kishy's 2005 Focus

[kishy]

All I can do is shrug at this point.







The project to put my mother in the 86 MGM has stalled.

In the meantime, my aunt (my mother's sister) informed me that her neighbour was getting ready to sell his 2005 Focus ZX4 SES. It is a well-optioned car, Duratec 2.0, stick, 113k km. It is in decent condition but does require minor work to return to the road. At $500, it was a no-brainer. $500, especially Canadian, doesn't buy anything right now, particularly not anything with a catalytic converter still on it, so I moved quickly on this.

As my mom can drive stick, this is the new car for her. If it turns out that stick is not for her after giving it a try for a while, I have a list of people now who want this car if she passes it up, so no issues there.

The current needs list is:

• A brake line repair which may turn into replacing most of the car's lines. It has poly-coated lines but only to a point in each wheel well, which is of course where the rust is worst.
• Rear brake inspection and probably replacement of shoes, wheel cylinders and hardware, since I will be in there anyway and gaining access is really stupid on these cars (the drum is the wheel hub).
• Replacement of the flex pipe which is an integral component of the exhaust manifold and catalytic converter (all one piece). I will pay a shop to do this.
• Tires: I have a set of winters that will work on it, but am working on getting wheels that will fit the tires and this vehicle.
• Corrosion mitigation: probably get it oil sprayed. The body probably does not require any attention to pass a safety but if it does, it's minor.
• Climate control repair: the cable transmission system to change the blend doors is broken which is common and has a more serious root cause. I've already obtained the cables to make it work again and will mitigate the root cause in the process.
• Optional but a good idea: transmission output shaft seals
• Engine oil and trans oil changes

[jaywish]

Sounds like a smart purchase

[GM_Guy]

Gotta agree with that, especially being a manual focus and not one of those troubleprone dual clutch "automatics".

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Gotta agree with that, especially being a manual focus and not one of those troubleprone dual clutch "automatics".

I think that generation of Focus was a conventional automatic. I believe the DCT troublemaker came along in 2012 with that new generation of Focus.

[gadget73]

just make sure you get the old cat back so you can get some cash from it unless they are going to knock off an appropriate amount of money for letting the shop keep it.

[Arquemann]

Looks like a Focus, probably sounds and feels like a Focus, but what the shit is a ZX4 SES? Granted the trim levels in europe aren't the simplest, but those are completely different for some reason, even though its the same damn cars over here.

Is the trunk a sedan trunk or more like a hatch (sportback to be correct) on this one? Focus sedans are pretty rare here.

[kishy]

Indeed, the autos in these years were not known for being super troublesome. I've heard of some failing but not in any way like the PowerShift disaster.

The factory cat is being rebuilt with a new flex pipe, the car will not be de-catted. If the shop de-cats it (even to hand the cat to me afterwards), I will bring the full force of the government down on them which I understand to be an expensive and lengthy process to recover from. If it's street-driven and exists in my life, it has cats.

ZX4 I believe is the body, in this case the sedan. Wagons are ZTW, I believe the 5-door hatch is a ZX5 and 3-door hatch is a ZX3. No clue where Z comes from but that's what they're called. SES is the trim level and I understand SES to be on the higher end of the non-performance-oriented stuff. e.g. there is an appearance package that gives them a body kit, this car does not have that. It also has the lesser engine and trans (stick is inherently incompatible with the idea of being fully loaded on this continent), but has everything else imaginable.

It is a traditional sedan with a proper trunk. The rear seats can fold down for trunk access through into the passenger area.

[gadget73]

I thought you meant that the whole assembly was one thing and you had to replace it with new, hence the cat currently on the car no longer being on the car. So the flex pipe is replaceable then?

[kishy]

I thought you meant that the whole assembly was one thing and you had to replace it with new, hence the cat currently on the car no longer being on the car. So the flex pipe is replaceable then?

Not in any traditional sense, no...the flex pipe is integral with the manifold and cat, but someone who knows what they're doing could cut it out and weld a new one in. The flex is after the cat and joins to the pipe that goes to the downstream cat. The entire assembly of manifold, cat, and flex are at the rear of the engine, compartmentalized by the subframe and firewall. A shop has guesstimated it as a $350 job including parts but that was without seeing the car. The guy was familiar with the setup on these and has done them before though.

I would say that there is not enough pipe in between the cat and the flex to do anything with, but the shop seems to feel they can do it easily, so I'll let them do whatever they wanna do.

The aftermarket has solved this problem by selling an arrangement that puts a flange on the flex, making it serviceable separately from the cat, but you need the matching manifold-cat assembly and the cat on this car is fine.

[Tiggie]

I like these little first gen Focuses (Foci?). Never worked on one but drove one in drivers ed when they were brand new. I bet an SES manual is unusual. The drivers ed program in the county still has these cars, so they can't be that bad if they survived twenty years of first time drivers.

[gadget73]

friend of mine has a 2010 that he bought new. Finally had to put a clutch in it a month ago at 180k. He told me its the only money he's put into the car outside of standard maintenance.

[kishy]

I've been fighting with the parts car to sort out how to fix the HVAC vent flap issue in this...not the easiest problem to deal with unfortunately.

The radio in my Focus has a broken CD mechanism (it won't take the disc in) and the parts car radio is not compatible (04-05 differences).

During yesterday's junkyard trip I found a 2007 Focus that appeared to be in fantastic condition, well taken care of. It had what is visually the same radio as this car, except with the MP3 logo suggesting the added ability to play MP3 CDs. Bought the junkyard radio. 15 USD is very acceptable, although they don't do exchanges at that particular yard anymore, so it was a mild gamble.

Put it in, tested AM, FM and CD all successfully. Cosmetically it's in better condition as well. I might be imagining things but it sounds better too, might be a better preamp or internal EQ or something.





(actually, yes, radio, you are quite OK)

[packman]

Nice work!!!

That is/was exactly my plan. Got my Mom the Explorer to tool around in until I get the CV running. Hopefully your delays are short.

[kishy]

Decided to start somewhere with the under-the-car shenanigans, and figured I'd tackle the transmission output seals tonight.

I had naively hoped this would be a quick and easy thing, but instead, the car is still taken apart and the parts list has grown.

Put the car up, tried to get the wheels off. Expanded corroded lugnuts. That took some minor fighting.



Drained the trans oil. Missed the drain pan with a lot of it. Should have taken that as a sign that tonight was not the night.



Undid the driver side tie rod end and ball joint. Smacked the heck out of it, pried, hammered, couldn't get the ball joint to release. Wanted to avoid using the fork so as to not ruin the boot, but had no choice eventually. Even with the fork, it was the toughest ball joint to separate that I think I've ever touched. Lower ball joints are going on the parts list. The control arms are acceptable otherwise, so I will just do the joints, which entails grinding off some rivet heads and bolting in the new joints. Not the end of the world, just kinda sucky.

I sort of forgot that CV axles are retained with those little metal ring clips and gave a tug on the shaft, unseating the inner CV joint. Thankfully, got it put back together. Raided the tool cabinet and put together a puller that just barely fit, hammered the snot out of it, finally got the CV to pop out of the trans.





Hammered on the seal puller for a while, applied some heat, finally got the seal to start coming out. Drove the new one in uneventfully, it seated nice and flush, all seems good.





Can't get the CV axle back in for anything. I've tried gentle, I've tried forceful, I've tried oiling the end, I've tried greasing the end to keep the clip centered. Nothing seems to be working. I need a way to transmit more force onto the end that goes into the trans, because the joints themselves absorb all the shock of hammering etc. I know that it shouldn't take that much force, but it just isn't going in.

All this effort is making me second guess if perhaps I should just put new axles in it while I'm doing this. If it sucks this much, what's $150 extra in parts to put off having to take it apart again soon? Slippery slope on a car with an uncertain future.

Current state is the driver side is still taken apart, going to price some ball joints locally tomorrow, will ask about the axles in case they end up being cheap enough to just go for it. Doubtful though.

[Giraffe]

I replaced the ball joints on a similar model focus a few years ago. Removing the rivets is tough, but doable. The factory rivets expand a bit into the ball joint flange, so don't expect them to just fall out when the heads are ground off. They'll need persuasion from a hammer and punch (at least) or an air hammer (preferably).