LM: 1st Gen Focus issues

My GF is in the process of buying her youngest a car for when he turns 16 in a few months. I found a 2007 Focus SE ZX3 Auto at a mechanic that looks like he flips a few cars on the side. It looks like it was a grandpa special. Lower miles for the age and it lived it's life in Vegas till it failed emissions test last year. 

Other than checking to see if the emissions issue is fixed, is there anything else I should pay extra attention to? They always seemed to be pretty solid little cars. 

Thanks for the help guys, 

Mike

I like these cars and have had a couple as cheapo transportation.  To me they are great kid-cars.

1. With the auto trans, these get surprisingly poor mpg.  Think midsize car economy in a small car size.  Combination mpg of 23 expected.  But...kids don't typically travel far or many miles annually so the savings at low purchase price offsets the higher operating costs.  

2. If the steering wheel shakes at idle, the culprit is the right front engine mount, over with the alternator.  Don't by a cheapo unit or you'll do the job twice.  

A long time ago, I wrote a thread about ABS light that also triggered an airbag light.  The result was rear drums being replaced but the abs tone rings being omitted.  

In this thread, I detailed owning one for 25k miles (125k-150k-ish) and selling the car for $500 more than I paid for it!

Thanks John. My nephew is a parts counter guy at the local ford dealer so getting OEM is easy. He even delivers.

Crazy that the airbag light was triggered by the ABS fault. 

Any more knowledge out there? 

These cars have been gone from here for a long time, between SOHC that dropped valve seats and DOHC engines that ate timing belt idlers, and severe rust issues.  I think an 07 may be a "1.5th gen" car with a Duratec, which is much nicer.

I do remember having to drill out the ignition lock cylinder on quite a few of them when the key couldn't be installed deep enough to turn anymore, no matter what magic method you tried.  So, I would advise against a Mr. T Starter Kit on the key ring, minimize how much weight is bouncing around on the lock cylinder while you drive.

My 2000 ZX3 has an issue with the cabin air filter assembly that left water on the passenger floor every time it rained. Focus Salvage had a kit with a baffle riveted over the air filter assembly that stopped the problem. This may have been fixed by 2007.

In reply to John Welsh :

When the front motor mount sags, and it will, you will know it.  It's not just the steering wheel that shakes, the whole car buzzes like a gasoline powered cell phone is receiving a call.

Get the mount with bracket from Ford.  It's the only way to quell the buzz and the mount has gone through several revisions.  It was demoralizing when these cars were new and replacing the motor mount with a new one didn't fix the problem.  Things are better now.

When it is time to replace the thermostat, remove the motor mount to chassis bolts and slide the engine back as far as you can.  This provides a lot more room.  (Note that this is a lot more relative to the none that you previously had)

The nice thing about the 3rd gen Focus (we didn't get a 2nd gen, we got an updated 1st) is the electric power steering.  The hydraulic power steering on the Duratec engined cars works fine but the pump location and layout is atrocious.  The power steering hoses are in the way of everything, everywhere in the engine bay.

Part of the A/C system is accessed through the right fenderwell, if you ever find yourself trying to find one of the fittings.  

The rear suspension is extremely complicated. 8 control arms. When they wear out, the handling in the wet/snow is absolutely spooky. I speak from experience.

Plastic cooling system parts.  Worse than if it were German.

Thanks for the great feedback guys. I'll check these items out. I'm looking at it friday so I'll let you know what happens. 

Yup, was here to mention the plastic pipe that runs across the top of the radiator that will split without warning. Also the radiator fan control that melts the plug. The air cleaner bolts that seize into the housing. The fuel sending unit that worked only when it wanted to. And stock up on window regulators, because they are made of the worst plastic ever made.

In reply to ddavidv :

That reminds me.  Some of the later cars had a lifetime air filter.  It was a sealed case with a pressure-drop gauge on the side like a lot of Diesels had.  When the pressure drop got too high or you got to 150k miles, you replace the airbox assembly.

Given the number of people who berk up air cleaner boxes inspecting/changing filters, or screw up installing the filter so the MAF reads wrong, I totally get why Ford did that.

I've always wanted to cut one open to see what they looked like inside, but I never replaced one.  I had a customer who wanted one because he always replaced air filters every 15k, but I think a replacement was $450 or somesuch and he decided, well let's try this new technology after all 

I'm fairly sure that a serviceable airbox drops right in to replace it if you wanted 

I used to have a 2.3 Duratec ZX3 that became ex-SWMBO's car and we put the better part of 75k on it. Overall it was a decent little vehicle until the rust set in farther than we were comfortable with.

Almost everything has been covered here already but the one thing ours did that I never figured out was that it seemed to need rear wheel bearings every other year. I feel like I had to have been doing something wrong but had researched all the forums and Ford parts catalogs and couldn't figure out why the hell it went through so many.