the radio control panel is also different. The Sat Nav version has the "NAV" button to select the navigation functions. However the standard radio control panel can also be used to control the navigation functions because these functions can also be selected using the Arrow buttons.

 

 

I really like the ice blue interior illumination. In my opinion the ice blue interior illumination looks great. However I did not like the (original) red heated seat switch illumination and the orange indicator LED's of most buttons. Some time ago I decided to change the red and orange LED's for ice blue ones. Unfortunately ice blue SMD LED's are relatively rare and expensive. I got a few samples of them to compare the color and brightness but al of them were not a perfect match to the origal ones.

Last week I disassembled a defective radio control panel and interior light and desoldered all of the original ice blue SMD LED's. I used these original LED's to change the color of the heated seat switch illumination and the indicator LED's of the buttons.

 

 

Heated seat switches converted from red to ice blue illumination.

 

 

Central locking indicator LED's changed from orange to ice blue.

 

 

Several button indicator LED's changed from orange to ice blue.

 

 

I also changed the footwell lights from the original red to ice blue. The front interior light did also have an orange indicator LED for the "OFF" button. The illumination of this button changes from ice blue to orange after pushing the button. I really did not like this last orange LED but changing it for an ice blue LED is not an option becaus ther will be no visible difference between on or off. I decided to change the orange indicator LED for a red one which in my opinion is beter than the orange one.

In my opinion this is how it should have been in the first place.

[chrisroberson99]

Looks nice but I prefer the original 16" wheels.

[theredfox]

epic build thread congrats you have skill

[JW1982]

After some time of research it was time for the next modification:

 

 

I reprogrammed my original MK3 instrument cluster into a MK3 ST instrument cluster. The functions of the ST instrument cluster are also present in the instrument cluster of the "normal Focus MK3". These functions can be activated by changing the configuration of the instrument cluster.

By changing the configuration the Ford logo is replaced by an ST logoand the ST ESP menu is activated.

On a "normal" Focus MK3 the ESP system can not be turned fully off. You have the choice between "on" and "off" but even after "off" has been selected the system remains active. The system only intervenes a bit later and a bit less agressive.

On the Focus MK3 ST the ESP system has 3 different settings. These settings are "on", "sport" and "off". In sport mode the system intervenes a bit later and a bit less agressive. In "off" mode the system is completely turned off and other safety systems like Acitve City Stop for example are also turned off.

My istrument cluster now has the ST ESP menu:

 

 

Tonight I made the first test run and all functions seem to function correctly. There are no error messages shown on the instrument cluster display or DTC codes stored in the different modules.

[TEG]

Hi JW1982!!

Just a quick question. Your car has ESP, right?

I was wondering how many things could I enable on my car with focccus software.

My car has ABS but not ESP so I really don't know if I could enable DDS, Hill Assist or even Cruise Control like you did.

Thanks!

[JW1982]

My car has the IVD (Intelligent Vehicle Dynamics) system which contains ABS, TCS and ESP. I do not have any experience with Focus MK3 models with ABS only. As far as I know the Focus MK3 did have the IVD system as standard for most European countries.

Personally I expect the DDS and Hill Start Assist will also work on the ABS only versions of the Focus MK3. The ABS only version of the Focus MK2.5 did also support the DDS system.

As far as I know the Cruise Control should also work on a Focus MK3 with only ABS.

[TEG]

Hi JW, sorry to bother you with another question!!

You used to have the basic monochromatic screen so how do you use the parking sensor?

Did you have any visual information related to the proximity sensor or just the beep assistance?

Thanks again!

BTW, would be great to change your current dashboard with the Titanium one to get the colorful and bigger trip computer.

Maybe is just plug&play like the satnav display ;-)

[JW1982]

The monochrome radio display does show the same visual PDC information as the full color radio displays. Both the (front and rear) PDC information and the autoparking information were visually shown on the monochrome display as well.

The instrument cluster with the larger full color display can be installed without any problems. It only needs to be configured correctly. Currently I have a damaged instrument cluster which I use for testing purposes. I am planning to buy a suitable instrument cluster from the USA for little money and convert it into a fully functional European version with the parts from the damaged instrument cluster.

[JW1982]

After driving my Focus MK2 which had the original Scandinavian Daytime Running Lights for a long time I started to miss the DRL on my Focus MK3. Because of this I started the search for a suitable DRL kit last week.

There are many different style DRL kits for the Focus MK3 available on the internet. Most kits are produced by manufacturers in China. My biggest problem was that most suppliers only offer DRL kits with gloss black triangles. My car has the matt black grilles and triangles which in my opinion match better to the Midnight Sky paintwork than the gloss black ones (it is just a matter of taste I guess). Some sellers did offer matt black DRL kits but these were either much more expensive as the gloss black version or had bad reviews about quality.

After Emailing some sellers I finally found one which could supply me the DRL kit I want in matt black and made me a very good offer on the AliExpress website. Yesterday I ordered the DRL kit from these seller.

 

I hope to receive the DRL kit in about 2 weeks.

[WES180]

Did you bid on the genuine Ford ones on eBay that went for £88 delivered? I spotted them and started a thread in the Focus forum.

[JW1982]

I saw that DRL kit on eBay But I did not bid on it.

The DRL kit advertised on eBay is not the DRL kit Ford offers as an accessoire. The DRL kit which ford offers as an accessoire is produced by Nolden. The kit offered on eBay is basically just a standard Philips DRL kit with vehicle specific trim. I have never seen this DRL kit in any Ford documentation or in real life.

Personally I do not like horizontally mounted DRL lamps. Because of this I specifically searched for the vertically mounted DRL lamps.

[WES180]

It was a Ford main dealer Trust Ford that was selling the kit, so it must have been available as an accessory at some point.

I must admit i think the vertical lights look better too rather than the standard horizontal ones Ford offer.

[JW1982]

After only 7 days I received the DRL kit. As expected this kit is made of good quality materials and the finish of both the DRL lights and the triangles is very good.

 

 

The housing of the DRL lights is made of black powder coated aluminium. The clear lenses are made of thick polycarbonate.

 

 

All connectors have rubber seals and are water resistant.

 

 

The DRL lights do have a European Certification number.

The DRL controller supplied with this kit is certified as IP 67 and is fully sealed with epoxy.

 

 

Some time ago I decided to install a short throw shifter. There are several manufacturers which offer a short throw shifter adapter for the Durashift B6 6-speed gearbox. These adapters are mounted onto the gear selector arm on top of the gearbox. Most of these adapters have a relative simple design. I decided to make such an adapter myself.

 

 

Above my first prototype. This is only for testing. After I make all necessary improvements I am going to make myself a final version.

[JW1982]

Yesterday I was home early and decided to start installing the DRL kit.

All parts of the kit are made of good quality materials. The fitment of the triangles into the front bumper is also very good. in my opinion this kit has very good value for money. The wiring looms included in the kit are just long enough to reach next to the left headlight. I installed the DRL controller module on the plastic beam next to the headlight which fits perfectly.

The wiring loom of the DRL control module was really short. It was just long enough to reach the fuse box in the engine bay. This way the wiring will be visible in plain sight. Personally I do not like this so I decided to make some modifications. I disassembled the loom and routed all wires to the correct location. The positive wire was too short so I installed a longer wire. After all wires had the correct length I installed a protective sleeve onto the wiring. Next I attached the wiring loom to the original wiring loom inside the engine bay. I soldered all connections and afterwards used shrink tube for insulation.

All wiring looks very clean now. Basically the DRL control module is the only visible part inside the engeine bay.

 

 

In my opinion this DRL kit looks very nice. I am very happy with it.