Joey's Focus Thread: Dragon Slayer

[Keef]

Knowing BMW, I wouldn't doubt it was a hole hub and the bearing isn't even replacable. An aluminum hub and bearing assembly probably would go for that much. Hell, to replace the lower ball joints on my RX7 takes a $500 control arm!

Joey, how do you like your new big trunk?

Also, I challenge you to prove to me that the Focus's hand brake lever is not the same one as in a Civic Si, except with a black button instead of silver.

 

[Joey D]

Home Sweet Home

So with nothing really going on this afternoon, I went to seek out where my car was made since it wasn't that far away. A quick trip down I-696 to I-275 to Michigan Ave. and I arrived at the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, MI that builds the the 2012 Focus and used to build the Explorer and Navigator.

Taking a car to the factory it was built as is something I've always wanted to do. The Blazer was built in Linden, NJ which was too far away and the MINI was built in Oxford which was across the pond. Although I did see the MINI factory when I was in the UK, but it was only from the road.

All-in-all it was pretty cool to see the place where my car was built and I wish I could have gone inside to check it out. Maybe I'll be able to find someone who works there and see what they can do, after all living in the Detroit area means I know a ton of automotive employees.

 

[Doog]

Congrats on your Focus! It looks beautiful. 👍
But now hearing how your Mini died, I'm seriously scared now, as we have a '06 Cooper S with 59,000 miles. But, I think we've been lucky. Ours has been as reliable as our two other cars, a Lexus LS and a Toyota. Maybe Arizona's climate and roads are easier on cars.
Seriously, though, that Focus is one nice looking car, good choice!

 

[Joey D]

Thanks!

I hope your MINI holds up, they are still awesome little cars and I hated to see mine go. I just couldn't justify the repair expense.

 

[Doog]

My mom has put 18,000 miles on it since she got it in March of 2010, and there haven't been any issues besides regular maintenance. But my mom never really drives hers very rough, and it gets washed regularly, and it sits in the garage whenever its not being used, so yeah, I guess with a track record like that, ours should hold up for some time.

 

[Joey D]

In Need of Wheels

So I just can't keep a car stock, not one bit. I sold my rims and tires that were on the Cooper for $600 the other day to a guy who's putting them on his Cooper S for track days. Makes me feel good they are going to get used properly! So now I have cash for wheels, along with other money from my car fund I have about $1,500 for rims and tires. With tires I'm not going for anything all that extreme, the Focus isn't nearly of a sporty car as the Cooper was, as of right now I'm set on Yokohama S.drives.

But for wheels my options are rather sketchy since my bolt pattern is pretty damn rare. It's a 5 x 108 with a 50mm offset and I have no idea what the centre bore is at all, but I know rings can cure that pretty easily. I don't really want to go with adapters either since I don't really trust them, so I'm on a mission to find rims that fit right up.

My top choice right now are the OZ Supertursimo's, although they look really close to what I have on there as OEM so I have my doubts . I assume they are lighter though at 21.2lbs and should be just as strong since they are low pressure cast.

There are also TSW Snetterton's, but the issue I'm finding with them is that they stopped making them in this bolt pattern so it's really hard to find a place that has any instock.

I also really like these Voxx Maglia wheels, but I know almost nothing about the company. I don't want to end up with cheap, no name rims this time around because I will go nuts if I bend a rim again on these craptastic Michigan roads. I've only seen limited discussion about Voxx wheels on the internet and it all sounds like they are decent quality wheels for a modest price (I think the 17's from Discount Tire are like $190 ea.)

I feel like I've checked high and low for rims without a ton of luck. I am ideally looking for a mesh wheel, silver or white in 17 or 18" size, so any help would be greatly appreciated! The car won't be tracked or really even drive hard so weight and what not isn't a huge deal.

 

[Dan_]

The superturismo's blend very well to the car. I'd get them.

 

[Omnis]

I wouldn't worry about wheels. It's a brand new car and it's a Focus. Come on, man.

 

[Joey D]

The superturismo's blend very well to the car. I'd get them.

The only issue is that the OEM wheels at 16 spoke as well as the Superturimos. I don't really want to get wheels that are the same because I'm not feeling the OEM rims at all.

I wouldn't worry about wheels. It's a brand new car and it's a Focus. Come on, man.

Your point? People put wheels on Honda Civic's and other economy car all the time. Plus I don't like the OEM rims at all. I really wanted the 18" wheels and handling package with the car, but the dealer couldn't find me a Titanium that had it any where within 200miles. They told me they could install it after the fact for some stupidly high price so I passed and said I'd find my own rims in the aftermarket and get some summer rubber.

 

[Cale]

What about ST rims once it comes out?

Or I think these would look decent.

 

[Joey D]

I am still looking for wheel options, hopefully I can get some before the weather gets awful so I can enjoy some summer rubber for a little bit.

===

All of these Lights

So the UPS man came today and I proceed to get to work upgrading the awful lights on the Focus. The Cooper had HID's so the stock halogen bulbs were like a candle in a jar compared to them. Not wanting to do HID's in the stock housing I figured I'd just upgrade the bulbs.

I went with Noyka Arctic White bulbs for the low beams, Phillips CrystalVision Ultimate's for the high beams, Noyka Hyper Yellow bulbs for the fogs and Putco 360 degree LED's for the corner lights. All in all I think it turned out pretty good!

Corner Light

Low Beams & Fog Lights

High Beams

Swapping the high, low and fog's were all really easy and just took a couple minutes. Getting the corner lights though was a huge PITA. You need tiny hands to get at the socket and there is almost no room to work.

See?

FORD ENGINEERS, Y U NO DESIGN FOR HAND?

I found this to be the best way to deal with it, but even then it was still a PITA.

 

[SRV2LOW4ME]

Looks good, and hopefully much safer than blinding people with HID's in a non HID housing.

Just be thankful you didn't have to remove your front bumper to get to your headlights...

 

[Joey D]

Looks good, and hopefully much safer than blinding people with HID's in a non HID housing.

Just be thankful you didn't have to remove your front bumper to get to your headlights...

Thanks.

Ya, putting HID's in non-HID housing is bad all the way around. You don't get any better lighting in front of you and people in oncoming traffic have to look into something with the same intensity as the sun. Even if I wanted to do it, Ford makes it so you can't get HID's in the Focus, if you install HID's the car cuts the power to the lights and they won't work.

 

[Joel]

The more I see pictures of your new Focus the more I fall in love with it. Considering the Focus ST is coming out next year, 7 or 8 years from now when I'm (hopefully) out of school and with a real job, it'll probably be on my short list of used cars. It looks menacing in Black.

 

[Joey D]

The more I see pictures of your new Focus the more I fall in love with it. Considering the Focus ST is coming out next year, 7 or 8 years from now when I'm (hopefully) out of school and with a real job, it'll probably be on my short list of used cars. It looks menacing in Black.

Thanks Joel!

Ya I love the way it looks, Ford did a great job turning the Focus from a rather meh, outdated, econobox into a rather respectable small car. I really wish I could have waited for the ST, I would have loved to been able to own one. But when this car has reached the end of the road for me in 5 or so years, I'll be able to get something like the ST...hopefully.

 

[Joel]

That's what I think, I always thought the old Focus was pretty bland, but the new ones (in Kona Blue or Black), and the pictures of the 2012 Focus ST just look mean. I mean, it's a pipe dream for me to own a new car in the foreseeable future, I'm 16, finishing high school next year, and I won't really have money for a new car. I'll probably be driving my parent's Corolla for years to come, but when I get out of school and hopefully have some respectable income, the Focus ST has become my (realistic) dream car.

 

[SRV2LOW4ME]

Thanks.

Ya, putting HID's in non-HID housing is bad all the way around. You don't get any better lighting in front of you and people in oncoming traffic have to look into something with the same intensity as the sun. Even if I wanted to do it, Ford makes it so you can't get HID's in the Focus, if you install HID's the car cuts the power to the lights and they won't work.

As much as the ricer community would hate that, its actually a really good idea and a great safety feature for people who don't own the vehicle.

Does Ford offer HID's as an option on the Focus? Even as an aftermarket kit through the dealership?

 

[Perfect Balance]

Unfortunately, your headlights bulbs aren't any more legal than HIDs, so you might as well have went with those.

 

[Joey D]

Does Ford offer HID's as an option on the Focus? Even as an aftermarket kit through the dealership?

Only in Europe, for some reason it didn't translate over to the US. Some guy on the Focus forums researched getting the setup imported from Ford UK and it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of $2,000 without the bulbs. It it would have been like $700 or something I would have just done that.

===

I ran the lights for the first time at night this evening, I'm unsure how I like the low beams right now. They are pretty much the same light intensity as the OEM bulbs but offering a whiter light. I want something brighter, not just whiter, so I will need to try a couple of other options though. I am very happy with the high beams, fog lights and the LED corner lights though.

 

[ozyran]

Nice car! The new Focuses (Focii?) are really nice and, as far as I can tell, top-notch quality.

BTW, those new lights are friggin' bright! Looks good.

 

[homeforsummer]

I feel your pain on switching bulbs. After the hilariously easy MX5, the Panda is a real nuisance - though by no means the worst car for changing bulbs either. Main problem with it is the space in the engine bay. Very short hood, not a lot of gap between strut towers and the back of the light units. Swapping the sidelights was more luck than judgement.

As for the bulbs in the Focus, I like the idea of the LED sidelights but in general I'm not keen on white/blue lights. I've found the lighting from them very poor and not as easy on the eye at night (as you've found with your low beams, it seems) - human eyes are more receptive to a slightly yellower light which is why streetlights are yellowish and not bluish. HIDs are fine because they're designed a certain way and white lighting is a by-product.

On a more personal level I think that bluish non-HID headlights look a bit cheap and I've seen too many nasty cars in the UK "upgraded" with them for it to appeal.

 

[Perfect Balance]

Silvania Ultrastars.

 

[Joey D]

So after doing some math and some research I figured out why the H11 bulbs are crap, they give off about 1100 lumens of light. That's not really all that much considering most other car bulbs give off as much as 1700 lumens of light on the dipped beams. So what I'm going to do is an H9 conversion to the lights. Apparently by doing that it'll give me about 2000 lumens of lights (which is 1000 less then most HID kits). It looks rather easy to do so now I just need to find the bulbs...which is like trying to find a needle in a haystack apparently.

 

[eSZee]

Silvania Ultrastars.

Are they more reliable than silverstars? I've dealt with about 2 dozen pairs of those on a handful of cars and they never lasted more than 6 months. The light output in the wet was also less than great.

 

[Joey D]

Silverstars are pretty much the worse bulbs you can buy in terms of reliability. I remember I had a set in the Blazer that last 2 days, and I'm always very care not to touch the glass, clean the bulbs with alcohol swaps and use latex gloves while installing them.

GE Nighthawks and Phillips CrystalVision are better by far in terms of reliability and light output. Unfortunately neither company makes H9 bulbs. Right now my choices are some overpriced crap from PIAA, some resonable Hella's or a whole slew of mad tyte JDM yo bulbs.

 

[Perfect Balance]

I had silverstars in my last car for 3 years before I wrecked it, and then the ones I had in this car for 3 months came out of another car that had them for ~3 years or so before I got my hands on them.

Meh. Apparently Toshiba's HIR bulb puts out 1800 lumens with a 800 hour life.

 

[Keef]

I've had hit-or-miss success with two sets of Silverstar bulbs in my Del Sol and Civic. Either set only lasted about 6 months. The super cheap Ebay bulbs I had kinda sucked, but they lasted 6 months and only cost $5 a set.

I'm going to get H4 conversions for my sealed beams. I'd like to get some nice bulbs that are reasonably priced.

 

[ranhammerR34]

Yeah Silverstars are good. However.... it really depends on the car application.

 

[Joey D]

Last Saturday I had a bit of a run in with something not quite as moveable as I would have liked. I was pulling out of a narrow parking lot and while I avoided the large concrete barrier, I some how missed the chunk concrete someone knocked out who didn't see the barrier. I was going maybe 2mph but it was still enough to shatter the plastic on my aero shield and splash guard, along with bend a section of the subframe. I can't believe I didn't see it but :censor: happens and I just got to live with it.

Anyway, need a quick fix to hold the plastic on the car until I could get home I ended up making it look like a smurf exploded on my car.

The following Monday I went to a dealership up in town to get an estimate, the guy told me the car was too new and he didn't know how much the parts were, but he guessed it was going to be $500 - $550 to fix everything. Not feeling the love at that dealer I went to the dealer where I bought the car. They were far less stupid and really inspected the car good determining I have approximately $775 in repairs.I figured I'd try a couple of body shops around the area too, the one told me 2012 cars weren't out yet and another quoted me $1,500 because a computer module had a small crack in it and need to be replaced...despite working fine.

None of that sounded too thrilling, so I went to the official Ford Parts website, ordered a new aero shield and splash guard for $100. Then I went to Meijers, bought some Loctite puddy to repair the crack plastic on the computer module.

The parts came in today and my dad and I spent about 3 hours fixing everything. The plastic was easy to put on, but the bent subframe posed a bit of an issue. However we took a come-along and chained it to a steel beam in the garage and bent it back into shape.

All in all I think we did a pretty good job for a few hours work in the garage. I still need to fix the scratches with some fine grit sand paper and touch-up paint, but that'll be next week. Since the Tuxedo Black is no longer being produced due to the tsunami in Japan, it's been a pain to find the stuff but successful repairman was successful!

The rim is chipped up too but I don't think it was from this bump, either way I have wheel insurance on the car and it will be replaced free of charge.

And BOOM, all done.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Wait, wheel insurance?