well i got asked by a freind of mine who has a focus about the problems that mine had and ran into. kinda curious at what yall think and if yall have ever had any of the same problems.

2005 ZX3- bought it brand new, put about 7500 miles on it and it started having issuses.

1) The car just shut off while i was driving, literally just lost power totally, wouldnt start, reset the battery still dead. had it towed to the dealership and they diagnosed it to be a problem wth the ECU, replacing both the PCM and ECU. roughly 2000 bucks in total invoice. warrenty covered.

2) about a month later the exact same thing again. i guess that they didnt fix it, again they replaced the PCM and ECU both times teling me that the cuircuts were cooked. sucks to be ford another 2000 bucks.

3) maybe 2 weeks later it started this weird thing where it would be going along just fine and then would shut down for about 10 seconds and then regain itself and be fine again. after it happening on the freeway in hosuton traffic once again the car went to the dealership. they couldnt replicate the problem, however on the dealerships test driver of the car it died like the first two times, well now they were fed up and kept the car about 3 weeks diagnosing it, eventually they tracked it down to a resistor or something that was overloaded in the stereo system and was causing surges that would hit the ECU and PCM frying them instantly. once again ford replaced it and another 2000 bucks

4) well then winter hit. granted winter in houston is hardly impressive it does get below 50 degrees, which is presisly the temputure that the car wouldnt start if it was below that. if it was above 50 it would start first time every time, and sub 50... forgetaboutit. wouldnt even turn over. so one day i decided to do a test and leave it in my garage, came out the next morning about 60 degrees in the garage about 38 outside, and it fired right up. go figure, so when it didnt start i just drove the MR2 to school. well lucky me when i took in into the dealership a warm front came in and they kept it for a week of it being 60 outside and they couldnt replicate the problem. they did however find a short in a couple of wires that disable the fuel pumpwhen the car gets into a wreck, there is an override switch in the passenger footwell, which i never bothered to press, but according to them "fixed" the problem.

so it started to get warm again and my dad was fed up with the problems, so we sold it and i got the WRX.

the nice thing though is that we bought the car for about 9800 bucks and carmax gave us 8700 for it, so not too bad a deal for us, but man do i miss that car, once the MR2 is back into shapewe plan on selling it and building a spec focus race car. so hopefully i dont end up with the same problems but im confident it was a factory defect. anyways im hoping that maybe this spark some interest or can be a place to disscuss problems that other may have expericed.

im not trying to bash the focus, and i plan on buying another very soon, i loved that car and i cant wait to get another i just am wondering if anoyone else has expericed similar problems or your thoughts on the problems ive had.

Matt

I haven't been on this forum a year yet, but that's the first time I've heard of the ECU and PCM having to be replaced. As far as the starting issue below 50 degrees goes, I used Seafoam and its been fine since. I did have an alternator go, but that was due to a bad VR plug, and I had the infamous fuel pump failure, but the prior owner probably hadn't changed the fuel filter at all in the 66k miles the car had on it when I bought it. That filter was NASTY!
The thermostat housing failed,which was the only other issue I've had. Let me say though, my car was a REPO, so I don't think it was in terrible shape all things considered. Its certainly a step up from the old beaters I had on the road for the last few years!

a minor problems that the car had but wasnt major....

- it would pop out of gear as you were just driving along, not like getting on it or anything just normal roads driving, and it would just pop out of gear, well then i took it in and they found that the cable operated shifter, was loose and there was about a 1/2 in of slack, they reset it and tightened the bolt, never had the issuse again.

Matt

Bought mine brand new this back in July and it now has 4300 miles on it. I'm having the same problem with the shifter popping out of gear. I get check engine lights constantly, Ford keeps fixing it. I'm taking it in again soon and if they dont fix it, i'm selling it and never buying another Ford again.

Mine was bought brand new back in 2003, and they only problem I had that I didn't cause was the LCD in the radio started to die just shortly after the 3 year warranty. No biggie, just put in an aftermarket stereo.

bought my '05 brand new, only problem was a transmission mount that got all clogged up with mud and crap which made the whole car shake when it was idling. They had a service notice on it though, as apparently a cover was missing from the factory on some '05s. Had no other problems over 25k miles

Bought mine brand new this back in July and it now has 4300 miles on it. I'm having the same problem with the shifter popping out of gear. I get check engine lights constantly, Ford keeps fixing it. I'm taking it in again soon and if they dont fix it, i'm selling it and never buying another Ford again.


these were my thoughts origonally, but ive come to find out that there are a few lemons out there for every car, regaurdless of its make model and year of manufacture year... there are a lot of focus people that i know and theyve never hand any kind of issuse with their car, for 150k+ miles. so i know where you are coming from, but im looking forward to bulding my spec focus and i cant wait to get out on track!

Matt