any Ford Focus owners here?

[Warren Mohler]

If it's a rubber gskt. in a groove I doubt it came out. Look close at head gskt. a lot of newer engines have a oil return or drain at the rear corners of the head

[mjeff87]

It is a rubber gasket, that fits into a grooved channel molded into the VC.  Lots of twists/turns/things it goes around (the plugs are in the center of the cover, for example).  I was thinking head gasket myself, but I won't know until tomorrow when I can get the car back home and pop the cover off.

 

It's an '01.....not a new engine LOL.

[mjeff87]

Think I finally fixed it, lol.  Took the VC off yesterday and it looks like the gasket slipped out of it's groove right where it was leaking from.  Spent about an hour cleaning everything up, then put it all back together with a small smear of RTV black in a couple key places.  Let it sit overnight to seal up tight and drove it to work this morning.  So far, I can't see any leaks.  Yay.

 

Now onto the steering rack.  The inner tie rod boots are full of fluid and are dripping.  The driverside TR needs to be replaced, but I think I'm just going to pull and replace the whole rack.

[mjeff87]

Ended up not replacing the rack, but I did swap in new inner and outer tie rods, boots, and a driverside axleshaft.  The inner tie rods were a PITA as they were factory  The ends don't have flats on them to get a wrench on to break them free from the rack like aftermarket ones do.....I had to end up disconnecting the LCA's on both sides so I could get a pipe wrench on them.  Getting the zipties over the inner boots and tightening them up was a whole new exercise in body contortionism, too.  I didn't know it, but when I was working on the driverside, the whole axleshaft separated at the tri-ball.  It was so loose I can't imagine how it held together for as long as it did, so I pulled it yesterday and put a new one in.  Surprisingly, I didn't have a single problem swapping it, except for the puller tool I rented from O'Riley's that was supposed to work but failed miserably.  I'm happy I only rented it and didn't buy it, it was a pile of crap.  I ended up rigging up a body dent puller/slide hammer with a hook of sorts on the end which worked perfectly, after I smashed my thumb with it on the first pull.  Got it all put back together yesterday morning, then ran it up to the local Firestone for an alignment.  Went back home, cracked (another) beer, and cooked us some sirloin steaks on the charcoal for dinner.  It was a fine day.  Few pics.....new tie rods installed on both sides, and the SHOT old boots.

[mjeff87]

Then I moved onto the axleshaft.  Pics are pretty self-explanatory.....old one out, the broken CV joint, and a shot of the old versus new shafts.

[mjeff87]

You have to use a puller for the driverside axleshaft, because the input is recessed into the trans housing.  You can't just yank on the end, because you will end up separating the CV joint and trashing the whole shaft (mine self-detached on it's own while I was pulling the LCA...it was shot to begin with).  Pics are the recessed input, the rental tool that is "supposed" to work but didn't, the slide hammer/hook tool I codged up that actually worked perfectly, and the whole thing all put back together again.  Last pic was dinner

 

 

[Pete M]

the best reward for a hard day's work.  

[mjeff87]

Not much to report here on the Focus....just been putting gas in it and running it all over the place.  Throwout bearing is getting louder (only when cold started, once warmed up it's quiet, but it's still dying a slow death).  And I've stopped the engine oil leaks but STILL have a leak from somewhere on the backside of the transmission that I can't find.  I figure when I drop the trans to replace the clutch/TO bearing I'll be able to inspect the back of the case and find the leak source while I have it lying out on the garage floor.  I might do that next weekend, I'm off Thursday so I can try to get it all done in a day, but if I don't I can run the KJ to work Friday and then finish up over the weekend.  Need to start gathering parts.

[Drahcir495]

I believe you could eat off that 2nd to last picture 

[mjeff87]

None of my junk may be worth anything, but at least they are clean...inside and outside

[mjeff87]

Wow.....I never thought getting a new clutch for this thing would be such an, experience.  Went to my local indy parts house over the weekend to get one.  Turns out they could "special order" one, with an added shipping fee, for $385  WTF?  They printed off the quote and gave it to me, said to hang onto it just in case I needed it, when I told them I wasn't about to put a $400 clutch into a $300 vehicle and would get one somewhere else.  Checked multiple places, including Rock Auto and Amazon, and it turns out that's just about the going rate for a clutch kit for this thing.  I ended up finding a ching-chong kit from one Advance Auto store about 40 miles south of me (the only one that actually had one in stock anywhere.....) for $185.  I used some speed perks and a discount code and picked it up for $150.  It's a Carquest "brand", and most likely will self destruct within 2 years (the slave/throwout is my worry, not the actual clutch disc or housing).  I don't plan on having this car around much more than a year or so, maybe, so I'm going to toss it in tomorrow and see what happens.  I'm debating on picking up a brand name slave/throwout from somewhere for $75 or so and just not using the el cheapo one that came with the kit.  I might just do that for peace of mind.

 

Anyway, my plan is to drop the trans tomorrow and stab this new stuff in.  Should be a fun job....

[Pete M]

4 hours ago, mjeff87 said:

  I don't plan on having this car around much more than a year or so, maybe,

 

 

 

Can't tell you how many times I said that about the old minivan.  ended up keeping it for like 15 years and 240k miles  

[mjeff87]

Lol.  I picked up a different unit from NAPA today for $70.  It's ABS plastic versus the el cheapo pot metal Chicom unit that came with the kit, and is wholly superior in every aspect.  It's also German made.  I'll be plopping that one in tomorrow.  I'll use the janky one as a doorstop or something creative. As much of a PITA this job is gonna be, I want to never have to do it again.

[mjeff87]

Budget unit on left.....German unit on right.

[mjeff87]

Well, got that job done (mostly).  Ended up taking off work yesterday to finish it up and spent about 7 more hours on it.  Finally got it pulled out around 4:30.  Still have to clean up the garage/put all my tools away so I can get the Jeep back inside.  That's on the priority list, because we had a really bad hailstorm here last Friday afternoon and the KJ was sitting out in the driveway (because the Focus and my wife's car were in the garage).  My heart just sank as I heard and watched the quarter sized hailstones blast on it.  Thankfully, no injuries to the Jeep, but alot of my landscape plants are hosed and so are all of the screens on my upstairs windows on the front of the house.  My next door neighbor (literally 20 feet away from me) got the entire front of his house pounded.  All of the siding looks like swiss cheese, and one of the window lentils on his garage window got blown off and down onto his daughter's car in the driveway.  More of that may be coming here later on this week, too.

 

Had to fix/replace a few other things along the way too.  I mangled the CPS connector, so I yanked a couple spare ones out of the junkyard and re-pinned one of them.  Passenger side axleshaft CV boot was dry rotted and just starting to sling grease out, so I got a new one of them to go along with the new driverside axleshaft I just replaced a few weeks ago.  And I managed to pull apart that new driverside CV while trying to take it out, so I broke down and finally bought a pair of Oetiker clamp pliers and some new band clamps and fixed it back up.  Also had to put in a new output shaft seal on the passenger side.

[mjeff87]

With all that fixed, I got the new clutch installed (flywheel was smooth and shiny, all I did was hit it with some brake cleaner and wiped it clean).  Then had to mess around with a tranny jack, 2 floor jacks and a bottle jack plus a couple pieces of 2X6 to try to wrestle the trans back home.  It beat the heck out of me, hands down.  Ended up having my buddy help me and it still took both of us about 30 minutes to get it back in.  With that done, I had to reattach the entire subframe, install the new axleshafts, connect everything back up, reinstall the 2 trans mounts, put the suspension/steering/knuckles back in on both sides and bleed the throwout.  Not a fun job, at all.

[mjeff87]

And after all of that, I had one little 2-wire electrical connector up in the engine bay without a home.  I looked around for about 45 minutes trying to find out where it went.  Finally figured out it went on the top of the trans body, near the selector mechanism.  Which meant I had to take the battery, battery tray, air box and air intake tube BACK off to get to the sensor to plug it back in.  That was a big kick in the gut after spending so much time putting it all back together.

[mjeff87]

Swapped out the synthetic ATF in the case this morning with the "gold standard" aka Ford honey fluid.  $21 per quart, but oh my gawd was it worth it.  Trans shifts like melted butter now.  I was expecting a little bit of improvement, but NOTHING like how good it shifts now.

 

If anyone here has a manual Focus or other Ford product with an MTX-75 transmission, this stuff is highly recommended and I can definitely say it works great.  It was the original OEM spec' fluid for these cases but Ford switched to (cheaper) ATF sometime in the mid 2000's to save money.  Dump the ATF and run this stuff if you can.  It's a bit hard to find, my dealership had to special order it in for me.

 

Motorcraft full synthetic manual transmission fluid, part #XT-M5-QS.  You'll need about 2.5 quarts for a proper fill, sadly.

 

[mjeff87]

It had a little rattle coming from somewhere in the driverside front suspension I'd been noticing, ended up being that side's sway bar link.  Replaced both of them yesterday after work....the OEM ones were comically tiny compared to the aftermarket replacements (even the white box specials I bought from AA).  They even have grease zerks.  Hecho in China, though.....

 

Picking up some cheap Monroe gas-matics for the rear shocks today, and that should about do it for now unless something else breaks

[mjeff87]

Not able to leave well enough alone, I worked on the rear end yesterday.  The drums have an integrated wheel bearing (just like the front hubs) and are about $50 each new, which I wasn't about to pay.  Instead I hit them with a cup brush on the angle grinder to get them back to bare metal, then shot them with Rustoleum hammered black paint.  Also replaced the rear shocks with some sexy yellow Monroe gas-matics

[mjeff87]

Focus is down...

 

I'd been noticing some random hard starts recently, and some stumbling for a few seconds when it did start.  Had a strong unburned fuel smell when it happened too.  So I started checking/replacing some obvious things (fuel filter, pump relay, ignition coil, CPS), dumped a can of injector cleaner and a can of dry gas in the tank (thinking I had a clogged injector).  Picked up a cam sensor on the way home from work on Tuesday, it was starting/running fine....stopped at a grocery store on the way home for some potatoes for dinner and when I got back in it she barely started.  Missing on one cylinder, I limped it up to the house and parked it.  Pulled it into the garage last night and pulled the plugs to do a compression test (thinking blown head gasket, dropped valve seat, or some other terrible thing) and the plugs were completely gas fouled.  Did a compression test anyway and they all checked out around 190 psi (+/- 5 psi), so there's nothing wrong inside mechanically.  I pulled the harness off the MAF sensor while I had it running, and absolutely nothing changed......which is weird.  I've forgotten to re-plug it up a couple times in the past when I had the airbox off and it will NOT run at all if the sensor is unplugged, so I think I found my culprit.  I'm picking up new plugs today, and going to grab a new (to me) MAF off a junkyard Focus tomorrow, so we'll see what happens.  It's not throwing a CEL, but that's typical of these engines....it might be storing a pending code right now, but I don't have a code reader to check.  I might grab a cheap one from Harbor Fright too, just to have on hand.

[Pete M]

you should absolutely have a code reader.  

[mjeff87]

I never had a need for one until now, lol.  I can pull codes on the KJ with the key-cycle trick and read them on the odometer (same as the TJ I had).  Focus doesn't have that luxury, you have to have a code reader.

 

edit:  this thing doesn't even have a schraeder valve on the fuel rail (or anywhere else) to check fuel pressure.  You have to use a scan tool to read it.

[Pete M]

my code reader can delete codes too.  

[mjeff87]

Might have to put the Focus repair plans on hold.....I just remembered (and so did the wife, so I'm not a dead man) that tomorrow is our 27th anniversary.  She wants to go out to eat somewhere.  That ought to be a real adventure.