Focust ST help

richyfingers

richyfingers

richyfingers

Associate
Joined
6 Feb 2006
Posts
1,748
Location
Glasgow
Alright guys, been car hunting this week and my original two choices were an s2k or a 350,z had a budget of about 10k. Test drove both and love them in entirely different ways.

Last week on my way home from work i saw an orange ST2 sitting in a forecourt listed at £8225, 55 plate, 46k on the clock with FSH. Had a chat to the sales guy and told me it has had a custom re-map by eurotune in Glasgow. Full mongoose exhaust system and uprated turbo intake pipe. Unfortunately there is no paperwork to go with the work done however the car drives amazingly as i found out today when the salesmen gave me the keys for an hour to so to go good blast in it. Needless to say I'm quite a fan now.

Managed to get him down to 8k with 12month warranty and 4 wheels refurbed, serviced 2k ago and only just been MOT'd which it passed with no advisories. £1100 trade in for my V plate ST24 which is going to be costing me a few bucks soon.

I've not really looked into ST's before so don't know a great deal about them, what are the main things to look out for and what sort of extra things are there to look out for with remaps?

Cheers,

Richy.
 
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You would be best asking over on STOC forums, but I've never heard of Eurotune before. The most common route is Bluefin, Dreamscience & Code Red. Mine is chipped with a Dreamscience handset, that can be taken on and off with 6 or so tunes on it.

Check that this warranty covers the turbo as a lot of third parties do not.

I would rather spend my money on a non modified car.

Common things are the drive shafts that knock. a Ford technical bulletin came out that fixed this by glueing the drive shafts into the hub.

The way to test is on and off the gas at low speed if you hear a clunking noise. It can eventually cause one of the driveshafts to come out of the hub.

Apart from that, there is no turbo timer on these. I would get someone to take a look at the turbo for the general condition. Some people do not know how to warm up and back down correctly. I always let mine cool down by driving at low revs and letting it sit at idle for a couple of minutes before I turn it off.
 
Hrm, Downpipe, and decat - 300bhp? Dreaming.

Sounds like a cracking deal in my opinion - the driveshaft issue isn't that bad at all really, and people have managed to solve it without the "glue" by using driveshaft bolt from a Volvo - the other symptoms can be a clicking noise, although I suspect this precedes the more serious clunking noise.

Some STs end up with a lot of squeeks and rattles, but I'd be dubious of any actual knocking noises, ARB and top mounts are common on the rear.

My car has suffered from the above two issues, but both sorted under warranty (even though the latter technically isn't covered after the first year) but both easily sorted, and would have been relatively inexpensive, even from Ford.

Its quite difficult to have someone check the Turbo, but its worth checking the state of the oil - if it was serviced 2K ago, it should still be quite fresh looking, if its particularly mucky then either they're lying about the service, or it probably hasn't been cooled down properly.
 
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Good price really, recently sold mine an 06 ST-2 with 38k for 8.9k so 8.2k aint bad at all considering the mods.

Might be worth researching though, if you know eurotune did the work contact them and ask what was done. I did the same for a car i viewed before i got my ST, turned a lot more had been done than was originally said.
 
With all mods declared I'm struggling to get quotes under 1k which I'm not really keen on paying for a hot hatch. That's s2k territory.

I was surprised how much I liked the focus, I'm guessing some of that was down to the extra power from the mods and the noise of the mongoose which sounded awesome. I haven't driven a stock ST so cant really comment too well however I loved how torquey it was, picks up so quickly in any gear, entirely different to the teg in terms of power delivery, certainly felt quicker. Felt quite posed and nimble not on par with the teg of course but was impressed. Only main gripe is the interior which I'm not keen on and i just wish every car had teg recaros in them.
 
MikeHiow said:
Hrm, Downpipe, and decat - 300bhp? Dreaming.

Sounds like a cracking deal in my opinion - the driveshaft issue isn't that bad at all really, and people have managed to solve it without the "glue" by using driveshaft bolt from a Volvo - the other symptoms can be a clicking noise, although I suspect this precedes the more serious clunking noise.

Some STs end up with a lot of squeeks and rattles, but I'd be dubious of any actual knocking noises, ARB and top mounts are common on the rear.

My car has suffered from the above two issues, but both sorted under warranty (even though the latter technically isn't covered after the first year) but both easily sorted, and would have been relatively inexpensive, even from Ford.

Its quite difficult to have someone check the Turbo, but its worth checking the state of the oil - if it was serviced 2K ago, it should still be quite fresh looking, if its particularly mucky then either they're lying about the service, or it probably hasn't been cooled down properly.
Click to expand...

Quick question, how does not cooling down the engine dictate what colour the oil is? Because I do not do many miles circa 7k p.a. mine always has been changed way ahead of the circa 12k annual mileage schedule.
 
thepharcyde said:
Quick question, how does not cooling down the engine dictate what colour the oil is? Because I do not do many miles circa 7k p.a. mine always has been changed way ahead of the circa 12k annual mileage schedule.
Click to expand...

oil will start to break down and go darker? Bad cooling just accelerates the ageing process. (maybe?)
 
thepharcyde said:
Quick question, how does not cooling down the engine dictate what colour the oil is? Because I do not do many miles circa 7k p.a. mine always has been changed way ahead of the circa 12k annual mileage schedule.
Click to expand...

When you follow the process of cooling down, what you are doing is keeping the oil circulating while the turbo gets a chance to cool down.

Whilst the Turbo is hot, it is actual hot enough to sear/burn the oil pretty quickly - which isn't a problem when the engine is running, as the oil is circulating, but can become a problem when the engine is stopped while the turbo is still hot - leaving oil sat in the turbo.

This causes two problems, one its dirtying the oil that is currently in the turbo, and I would imagine reducing its effectiveness. The other, more pressing issue is the you get oil burning on to the turbo, leaving deposits that will build up over time, reducing its efficiency, the rest of the oils ability to cool it and I suppose eventually leading to its death.
 
If you get an ST, make sure you have a drive, my drive is only half finished but the ST is on there now, due to the fact that last night some scrote thought my rear passenger door, and back pannel had a little too much paint on it for their liking, so has decided to remove it, using a rock.
 
Don't have the luxury of a drive, I stay in a flat with no secured parking, It's one of the things that I'm quite apprehensive about.

Decided to pass on the st for now, been giving it a lot of thought and going to stick to my 350z or s2k plan.
 
As much as I think the focus is a cracking car I just want something a bit more special. When I originally started saving for a new car the 350 and s2k were my original choices but when I saw the price of the st I thought I'd give it a shot.
 
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