Focus – Ranchnet

This thing was a desperation buy. The truck was running worse and worse, and didn’t suit as a daily driver. The Focus was the second car I found in my Craigslist search for cars with manual transmissions (the first I never heard back on). It was $3100. It rattled and shook, but ran and drove. Compression tested well. I didn’t bother with haggling (like I said, I suck at it anyhow), I just bought it and went.

The adventures began with a dubious clunk up front. I decided to jack it up and have a quick look at the front end. I thought I was on a good jacking point. I was not.

One of my more embarrassing mistakes, putting the jack through the oil pan. I blame the fact that it was dark. At least that helped conceal the 4.5 quarts of oil running down the driveway. It helps ease my mind that the oil pan was available next day on Amazon, making me think I’m not the only one to do this.

The pan was an easy fix. I also ended up replacing the water pump (a cinch), serpentine belt (grrr), motor mount (a weak spot on these cars), the valve cover gasket, and a sticky thermostat.

Later, I tackled the shot struts. After that, another clunk developed when turning. I assumed (ha!!!) that it was a CV joint failure. By the time I’d committed to doing the work of replacing the axles, the clutch (what the hell), the brakes (might as well), etc., I discovered the entirety of the clunk was a strut that wasn’t tightened properly in the knuckle. Whether that was my fault or the guy that did the alignment I’ll never know. But, I went all in.

And then found the leaking steering rack.

And evaporator core.

Yeah, this is the Ford of Theseus.