RoverFolkUs "Fleet" Thread - MK2 Focus Content .... Focus #2 MOT Pass...

[RoverFolkUs]

 

This clip I found on YouTube is the best comparison I could find to the noise from the rear suspension, but mine is a little bit quieter and less resonant (i.e the tapping is at a slower pace)

I'll try to set my phone to record in the boot and take it for a spin to see if it picks up the noise

 

[RoverFolkUs]

This car has decided to act French. Or has perhaps decided to behave after I was perving over that lovely Rover 75 in the tat thread. Or I am a complete fool. (Delete as appropriate)

The knocking noise from the rear seems to have, perhaps coincidentally, disappeared after rearranging the crap in the boot. (I could swear it sounded like ARB links!?) But that hopefully rules out the rear trailing arms and control arms. 

Granted it may still be present as I heard it first going over a bumpy road on a housing estate. The last couple of days have just been A roads and twisty B roads. 

Further testing required, and if it's gone away, result! Free fixes* for the win

(*Or something has become terminally fucked and snapped/disappeared from the undercarriage for optimal amusement!) 

 

[sierraman]

Seen quite a few where the exhaust bracket is broken but it’s usually the centre mount one after the Cat. 

[RoverFolkUs]

  On 23/03/2022 at 21:10, sierraman said:

Seen quite a few where the exhaust bracket is broken but it’s usually the centre mount one after the Cat. 

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That's a good shout!

The hanger had previously snapped off the tailpipe so I welded it back on, entirely possible it's snapped again as it was quite crusty, or as you say it could be one of the other ones. I hadn't thought to check the exhaust actually! 

[catsinthewelder]

Funny rattles from the back of my mk2.5 have been drop links or heat shields.  Both nice cheap fixes.

[RoverFolkUs]

  On 24/03/2022 at 06:36, catsinthewelder said:

Funny rattles from the back of my mk2.5 have been drop links or heat shields.  Both nice cheap fixes.

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I think the rear heat shield has already been removed by the previous owner, but I'll give it all a check 👍

[RoverFolkUs]

Haven't heard the rear end noise since. Embarrassingly it seems it must have only been something bouncing around in the boot!

In other news, I captured the rattle from the Aux pulley area today on video. Once the car warms up its a constant metallic tinking/rattle, it increases with revs but no difference when steering.

I'm 99% sure it's the PAS pump (it whines as well but that can't be heard on camera) - the rattle sounds a lot worse in person, my phone microphone struggles to pick it up properly but it can be heard in the video.

But if it's the water pump I really CBA with doing a cambelt + water pump on it too

Cant find a long screwdriver to do the 'ole stethoscope trick which is annoying as that would confirm what's making the noise

(Reasonably prices) PAS pumps and pipes still out of stock...

It's hanging on in there though, PAS fluid needs topping up every 300 miles or so which I can live with short term until the £100 PAS pump kit comes back in stock

MOT upcoming in July. Don't think it'll need anything other than the PAS leak sorting to pass, which is good!

As a side note, not sure if it's my imagination but the PAS pump pulley looks like it's shimmying a bit to me. Does anyone else see that too or is it my eyes?!

[RoverFolkUs]

So with the weather yesterday being a tad nicer I set out to to some tinkering with the "fleet"

Since I have very little patience when it comes to my own cars, I felt quite grumpy by the end of the day as it felt like one step forwards two steps back.... Hence no pictures 

Focus #1 -

Progress - Windscreen washers are now absolutely fine, dont know what happened a few weeks ago when they were extremely weak, but they're perfect now

Setbacks - I set out to wash them both, but dropped the bastard key for Focus #1 in a bucket of water  - fortunately I have a spare, and the waterlogged one is currently sitting in rice disassembled. Started it up for the first time in about 8 weeks (first turn of the key, battery must be a good one!) and heard an incredibly irritating vibration/rattle from the rear of the engine bay towards the middle. I've pinpointed it to the upper exhaust manifold heatshield which I currently have no idea on how I'm going to re-secure it. I cant exactly remove it either. Took about 30 minutes of idling + revving to get it up to temperature, so the thermostat definitely wants doing too.

Focus #2 -

Progress - It got a wash

Setbacks - PAS reservoir about 1/4 from the completely empty after about 200 miles, so thats getting pretty bad. Engine oil was barely on the dipstick, though I'm not convinced the ground was level. Suppose that tallies up with my previous oil consumption calculation of 1 litre/4000 miles or so. The steering rack has recently began knocking from dead straight, almost feels like theres a tight spot and then it gives way accompanied by a knock. I've got no cambelt history with it and its 14 years old/140,000 miles now, so while I've got the AUX belt off and PAS pump out the way I might as well do cambelt + water pump. Since I'll be flushing the PAS fluid it would make sense to do the rack at the same time. So that's a lot of expenditure in one go!

TLDR; MK2 Focuses aren't as hassle free as one might expect!

[RoverFolkUs]

Due to a series of well-timed events + changes in circumstances, some RoverFolkUs fleet movement might be occurring in due course. Watch this space 👀

[RoverFolkUs]

...oh, and in other news the new PAS pump + high pressure pipes for Focus #2 have finally come back in stock so I have ordered them to arrive soon, hopefully! Then I can finally make some progress

[RoverFolkUs]

So, fleet movement has occured 

I have filled a space I literally DO NOT have in the fleet with a Citroen Xsara Picasso. 

Yes, I'm mad.

But it's not for me, it's for Mother_FolkUs, but I've got to store it for a little while

Luckily I have nice neighbors who don't mind a scruffy Citroen in their parking space 

It's done about 30k miles. It's mint mechanically, the engine runs so smooth and it looks like brand new under the bonnet bar a few oil stains from dry/weeping gaskets I expect. 

I've always hated French cars and never owned one. Though I feel this one is going to get under my skin, it's superb! 

A neighbour has a dying Mazda 3 and maybe interested in a Focus if I do offload one soon. Then if Mother_FolkUs doesn't want the Picasso I'll probably get rid of the other Focus and leave an empty gap for something fun

"Exciting" times!

[catsinthewelder]

How hard is it to change the power steering bits on the MK2 Focus?  Mine is becoming alarmingly thirsty for Power steering fluid and only likes the expensive stuff.  I'm contemplating the stop leak stuff but it feels like it might be snake oil.

[RoverFolkUs]

  On 07/04/2022 at 21:31, catsinthewelder said:

How hard is it to change the power steering bits on the MK2 Focus?  Mine is becoming alarmingly thirsty for Power steering fluid and only likes the expensive stuff.  I'm contemplating the stop leak stuff but it feels like it might be snake oil.

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Don't bother with stop leak, it's snake oil, it'll clog everything up and will be a complete bastard to remove when you come to eventually do it properly as I can't imagine it'll last, unless of course it's a dump car on its last legs and you only want to get as much life from it with as little money as possible. That's my advice regarding stop leak

It's relatively straightforward, but not as easy as regular power steering as the pipes use a single use union rather than a typical banjo bolt. 

You can buy the pipes + a pump for just under £100 on eBay as I have done. If the pump is not noisy or rattling as per my above video you could change just the high pressure pipes which are about £40. The call is yours but the pipes and union cannot be reused if you come to change the pump later.

For reference, mine is emptying the reservoir to the extent of the pump making a noise every 3-400 miles. 

I'll most likely be doing the job next week as I have a day off and the new pump should be here tomorrow (fingers crossed) . I'm happy to document and upload photos of the process as it should be useful for others in the future

The way I will go about it is to cut the old Aux belt off, remove the alternator and engine mount. Then remove the pipes from the rack and remove the pump with the pipes still attached (as I want to investigate the failure being the curious chap I am )

 

The CRUCIAL part of the job is to screw the union into the pump and torque it down and THEN push the pipe into it. You have one shot at doing that. If you put the union in and have to remove it again for whatever reason, the teflon seal will leak so you'd need a new union

If the pipe goes in and you need to remove it again for whatever reason, you need another set of new pipes and a union

I'll find and post up a video at some point of the leak and how I diagnosed it to be a leaking union. Because the pump is noisy I'm doing that at the same time, you don't have to if your pump is fine. 

I managed to get 2 litres of CHF for about £11 on eBay at the end of last year. They aren't available any more but I've just ordered another 2 litres from someone else for £14.50 if that gives you an idea of what you could be paying

Hope that helps!

[catsinthewelder]

A few pics of the tricky bits would be ace if you don't mind.  Would save the swearing I was doing the other day while putting new glass in my friends Zafira after she locked herself out.

I've had a look at the pipes on eBay.  It's only noisy when low on fluid so I think the first job is to get it up in the air and see where it's leaking from.  Hopefully the pipes rather than the rack.  Any idea how long the aux belt is supposed to last in these?  I asked the garage to do mine along with the cambelt 3 years/ 30k ago.

[RoverFolkUs]

  On 08/04/2022 at 06:04, catsinthewelder said:

A few pics of the tricky bits would be ace if you don't mind.  Would save the swearing I was doing the other day while putting new glass in my friends Zafira after she locked herself out.

I've had a look at the pipes on eBay.  It's only noisy when low on fluid so I think the first job is to get it up in the air and see where it's leaking from.  Hopefully the pipes rather than the rack.  Any idea how long the aux belt is supposed to last in these?  I asked the garage to do mine along with the cambelt 3 years/ 30k ago.

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Honestly no problem at all, I'll probably take some pics anyway to remember the routing of the pipes

Your pump will probably be fine. Mine makes a very distinct whine that can be heard in the cabin but not so much under the bonnet with the engine noise. And it rattles as above, if yours doesn't you'll get away with just the pipes which is good!

I think it's the union on my pipes that have failed, because someone has previously r eused it when putting a second hand pump in (🤦) but the common failure point on them is the pipe itself. 

I'll upload a video later pointing where to look at underneath to confirm it's pipes

It's usually the pipes that leak (I' m assuming that yours is a 1.4/1.6 petrol?)

I'm assuming you know they have a stretch belt, I don't know how long they last but if it's not cracked or excessively glazed then by all means reuse it, you can just get a screwdriver under it and rotate the crank pulley to remove it (after doing the same for the Aircon belt) 

To get it back on, you can either re-route and cable tie it onto the crank pulley and guide it onto each pulley while slowly rotating the engine, an assistant is usually handy

Alternatively, remove the upper bolt and stud for the alternator and swing it down on its lower bolt, route the belt and get someone to lever the alternator in place with the belt on every pulley and quickly put the bolt and stud in to take the tension. Make sure the alternator is on there squarely as you don't want to crossthread the bolt or stud obviously! 

Hope I'm not teaching grandma to suck eggs there but thought it would he handy to put the info in one place

They do make a special tool but I wouldn't bother with it to be honest! The cheap ones break as Sierraman has said above or the decent ones are quite pricey

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 07/04/2022 at 21:22, RoverFolkUs said:

So, fleet movement has occured 

I have filled a space I literally DO NOT have in the fleet with a Citroen Xsara Picasso. 

Yes, I'm mad.

But it's not for me, it's for Mother_FolkUs, but I've got to store it for a little while

Luckily I have nice neighbors who don't mind a scruffy Citroen in their parking space 

It's done about 30k miles. It's mint mechanically, the engine runs so smooth and it looks like brand new under the bonnet bar a few oil stains from dry/weeping gaskets I expect. 

I've always hated French cars and never owned one. Though I feel this one is going to get under my skin, it's superb! 

A neighbour has a dying Mazda 3 and maybe interested in a Focus if I do offload one soon. Then if Mother_FolkUs doesn't want the Picasso I'll probably get rid of the other Focus and leave an empty gap for something fun

"Exciting" times!

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Very excited to see this Xsara Picasso.

[RoverFolkUs]

  On 08/04/2022 at 08:37, AnnoyingPentium said:

Very excited to see this Xsara Picasso.

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Here's a generic picture of the same colour and spec

It's in a worse cosmetic state at the moment though!

And it's the first car I've bought with claphand wipers, for the 'wiper-action weirdos' out there 😉

I'll get a picture when it looks nicer, it's quite embarrassing at the moment!

Plus I'll probably get harrased by barefoot for the rest of my AS career for having an "utterly fucked blue car" due to the minor scrapes 😂

[RoverFolkUs]

In MK2 Focus news - the PAS pump and pipes have arrived today, along with the Aux belt. Fluid due to be delivered later. 

Slight problem being they've forgotten to include the crucial single use union 🙄

I'm hoping I can get them to send one out as I really want to get it all fitted on my day off next week, if not I'll just order one from the stealers and seek recompense later from the seller but it's hassle I'd have liked not to have!

[RoverFolkUs]

  On 08/04/2022 at 13:42, RoverFolkUs said:

In MK2 Focus news - the PAS pump and pipes have arrived today, along with the Aux belt. Fluid due to be delivered later. 

Slight problem being they've forgotten to include the crucial single use union 🙄

I'm hoping I can get them to send one out as I really want to get it all fitted on my day off next week, if not I'll just order one from the stealers and seek recompense later from the seller but it's hassle I'd have liked not to have!

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Update on this situation that has made me very grumpy.

Union still hasn't arrived. Apparently its on its way, but we'll see.

But that's completely thwarted my plans of doing it on one of my 2 days off that have now lapsed. 

God knows when it will get done now

[RoverFolkUs]

  On 08/04/2022 at 06:04, catsinthewelder said:

A few pics of the tricky bits would be ace if you don't mind.  Would save the swearing I was doing the other day while putting new glass in my friends Zafira after she locked herself out.

I've had a look at the pipes on eBay.  It's only noisy when low on fluid so I think the first job is to get it up in the air and see where it's leaking from.  Hopefully the pipes rather than the rack.  Any idea how long the aux belt is supposed to last in these?  I asked the garage to do mine along with the cambelt 3 years/ 30k ago.

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Here's a video of my PAS leak for @catsinthewelder

This is looking directly up to the PAS pump from underneath

You can see the dribble, then it spurts out when I got an assistant to hold it on full lock

For reference, at 6 seconds and 15 seconds into the video where it is clear to see, below the rubber hose and above the stream of fluid is the low pressure input to the pump. The high pressure pipe is connected to the union directly above it, and that is what is leaking. 

In the video, you are looking up into the silver 90° bend covered with the black sleeve in this photo. The leak in question was out of shot in the video but is directly above, coming from where the yellow plastic plug is.

[RoverFolkUs]

Focus #2 decided it wants to get in on the attention that Xsara Picasso is receiving at the moment. 

Earlier for about 5 minutes/2 miles there was a semi-high pitched howling from the engine, almost identical to the sound of an over-tensioned belt. It went away by itself but the AUX belt has gone thin and was tacky in a 1cm strip and left sticky rubber marks on the water pump pulley. 

Think I'm going to pull my finger out and replace the PAS pump + pipes this weekend. Will have to thoroughly inspect the AUX drive, bet by sods law it will be the water pump seizing up so that's another job for this hateful fucker's list. 

I'm really getting tired of Focus #2, think I'll be sacking it off after its MOT in July, will prob present it early in June to get it gone ASAP and sold with 13 months MOT

Focus #1 has sat there receiving absolutely no attention for weeks now. Keep meaning to sort the rattling heat shield and I must do the thermostat on it which I've been ignoring monitoring* for about 2.5 years now!

I cleaned all three cars last week, now they're covered in dusty pollen and bird shit. Why do I bother...!

[RoverFolkUs]

Focus #2 surgery... #longpostalert

As I eluded to in the grumpy thread, I am currently in the process of replacing the PAS pipes and pump on Focus #2 

It went from good to bad to ugly

It started off very well, everything was disassembled in an hour or so. 

Come to fitting the new parts, the pump and union went on absolutely fine

Then along came the pipes to fucking ruin my fucking day

The rack retaining bracket was manufactured backwards so I had to cut it off and flip it around. I'm not convinced its clamping properly having had about 25% of its material removed but as long as it doesn't leak I'm happy. 

Faffed about with that and got it in place, then got to the high pressure pipe on the pump

For love nor money would the pipe and bracket line up without the pipes and houses fouling the pulley. I spent about half an hour faffing about with the brackets and it still wouldn't line up

I then got the old pipes to compare the shape and spotted the problem. Off they came for the first time...

Hard to explain, but the blue lines show the high pressure pipes pointing the same way. You can see the brackets circled yellow are pointing in a complete different direction. (Black is old, silver is new)

By this point I had two options - send them back/get a replacement and thus leave the car off the road for weeks given the escapade with the union, or modify the pipes to see if I can make them work. 

I opted for the latter option...

Heated the bracket up and bent it roughly resembling the old one. 

Fitted them back into the car and lined the brackets up to see how far off I was

A fair whack out, off they come again, back in the vice and straightened the bracket

Repeat, install into the car and now find it was too high given the angle it was bent at

Remove from the car, hammer the bracket downwards and that was it, it lined up and was very close to the old one. 

Go to push it in, and it took a 3ft lever bar to push it all the way in, don't think they should be that tight, guessing the bracket needs to be bang on to line it all up, obviously I'd never get it perfect for a month of Sundays. But it's in and bolted down so should be ok

By this point it was getting late and I was very frustrated. Anyone who's tried to fit a stretch belt to a Focus (double AUX pulley) will testify how much of a fucking ballache it is so I decided to leave that for another day

Given the modifications to the pipes, I am fully expecting the worst, but will only find out when the belt is on, it's full of fluid and run up to test

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With the drivers headlight, alternator, coolant bottle and PAS bottle moved out the way this is the access you have to the pump, great! Since I wanted to remove the old pump and pipes as one lot I removed the engine mount, dropped the engine down and retrieved it all from underneath. If you are reusing your old pump I would strongly recommend removing it anyway so that you can access the union to remove it. 

To be honest I didn't need to photograph anything else, it's extremely straightforward if you have prior mechanical knowledge and the pipes you buy do not require such extensive modifications as mine did

@catsinthewelder this should give you an idea assuming yours is a petrol, you should do alright if you go for the same list of items to remove for access

[catsinthewelder]

That looks like a massive headache.

I've seen the unions for sale separately so might give that a go to save disturbing anything else, particularly if the pipes on sale are wrong.  Mines a diesel but doesn't look wildly different.

[RoverFolkUs]

  On 30/04/2022 at 12:37, catsinthewelder said:

That looks like a massive headache.

I've seen the unions for sale separately so might give that a go to save disturbing anything else, particularly if the pipes on sale are wrong.  Mines a diesel but doesn't look wildly different.

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If the diesels are anything like the petrols, the unions are single use. Once you push the pipes in, that's it. You then have to replace the pipes and union if it leaks

The issue with mine turned out to be the union was damaged and wasn't clipping the pipe in place properly as it came out when I undid the bracket, that's not supposed to happen. 

Which derv engine has yours got, 1.6, 1.8 or 2.0?

[catsinthewelder]

The 1.6 timebomb.

[RoverFolkUs]

  On 30/04/2022 at 13:31, catsinthewelder said:

The 1.6 timebomb.

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Right, they have electrohydraulic power steering with the electric pump under the headlight I think so you shouldn't need to attack any of the engine ancillaries like I did. 

The electric pumps are about £500 brand new so you definitely wouldn't want to be replacing that as a matter of course!

Do the unions you've seen look like this?

If so, in theory you shouldnt be able to remove the pipes and replace just the union as they aren't supposed to separate. But mine had and that's what the problem turned out to be so it would definitely be worth a try seeing if the old pipes will come out of the union then you can just replace the union. 

I think the pipes maybe the same across all engines, but I don't see where that bracket would attach to the EHPAS pump..?

[catsinthewelder]

What I could do with doing is getting something else running before taking the daily to bits.

Thanks for helping me understand how much grief it's going to be.

[RoverFolkUs]

  On 30/04/2022 at 16:29, catsinthewelder said:

What I could do with doing is getting something else running before taking the daily to bits.

Thanks for helping me understand how much grief it's going to be.

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That was my mistake

I loathe taxing and insuring Focus #1 for a weekend, especially with the month overlap I'll end up paying for 2 months tax for a weekend's use basically. 

What do I otherwise need the car for, buying a load of crap at the boot sales and that's probably it for this weekend. Think I'll survive going without just for now!

[sierraman]

I’ve been Focus Mk2 meddling today, not on mine but on a mates. Changed oil, replaced coil and repaired damaged loom, set of pads on the front, changed filters, sorted out a leaking PAS reservoir return pipe, rustproofed the brake pipes, cleaned MAF. Just needs the back of the offside sill welding and she’s good to go!

[RoverFolkUs]

  On 30/04/2022 at 18:33, sierraman said:

I’ve been Focus Mk2 meddling today, not on mine but on a mates. Changed oil, replaced coil and repaired damaged loom, set of pads on the front, changed filters, sorted out a leaking PAS reservoir return pipe, rustproofed the brake pipes, cleaned MAF. Just needs the back of the offside sill welding and she’s good to go!

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Most jobs on them are a walk in the park to be fair, (apart from rear suspension) 

I was going to do the cambelt on mine but I thought what's the point, it's going to be a £1200 (ish) car with a years MOT when I come to sell it, I can't feasibly sort everything out that might possibly pose a problem for someone 3/6/9/12/24 months down the line!

If someone's happy to pay an extra £200 on top for the kit + beer tokens for my troubles I'd gladly do it, but I suspect buyers of such a cheap car will not be interested in snapping up such a reasonable offer and will completely destroy/neglect the car in no time anyway. 

Did you tackle the cabin filter too? They're an absolute bitch to do 😂

I wish my PAS leak was only the return pipe as that's nice and straightforward and perfectly bodge-able! But in fairness that wouldn't have been a complete swine of a job if it wasn't for the dogshite pattern pipes from eBay

I'm not looking forward to putting the new Aux belt on, think I've got the correct tool somewhere just need to find & use it!

The rear inner sills on Focus #2 are going crusty, I treated and painted them about 6 months ago but some rust staining is coming back, might sort that if I can be arsed! 

With everything disassembled for the PAS pump there was loads of access to the thermostat, just a shame it's the other Focus I need to do that on 🤦