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Ford focus clutch

Morning chaps,

I've been on the hunt for a new car and narrowed it down to a focus mainly because they are cheap-ish to buy and fix or so I have been led to believe. I've never been in one till yesterday. I test drove 2 and wanted to know do they naturally have quite a hard clutch pedal ?

Previously drove a seat leon and it was effortless pressing the clutch very soft on the foot which is nice at my age.

The first one was an 03 ghia 40k and it was like pushing a 3lb weight around with each press, although the car was a shed and walked away.

Second one also a ghia 64k a bit better but noticeable difficult to press.

So I was thinking is this a sign of a worn clutch or is this their natural way ? .. it does feel like quite a lot of resistance. I've driven many cars over the years never a ford though as I've always favoured german cars. I'm just wondering if these are the way the focus behaves, if so driving we be a total pain and a dred.

I started thinking could the previous owner have worn it out in 64k ? possible on driving style but I usually get over 100k usually.

If it is a sign of a worn clutch how much would this job cost on a 03 ghia to have done approx in the london area ?

Reply to
Pete
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The clutches are rather heavy

Reply to
steve robinson

[...]

Agreed; it depends to a great extent on what you have been driving.

Some find the brakes need more effort than other cars as well, although I have the opposite problem. Any time I drive a Vauxhall, for instance, I tend to stand it on its nose the first couple of stops!

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

[...]

Agreed; it depends to a great extent on what you have been driving.

Some find the brakes need more effort than other cars as well, although I have the opposite problem. Any time I drive a Vauxhall, for instance, I tend to stand it on its nose the first couple of stops!

Chris

I see. Could be that I've always driven VAG cars and just become acustomed to those and driving anything else is new territory, I wonder if I would get used to or if it would end up driving me cuckoo.

The second focus I saw the brakes were scarily bad, front pads plenty of meat, discs quite lipped, obviously with the drums not sure whats happening in there but they can't have been working well. I could almost floor the pedal and had to brake a good 5/8 seconds than normal not a fault of the manufacture just wear and tear pretty poor form for a so called fore court to sell it like this. Would have been far better to put discs all round on such a car like the focus. Drums brake are as old fashioned as it gets. I'm guessing it was a cost cutting ploy.

I drove a vauxhall 59 plate sxi recently and it was not too bad actually, first vauxhall I have ever driven in all honesty. Good brakes, nice clutch :) .. but visibility was rubbish, and cramped in the cabin and very cheap and plastic feeling.

I'm not so convinced now knowing the focus has a heavy clutch as on the day to day I'm wondering if I can get along with it, probly driving it for a while I could get used to it .. hmmm

I think I'll look at a few more, possibly better examples and then make a choice on which direction to go.

I have been looking at mk4 golf aswell I fear getting a 1.6 as of the gearbox issues, but don't want to plump up for the 2.0 as the power gain is n/a and I pay more insurance wise.

This car hunting game is hard :(

Reply to
Pete
[...]

I would be amazed if you noticed it after a week.

It would be more likely due to non-Ford pads being used.

Drums on the rear are actually quite a good idea. The big problem with rear discs is getting a handbrake this is effective. On modern cars, the rear brakes actually do very little of the stopping.

The biggest reason for rear discs becoming more commonplace is that it's much easier to arrange ABS with them.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan
[...]

I would be amazed if you noticed it after a week.

I hope so as I don't want want to pay for the vag price tag anymore :) I love vag cars, albeit one to many niggly problems, electrical etc but mechanically they are pretty sound. Although on my first mk4 golf I had every common fault under the sun like the window regulators dropping etc etc but none ever stopped me from going. Although I had the plagued 1.6 which has a bad gearbox which self destructed leaving me with a bill of around £1000. Whats attracted me to the world of the focus is the relatively easy to do a lot of mechanical repairs on the drive, cheapness of parts and no catastrophic design fault which are costly.

It would be more likely due to non-Ford pads being used.

I see, I gather then genuine parts would be best. I can't imagine erven genuine ones being to dear. I used pattern parts from gsf on the golf and whilst it performed fine, the main issue was the pads were not and exact fit and moved slightly in the carrier causing a knocking on braking, it drove me bonkers. I'll bear it in mind when doing brakes or other jobs on it (my to be car that is)

Drums on the rear are actually quite a good idea. The big problem with rear discs is getting a handbrake this is effective. On modern cars, the rear brakes actually do very little of the stopping.

The biggest reason for rear discs becoming more commonplace is that it's much easier to arrange ABS with them.

You learn something every day, my knowledge of such is a bit limited. Make sense why so many car manufacturers go with a pads and disc setup. I guess the abs was less of an issue on the focus as I think I read it was not included till 2003 ? according to parkers.

I'll keep on searching on autotrader, ebay local paper etc for a nice example.

Chris

Reply to
Pete

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