right the Mondeo is now up for sale as I am replacing it with a £1500 runaround to dump off at the train station and park up when on site visits in Belfast so I have decided to get a fun car and my favorite is a 2003 mk1 focus RS. I have been offered on that I have known from new. the original owner was a friend and it was sold to another guy a couple of miles from my house but since he has owned it I rarely saw it so don't know if it was abused or pampered. I am looking for any advice as to what I have to look for or any known problems with them so I know what to look for. it has been modded a bit with a dump valve and a bit more boost but is standard apart from that. Also what is the interior like do the seat and leather hold up or do they get manky..

any help would be great

 

Seats can get a bit manky, as can the steering wheel. Not sure about mechanically.

 

Seats can look a bit shit when worn/ the carpet by rear passengers feet splits but the biggest problem is the steering wheels melt in the sun and look a big mess/ other than that they are good cars.

 

to be honest the interior going bad is a good thing i really dont like it so would bid him down and retrim it another colour but its good to know where to look like the carpet etc. as for the wheel can u still get replacements or can i fit another wheel from the focus range?

 

look at the thermostat housing, it will probably be leaking
chargecooler pumps go too ( when engine is running, take the cap off the top of the little bottle on the bulkhead, you should see a little jet of water shooting out from top of bottle)
wheel bearings.

 

i think u can get replacements from ford parts uk. Not terribly dear either if i remem rightly

 

cool cheers guys. what about rust?

 

oh yeah, if its done a few miles, see if its had the clutch done....
that'll set you back around £700-£800 if you aint fitting it yourself!

new steering wheel is around £140ish. think matt lewis does them too.

 

excessive torque steer is down to worn front bushes from what i've read on here so upgrading to poly is a good idea.

rust wise same as any other focus, check bottom of doors, undernieth where wing mirror attaches and bottom of boot window as water collects there. undernieth, the front and rear subframes rust, especially on the rear by the exhaust but it shold only be surface rust on an rs. my focus is 10 years old and its only surface rust!

other than that i think they are excelent track day cars

 

Check the front shocks. I bought a full poly kit and realised one shock was buggered.

I've just sold one mate. I'd agree with EVERYTHING said above.

Clutch = expensive
Turbo = expensive

Steering wheel can be replaced with a new like for like.

There's a coolcant pipe which rots behind passenger wheel arch somewhere.

The breather pipe behind the block with white valve in it always splits. Feel in at lhs of block at back, you'll see it.

You say it has more boost? You can usualyl only do that with a remap like dreamscience. If it's not mapped and has boost upped i'd walk away! Tick tock!

Bottoms of my doors were beginning to go but apparently they hold water between door and bodykit. Wash it then open the door and see!

Mine was on 70k and underside was v good.



These are BRILLIANT cars. Very under rated.

Good luck.

 

cheers for the advice/help will keep u posted

 

Get the build number if you can and we can maybe check the history. There's a database of cars held by a guy on the RS BB.

 

if its a left hooker
pipe is on drivers side chop,just replaced mine couple of weeks back

 

whatever