I own ZX3 2003 US model. When I turn on the fan, it seems that the air conditioner is also turned on (although the air conditioner switch's light is still off). Is this what it should be? Has anyone had the same problem? In summer, I would turn on the air conditioner but I also want to blow out the air conditioner odor away before I turn off the engine. There is no way and I get that smell next time I turn on the car.
When the direction dial is set to defrost (i.e. blows on the windshield) the air conditioning comes on automatically unless the fan is off. This is to help dry the moisture off the windshield. You can see information on this in your owner's manual.
There is no way and I get that smell next
Hi if you get smell from your ac, you need to let it clean. I get no smell from mine, and it get cleaned every two years. bye Jupp
Not sure what you mean by that, but I think it's that kind of musty smell, if you turn off the AC, or switch from defrost, a few minutes before you shut down the car, it will dry off the condensor coils and they won't sit wet overnight and get that smell.
Sorry but if that doesn't work well enough and for me it didn't - I was told by the Ford dealer I could spray Lysol into that black trim on the outside of the car nearest the windshield on the drivers side - with the A/C running - then turn the car off. The next couple of days the car smells fine.. then I have to repeat it. They claim it won't hurt anything...and it works better than anything else except an A/C redesign. Good luck...Linda
Hi I forgot: its a German one, of course :-) bye Jupp
The engine parts for my Canadian market Focus came from every corner of the globe, making it the most "International" car I've ever encountered. I wouldn't be at all surprised if European and North American models shared a wide range of parts, including A/C cores.
Rob
---------------------------------
"Josef Erbs" wrote ...
Hi when I read this NG with this much problems (frontbrakes, pollenfiltercover, ignition lock etc.pp) that no one in Germany ever heard about, I am not sure if You are right.
I have a 2000 TDI with 90 hp, and none of these problems came around my car. I did not even read about before coming to this NG. bye Jupp
No . I would tend to believe that North American and European would have very different parts suppliers...that would make for a better quality and probably more expensive car in the European market. Does Germany require the brake pads that we (US) have to put up with or the fuel useage rules that makes them lighten up all parts or have them cheap out on trim? There are so many areas Ford cut quality to save money here rather than make a better car because that would cost more...I know it's for the health of people the US mandates it so I don't complain too often...I was just curious if the rest of the world follows it also ?? Thanks - Linda
Hi OK, You asked for it ;-)
The problem with the brake pads without Asbest is finished here a long time ago, I think about 10 or 15. So there is no problem at all, I was wondering why the American producers did not look over to see how to handle this problem.
Looking at the mileage, that is not that problem in Europe, because petrol is much, much, much more expensive as in the US. Here in Germany You pay 0.95 EUR/Litre disel, about 1.25EUR/Litre petrol with 95 octan. So the mileage was way better in Europe a long time before Your government even thought about it. And is getting better, too. My car uses diesel and needs about 5.5 Litres/100Km. With AC on, a litre more. That is not that bad for an engine with 90 hp and a car with about 1400Kg. Including travelling at high speeds up to 190 Km/h. If the average American car would have that mileage, You nearly were not in need to buy petrol from other countries.
And that could be better, it was a hard fight for Ford Europe to be allowed to develope their own engine and not to take the one developed for the US-market like the decades before. GM Europe- here called OPEL- had the similar problem. So the cars from VW, Audi or the French and Japanese ones have even better mileages than Ford or GM, because they have developed engines especially for the european market since decades. The newest in Germany is the particle filter for diesel engines that holds back the tiny little particles causing cancer in your lungs. The French have it since about 5 years ago. bye Jupp
I won't argue with you...I appreciate the knowledge as that's how I learn...if I ask a question I'm not going to holler at you when you answer...honest. Thanks - Linda
(earlier top posting reset in chronological order...)
I had to smile reading Rob's post, because it reminded me what's apparently required (for whatever reason) for the mandatory "paper stickers" for new U.S. cars "fresh on the lot" nowadays. Interesting to hear if anyone has noted anything like this lately -- it's been 5 years since I bought my last new car -- and I just found this part of the whole transaction amusing...
In fact, I did buy a new 2004 Focus station wagon (U.S.) just today -- on the strength of how well my wife's 2001 Focus sedan has behaved -- but my
2004 was delivered to my local dealer from another dealer, and so all the U.S. "informational stickers" (your own country's "informational stickers" will certainly vary) that I expected to see stuck to the windows of a new car had been scraped off already. Before I bought the 2004, however, the dealership had shown me a 2005 F. station wagon first, the only one the salesman had to show. (Not my color; sorry.) It was the "mandatory sticker" on that 2005 that caught my attention -- I wish I had written down the exact wording of it -- which was it was guaranteed that 50% of the components of that car were either Canadian OR U.S. made, and that "of the remaining parts in the car, it could be guaranteed with a lot of certainty" (or something like that) that 15% of them came from ... Mexico.No problem with the Mexico part ... the first thought springing to my mind -- can't be helped, sorry -- was "where's the other 35% of the car?" The second realization was that it was too complicated for Ford to break out, by country. Or perhaps it's just Ford's minimum compliance with whatever the "mandatory sticker" rules are in the U.S. for "country break-out" -- today, anyway...
I may have bought the most International car that I have ever owned, also. (But I learned that lesson over a decade ago, when I moved from the U.S. to Europe for 2 years. I bought a VW Fox, then, in the U.S., figuring that a VW could be fixed anywhere in Europe, whatever might go wrong... When the U.S. recall came out for a certain faulty part on the Fox later that I needed to replace, I couldn't find the part anywhere in Europe. _Then_ I learned this Fox was made for the N.A. and S.A. markets only, according to VW...)
Dave "coming off a 1999 Ford Escort, which was a very good car" B.
No worries. U.S. law requires statement of MAJOR COUNTRY of origin for your car, and has been doing so for years for every auto manufacturer. I believe the final assembly of your car was done in Mexico from U.S. and Mexican suppliers. My SE wagon was final assembled in Wayne, Michigan, again with the same suppliers. Ford is trying to keep costs down by producing cars in lower cost plants, spreading the suppliers across three nations by using NAFTA accords. You may see that the major assembly numbers do not add up to 100 %. That would reflect for other, smaller assemblies in the car. BTW, there ARE European parts on your Focus. And the dealer should not have removed that sticker without your permission. Tell them you want another one, and if they didn't give you the Monroney sticker (MSRP price list) you want that too, it belongs to you.
< I wrote earlier> :
:
No, I didn't get either of those stickers. But you made me go look again closely though (I'll admit I'm very lazy about some things...): The car also doesn't have the little decal (usually in blue on clear plastic, and often on the bottom of one of the windows, IIRC, about Ford products stating "Assembled in such-and-such plant," etc., either. Naked car! -- at least the recommended tire pressure sticker is on the body just below the driver's side door latch!
Besides my own laziness, I have such great confidence in this particular local Ford dealership we have been dealing with for so long that I don't mind not seeing ... hardly any stickers on my near-new car! And (re)reading some of the posts (and remembering others), it sounds like, especially for many of the U.K. writers, many of the current Ford dealers there are as classically bad/shifty as the image of being "a used car salesman" was/in in the U.S. Maybe it's just my good luck to be close to this particular Ford dealer...
Dave
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.