kishy's 2005 Focus

[kishy]

After evaluating the tire situation, my conclusions were:

• The winters are still healthy enough to be worth saving off-season for winter use, for one or two more winters
• The all-seasons (the two pairs of used tires purchased 2 years ago) had enough tread to remain useful, but were in abysmal condition otherwise, being quite hard, cracked, and offering fairly poor traction.

I decided to bite the bullet and just buy new tires to replace the all-seasons. Actual new ones, at retail in Canada, from a major chain so mom can easily get warranty service on them if necessary even outside of our home city. We aren't going to talk about how much this cost; retail tire cost in Canada especially when considering ancillary costs built into the purchase like mandatory disposal fees stings a lot. On the bright side, municipal waste transfer sites take as many tires as you want for free, so at least you get something for the government-mandated fees.

Car drives well on the new tires, road noise is very quiet, and aesthetically they fill out the wheel wells nicely. No complaints or regrets. General Evertrek GT (which is a Canadian Tire-specific variant of the Evertrek), with dates of 4523 and 4723, in 205/55R16. Stock is a 50 sidewall but that's a tricky size to come by, and 55 still leaves enough room before they run into the strut, so that's fine. 205/60 almost certainly would be too close for comfort, 215/55 may also work, but 205/55 works well and 205 width is stock.







2024-04-20 at 122,189km.

This also represents the change back from winters to all-seasons as the mounted tires.
The transmission output seal is now on-hand but I need to get the 91 MGM mobile again before I attack that. Most likely the car will go back to mom in between and I'll borrow it back to do the seal.

[Mainemantom]

The price of new tires has gone up here maybe 30%. during the past year. plus the installation. I have had very good results with General tires. It seems that the tire stores are trying to pawn off those no name garbage tires. Good Year tires have gone down in quality as Good Year has sold the name to foreign companies. So most of the Good Year tires are not the tires we were used to.

[kishy]

Mom decided, with my encouragement, to go on a trip to Victoria, BC over Christmas and the New Year celebrations. So the Focus is with me, and I had a few items on my mind to address while it's here:

• Routine fluid checks
• Oil spray undercoating
• Replace the leaking transmission output seal
• Swap to winter tires

After driving the car, I identified some additional items:

• The heat is extremely weak any time the car is in motion, but seems acceptable idling particularly in sheltered conditions. The temperature gauge is PCM-driven with inferred/calculated values and is therefore not very trustworthy, but the gauge drops significantly during spirited acceleration, which makes me think the thermostat is failing open/opening at too low a temperature/not closing quickly enough when exposed to cold coolant rushing in. This is seemingly a pretty common failure on these.
• There is excessive powertrain movement/rotation/rocking indicating a weak or failed lower engine mount, or torque strut. The part on the car has 13k km on it and seems to be completely trashed. It was a cheap but lifetime warranty part, so I'll swap it out and then look for a better option to upgrade to down the road. NVH is otherwise about right, so the hydraulic passenger-side mount has not failed again yet.

Fluid levels checked out as expected. This is definitely one area where a "newer old car" does so much better than an "older old car"...modern gasketing techniques, modern seal materials, modern engine tolerances. Odometer shows 126,231km, oil change due at 129k per my arbitrarily decided 8000km change interval. But it was last done one year ago pretty much exactly, so maybe I'll do it anyway while I have the car. I could guess that the remaining 3K on the change interval will come at an inconvenient time due to prepping a car for the annual road trip.

Oil spray done on Dec 21, their last day of business for the year. They did a good job, as I've come to expect there.



I prioritized the heat (it's winter) and the rear engine mount (to save the exhaust flex) as "must do" items before mom takes back the car. Ordered the mount, should be here at the start of next week. Picked up a thermostat (sold as a unit with the housing) along with a jug of Zerex G05 HOAT coolant - supposedly the factory fill - at local CarQuest.



Pulled the passenger headlight. Why? That's how you get your hands on the thermostat housing without removing the intake manifold. I want to remove the intake for other reasons but that's a different priority, for a different time.





Drained the coolant. Got the t-stat/housing out and hoses off. Used the garden hose to flush the heater core in both directions; found no apparent restrictions. Then flushed the head/block briefly, with the water exiting at the t-stat hole and through radiator drain via the other rad hose. No real nasties coming out of this one, it was nice and clean.

New housing includes a new rubber gasket which should work without requiring any sort of sealant. However, there was the finest hint of maybe corrosion on the mating surface, so I did apply a bit of RTV before torquing down the housing. The RTV was still good and wet at that stage so the rubber gasket should have squeezed it out of the way anywhere it was unnecessary, but will have left it present anywhere it was needed, ideally.

Hooked it all back up, filled half the coolant capacity with the G05, then added distilled water to get to full, obviously with the understanding there will have been some not-distilled water hiding in the heater core (lowest point of system) and lower parts of the block. Cooling system appears to be performing as intended, heat seems to be performing well, but all testing was done in my driveway. At the very least it's not worse than before.

Then, jacked up the front and took off the wheel, brakes, and the strut with knuckle. Gotta get that CV axle out to change the seal. All of this came apart very easily thanks to me having had it apart before and everything being new. Can't get the axle out though, and unlike last time, I can't seem to make a puller that will do the job. Specialty tool ordered, should have that on the weekend. I really don't understand why the axle has that retaining clip (inside the transmission) to begin with, but Ford says it belongs there so there must be a reason.

So current status is torn apart, awaiting tool.