YACT: Think I should go synthetic in the Focus?

[Eli]

I'm already going to switch to synthetic engine oil, that's a no brainer.

The engine has 96,000 miles on it. The transmission shifts fairly nice, although I do notice a slight delay switching into 1st if already moving sometimes.

I dunno. Anyone ever heard anything about Focus' automatics and using synthetic in them? Some transmissions don't like it, but some really, really like it.

It would be a fairly expensive en devour, but could be worth it since I'll be putting 45,000+ miles a year on the car.

What about synthetic brake fluid?

High performance coolant? lol... I want this car to last.

 

[Eli]

This forum is slower than black strap molasses in an Alaskan winter. :roll:

 

[HiTek21]

I would just switch the oil and ATF to synthetic. Maybe do the BG Flush on the coolant system and add redline water wetter with the new coolant.

on second thought maybe leave the water wetter out probably more harmful than good.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: HiTek21
I would just switch the oil and ATF to synthetic. Maybe do the BG Flush on the coolant system and add redline water wetter with the new coolant.

on second thought maybe leave the water wetter out probably more harmful than good.

I probably would use Water Wetter. Why would it do more harm than good? AFAIK, it actually helps lubricate the water pump and such.

I'm looking at like 100 bucks in synthetic automatic transmission fluid if I want to switch over, lol...

 

[iamwiz82]

Heat kills automatic transmissions, so whatever you can do to stop it helps. Are you looking at Redline or Amsoil? Does the Focus have a transmission cooler?

EDIT: Here is the chart I was looking for. I remember seeing it in an Amsoil brochure. I dunno if it's smoke or not, but it doesn't sound unheard of.

At 175 deg. F, automatic transmission fluid can provide 100,000
miles service. With each 20 deg. F increase in temperature above 175
deg. F, the oxidation rate doubles and the useful life of the ATF
hallves:

deg ---- miles
175 ---- 100,000
195 ---- 50,000
212 ---- 25,000
235 ---- 12,000
255 ---- 6,250
275 ---- 3,000
295 ---- 1,500

 

[CrackRabbit]

I wouldn't bother with the synthetic transmission fluid, just use the regular Dexron/Mercon IV stuff and get it changed/flushed every 30-45k miles. Doesn't guarantee that the transmission will last longer, but it should help.
As iamwiz82 said, heat kills transmissions, a better solution would be to hook up an aftermarket transmission cooler.
Also if I remember correctly to use DOT 5 (silicone) brake fluid the system either needs to come with it in it or be flushed before it can be used, it can also attack some of the rubber components of the system if they aren't the right compound.

 

[teckmaster]

your 02 Focus isn't using synthetic already? I have an 04 and I know mine along with every other 04 Ford model use synthetic oil from the start

 

[steppinthrax]

Dude it's a ford focus not a Toyota or something. Being the fact that is has like 90K on it already more then 3/4 of it's value is gone. Just drop some standard fluid in there and drive it till it dies at 100K

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
Dude it's a ford focus not a Toyota or something. Being the fact that is has like 90K on it already more then 3/4 of it's value is gone. Just drop some standard fluid in there and drive it till it dies at 100K

Uh, it already has 100k on it. :roll:

The fact that it isn't a Toyota has nothing to do with it. I paid good money for the car, and I'm going to be putting an extraordinary amount of miles on it. I'd be asking the same things no matter what car I was driving. I want it to last.

You obviously don't know what you're talking about, though. Ford Focus' actually retain quite a bit of their resale value, they are generally reliable automobiles.

I have no idea what kind've oil it has in it. It was serviced at the dealership.. I doubt they use synthetic unless the owner wants to pay for it.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
Dude it's a ford focus not a Toyota or something. Being the fact that is has like 90K on it already more then 3/4 of it's value is gone. Just drop some standard fluid in there and drive it till it dies at 100K

Uh, it already has 100k on it. :roll:

The fact that it isn't a Toyota has nothing to do with it. I paid good money for the car, and I'm going to be putting an extraordinary amount of miles on it. I'd be asking the same things no matter what car I was driving. I want it to last.

You obviously don't know what you're talking about, though. Ford Focus' actually retain quite a bit of their resale value, they are generally reliable automobiles.

I have no idea what kind've oil it has in it. It was serviced at the dealership.. I doubt they use synthetic unless the owner wants to pay for it.

Everybody know if you want a car that last a long time and holds most of it's value at resale you go foreign. The fact in your original post you are saying the car has some slight problems shifting into 1st is indication of early transmission problems. Most Japanese cars almost never have transmission problems, let along engine problems. I can't even remember off the top of my head someone having a Camry with engine/transmission problems of any sort. I?ve worked on all different cars both American and foreign and I can tell you American cars are bottom of the barrel. I can pick up a Ford Focus on craigslist for like 2 ? 3K easily with low mileage and high year. Focus is a youth oriented cheaply designed economy-car.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: steppinthrax

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
Dude it's a ford focus not a Toyota or something. Being the fact that is has like 90K on it already more then 3/4 of it's value is gone. Just drop some standard fluid in there and drive it till it dies at 100K

Uh, it already has 100k on it. :roll:

The fact that it isn't a Toyota has nothing to do with it. I paid good money for the car, and I'm going to be putting an extraordinary amount of miles on it. I'd be asking the same things no matter what car I was driving. I want it to last.

You obviously don't know what you're talking about, though. Ford Focus' actually retain quite a bit of their resale value, they are generally reliable automobiles.

I have no idea what kind've oil it has in it. It was serviced at the dealership.. I doubt they use synthetic unless the owner wants to pay for it.

Everybody know if you want a car that last a long time and holds most of it's value at resale you go foreign. The fact in your original post you are saying the car has some slight problems shifting into 1st is indication of early transmission problems. Most Japanese cars almost never have transmission problems, let along engine problems. I can't even remember off the top of my head someone having a Camry with engine/transmission problems of any sort. I?ve worked on all different cars both American and foreign and I can tell you American cars are bottom of the barrel. I can pick up a Ford Focus on craigslist for like 2 ? 3K easily with low mileage and high year. Focus is a youth oriented cheaply designed economy-car.

I'm far from a car n00b. I've never seen you around here, I don't know who you are, and I want you to shut your asshole and move along or contribute something positive to my thread.

I already know the answers to my own questions, I just would like to discuss it with people that know what they are talking about. You clearly do not.

I don't know if it's a "problem" switching into 1st, or not. It could be perfectly normal for all I know, I've never driven an automatic Ford Focus before.

You cannot pick up a low milage, high year Ford Focus for 2-3k. :laugh:

Show me one. I'm not going to get into a domestic vs. foreign discussion with you. You clearly don't know me. The Ford Focus wouldn't have been anywhere on my list of personal choices, but it is what I ended up with.

Read this


And this

If you want to save some face and not make a complete fool out of yourself.

 

[Eli]

I'd probably be going with AMSOil all around if I did do the switch, yeah. It's available locally.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: steppinthrax

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
Dude it's a ford focus not a Toyota or something. Being the fact that is has like 90K on it already more then 3/4 of it's value is gone. Just drop some standard fluid in there and drive it till it dies at 100K

Uh, it already has 100k on it. :roll:

The fact that it isn't a Toyota has nothing to do with it. I paid good money for the car, and I'm going to be putting an extraordinary amount of miles on it. I'd be asking the same things no matter what car I was driving. I want it to last.

You obviously don't know what you're talking about, though. Ford Focus' actually retain quite a bit of their resale value, they are generally reliable automobiles.

I have no idea what kind've oil it has in it. It was serviced at the dealership.. I doubt they use synthetic unless the owner wants to pay for it.

Everybody know if you want a car that last a long time and holds most of it's value at resale you go foreign. The fact in your original post you are saying the car has some slight problems shifting into 1st is indication of early transmission problems. Most Japanese cars almost never have transmission problems, let along engine problems. I can't even remember off the top of my head someone having a Camry with engine/transmission problems of any sort. I?ve worked on all different cars both American and foreign and I can tell you American cars are bottom of the barrel. I can pick up a Ford Focus on craigslist for like 2 ? 3K easily with low mileage and high year. Focus is a youth oriented cheaply designed economy-car.

I'm far from a car n00b. I've never seen you around here, I don't know who you are, and I want you to shut your asshole and move along or contribute something positive to my thread.

I already know the answers to my own questions, I just would like to discuss it with people that know what they are talking about. You clearly do not.

I don't know if it's a "problem" switching into 1st, or not. It could be perfectly normal for all I know, I've never driven an automatic Ford Focus before.

You cannot pick up a low milage, high year Ford Focus for 2-3k. :laugh:

Show me one. I'm not going to get into a domestic vs. foreign discussion with you. You clearly don't know me. The Ford Focus wouldn't have been anywhere on my list of personal choices, but it is what I ended up with.

Read this


And this

If you want to save some face and not make a complete fool out of yourself.

I'm far from a car n00b. I've never seen you around here, I don't know who you are, and I want you to shut your asshole and move along or contribute something positive to my thread.

I did contribute something positive. I told you it was a poor car and more/less you will start to have problems with it. You notice I didn?t have to curse to talk to you. Do you have any more intelligent way of displaying your obvious anger with this issue besides using profanity (I guess not).

already know the answers to my own questions, I just would like to discuss it with people that know what they are talking about. You clearly do not.

Just because I downed your focus I don?t know what I?m talking about. I?m sure others will agree with me on the quality of Ford. Why spend hundreds of dollars with synthetic oil on a Ford. I think that was more/less my point. If you can't handel this, that is not my problem.

I don't know if it's a "problem" switching into 1st, or not. It could be perfectly normal for all I know, I've never driven an automatic Ford Focus before.

Of course you do not know it's a problem you?re a n00b. Have you ever done a transmission overhaul? Have you ever even broken a transmission down? Delayed engagement is an early sign of transmission problems. It could also be an early sign of not taking of your transmission. These are problems that don?t happen in foreign cars until after 200K and never happen in a manual for obvious reasons. I would be more concerned with this then what type of oil to put in it.

You cannot pick up a low mileage, high year Ford Focus for 2-3k.

http://www.cars.com/go/search/...num=5&leadExists=false

^That?s a 2001 with 61K on it. If that link dosen't work just go to cars.com and look for one. It's not my fault you got jipped.

It took no more then 1 min to find that.

Show me one. I'm not going to get into a domestic vs. foreign discussion with you. You clearly don't know me. The Ford Focus wouldn't have been anywhere on my list of personal choices, but it is what I ended up with.

Well from looking at your previous links my last post only highlights what you just said there. So either you are getting angy about what I (you) just said or you are coming to the realization that fords suck. The same amount of money you spend on that ford you could of got a used mid-mileage Toyota/Honda/Nissan which wouldn't have a transmssion cough at this point.

 

[CrackRabbit]

steppinthrax, lay off. Seriously.
A Ford Focus is a fine car, and Eli is simply wanting to take care of his properly to make sure it lasts.
For you to come in here and dump on his choice of car shows how much of an ass you are.
BTW, 2001 is the second year the Focus was produced, and is now a 6 year old car, and using cars.com link you have there is exactly 1 Focus within 500 miles of the Portland Metro area that is under 3k and it has 135k on the clock.

 

[Vic]

I don't think that the type of tactics and personal attacks that steppinthrax resorted to here should be tolerated in The Garage.
Even people who don't have the nicest of cars should be allowed to ask questions here and seek advice without being attacked for their buying decisions. He has the car, that's done, now he wants to know how best to maintain it. And citing the example of one with a salvage title and 2,500 miles away from his location was beyond uncalled for.


And Eli, I think the advice of the bigger cooler is best. Have you noticed a difference between hot and cold days? If so, then definitely the cooler.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Eli, the Mercon V ATF that is used in your Focus is already a synthetic.

When you talk about a delay in shifting to first when moving, what do you mean?

If you mean that when you're driving at 5-10 mph and give the car more throttle it's not at all uncommon for an automatic to prefer staying in second and take a pretty hefty amount of throttle to get the transmission to kick down into first. Some will even start in second if you don't use much throttle.

My old Accord never liked to shift into first unless I really stood on the throttle and even then it would hesitate a half-second (for example, coming onto the throttle out of a 15mph corner). Did that from day one when my parents bought it with 20,000 miles in 1990 all through the 205,000 miles that the first transmission lasted.

Pay no attention to steppinthrax, I've seen some of his posts before and he's nothing more than a one-trick troll. He claims a lot of mechanic's credentials but the only "advice" he has ever offered to anyone is to never buy an American car.

ZV

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Eli, the Mercon V ATF that is used in your Focus is already a synthetic.

When you talk about a delay in shifting to first when moving, what do you mean?

If you mean that when you're driving at 5-10 mph and give the car more throttle it's not at all uncommon for an automatic to prefer staying in second and take a pretty hefty amount of throttle to get the transmission to kick down into first. Some will even start in second if you don't use much throttle.

My old Accord never liked to shift into first unless I really stood on the throttle and even then it would hesitate a half-second (for example, coming onto the throttle out of a 15mph corner). Did that from day one when my parents bought it with 20,000 miles in 1990 all through the 205,000 miles that the first transmission lasted.

Pay no attention to steppinthrax, I've seen some of his posts before and he's nothing more than a one-trick troll. He claims a lot of mechanic's credentials but the only "advice" he has ever offered to anyone is to never buy an American car.

ZV

I've noticed it exactly twice now, but I've neglected to really pay much attention to what speed I was going, etc.

I'll give it a good ammount of gas, the engine will rev, and then it will switch into 1st and clamp it down. The only thing that makes me think it's not normal is that it seemed the transmission had disengaged whatever gear it was in before, or the engine wouldn't have revved.

It seems to shift beautifully other than that one thing, and like I said.. it's only done it twice. It could be a quirk of the ECU's, I don't know. I'll try and pay more attention to my environment if it happens again. It certainly does concern me, steppinthrax, but I'm not going to listen to your nonsense. If you would do your research, you would find that there is nothing inherently wrong with 2000+ Focus's, and they are perfectly reliable cars if maintained properly. Their strong resale value for a domestic shows this.

If you read my threads, you know that I'm generally down on domestics. I don't tend to like them, and some part of me cries when I sleep because I bought one.

But that doesn't mean I can't acknowledge that they are getting better, and have not only produced some good cars in the last few years, but even produced some good cars in the last 30 years! :shocked: Imagine that.

I'd have no problem with driving a Ford Crown Vic if that's the type of car I was looking for.

What I was angry about is that this forum is slow enough as it is. We don't need bullsh!t from people like you. It serves no purpose other than to aggravate.

I would have tolerated it and owned you up and down in Off Topic, but it doesn't belong here.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
steppinthrax, lay off. Seriously.
A Ford Focus is a fine car, and Eli is simply wanting to take care of his properly to make sure it lasts.
For you to come in here and dump on his choice of car shows how much of an ass you are.
BTW, 2001 is the second year the Focus was produced, and is now a 6 year old car, and using cars.com link you have there is exactly 1 Focus within 500 miles of the Portland Metro area that is under 3k and it has 135k on the clock.

It's a 2001 Ford Focus with 61K on the clock. 2001 isn't exaclty that old. But I think eli stated you CAN'T get a Ford focus for around 2 to 3K. Well I found it!!! Anyway a 2001 Toyota/Honda/Nissan Whatever with 61K on the clock would be around 5 to 6K.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Eli, the Mercon V ATF that is used in your Focus is already a synthetic.

When you talk about a delay in shifting to first when moving, what do you mean?

If you mean that when you're driving at 5-10 mph and give the car more throttle it's not at all uncommon for an automatic to prefer staying in second and take a pretty hefty amount of throttle to get the transmission to kick down into first. Some will even start in second if you don't use much throttle.

My old Accord never liked to shift into first unless I really stood on the throttle and even then it would hesitate a half-second (for example, coming onto the throttle out of a 15mph corner). Did that from day one when my parents bought it with 20,000 miles in 1990 all through the 205,000 miles that the first transmission lasted.

Pay no attention to steppinthrax, I've seen some of his posts before and he's nothing more than a one-trick troll. He claims a lot of mechanic's credentials but the only "advice" he has ever offered to anyone is to never buy an American car.

ZV

I never stated that I've had mechanics credentials. I'm not ASE certified or a Master Tech. I'm an amateur mechanic that have worked on various cars proving my experience. Regarding my American car statements. You just said yourself that your Accord went 205K. That is why I pursued people to never buy American.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
Regarding my American car statements. You just said yourself that your Accord went 205K. That is why I pursued people to never buy American.

And my father's Ford is still going at 250,000 miles ('98 Explorer Eddie Bauer) without ever having had a major repair. (The Accord was nickel and diming me by 160,000 miles.)

This isn't the 1970's and 1980's. Get your head out of your arse and realise that there hasn't been a reason to avoid American cars for over a decade now.

ZV

 

[steppinthrax]

First what do you consider nickel and dimeing. Second although the gap is closing between quality. The quality v.s. cost of most foreign cars make it worth it to opt foreign. Lastly, your telling me that your dad's one ford represents all Fords sitting on the road!!!!!!

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
First what do you consider nickel and dimeing. Second although the gap is closing between quality. The quality v.s. cost of most foreign cars make it worth it to opt foreign. Lastly, your telling me that your dad's one ford represents all Fords sitting on the road!!!!!!

1) About $2,000 in repairs each year.

2) So you claim. No good supporting evidence though. When you have a full ROI case, I'll believe you.

3) And yet when you thought that my Accord went 205,000 miles without problems you were perfectly ready to let that one car represent all foreign cars on the road. If you can play the game of "one foreign car lasting a long time is proof that they all last a long time", then I can play the same game with domestics.

For the record, Dad's had 3 Explorers. With the exception of the second one (which, at 120,000 mies without problems, was, while stopped, rammed into a semi by a motorhome going 45 MPH and totaled, though dad and his passenger walked away without a scratch), they've all gone at least 180,000 miles before we got rid of them.

The '98 Eddie Bauer is now driven largely by my sister and Dad bought a Honda Pilot to replace it. He has had more problems with the Pilot than with all three Explorers combined. (The Pilot has needed a new transmission, has had the PCV system fail, and he's had the thing in the shop for dash rattles at least 5 times before finally giving up and wedging business cards into and gap in the plastic to shim things up and stop the rattling.) He hasn't been impressed.

ZV

 

[Demo24]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
First what do you consider nickel and dimeing. Second although the gap is closing between quality. The quality v.s. cost of most foreign cars make it worth it to opt foreign. Lastly, your telling me that your dad's one ford represents all Fords sitting on the road!!!!!!

1) About $2,000 in repairs each year.

2) So you claim. No good supporting evidence though. When you have a full ROI case, I'll believe you.

3) And yet when you thought that my Accord went 205,000 miles without problems you were perfectly ready to let that one car represent all foreign cars on the road. If you can play the game of "one foreign car lasting a long time is proof that they all last a long time", then I can play the same game with domestics.

For the record, Dad's had 3 Explorers. With the exception of the second one (which, at 120,000 mies without problems, was, while stopped, rammed into a semi by a motorhome going 45 MPH and totaled, though dad and his passenger walked away without a scratch), they've all gone at least 180,000 miles before we got rid of them.

The '98 Eddie Bauer is now driven largely by my sister and Dad bought a Honda Pilot to replace it. He has had more problems with the Pilot than with all three Explorers combined. (The Pilot has needed a new transmission, has had the PCV system fail, and he's had the thing in the shop for dash rattles at least 5 times before finally giving up and wedging business cards into and gap in the plastic to shim things up and stop the rattling.) He hasn't been impressed.

ZV

Sounds like your dad got a bad pilot there. Usually they are pretty reliable, as are most hondas

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
First what do you consider nickel and dimeing. Second although the gap is closing between quality. The quality v.s. cost of most foreign cars make it worth it to opt foreign. Lastly, your telling me that your dad's one ford represents all Fords sitting on the road!!!!!!

Gah. A car is a car, you have to go almost model-specific (and even then, engine/tranny selection makes a difference!) to talk about relative reliability.

But generally speaking, a big 3 (Honda/Toyota/Nissan) japanese car will probably last longer and maintain resale value better than the domestic big 3. That is still pretty much a given, but there are exceptions.

Mazda reliability is a lot worse than Honda/Toyota, and if you compare them to say, Eli's focus, the focus will probably last at least as long as an average Mazda, properly cared for.

There are some truly horrible domestic cars, and a lot of these you can fill in your own blanks by studying the used car market. Look for used Neons with 100k+ miles. Hard to find, right? It's because they're mostly DEAD, lol. Talk about a piece of crap from day one. Bad ergonomics, cheesy design, middling fuel economy, crap resale value, the list goes on and on.

Oh yeah, domestic trucks > domestic cars by a long shot. I can find any number of 200k+ ford/chevy trucks out there, but of the bajillion tauruses and luminas/etc that were sold, few made it that long. Seems to be a matter of crap motors, mainly. GM does make some great blocks, the 3800 and the 5.7 to be sure. I have a Buick LeSabre that still runs strong and burns very little oil at 200k+, and have only done regular maintenance + synthetic oil + motor mounts.

Ok, now I'm rambling. Vic's post earlier was right on. Anyhow, I'd recommend just changing the stuff often, considering your heavy driving habits.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
First what do you consider nickel and dimeing. Second although the gap is closing between quality. The quality v.s. cost of most foreign cars make it worth it to opt foreign. Lastly, your telling me that your dad's one ford represents all Fords sitting on the road!!!!!!

1) About $2,000 in repairs each year.

2) So you claim. No good supporting evidence though. When you have a full ROI case, I'll believe you.

3) And yet when you thought that my Accord went 205,000 miles without problems you were perfectly ready to let that one car represent all foreign cars on the road. If you can play the game of "one foreign car lasting a long time is proof that they all last a long time", then I can play the same game with domestics.

For the record, Dad's had 3 Explorers. With the exception of the second one (which, at 120,000 mies without problems, was, while stopped, rammed into a semi by a motorhome going 45 MPH and totaled, though dad and his passenger walked away without a scratch), they've all gone at least 180,000 miles before we got rid of them.

The '98 Eddie Bauer is now driven largely by my sister and Dad bought a Honda Pilot to replace it. He has had more problems with the Pilot than with all three Explorers combined. (The Pilot has needed a new transmission, has had the PCV system fail, and he's had the thing in the shop for dash rattles at least 5 times before finally giving up and wedging business cards into and gap in the plastic to shim things up and stop the rattling.) He hasn't been impressed.

ZV

For $2K of repairs on a car at any year means you got ripped. You went to a mechanic right. What exactly was wrong with the car. I don't even think a used tranny and motor for that car (combination) would cost that much....