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Ford Focus Care & Maintenance

334 messages,  Last post on Nov 20, 2012 at 12:27 PM

You are in the Ford Focus Forum.

What is this discussion about? Ford Focus, Hatchback, Sedan, Wagon

Messages Page 32 of 34

#304 of 334 Re: 2003 Focus Wagon SE rear creak [ekelly9] by bonejob

Jun 10, 2009 (5:36 pm)

Replying to: ekelly9 (Jun 03, 2005 9:49 am)
I own a 2006 ZX4 SES (Sedan) and my car was exhibiting what sounds from your description to be exactly the same problem. My car's squeaking was emanating from two places:
 
Underneath the car, there is a bracket and bushing assembly which supports the parking brake cable near the rear suspension. As the passenger's side rear wheel moves up and down with the bumps in the road, this bracket assembly apparently can be the source of a squeaking noise as the parking brake cable moves with the suspension. This is my dealer's explanation anyhow. He fixed it in 10 minutes and didn't even charge me for it.
 
The other place is inside the car and it involves the rear seat. The seat backs are hinged in three places: extreme passenger's side, extreme driver's side, and in the middle where the seat back is split. Each hinge base is secured to the floorpan with torx-head screws. The seat back parts of the hinge are essentially metal dowels that are threaded through the base assemblies. The hinges themselves are quite robust but the metal-to-metal between the hinge dowels and the hinge bases can cause squeaking as the car goes over bumps. The seat hinge is pretty free-moving, so there is just enough side-to-side play in the seat hinges to cause squeaking.
 
A surefire way to test is to have someone ride in the back seat. That is something I had never done, since this car is only driven by me, and only occasionally do I have my wife with me, who of course rides in the front passenger seat. But something told me to try that and VOILA!! The infernal squeaking went silent. I had my wife return to the front and like magic, the squeaking returned.
 
I got some spray silicone-based dry lubricant and sprayed it liberally into all three hinge assemblies and my car is now squeak-free!
 
As for the body flexing, the Ford Focus platform is actually quite commendably stiff. The Focus was designed as not only a bread-and-butter compact car for the hoi polloi, it was designed as the platform for Ford Racing's European rally racing efforts, and as such it has been very successful. The Focus, despite its humble pretensions, is structurally a quite solid piece of work.

#305 of 334 air conditioning by rc1956

Jun 17, 2009 (4:20 pm)

how much does a Ford Focus air conditioning unit hold? how many lbs?
 
My daughter needs her air conditioning unit recharged and one place has the most reasonable price but charges a flat 39.95 and 10.00 per lb. Other places are 65.00 to 145.00.

#306 of 334 Re: 2001 Focus Overheating Specs [martinoman] by ranyes1

Jul 07, 2009 (9:09 pm)

Replying to: martinoman (Jul 15, 2005 2:39 pm)
I had same problem I changed the fan radiator fan resistor and it did the trick I got it at a local auto part store for $28.00

#307 of 334 Should I trade my car in or fix all the probelms? by redundant1

Aug 09, 2011 (11:13 am)

I have about $3,000 left on my car loan and I can probably nitpick 3,000 things to fix on it.
 
I have a 2005 Focus Sedan SE.
41,000 miles on it.
 
- Needs 4 new tires.
- One needs a rim/wheel from hitting a pothole bad enough.
- The air filter is disgusting and needs replacing. Everytime I put my AC or defrosters on, I get black/brown **** on my windshield.
- 60 degree weather and some nights I have had to put the HEATER on to get the windows defrosted. It does not work with cold air.
- Steering wheel doesn't ..snap back..as fast as it used to. It's like the power steering is gone or something. This bugs me. I used to be able to turn the wheel all the way and when I let go it would snap straight back and now it snaps back crooked. I asked the dealer this and of course they looked at me like I was an idiot. I did talk to some other Ford owners and they knew what I meant and said their cars don't do it anymore either.
- Windshield wipers are messed up. I can turn them on but I cannot shut them off. I have to shut them off manually by keep flicking the switch with my fingers and stopping it at the RIGHT spot. Takes concentration to do it right, hopefully I don't; get into an accident someday because I'm playing with the wiper stick.
- Highway Driving - Sometimes I have to floor it to get it to speed up and switch gears even though this is an autoamtic transmission.
- I don't think my brakes are as good as they were when I first got it. They seem a bit weaker...even though yesterday I slammed the brakes on to avoid a deer and they worked and no deer got hit.
- CD Player is scratching and skipping my CDS for some reason.
- My lights suck. They do not need replacing but they are just NOT bright enough for me. I drive a lot at night, through black holes (People from CT know what I am talking about!) and I strain my eyes trying to see better when I just have crappy lights. The dealership told me I would have to go to a modshop or something to get brighter lights and then told me that brighter lights stress the engine or something out and I'll have more problems down the line.
- It makes a weird rattling noise while running. Someone said it sounds like my belt snapped but well it's been doing it for months and the dealer said it wasn't anything to really worry about.
 
All minor, irritating things... People are like "You only have $3,000" left but well am I going to end up paying the car off with $3000 and then fixing about $3,000 worth of stupid things on it?

#308 of 334 Re: 2005 Focus SES Alignment Problems [mrsdoni] by 04monterules

Sep 24, 2009 (12:21 pm)

Replying to: mrsdoni (Jul 31, 2007 12:03 pm)
Just a suggestion to have you struts/shocks inspected -- we have a Focus here as well has been going through tires, inside edges uneven and tires seperated again and the car has wicked boby roll -- is just a suggestion like I said
 
GRB

#309 of 334 Fuse Panel 2007 Focus by piglover

Oct 18, 2009 (2:19 pm)

To access the fuse panel on the 2007 Focus one has to first remove the CD storage box. The owner's manual does not say how to remove it. It's plastic and I don't want to force it and break it. Does anyone know how to remove it.
        Thank-you

#310 of 334 crankcase filter by k33j88

Dec 12, 2009 (10:30 am)

Is replacing a crankcase filter involved or can it be done in my backyard?

#311 of 334 2007 ford focus by k33j88

Dec 12, 2009 (10:31 am)

Could a fuel filter be done fairly easy?

#312 of 334 Re: Coolant change [gmzx3] by bereket

Jan 08, 2010 (2:41 pm)

Replying to: gmzx3 (Jun 27, 2003 2:03 pm)
many years later, I also need to know this about the manual saying to add the new coolant into the heater hose....and also says to drain the coolant from the engine block, but where is the plug for that? I would like to do what they say, but it seems like the radiator doesn't "hold" a lot of the coolant, right...and you aren't refilling the radiator, right? We are in freezing temps now at night so I'm worried since I have been losing fluid and was just adding water for a while.
Becky

#313 of 334 Draining coolant by bereket

Jan 09, 2010 (6:23 am)

My manual says to drain the coolant from the engine block also...where is that plug located? It says to refill coolant pouring it into the heater hose going to radiator...with a funnel..so I don't put it just into the overflow tank? Has anyone done this? I saw an old post that had no real answer on this . thanks Becky

Messages Page 32 of 34

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