Type R and VTEC owners

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Weather was descent enough to put em on.
They are 450g each lighter than standard mirror. So thats 900g save plus better aerodynamic
They bolt to car very firm and fit is good enough.
Electrics work but not like i need it anyway lol.
Look well matter of perspective always liked those more than standard ones

Bad part is i need to cut spacers for glass out as they are for LHD and without that u see well Ground :D But thats ez job :)

All in all i would not buy em myself but as a gift they are ok :)
 
Just manhandled my osr disc guard off as it had corroded at the fixings and started to rub on the disc.

Lots of really rather rusty bits given my car is only 6 years old.
 
I've not decided what to do with it yet - have no real desire to remove the stub axle if I don't have to, but then again I've got a new piston and seals for the same calipers anyway
 
Hybrid Tuning Jokes

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GGWP to TDI for managing to convince someone to spend 6k on 40 odd bhp and be absolutely delighted with the results. absolutely insane.
 
That really is stupidly wasted money.

Ok, so tell me an FN2 isn't the most minimal hassle, most reliable hot hatch for 7k... I need the practicality of a hot hatch but due to imminent house purchasing I am sort of wary of driving my Focus as it should be driven for fear of the clutch/flywheel going (700 quid), liners cracking (££££££££ or £700 for the "block mod" which would involve opening up a seemingly sound engine), driveshafts going (£300 a pop easy)...

I am wondering if an FN2 will be mostly minimal hassle and shouldn't throw big bills, due to no turbo and no dual mass flywheel. My EP3 was one of two cars I have owned which felt like it would never blow up after a good bit of abuse.

Good, bad, indifferent? I was thinking an EP3 again but... no point going back to what you had years ago.

I started a check list a bit ago when I was considering one, but what are the more expensive common issues with FN2's?
 
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Stormster said:
That really is stupidly wasted money.

Ok, so tell me an FN2 isn't the most minimal hassle, most reliable hot hatch for 7k... I need the practicality of a hot hatch but due to imminent house purchasing I am sort of wary of driving my Focus as it should be driven for fear of the clutch/flywheel going (700 quid), liners cracking (££££££££ or £700 for the "block mod" which would involve opening up a seemingly sound engine), driveshafts going (£300 a pop easy)...

I am wondering if an FN2 will be mostly minimal hassle and shouldn't throw big bills, due to no turbo and no dual mass flywheel. It was one of two cars I have owned which felt like it would never blow up after a good bit of abuse.

Good, bad, indifferent? I was thinking an EP3 again but... no point going back to what you had years ago.

I started a check list a bit ago when I was considering one, but what are the more expensive common issues with FN2's?
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You know how many EP3's and FN2's I've gone through. Not one FN2 has ever gone wrong on me. Let me know if you need any help either way :)
 
Ultimately it'll be your Donald duck tbh.

Suspension gubbins are more expensive than on European hatches, you want to make sure the roof rust has been sorted and ideally you want a car that has had its 75k/5 year service or be ready for the £400 bill. Don't buy a black/dark one unless it's recently had paint or you really just don't care about bodywork

Be absolutely certain your OK with the in bricks ride quality and buy a car that's wearing decent rubber. I dread to think how crap mine would be for wet traction on El cheapo tyres - and that's a well set up car

They almost all whine from one of the aux tensioners, never have figured out which one it is - nothing much to worry about.

Rockers peel too, just a cosmetic thing and easy enough to sort
 
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Don't even get me started on paint, I've just shelled out for a respray on mine and it's going back in for attempt number 3 soon lol.

I would go red or silver at this budget, no dark colours. Suspension wise I spunked 1k @ the EP3 to lower it and that was using standard shocks :o So I can understand some parts are expensive. But I'm more concerned about common failures and costs involved. I can't say I've heard any which put me off. Clutches are around £140 etc, cost of brakes and so on aint so bad.

Suspension wise I would probably add 15mm eibach springs to combat the super harsh ride and make it merely quite harsh instead :) I'm used to stiff motors, everything I've had since day one has been lowered.

Nice one for the pointers though chaps :) I will have a good read of that guide too also, thank you. Ref 5 year service/75k I had all that done with my EP3 and I still use the local specialists to this day after how great they've been for me since I took my EP3 to them. So I can keep costs reasonable and get quality work, believe me I am fussy!

I would just love confidence in a car to know it can't chuck a massive bill (in theory) any time soon and will actually let me have fun with it without fear of breaking something in the process... this boosted stuff I've had of late has been quite fast but always feels like you shouldn't push it too hard.
 
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Stormster said:
Don't even get me started on paint, I've just shelled out for a respray on mine and it's going back in for attempt number 3 soon lol.

I would go red or silver at this budget, no dark colours. Suspension wise I spunked 1k @ the EP3 to lower it and that was using standard shocks :o So I can understand some parts are expensive. But I'm more concerned about common failures and costs involved. I can't say I've heard any which put me off. Clutches are around £140 etc, cost of brakes and so on aint so bad.

Suspension wise I would probably add 15mm eibach springs to combat the super harsh ride and make it merely quite harsh instead :) I'm used to stiff motors, everything I've had since day one has been lowered.

Nice one for the pointers though chaps :) I will have a good read of that guide too also, thank you.
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Go for 30mm Eibach's instead if you dont have a lot of speed bumps near you. Drop on 15mm is barely noticeable :p
 
They make little difference to the ride tbh, definitely a tiny bit better but not worth doing unless the suspension needs refreshed anyway imo. Better off just spending the money on a proper geo

The larger drop needs spacers to stop it looking stupid. Personally I find the car plenty low enough on the -15's

A clutch will still be £500 changed, but its not like you don't have that risk on any car.

It's rust that you really want to be watching for, the joins on the inside of my drivers door are starting to show a bit of oxidation - if Honda don't sort it I will, but it still shouldn't be happening on a car so new.
 
Cheers, worth noting. The local place I use has invested 10k in alignment kit now and they did an awesome job on my EP3's fast road set up with their old kit. I think using them also a clutch change inc labour would be around £350, very reasonable. I just know that if it goes in the Focus then it makes sense to change the flywheel and upgrade to RS stuff as it's around the 285BHP/330LBFT region. Absolutely no change from £700. Fair old chunk of cash! Performance wise with an FN2, I will lose loads of midrange but if I can have more confidence in it's mechanicals and actually ring it's neck once in a while without any guilt it'll be worth it if overall potential maintenance costs are lower.

I just need to shrink the car contigency fund and turn it into something moreso aimed at my future plans yet still have something pokey enough and fun :)
 
I ring its neck all the time, you'd just hate it otherwise if you're used to any level of performance - mind you they're a bit more drivable mid range than an ep3
 
PS the FN2 buying guide was huge deja vu, I wrote the EP3 one on there lol :)

Rodenal, no major issues with yours then? How do you actually find the performance when you get it up and singing? I need to test drive one. People go on about the weight making them feel "slow" but you can only go so fast on the roads anyway...
 
Outside of having to spend money on suspension (shock as 6 year old 80k car needs shocks and springs) it's been fine.

I'll be honest I have zero love for it, but it is a perfectly competent car and does absolutely everything I ask of it

Performance is ok so long as you're not looking to do "motorway plus" speeds in it, it just can't compete with a big 6 or larger capacity turbo'd car here. It feels much of a muchness with my old 330 in terms of straight line up to close to 3 figures, but would absolutely leave it for dead in any sort of twisty track conditions. People say they feel slow, but the reality is unless you're kicking about with 50-60bhp+ of an advantage and similar weight you'll be going nowhere all that much quicker

I guess you just need to be ready to drive it hard to get the best out of it, but you'll know exactly what that's like from the ep3 anyway.

Oh, wet weather front end grip is shocking - I can only assume this is a result of how stiff the thig is, but it really needs a delicate right foot if you'd like to go anywhere quickly without looking like a 17 year old in a car park. A bit rubbish given its not exactly brimming with power

I find it hard to say to anyone that I'd definitely recommend one, but it's actually a good overall car and they're particularly good value around the 2008/2009 age mark at the moment too
 
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