Timing belt. Thermostat housing, coolant bypass pipe on top of the radiator,overflow tank cracks. These cars are pretty bulletproof as long as you don't overheat them. Nice find. Great color.

 

Good to know, thanks!

 

Is this a 2.0 Zetec or 2.3 Duratec? Either way, they're pretty reliable. They aren't fast by any stretch, but they'll get you around without issue.

 

This one’s the 2.0 Zetec. The speed doesn’t bother me, I wanted a reliable daily that wasn’t boring and this seems to fit the bill pretty well lol.

 

Welcome to the forum. Nice looking car! The front right motor mount is a common issue. I purchased my 2007 Focus Mk1 wagon in 2012 with 68K miles. I'm now at 210K.

 

Thanks! I’m well aware of the motor mounts being a common problem. One of the other zx3’s I looked at definitely needed them replaced and the mounts my girlfriends Fiesta ST are pretty bad right now. Mine seem to be ok but I’m still gonna check them since I doubt they’ve been replaced.

 

Welcome! And congratulations on that exceptional find! Prior to being totaled by a deer landing on the hood (jumped over the fence next to the road on onto the car) I had a 2004 ZX5 with the 2.0 Zetec in it; loved that car. The other thing to watch is the PCV hose toward the back will deteriorate and collapse under vaccum and cause it to stall. Mine lived in the south for most of it's life and I never have had a problem with the control arms. I did have one stabilizer bar link wear out on it and oddly enough, the ignition tumbler set started to wear (got a new set from auto parts store and that was mildly simple to fix.) I had just shy of 200K on mine with the original clutch, but did put a clutch master cylinder on it at year 3 as it was leaking inside under the dash...

As mentioned, timing belt... Solid car, wished that they would/could go back to the 2005-2007 designs, but dealerships don't want cars with 250K+ engines in them... I'd have easily gotten 250K or more from mine if it hadn't been totaled...

 

nice choice.one major issue is the 9 wire cluster to the rear hatch located above the rear portion of the head liner.the wire plastic coatings gets very brittle and the internal wire will separate causing no power to the circuits.best to fix before you have no brake lights,etc.