decent car for around 3.5k

[Ritchy]

2004.5 shape focus..pretty good cars all round
anything with a zetec engine the water pump can be prone to leaking, timing belt off job but not overly hard
misfires usually are the spark valley filled with water, this is usually caused by the washer jet gaskets leaking, new plugs leads and jets usually fix this, sometimes the coil pack needs replaced too, sometimes the core plugs leak in the valley but not overly common, again leads plugs and core plugs
1.8 the manifold gaskets can leak causing misfires/lean running, same with the injector seals
rear a.r.b. links if they are the rose jointed ones can knock
worthwhile checking if the rear shockers are leaking, if its had a lot of heavy loads in it something funny about the angle the shock sits at the wears the seals out
front rear wishbone bushes splitting, come as part of a full of the wishbone in general
check the sill line, paint seems to peel off there a lot

[Ritchy]

Originally Posted by WalkerDnB

You can write a list for any car mate there would be a bigger list than that for a zs
every car has faults its just a case of finding a good one.

im giving him things to look out for if he does want to buy one for haggling ect..

[WalkerDnB]

Originally Posted by Ritchy

im giving him things to look out for if he does want to buy one for haggling ect..

fair doos then mate I have to stick up for fords (still a ford boy at heart )
Got to ask where are you getting all this information your posting it almost as quick as I can read it lol

[big_wasa]

look at his tool box lol

[Ritchy]

mazda 3 is pretty much a focus underneath, pretty good cars, the 2.0 sport is a nice driving car, look out for the same things i listed for the focus really, some parts are pricier but if you get the equivelant ford part its cheaper,
the abs module can be iffy on them, if the dsc light is on likely it will be needing a module, good thing is they now do the two parts of the module sepratly, so youll just need the hydraulic part of it which is only about £200 instead of about £1000
again as i said about on the 6, just make sure its not corroding underneath, may be worthwhile getting it sealed underneath
interior wise the sprt comes with the bose soundsystem which is good
the 3 mps has the same engine as the 6, again make sure the timing chain isnt rattling

[big_wasa]

I really fancy an rx8 and dont care about oil or fuel. Reading around when the coil packs fail it increases bore wash and that screws the rotors aswell. Your ideas on this Ritchy ?

[Ritchy]

Originally Posted by WalkerDnB

fair doos then mate I have to stick up for fords (still a ford boy at heart )
Got to ask where are you getting all this information your posting it almost as quick as I can read it lol

im a ford and mazda tech lol, also have nissan dealer, and we are an ex rover dealership and we are also have a motorstore so end up working on anything and everything

[Ritchy]

Originally Posted by big_wasa

I really fancy an rx8 and dont care about oil or fuel. Reading around when the coil packs fail it increases bore wash and that screws the rotors aswell. Your ideas on this Ritchy ?

suppose it could do yeah as the fuel is going to act as a degreaser really wahing the oil away, guess as long as you keep an eye on it, they loose a lot of power when the coils go down

[big_wasa]

I read the power drop is not as noticable if its just the trailing coil that goes down.

I dont mind the spanner time but couldnt take cost of a new engine.

[Ritchy]

they are lovely driving cars, r3 is very nice inside too with the recaro wingback chairs and looks a lot nicer outside with the bodykit, not sure on price of them atm, the p.z. wil be down in price now too which has the bilstein shocks and lightweight wheels, if you get yourself into halfords you can buy the noid lights that you fit onto the plugs anbd you can watch see if any arent firing properly, the coils arent that expensive for aftermarket units, but as i said you cant buy them as a car to pootle about in all the time, they need a good kicking at least once a week