[focuscanada94]

Hey there guys, I am new around here, and new to driving a focus! I just got a 2000 zx3 a couple of weeks ago. Its got 226,000 KM with alot of new parts in the past couple of years, and quite a bit recently for me to get it on the road. The body is in fairly good shape, minor rust in a few spots, and after winter I may look into fixing it. Right now this is how the car sits, (as I bought it, haven't done anything yet because I want to hear some opinions)

2000 Focus Zx3 (Silver), 2' eibach lowering springs, HID's, and on stock wheels right now for the winter but I do have 17's for the summer that came with the car ( they dont look the greatest though). Also has that body kit mesh on all of the grills (previous owner install, looks better than stock for now).

I have had a couple little issues with it already, which I have worked out. The tranny grinds the odd time downshifting from 3rd, to 2nd , and the odd time when im putting it into first or shifting into second. Is this something I should be concerned about? What are some normal issues with these cars that I can try to avoid by doing certain things?

First thing I'm probably going to do is tint or exhaust, might do a full exhaust with header and all, and once winter is over , a cold air intake.

I don't want to sink a tonne of money into this thing, but I would like to make it look, and sound a little bit better, and maybe give it a little bit more power in the process. The car does have 226,000 on it, Im not sure what these Zetec motors/ trannys are capable of, but that is why I'm here, to learn about them.

Hopefully I can have a good experience with Ford Focus, and maybe this is only the first of many focus for me to own, this seems like a great community. Pm me if you have any tips, or live around me.

[Mystake]

(12-22-2013, 04:24 AM)focuscanada94 Wrote: Hey there guys, I am new around here, and new to driving a focus! I just got a 2000 zx3 a couple of weeks ago. Its got 226,000 KM with alot of new parts in the past couple of years, and quite a bit recently for me to get it on the road. The body is in fairly good shape, minor rust in a few spots, and after winter I may look into fixing it. Right now this is how the car sits, (as I bought it, haven't done anything yet because I want to hear some opinions)

2000 Focus Zx3 (Silver), 2' eibach lowering springs, HID's, and on stock wheels right now for the winter but I do have 17's for the summer that came with the car ( they dont look the greatest though). Also has that body kit mesh on all of the grills (previous owner install, looks better than stock for now).

I have had a couple little issues with it already, which I have worked out. The tranny grinds the odd time downshifting from 3rd, to 2nd , and the odd time when im putting it into first or shifting into second. Is this something I should be concerned about? What are some normal issues with these cars that I can try to avoid by doing certain things?

First thing I'm probably going to do is tint or exhaust, might do a full exhaust with header and all, and once winter is over , a cold air intake.

I don't want to sink a tonne of money into this thing, but I would like to make it look, and sound a little bit better, and maybe give it a little bit more power in the process. The car does have 226,000 on it, Im not sure what these Zetec motors/ trannys are capable of, but that is why I'm here, to learn about them.

Hopefully I can have a good experience with Ford Focus, and maybe this is only the first of many focus for me to own, this seems like a great community. Pm me if you have any tips, or live around me.

Firstly... welcome to the site!

For the tranny... is there any more details you can give? Is there anything you've noticed that specifically makes it grind or it just happens randomly? At that many KM, it could maybe be the clutch that isn't disengaging all the way? Worn out syncros? I've never heard of a worn out 1st gear though. Either way, tranny work is expensive if you gotta pay someone else to do it for you.

About the transmission, it's commonly known for wearing out the 3rd gear syncro. Besides that 3rd gear, they've got a decent reputation as far as I've seen. Mine's been reliable and it's got 218k

As for what the Zetec is capable of... you can make them go to 1000 hp with enough time and money - it's really whats in your budget. Realistically, a brand new zetec has 130hp (about 114 at the wheels). Adding things like bigger exhausts and cold air intakes won't really add up to all that much except sound and just a few hp so unless you plan on building up the motor you're not going to get all that much more power out of without spending a few 1000 on a bunch of bolt on mods.

If you want my opinion, if you're not looking to spend too much money on the car then just drive it the way it is and save up for a nicer one and then modify that one instead.
Believe me when I say that fixing up and old car becomes a one thing after another type of scenario... but hey if you decide that this car is what you wanna work on then yeah man welcome to the site and feel free to ask around any questions you have! There's lots of info scattered around the forum so best way to look for it is to use the search button up at the top right of the forums.

[GFXjamie]

Welcome!

One thing like Luke mentioned is fixing up an older car. If you are patient and have mechanical ability, do it! If not, keep it driving and have some fun while saving up for something newer. Unless you have a big budget down the line that you are saving towards.

The third gear grind is a typical focus thing. Third gear syncros are a weak point especially if the previous owner was a power shifter or bad at stick in general. Very few have no third gear grind especially with your mileage.

If you want to take steps to get it into a solid power house, I suggest looking for a low mileage Zetec, do the bolt ons and tune, along with suspension mods as these cars handle great out of the box but amazing with some coilovers or even a well balanced spring and shock.

Once you have the car up to snuff mechanically with some new components, maybe some rear disks and upgraded front disks then you should start to look at the forced induction side of things if your still into the car. The focus with a blower or a turbo makes for an awesome car. Light weight, good power numbers and solid handling make it a hard car to beat at that point for what it can offer.

In addition to all of this, me and a few others have spare parts kicking around for most generation of focus so post up if your looking for parts and pick up some used stuff to save cash

[2000zx3sct]

Welcome! , when it comes time I have an SVT exhaust setup if your interested . Shoot me a pm and we can talk I'm moving in a couple weeks and would like to get rid of it.

[focuscanada94]

Interested in the exhaust set up for sure. And as for the grinding, I may have made it sound worse than what it really is . it just feels a little bit odd going into a of the gears sometimes, and when it grinded before, it may have been because I wasn't use ton the car yet and maybe didn't have the clutch matted when i was shifting that time. This ride I have has been well taken care of, and I hope to make it last a while, ( I won't be buying new for the foreseeable future).

Basically I want to make it a clean looking, nice sounding ride that's nice to see driving around and nice to drive around in. After that is accomplished, then I may think about adding some serious performance upgrades.

Another thing is I could always build up the zx3 I have , and if something ever happened to it , use all those parts. My favorite focus are the svt's and zx3's for the older style foci. Son I could definantly see myself buying a mint clean clean low km one in a few years.

Anyways thanks for your help so far guys, pm me if you gave anything for sale or just have any general tips!

Have a good one
- Curtis