How many Focus ST owners on here

DazQ87 said:
It's the same every time, I have been to several indies to see if they can diagnose it; it goes up on the ramp and everybody has a good look, nobody can see anything wrong, and then it drives great for a day or two!
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First place to start is balancing, the ST is notoriously difficult to get right and the wheels are prone for buckling.

Next up is the lower wishbone bushes, these were oil filled from the factory and crack with age and leak it all out. Mine were all done by 38K/6 years.

Next up is the more expensive one, the driveshafts. You'll be able to test for this by jacking the car up, removing the wheel and checking for rotational play in the shafts.
 
Liquidfox said:
First place to start is balancing, the ST is notoriously difficult to get right and the wheels are prone for buckling.

Next up is the lower wishbone bushes, these were oil filled from the factory and crack with age and leak it all out. Mine were all done by 38K/6 years.

Next up is the more expensive one, the driveshafts. You'll be able to test for this by jacking the car up, removing the wheel and checking for rotational play in the shafts.
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I was considering going down to pristine wheels and having all 4 refurbished and getting them checked for buckles at the same time.

I don't know about the wishbone bushes, but I have already had the near side driveshaft replaced because it had some play in it, which helped a little bit and made the ride smoother when maintaining speed.
 
You could maybe eliminate or prove out any wheel issues by swapping fronts & rears to see if it stays same or not. I've not had any issues with standard wheels on my 2 ST's, though the set on this ST just do winter duty.

Not sure of the symptoms for when the lower wishbone bushes are on their way out but it's not uncommon and a reasonably straight forward job depending if you get replacement arms or go down the polybush route. The main messy bit is cutting the old bushes off your wishbones if you go down that route. I run them on mine, was lucky enough to do a swap with a set of arms already bushed from a low mileage ST being un-modded to sell.
 
I've just became a member of the ST club :)

Picking my 2013 ST3 up on 02/01/2015. Went to test drive it today and sort out financials.

Definitely has a bit more poke than my current Mondeo Titanium X Sport 2.2D! Don't do big mileage (commute to work is a 30 mile round trip) so decided to go back to petrol.

Was deciding between an ST2 or 3. Mondeo was fully loaded with kit so was ideally after the ST3.

Had the instant MPG up and it wasn't returning horrific numbers... when driven sensibly :D
 
Enjoy!

Right, I've just bought a dreamscience strategem racer edition handset with 4 lives left from ebay (impulse purchase :rolleyes: )
Some questions for the more experienced owners (I've only had my car a couple of months)

1) Cost me £220 delivered - good deal?
2) How do the 'lives' work - can I only load a map 4 more times?
3) Which map out of the following for an essentially unmodified car (I only have a K&N panel filter fitted) for an owner that doesn't want to fork out for a clutch and/or driveshafts just yet!...
Performance
Performance+
Race
Race+
DSCI
MOD A
MOD B
TURBO A
TURBO B
Looking on the website suggests that 'Performance' would be a good starting point with ~270bhp/285ft/lbs?
 
That sounds like a pretty good buy, especially as it's got wide range of maps to choose from.

The lives only go down once you transfer the unit to another car. So you can merrily swap maps as you like but if you were to load it onto another ST then you'd lose a life. Also means it has more value when you sell it on as it doesn't need an expensive reset like a Bluefin unit for example.

For an un-modified car I'd say try Race, DSCI or Performance. The MOD maps and higher levels (+, B, etc) are for more modified car and you'll either not get the full potential without say upgraded intercooler & exhaust, or the car will try to make the power but then turbo temperatures get too high and it backs everything off plus dumps loads of fuel in to cool things down.

DSCI is a very potent map for a standard car, but once you have other mods it can boost higher and give the clutch a hard time.

Don't get blinkered with the horsepower & torque figures alone, if the power is delivered in 1 big lump then dies off for example you'll not be getting the best from the car. Peak horsepower will be around 5500-6000 rpm but the ST often does it's fun stuff down around 3000-4000 rpm.

Enjoy :)
 
Bought a disklok, I know my car isn't a keyless push button start so is less likely to go walkabouts than the others have, but just want a extra piece of mind when I leave my car alone for a while. And if I'm going to go for an RS soon I want one definitely, although the biggest threat when getting an RS would be jealous mouthbreathers keying it rather than it getting stolen.
 
Mucky_Pup said:
Bought a disklok, I know my car isn't a keyless push button start so is less likely to go walkabouts than the others have, but just want a extra piece of mind when I leave my car alone for a while. And if I'm going to go for an RS soon I want one definitely, although the biggest threat when getting an RS would be jealous mouthbreathers keying it rather than it getting stolen.
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You would be surprised, back in November there was at least one RS going missing a night :( Not too sure how bad it is right now as I know they arrested a few people that were involved.
 
I retired my long serving Disklok a while back now as it was mainly acting as ballast in the passenger footwell and I thought technology had moved on from needing a physical deterrent :rolleyes:

But I happened to have a conversation with someone today about the security of the OBD port, and while he wouldn't be specific there are other weak points in the security system which can be exploited without going near the OBD port :(

Least if you've got a Disklok as well that'll either add to the time it takes for someone to have a car way or they'll leave it and go for another one. I used to think the disklok also put off numpties who would otherwise only find out they couldn't hotwire the car after they'd busted a window to get in.

Handy thing I found with Disklok, put some felt or fabric on the inside of it so you don't end up scratching the steering wheel when it's in place.
 
Ordered one with a steering wheel cover, had a 10% off code, so thought why not.

Also rang my insurer last night, only about £150 to change cars to an RS, hmmmmmmm...
 
Dreamscience unit received today. Loaded the 'performance' map but was a little underwhelmed. Might try one of the more powerful ones ;)
I've got some pennies saved up so I think I'm going to get a Milltek cat back exhaust and maybe a dsci induction kit too :D
 
Think you'll find DSCi a much better map than Performance :)

Those pennies you're saving will come in handy then - just bear in mind that the cat-back exhaust will mainly make the car sound faster. Best gains in the exhaust department are from bigger bore downpipe and sports cat.

If you're expecting to go for those plus the induction kit then consider doing an intercooler upgrade as well. You will get to a point where the standard intercooler can't keep keep temps down, and you'd not get the full benefit of other modifications on the car. Very common ST upgrade with good choice of proven kit which fits without major work being needed.

Not sure of prices these days but if I had to replace mine now the Airtec would be my first choice.
 
tl45 said:
Think you'll find DSCi a much better map than Performance :)

Those pennies you're saving will come in handy then - just bear in mind that the cat-back exhaust will mainly make the car sound faster. Best gains in the exhaust department are from bigger bore downpipe and sports cat.

If you're expecting to go for those plus the induction kit then consider doing an intercooler upgrade as well. You will get to a point where the standard intercooler can't keep keep temps down, and you'd not get the full benefit of other modifications on the car. Very common ST upgrade with good choice of proven kit which fits without major work being needed.

Not sure of prices these days but if I had to replace mine now the Airtec would be my first choice.
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Yep agreed, DSCi is much better than Performance although you will get a lot of traction issues in this weather. Intercooler is a must when it starts to get warmer again. I'm running DSCi, Airtech Gen3 and a group A induction (for the noise), was going to get a downpipe, catback etc but it's fast enough as it is to be honest.
 
Yeah cheers, the cat back is mainly for looks and a little more noise tbh. Might try the DSCi map next though I'm a little worried that my clutch may start slipping. I do have some cash available for an RS one should it get too bad though.
What about AFR's when running these dreamscience maps? Is there a possibility that it could ever run too lean? I'm tempted to chuck it on the local dyno. to check this all out once I've settled on a preferred map.
 
UltimateBadger said:
Yeah cheers, the cat back is mainly for looks and a little more noise tbh. Might try the DSCi map next though I'm a little worried that my clutch may start slipping. I do have some cash available for an RS one should it get too bad though.
What about AFR's when running these dreamscience maps? Is there a possibility that it could ever run too lean? I'm tempted to chuck it on the local dyno. to check this all out once I've settled on a preferred map.
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The ST sounds sweet with a nice cat-back fitted, but without causing annoyance for the general public as well.

DSCi isn't so bad with standard set-up, clutch wise but old memory coming back now seems to think if you've got uprated intercooler or downpipe then the boost levels can get too high and that's what the clutch doesn't like. Even then when I finally went for the RS clutch plus DMF etc last year, which seemed the ideal time for an LSD too ;)

With AFR's I don't think you've got anything to worry about - with all of the most common maps I'm aware of, DS, BF, MT & Collins I've never heard of any problems in this area. In theory as the ECU takes feedback from 2 lambda sensors it's adjusting fuelling etc to achieve AFR targets, and unless something was specifically changed in the map this wouldn't be an issue. Can remember my last ST on a DS dyno day but running BF map that their probe in tailpipe said AFR was on low side, but Superchips's response was that by taking reading from tailpipe this causes an inherent delay in the measurement hence it'snot very accurate way to do it......
 
UltimateBadger said:
Yeah cheers, the cat back is mainly for looks and a little more noise tbh. Might try the DSCi map next though I'm a little worried that my clutch may start slipping. I do have some cash available for an RS one should it get too bad though.
What about AFR's when running these dreamscience maps? Is there a possibility that it could ever run too lean? I'm tempted to chuck it on the local dyno. to check this all out once I've settled on a preferred map.
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Just FYI I ran Race+ on my K&N filter but otherwise standard ST2.. no signs of any negative effects on the clutch, fuel usage etc and it was the only map where I felt a noticeable difference, especially in the thing I mist most about mine.. its propensity to bark when you step off the gas :(
 
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