Hi!

I recently got me a set of the focus rs mk1 wheels. Those come in 18" if I'm not wrong.

I fit tested them without tires on my sierra, and the inside of the wheel clear the suspension show by an inch; this with the car on a jackstand. The car is a 92' Ford sierra GT 2.0i DOHC.

Thing is that I don't think the wheels are gonna fit with the stock suspension and steering setup. I thought that maybe I could get some cleareance with spacers, but I want to upgrade the suspension in the future anyways. And there is where I could use some help.

I've seen people mounting this wheels on a saphire cosworth, so I'd like to know if those come with a different suspension or how do they fit them in there at all. I also thought of replacing the whole sway bar, suspension and steering arms to get something longer, but i dont think this is quite possible without machining them from scratch.

By the way, thanks in advance for any help I receive; this is my first post here and I hope you guys can help me out.

 

im sure there et40 or 47 so should go on fine with 215/30/18 tyres

 

The suspension on a Cosworth is indeed different than a regular Sierra. On a normal Sierra the wheel is closer to the strut. The original Cosworth wheels also don’t fit without a small spacer on a normal Sierra. But I have no idea if the Focus RS wheels will fit.

 

Those are actually ET 49 , so I'm not really sure if the wheel is gonna fit without any spacer or suspension system adjustments, therefore my question.

Anyways this reply made me look up what the ET means so I did learn something new!

Thanks for your help!

 

This is the data I was looking for. I think I was correct when thinking about swapping the suspension. Taking what you said here and also the ET tip from above, I've investigated further on wheel and tyre sizes and I do think I should be able to fit some 225/40 R18 with just some spacers to make them at least roll without scratching anything. I'm probably gonna have to get a proper suspension at some point too, as I think it's still gonna rub somewhere due to the tight space.

Thank you very much for the help!

 

I think glenn has a set on his sapphire.

 

225/40 18 won’t fit. Better try 215/35 18 or 225/35 18.

 

search up a user called glenn, he's got a set on his saph

i also had a set on my hatch and didn't have any major issues with the trial fitment whereas he has got them on his "daily" driver

 

If you talk about cosworth.glenn I wrote him on instagram weeks ago and he didnt reply :/

I bet the man has all my answers

 

Yeah might aswel try that size, the wheels are probably gonna be swapped every year for MOT anyways so as long as it fits I wont complain.

 

Looks like im gonna have to annoy the man a little more for some information hahaha.

Hope he's nice enough to get back at me whenever he can

 

Glenn is here on the forum. But he ownes a 4x4 Cosworth, so it’s not comparable to your standard Sierra anyway.

 

yeah im aware of that. However, any info I cant get on how different are the 4x4 cossie suspension shocks and or any tips to get the needed clearance. As far as I'm concerned all sierra sapphire versions share the same chasis, so I think I can fit those on my regular RWD sierra.

Anyways thanks a lot for the help, any bit is much appreciated!

 

there was a lot of tolerance issues with the sierra as one set of wheels would fit one car but foul another
the suspension struts on the 4x are thicker too

 

Hi there. I've got 215/35/18 tyres on my focus rs wheels. Ive got 5mm spacers on the rear too cause the wheels sit too far in the arches.

Did I not reply to you on Instagram??

 

If you fitted a set of coil overs on the car that should give you better clearance (inner wheels to suspension struts) if I recall correctly Sapphire Cosworth standard front struts have quite a large spring cup on them and the springs circumference is quite large so I would imagine a non Cosworth sapphire would be similar

coil overs do away with the spring cups on the fronts and are generally smaller in diameter both springs and shocks to standard suspension, a set may just solve your problem

 

That is exactly the case my man, the lower suspension cup is so wide that the inner side of the wheel would rub. I am currently looking for a set of coilovers but I am also having a bit of a struggle to find some good reliable set. I've been told that GAZ coilovers are the thing for this kinda cars, but on theri official site I've only found the cosworth kit; and I dont trust it fitting in my car. At least not enough to pay that amount of money and then have it be good for nothing hehe.

If anyone could enlighten me with this subject I would be really thankfull too!

Thanks to everyone who is contributing in this post, you guys are the best!

 

Hi Glenn!

Well yeah, I assumed you might have overlooked it; but yes I did write to you a while ago on IG, since I actually have been following you for quite the time and I took the inspiration for this set of wheel directly from you. There arent many 4 lug cool wheels no more, and seems like everyone goes for the same 3 or 4 models; but when I saw your cossie with that set I instantly fell in love with the looks of it!!

My unit is a DOHC sapphire, wich has a different sizing in matter of suspension and base wheel size; but I'm pretty sure it can be done.
I go by @serrucho_asturiano on IG, I 'm gonna message you again in case it got lost last time and lets see if we can link up!

Thanks again to everybody taking their time to stop by and contribute with any knoledge. I have learnt a lot just from this single post!!

 

Yeah, I've found out that pretty much the chassis was the only thing that those models shared in common haha. I'm having a hard time finding any coilovers at all for my rwd sapp.
I'd never regret getting this car since its my baby, but finding parts for a 30 yr old foreign car ain't easy or cheap at all

Thank you for stopping by!

 

Coilovers you will be able to buy but there wont be cheap you can fit mk1 focus front coilovers with adaptors someome makes a shim for hub there will work.. as for rear weather its a sierra base or cosworth there all same set up spring and shocker wise so all will fit inc 18" alloys..

 

I think Gaz makes their coilovers on order anyway. So they can probably make a set for a standard Sierra as well. The fronts of 2wd Cosworth are about an inch shorter than standard 2wd shocks, but other than that the fitment is the same. At the rear the bottom mount is different on the Cosworth vs. a standard Sierra. The Cosworth uses an M12 bolt and a narrower mount than the standard Sierra which has an M10 bolt. But the lower mount on a standard Sierra is less strong than the mount on the Cosworth arm. I wouldn't know if I would trust the standard mount enough for using coilovers.

 

Well I guess I'm gonna email GAZ about my case then and hope for them to come up with something I can use. I'm aware it's not gonna be cheap, but since this will be the long-term solution I don't mind spending on reliability.

Inj the near future I might just change the wheel studs for longer ones and run a huge spacer. Maybe rolling the fenders a bit too if it still rubs. This is all I can afford right now so it's gonna have to do for now
I gotta admit I didn't think this fitment was gonna be so complex but I'm actually enjoying the solving proccess.

Thanks again for adding to the post!

 

To be fair I'm kinda confused now after reading this. What would be the difference between the stock shocks and coilovers in terms of reliability? As long as they fit, they should perform at least the same or better than the 30 year old original ones, don't they? Or are coilovers any more fragile?

The car doesn't make that much power so I don't think it would break. But I'm really just starting to dig deep into this car and Fords in general so any advice I can use.

Thank you so much!

 

When you are using a coilover on the rear the full weight of the car is on the shock mount. With the normal suspension the spring is in a different location, so the weight of the car does not need to be supported by the shock mount. Whether it fails has not much to do with how much power the car makes. It is about the weight and the impact the coilover, and thus the mount, will experience. If you're driving on a flat road it will be fine, but driving fast over big bumps can give a big impact.

On the rear you can make the Cosworth coilovers fit, just drill the hole in the arm from 10 to 12 mm and fit some washers to fill the gap. But it would probably be wise to strengthen the bottom mount on the suspension arm first.

On the front the 2wd Cosworth coilovers might work OK, if the height adjustment is long enough to compensate for the shorter struts. You could always fit Cosworth knuckles to the front which would solve the issue and give better handling as well.

 

All right I think it makes sense to me now, thanks for elaborating

I think you have a point there with the 10 to 12mm hole fix, although I'm a bit concerned with the fact of drilling on my car. I'm gonna look a bit more into this since it looks like a legit solution.

Also for the front side, I've played with the idea of installing the rollbar and knucles from a cossie as you say; so I might end up going for that one.

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do all this with the tightest budget without compromising reliability, so it will take time.

Thanks a lot for the help, it means a lot!

 

If you after an easy option and cheaper way around why not fit a differnt set of alloys ? like old school tsw or momo arrows. etc etc

 

For the front you will probably not need the arb. If you currently have a 28 mm thick one it will be the same as the Cosworth one. Depending on what knuckles you use (3dr or Sapph Cosworth) you will also need the TCAs. I would recommend the 3dr knuckles as they give much better steering, but they are more expensive and more difficult to find. The 3dr knuckles use the tapered tca with castle nut, the Sapph knuckles have a pinch bolt tca type.

For the rear you could upgrade to a Cosworth rear axle as well, or you could mix and match some parts from the Scorpio/Granada to get something comparable but probably a lot cheaper. In the end it depends what you want. If you just want to fit some nice wheels or also have beter handling. Personally I really like it if the car handles nicely, which I prefer over how it looks. I would also never go really low on the suspension, as it really messes up the handling.

 

Damn I feel like I'm really learning in here hehe. I might end up going for the cossie front knuckles since it's the only chance I'm gonna have to find anything that serves me. Cossworth parts are not cheap but in my country they are the only ones that you can find. It is really hard to find even used parts, but I'll try to find what you say since it looks like a great idea.

To be fair I also want the car to handle decently, since I really enjoy driving it; but for the moment I'm more concerned about fitting the wheels. Once I have figured out the propper way to install them then I'll be able to see what else I can upgrade.

I'll try to find some totalled cossworth with no damage on the back end to try and snatch me a rear axle for cheap. Would it fit without having to drill/weld ?

Once again thank you so much for taking the time to type here, it means a lot to me!

 

Yes. the Cosworth rear axle is a direct fit. No welding or drilling or whatever needed.