How many Focus ST owners on here

TicTac · 2 Dec 2015 at 11:15

ubern00b said:
No problem

All depends on a garages experience with certain models of car I would expect and their confidence of being able to do a job. I would rather a garage say to me "I'm not confident of carrying out this work" instead of trying and bodging it completely.

Where are you based? For any of the ST tuner companies I expect this sort of thing to be a breeze.

I am down in the South East. Live in Haywards Heath but work in Brighton.
I did look around at trying to find a decent Independent Ford garage but its always nice to get recommendations from people as its a bit of a minefield finding a decent garage. I know the car is 10 years old now but its not had a hard life and until I moved here I only used it at the weekends so its only just ticked over into 36000 miles!

ubern00b · 2 Dec 2015 at 11:25

Devil Developments are the closest I can think of to you. Worth giving them a ring and asking, at least.

rossk26 · 2 Dec 2015 at 11:30

ubern00b said:
Was that your post on FocusSTOC that I stole the PDF from?

Probably, I made a thread on there asking how to fix the issue. I remember being sent that PDF and then thinking, nah, I'll get someone to do that for me!

rossk26 · 2 Dec 2015 at 11:32

On a separate note, I'm starting to pull my finger out and sort the ST out ready for sale

Had the alloys refurbed about 2 months ago, gave it a clean, and just couldn't bring myself to do anything more. I just want to keep her!!!

Today I've removed the private plate off the car, so need to do a final full clean, and then get some photos of her, ready to put online.

I don't want her to go. It's been just over 5 years now we've been together

Tute · 2 Dec 2015 at 12:40

What you replacing it with? An RS?

rallyfan1986 · 2 Dec 2015 at 14:01

TicTac said:
So quick! Thank you very much ubern00b!

That is perfect and looks easy to follow but it seems like its too much for my limited toolkit

Its good to know exactly whats involved though and may be able to explain why the local garage did not come back to me! Looking at that file it doesn't look like its a very long job to a garage with the correct tools etc.

I've just changed my gearbox top mount, which is almost the same procedure as the reverse switch, all with a £30 socket set and a jack to support the gearbox.

The hardest part was taking the battery box out

Dav4 · 2 Dec 2015 at 19:41

tl45 said:
260bhp will be a noticeable improvement over a stock ST, at this time of year you'll find it makes the ESP light work a tad harder too
Just from my experience I'd say stage 1 map first, then intercooler & downpipe in conjunction with uprated map. All depends how far you want to go and how deep your pockets are. Getting carried away is an obvious risk too

If i was to just get the stage 1 map for the time being will i not need the intercooler or downpipe just yet? having just had the rear brakes and wheel bearings done once i get my cambelt/waterpump and new tyres all round "as the ride is terrible" i would have spent 1k on it already and i have only had it a few months lol

Jester* said:
If you aren't going to go any further than about 300 BHP then the ST Fabrications Intercooler has been getting rave reviews on focusstoc.com and that can be bought for circa £190. That is the route I will most likely be going down!

do you have any links? as most intercoolers i come across are £250+.

Does anyone else turn the ESP off as it interferes too much? i had mine back on for a while and i tried to floor it in 2nd and the whole car just locked up and jerked me forward as came in to affect. Feels like it holds the car back from being driven hard. I find it far better with it off.

ubern00b · 2 Dec 2015 at 21:25

Speak to Andy at A&K Motorsport for the ST Fabs intercooler. £190 delivered but that is for FocusSTOC members, not sure what the normal price is.

http://aandkmotorsport.com/

tl45 · 2 Dec 2015 at 21:42

Dav4 said:
If i was to just get the stage 1 map for the time being will i not need the intercooler or downpipe just yet?

Does anyone else turn the ESP off as it interferes too much? i had mine back on for a while and i tried to floor it in 2nd and the whole car just locked up and jerked me forward as came in to affect. Feels like it holds the car back from being driven hard. I find it far better with it off.

You'll be fine with a stage 1 map on it's own so no need to hammer the bank balance with other goodies. Yet

ubern00b said:
Speak to Andy at A&K Motorsport http://aandkmotorsport.com/

Sounds a bit 'fishy' to me

Liquidfox · 2 Dec 2015 at 23:04

Dav4 said:
Does anyone else turn the ESP off as it interferes too much?

No need, I don't have it

Stormster · 3 Dec 2015 at 00:16

Andy @ A&K will sort you out Dav4 he is a sound chap indeed.

I think I'm near 3k spent on mine since I bought it in March, only done about 8000 miles. Pound per mile aint looking so fruity

I'm going to test drive the possible replacement this week, but the Focus is a nice drive so I'm not sure if the more agressive power delivery will sway it alone along with (to me) nicer looks. But I won't mention what I am looking at yet

rossk26 · 3 Dec 2015 at 09:08

Tute said:
What you replacing it with? An RS?

If I can get one for £3k

Jester* · 3 Dec 2015 at 10:53

Dav4 said:
do you have any links? as most intercoolers i come across are £250+.

Does anyone else turn the ESP off as it interferes too much? i had mine back on for a while and i tried to floor it in 2nd and the whole car just locked up and jerked me forward as came in to affect. Feels like it holds the car back from being driven hard. I find it far better with it off.

If you are a member of FocusSTOC you can just check out the Group Buys section and its in there pal.

Personally I don't have the ESP turned off. Never had any issues with it retarding the car. Although when I first bought it I had to get the ABS Module done so I even had ESP again haha.

tl45 · 3 Dec 2015 at 23:36

Jester* said:
Personally I don't have the ESP turned off. Never had any issues with it retarding the car. Although when I first bought it I had to get the ABS Module done so I even had ESP again haha.

I'd like the option of turning the TC off but keeping ESP active, though I believe that even when turned off the ESP still works to a certain extent. Do find it interferes at times but that's down to having LSD fitted which obviously the standard ESP settings don't account for.

Only other option there is to fit the RS ABS modulator but that also needs the RS MAF sensor/induction set-up and possibly engine calibration also, it's not a big enough grumble to go that far to fix.

Jester* · 4 Dec 2015 at 06:55

^^ Well that's an exception to the rule. Your tinkering is the cause

tl45 · 4 Dec 2015 at 17:33

Couldn't help it, when the clutch was being done the old diff just fell out into pieces on the floor. Fortunately I happened to have a new one in a box with me, just for emergencies

Dav4 · 4 Dec 2015 at 18:08

Just had my Cambelt, Waterpump and Aux belt done for £360. It's surprising how much smoother the engine feels now when ticking over and accelerating. It used to sound quite rough before.

Phil W · 4 Dec 2015 at 20:07

Fitted a decat to a de-res standard system last week, took it off this week.

Resonates too much in the cabin. Made a lovely noise on WOT though. Has made me want to upgrade to a nice stainless system next year.

tl45 · 4 Dec 2015 at 21:30

Ran decat and magnex downpipe on my first ST for quite a while and it was a good combo plus sounded pretty decent, all went a bit pear-shaped when I fitted a cat-back and I ended up putting the standard cat back on as the booming was that annoying

If you plan on adding a cat-back to a set-up with decat, add some cash to the budget for a sports cat -that's the route I went down after learning the hard way. MOT friendly too

Stormster · 5 Dec 2015 at 00:17

I may have a 200 cell sports cat for sale Phil if I sell the Focus "as is".