Freeked

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...=1006051703101

Well at least what have been told, is that the ABS and/or ESP, wouldn't work properly if the PCM isn't updated with the correct tyre size...if it's bs or not, dunno, but that i felt a change, that i did.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Cool progress.I want a ST170 air box for the wifes car.

Ben-B

Had some major exams recently so been spending all my time revising for them, so not much progress.

Have been stocking up on a few things lately though in preparation for big progress.



The friday afternoon after my exams I serviced the car, new fully esther-synthetic race-spec oil, oil filter & fuel filter, iridium spark plugs, magnecor ignition leads. And a pollen filter.

And then all weekend it rained. And rained. And rained.

And on sunday morning I packed my car up to go back, and there was a swimming pool in the passenger footwell. Yep, the damn pollen filter seal.

So hired an industrial dehumidifier and had that running in the car 18 hours a day, for 7 days. Extracted about 30 litres of water, most of it from the air, but it dried out most of the carpet and the spongey sound deadening under the carpet.

Temporarily bodge-jobbed the seal by using some tile silicon sealant until new pollen filter seals arrived.



Then this weekend I've got on with some preparation for the next update. Fitted an ST170 handbrake, not much but a little touch, silver button matches the gear stick.




Stripped the ST170 rear disc setup off the beam I had in the garage... obtained some replacement refurbed calipers and have wire-brushed the carriers etc ready for painting.






Replacement vs old caliper




Also got hold of a handbrake cable



And, something for the front too...








Oh and the sports cat is giving the lambda sensor some funny readings, so the EML keeps coming on with P0420 - "catalyst system efficiency below threshold bank 1". So got a lambda sensor spacer to take it out of the flow so much, and one of these, for less than the price Ford wanted to clear the code, and not much more than my local garage wanted:



Cleared the code and checked all other parameters and everything is a-ok.

borinous

Great work their mate so far.
EML could be a dead or dying Lambda? I have this problem on my ST170 currently need to replace the post CAT lambda

Ben-B

It's possible. Seems too much of a coincidence that it started happening so soon after fitting the sports cat though.

borinous

This is true but from what i have read on here is that the heat cause the post CAT sensor to start playing up as it gets cooked.
If since you have your exhaust fitted you have engaged in maybe more sprited driving than before (exhuast does sound good btw) its got hotter and cooked the sensor and pushed it over the edge.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

cool progress.What are the front calipers off.

Ben-B

Ah so the direct cause is the fryed lambda sensor, the root cause of that being the sports cat. That does makes sense. I've got the lambda spacer so I'll fit that and wipe the code again and see how it does after that, and look at replacing the lambda eventually if needs be.

Thanks. Off a Mk2 ST. Needed to re-drill the front discs from 5x108 to 4x108 which was actually a lot easier than I thought it'd be, since I already had hubcentric 4x108 spacers, so just put them on top of the disc, lined up one of the original holes, and marked where to drill the other three.

Only cost me Ł9.68 for a 13mm HSS drill bit, and each disc took less than 5 minutes.

borinous

Yeah along those lines, think the standard CAT cooks it as well just maybe not as fast. Ive just ordered myself a new NGK front lambda so ill let you know if it fixes the EML. If it doesnt ill de-cat with a cheater

Do the ST calipers directly bolt to the ST front hubs? no mod to fit. Just the re-drill of the discs.
Silly question but wouldnt adding more holes to a brake disc weaken them?

Ben-B

Yeah the ST(225) carrier is the same fit as the ST170, so they bolt directly on.

I've read they need 5mm spacers in order to fit under the wheel, but I've got 12mm spacers and longer studs anyway.


Nah will barely make a difference, the discs fit onto the hub by means of the centre bore, the stud holes merely keep it in place. You can have standard discs with 10 holes in them, as long as they're drilled properly and accurately, should be absolutely fine.

borinous

Ok nice one thats good to know if i ever fancy an upgrade to the stoppers.

Have to got any pics of yours showing before and after you fitted the spacers. If/when i lower my ST i was going to only space the rears out to meet the arches better but im thinking i may have to do both so it doesnt look odd

Ben-B

I'll get some pics.

I've got standard spacing front & rear at the moment.

Got 20mm "Puma handling upgrade" axle spacers to go on the rear, and these 12mm wheel spacers to go on the front, so I'll get pics of both after, and you can see the difference they make to the width.

Ben-B

So some of my progress has been out of order, but I'm gonna try get it back chronologically now.
Apologies that some pictures have been recycled.


MID FEBRUARY

In mid-Feb after my exams, I serviced the car. Pollen filter seal was knackered, so I had to bodge job it with some tile silicon, but that didn't work and it rained heavily for the next few days and the passenger footwell flooded. Whilst I was away from home. So had to soak up as much as possible with a towel, and then drove the next few hours with the heater on full directed at the footwell, but was still soaking wet. Decided to hire a dehumidifier for a week, and it extracted about 30 litres of water, most of that from the air, but as the air dries out, the water will evaporate from the carpet back into the air.




During that week I also obtained a new scuttle panel, filter and seal, and went and fitted that.






Also ordered some heavy duty faux leather to do the door cards in. Bought a Ł0.99 sample off eBay (*other auction sites are available) to check the quality and look and feel of it, and when I was happy, ordered a massive 2m x 3m for Ł9.99 including P&P. Got plenty of it that I can make mistakes with and not worry about running out of material.




Probably won't be fitting it until the stuff (including exterior door handles) comes back from the bodyshop... as I'll have to take the doorcards off to fit them, so will save myself a job as I'm pretty busy at the moment. Whilst I'm doing it, I'm thinking of taking the silver strips off the door cards and getting them painted in the same BMW Titan Silver as the centre console, the silver that matches the gearstick, interior door handles and handbrake.



LATE FEBRUARY

Decided the rubber splitter and plastics on the front end were looking tired, so decided to give them a going over with some satin black spray. After a few layers, decided the fog light plastics were looking good, but the lower grille wasn't quite "bright" enough, so gave it a couple coats of clear lacquer to give it a bit more depth, seemed to work a treat.

I didn't do the normal upper grille, as that's at the bodyshop getting colour-coded. I'll mask it up and give it the black satin treatment when it's back, if it needs it. (Current upper grille is just a temporary one). Also didn't do the splitter (yet) as I'm considering replacing it with a Cupra R splitter instead, so didn't want to waste my time or paint.

Before





Sprayed






Fitted, along with new front-end numberplate. Legal font, slightly smaller. Looks much better imo.





Decided to pull my finger out and get the (next) brake upgrade ready for fitting, so as in the previous update, swapped the rear calipers for refurbed items. I also re-drilled the new brake discs, which are 5x108 to 4x108.


Managed to get a complete front brake kit from a Mk2 Focus ST. Ł120 off eBay. Thought if they fit, great, if not, its not a huge loss and I could maybe even sell them on for more.

The calipers are massive. Here's them in comparison to a few items, to give an idea of scale:


Tax disc letter




Legal sized numberplate (the one that used to be on the car)




5 litre oil bottle





Fits inside the ST170 wheel with a bit of room to spare, will look beast behind the wheels once fitted.





Anyway, back to the progress. I was looking for a company to drill them for me, but then I thought why spend the money, may as well do it myself. So I used the hubcentric 4x108 wheel spacers I have, put them onto the disc back-to-front, so they fitted inside the disc, then lined one of the holes from the spacer up with one from the disc, and marked on the disc where the remaining three holes on the spacer were, and drilled a small pilot indent in one hole. Then removed the spacer, drilled one hole in the disc, put the spacer back on, put some wheel studs through the two holes, checked they all still lined up, and carried on with the rest. Took 5 minutes per disc and they fitted onto the hub on the car first time, and don't even move a millimetre once they're on, perfect fit.


Size difference between old and new discs






EARLY MARCH

Decided to paint the front and rear calipers/carriers to make them a) look better and b) protect from rust. If it was a black car, I'd probably have gone with blue calipers. If it was a grey car, I'd probably have gone red, but I wasn't sure red or blue would suit the Ink Blue colour of the car, so instead, went for a stealthy look and chose smooth Black.


Painted the rear ones last week, forgot to take a picture. Doing the front ones at the moment, one more coat of paint to go then they'll be done.

Before & After the first coat.

Kev_owl

@Ben-B I am hooked on your work. I wish I had half as much knowledge, time and patience that you have. I would love to "copy" everything you have done but that would be naff (do people still say that?). One particualar mod that did catch my eye is the arm rest. How did you do that? Ghia seat, Ford Genuine part or aftermarket piece? BTW - @Glenn_ I love your ideas on the variable wiper and footwell lights. Is there an "easy mods for numpties, newbies, clean hand people" group? May be you should get one going.Thanks guys.

Kev_owl

and forgot to say. I am was born and bread in Sheffield and now in exile in the Midlands so if you want to stop off for a brew on the way down or back I would be happy to obloblige. TTFN.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Cool progress matey.

Ben-B

Thanks

The knowledge I have is not all that extensive and definitely not beyond the reach of the majority who are interested in cars. Time, tools and fear of f-ing it up are the limiting factors for most people.

Providing you've got some tools, the 2 most valuable things for learning are a Haynes manual and a friend with knowledge. If you can't get a friend who knows their stuff, then forums and youtube videos are the next best thing.

Practice makes perfect though. The first time I serviced a car it took all day to do it - I'd never done it before, kept having to check what to do and in what order etc. Now I can service a car from front to back in only a couple of hours, because I know what to do, where everything is, what size sockets I need etc.

Some people don't have the tools, some don't have the time, others don't want to get their hands dirty, which is fair enough. And some people just can't be bothered. And that's fine too. But servicing your own car is definitely not a technically challenging task for most people, if they wanted to learn.

Ben-B

Sorry Kev forgot to say, the arm rest is an Armster one.

They are a standard arm rest, and a car-specific mounting bracket. So the same armrest for every car, but a different bracket to fit it.

New they're usually between Ł75 and Ł100 depending on where you get them from and what car they're for. Almost certainly find one on ebay, just make sure you get the right one for your car and the right year as well... Mk1 focus armrest won't fit a Mk1.5 (facelift) and vice-versa.

Fitting it is simple, just a few screws to hold in place.

-neil-

Interesting build! I'm from Sheffield too.
Some interesting mods!

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Any more up dates matey.

Ben-B

Thanks. Back in Sheffield briefly in May, before I go to NZ for 9 months.

Nothing much, my bike has been in the shop the last few weeks having a major engine overhaul & service, MOT and some tuning work, so thats taking up a fair whack of money, and I can't afford to work on the car whilst the bike's away, just incase something goes tits up.

Bike should be back before this weekend though, pushing out more power than the car (and 35% more power than it was before tuning work), at about 1/8th the weight of the car.

Car will then be going in on Monday for the brake upgrades, and also a lambda sensor spacer to stop the EML coming on due to the cat.


On another note, hit a pothole accelerating off a roundabout the other day and as I hit it heard an EXTREMELY loud bang... sounded like the tyre exploding or something, but no visible damage to tyres or wheels, no scrapes or dents to the underside of the car, so definitely wasn't the subframe or sump or anything.

Can only think that it was the car causing damage to the pothole, because apart from the noise it made, and a little bump as I went over it, you'd never know I'd hit it.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

I just hope you havent bent a rim.

Ben-B

Me too... there's no slow punctures. Well there's one on the rear O/S tyre, but a) thats been there for months, only loses about 1psi a day so just keep topping up. and b) that tyres nearly worn out though and got brand new rubber in my garage to stick on. and c) they're my winter wheels anyway.

Got a set of better condition ST170 wheels with summer tyres to go on when it starts stops behaving like winter.

Think it might have knocked the tracking out though, so I'll get them to check when the brakes are done. Hopefully hasn't bent anything, only replaced the track rod end when I did the ST170 hubs/brakes, so it's only done about 4 thou miles since then.

Dan_Smith17

looking good mate, keep up the good work. im using your car as a little inspiration, as i want small subtle modifications. but the exhaust system is pretty sweet.

Ben-B

Thanks man, everything is on hold for a while until I get back to the UK. Out in New Zealand at the moment for 8 months... got myself a Scooby Legacy GTB twin turbo... insurance is not a legal requirement out here, but I still got it and only cost $200 (Ł100) TPFT for a year. It'd be well over Ł1000 back in the UK and the car itself would have been twice as much as it cost me too.

1.6 Focus will probably feel very slow once I'm back haha.

Dan_Smith17

Oh really, very nice well make sure when you get back, you get straight back under the bonnet ha.

Yeah I bet it packs a lot more of a punch than the 1.6 hah

pixellcraig

where did you order your exhaust from?

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Bahhh. I thought this old thread had been updated.

Ben-B

I got it through MotorSport World - motorsportworld.co.uk
A mate of mine used to be the sales manager, but he's now a project manager at an automotive parts manufacturing company.

I've been in New Zealand since May, now I'm back in UK but not in a position to be making any progress... I've had a couple of parts sprayed and will be fitting them when it's dry for more than a few hours.

Ben-B

But I will be going back to New Zealand again in a few months, so progress will once again stop. However I think it is mostly complete, and I could live with it how it is now.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

What you doing in North Zeland.

zippyka80

Nice work mate I have a 1.5 focus ghia 1.6 I'm working on I'm just getting back on road as someone nicked it and insurance wouldn't pay up or help so I been fixing it myself between working two kids under 2 and a wife have it 95 % together It took me ages to find loom but it works now there was 200 wires cut but in changing brakes tomoz to stardard ones then be ready for mot after screen is fixed then im on road again I'm in love with it as we been though a lot past few months it been fighting but I'm winning now

Ben-B

Training as an airline pilot. Going back again this summer after a few months out.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Wow very cool matey. Once you become a pilot you will stop fooking about with old fords and buy yourself a posh car lol.

Ben-B

Ha, maybe once I pay off my loans and debts and still have some disposable income after 1 or 2 skiing holidays a year, a new (road) bike and a new track bike, and a few other things.


I'm into my bikes, and for the next 10 years I'd rather have those as a toy than a car, so something practical will suit me fine... a reliable estate sized car.
Something like a 4 year old BMW 3 series touring will suit me perfectly.

Then maybe when I've got even more disposable income, something like a Lotus Exige track day car too.


We'll see haha, long way off all these things though

Smudge374

Good luck with that! Everyone thinks it's well paid and loads of jobs. Wrong! Too many rich kids have now flooded the market and second officers are only on around 20k starting wage, that's even if you can get a place to do your type rating. Military aviation is the way forward! And I get a 30mm cannon and hellfire! Enough said!

Ben-B

SDSR screwed me out of that one.

All I wanted to do was fly in the RAF or Navy.

So when I couldn't do that I had to decide whether I wanted to fly more than I wanted to be in the military. And flying won out. And it was definitely the right call.

Smudge374

Well done for keeping going though mate! I have a couple of friends in the civil aviation world, 100k later they are earning Ł12 an hour teaching PPL until they can get a proper job.

Ben-B

Well guys, it has been quite a while. It's been so long infact that 2 of the forums I was on have closed down haaa.
My apologies for the lack of updates. In the last 18 months - 2 years since I've updated the progress thread, I've been in New Zealand, then back in the UK but with a lot going on and without much spare money, so there hasn't been the same kind of progress as previously, but there has been some... I just never got round to updating the thread.



Out in New Zealand the majority of cars are Aussie wheels (Holden/Ford/etc) or Japanese, often JDM imports. They're pretty cheap, and 3rd party insurance isn't a legal requirement, which means a) you don't need it, and b) it's a lot cheaper than in the UK if you do want it... if it was too expensive people just wouldn't bother, whereas since here in the UK we have to have it that means the prices are driven up as we can't choose to buy it or not.

I started out with a 1993 Holden Commodore 3.8 V6, nice RWD cruiser, but not as fun as it may sound... it was pretty lazy, which was great for long trips around the North Island, could drive for 10 hours without so much as an ache, although it was not as great at drifting as I'd hoped, plus it drank as much water as petrol.










So then I started thinking about getting something else... Ideally a station wagon, so that I could take 4 people and skis/snowboards down to Mount Ruapehu, or 3-4 people and surfboards across to Raglan. I figured why not get a Scooby Legacy, because the non-turbo ones are in abundance, they're EVERYWHERE, and since insurance is so cheap, sod it.
So after a week of looking, I got a 1997 Subaru Legacy GTB. Japanese import JDM spec... 2.0 twin turbo... VERY quick off the line, chucks you back in the seat and then just as you start to recover it throws you back even more in the seat as the second turbo kicks in. Handled brilliantly too once I fixed a few things like the steering rack. Not bad for a barge. Surprisingly economical too when driven off boost. And it managed to fit 5 people, 3 snowboards, 2 pairs of skis, 5 overnight bags, all our snow wear, plus food and drink, with plenty of spare room. And we managed 5 people to Raglan too, but could only get 4 surfboards on the roof (although the 5th person didn't have their own anyway).











Then three days after my 280km round trip to pick it up, I was sat at some traffic lights round the corner from my apartment waiting to turn right when the truck infront of me decided he didn't want to turn right anymore and reversed back to get into the centre lane. Unfortunately he didn't look before he did that, if he had he'd have seen me. So he smacked right into the front of my new Scooby... towbar first...
3rd party insurance isn't a legal requirement in New Zealand, so some people don't have it. (You still have to pay for all damages though). Fortunately this guy did have insurance, as it turned out to be quite some hefty damage.
New bumper, new radiator, new air con radiator, new reinforcement bar, new bumper mounting brackets, new foglights x 2, new upper & lower grilles.
Took 10 weeks, but eventually his insurance agreed to the cost of repairs and I had it booked in and got it back good as new.








I still have the Scooby in a storage unit near Auckland for when I go back... probably gonna need a new battery and possibly new tyres as it's been sat for a long time now, but can't wait to drive it again.




Anyway, back to the Focus...

Firstly, the original steering wheel was getting quite old, tired and worn... so I decided to replace it. I wanted a black alcantara one with a blue "12-oclock" mark, but couldn't find one. Instead I found an RS wheel but re-trimmed in alcantara with the blue/black and the 12-oclock mark, so I went with that.






In the last year, it has worn a bit and got a bit grubby, so looking at replacing it again at some point, this time with a black leather one with the blue leather 12-oclock mark.




I got some spare door handles ages ago, along with a few other bits like door strips to get them colour coded. Finally got them sprayed up and took even longer to fit them, but did that back in December 2013.



Before


After




Also the week before Christmas somebody tried to make their way into the car by trying to pry the rear quarter window out... there was only minor scratches and damage to the bodywork so fortunately wasn't as bad as it could have been, but did mean I needed to pay Ł75 insurance excess for Autoglass to fit me a new one.





Used some of my Christmas 2013 money to buy some genuine "Focus" door sill trims. Have to say I was slightly disappointed as I thought they were brushed stainless steel. Turns out they're silver plastic, which makes me seriously wonder why they cost so damn much. But once fitted they look good anyway and don't look cheap or plasticky so it's ok.












So back in March (2014) I had a spare morning, so finally got round to using the 3M Headlight Restoration Kit I'd bought a while back.
When I bought the ST170 Xenon headlights, they weren't in amazing condition, quite a bit of deterioration to the plastic lenses.

The 3M kit has a few levels of abrasive pads and compound to gradually polish out the scratches, and work a treat. They look good as new now.
Also took the opportunity to replace the LED sidelights as one of them had started flickering. The old LEDs were too white, and didn't look that good with the Xenons, so after a bit of various forum hunting, I found that people like the Osram "Warm White" LEDs, so went for a pair of them, and they're a perfect match... LEDs are 4200k colour temperature, the Xenons are 4300k, so nearly identical.

Here are the results of the headlight restoration.

Ben-B

The car had its MOT back in November, and failed on a couple of things.


- Headlight alignment - no surprise since I'd removed the headlights to restore the lenses. I thought I'd set it level, but it was too high on N/S. No big deal though, it's a quick fix.

- N/S/F wheel bearing - in hindsight I should have replaced the bearings in the ST170 knuckles whilst they were off the car, before I fitted them, but I got 2 years out of the nearside one and offside is still going, so not too bad. Got a friend who owns a garage near me to do it for me. It was a massive ballache as his hydraulic press locking nut kept blowing off the threads until we welded it to the press. Then even with 16 tonnes on the old bearing it still wouldn't come out, and heating it up with a 2000 degree propane torch was futile, so we had to get the oxyacetylene torch on it... 3700 degrees of flame did the trick, and burnt all the rust off too.

- Front and rear brake asymmetry - the brakes were fine on the road, but on the machine they were very unbalanced, the O/S were braking with much greater force than the N/S, and handbrake was useless.



So I used the failure of the brakes as the excuse I needed to fit the Mk2 ST 225 "ASBO" brakes and ST170 rear disc conversion.
I set about getting the last few parts I needed...
- New discs & pads all round for the 2.5T front and ST170 rear
- Redrilled the front brake discs to 4x108 as the Mk2 is a 5-stud
- 5mm hubcentric spacers which were then milled down to 4mm by an engineering company
- HEL performance stainless steel bleed nipples
- Motul RBF600 racing brake fluid


A week later I went back to my mates garage and we set about changing it all over.

Rather than swap the complete rear beam, we decided to remove the drum stub axles and replace with the disc stub axles. That did mean we needed to swap over a couple of things, as the ST170 has 2 brake hoses and a brake pipe on each side, whereas the drum setup just has one single brake hose. No idea why, its a very odd difference, but that meant the brackets needed cutting off the ST170 beam and welding to the beam on the car.

Between the disc stub axles and the rear beam, we fitted the 20mm Racing Puma axle spacers. In hindsight, 20mm was a bit too much, the wheels now stick out quite a bit, and scrub on bigger bumps, so I've got some 10mm ones on the way to replace them at some point soon.

Everything went pretty smoothly, and we had the whole lot done in around 4 hours. Got it MOT'd (somewhere else) literally 10 minutes after driving out my mates garage and passed no problem.

I can now actually lock the rear wheels up with the handbrake... although I only did it just the once just to see how good it was, my tyres cost too much and I'm not a chav.


Full brake spec is as follows
- Mk2 Focus ST 225 "ASBO" front brake calipers
- Mintex 320mm front discs & Mintex pads
- ST170 rear brake disc conversion with 20mm rear axle spacers
- Mintex 280mm rear discs and Mintex pads
- Goodridge Phantom Performance stainless steel braided hoses
- HEL Performance stainless steel bleed nipples
- Motul RBF600 racing brake fluid



Mk2 Focus ST 225 "ASBO" front calipers


Mk2 Focus ST 225 "ASBO" front calipers


ST170 rear disc setup and 20mm axle spacers


Mintex Mk2 ST discs


Mintex Mk2 ST discs


Mintex Mk2 ST discs and 4mm hubcentric spacers


ST170 rear beam, without brakes fitted


Goodridge Phantom braided hoses, Ezibleed brake bleeding kit, ST170 handbrake cable, and a few "thank you" goodies for my mate


All laid out on the workshop floor


Up on the ramps. God I wish I had a 2-post lift at home.


Front brakes done (we later discovered the spacer needs to go BEHIND the disc)


Front brakes and new braided hoses


Rear brakes done, brake fluid caused some paint to peel from calipers. They must have been a bit greasy still when I first painted them as its come off far too easy. I'll repaint them when the weather is drier and warmer.


Rear brakes and braided hoses (rear Eibach springs still look in excellent condition, nearly 2 years old now)



Now that the pads and discs are bedded in, the braking is incredible. The pedal is initially much softer (due to the standard master cylinder having to fill much bigger pistons in the calipers) but once the brakes bite the pedal gets really firm and very easy to modulate braking.
So it's nice and smooth round town, not snatchy, but when driving in a "spirited" fashion it becomes a lot easier to be very accurate with how much braking force you want.
The rear wheels are too far out though and keep catching on the arches when the rear compresses over bigger bumps and potholes or going over the bottom of a dip in a road at speed. Reducing the spacers to 10mm should make it perfect.
I had considered getting 10-15mm spacers for the front wheels, but actually they are bang on perfect, because the Mk2 ST discs have a much greater offset, which when combined with the 4mm spacers behind the disc probably space the wheel out by about 8mm over standard ST170 setup.

One day I may investigate a bigger master cylinder, but it's not a necessity and not even high up on my "desirable" list, so maybe if I run out of other ideas but have a bit of money and still want to keep the car then I'll consider it later.




I didn't manage to get any before/after shots, nor have I got any pics of the brakes behind the wheels, but when it's light tomorrow I'll try to remember to take a few.