FocusCanada Forums

Hello everyone,

I just negotiated the purchase of an '03 Focus SE Wagon from Oak-Town Ford in Oakville. It's silver with only 58,000 kms. My girlfriend and I are moving into an 80 year old house in Downtown Toronto so I needed to get a reliable, low cost wagon to haul supplies and we were thrilled to get the Focus (after considering other things like the Mazda3, Subaru Forester, or even a Ford Escape). The Focus was such a value and does exactly what we need it to, so we're looking forward to it.

My other car is a 97 Mustang GT which I have owned since new. It has 150,000 kms on it and is still running strong, thanks to the fact every wear and tear item has been replaced with aftermarket. :)

Look forward to participating in the forums.

Andre
2003 Focus SE Wagon

Here's the Wagon



Here's the 97 Mustang

Edit not sure why the IMG tag is not working???

Welcome aboard - glad to have another wagon owner on here ... (tags are disabled in this part of the site) ... lots of info here and helpful folk when it comes time for regular maintenance, troubleshooting and mods ... and just enough characters to make life on FC interesting from time to time.

FWIW my wife and I are on our seventh Focus, all wagons but one.

Cheers

welcome, my last focus was station as well. I think they are the best ones :) haha let the war begin :)

welcome

Welcome

Welcome, hope you find this site useful :)

NefCanuck

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

So ZTW^2, what kind of suspension did you put in the wagon?
My research shows so far that most kits (ie. SVT shock/strut/spring/sway bar) kits only work on the sedan or hatch. What's left for wagons?

I'm a bit at a loss as to what can be done for reasonable $ so I may just get some 15" alloys and a new stereo head unit to start.

Greenie ...

I have the Eibach Pro-Kit (springs only) and Progess sway bars (24mm front, 22mm rear) - which frankly works amazing and looks pretty good with the 17" ST200 rims.

Eibach created a wagon kit for the "older suspension" (which is now no longer available from Eibach) but they did not make a wagon kit for the "newer" suspension" ... so I made my own for my 07.

I bought a sedan kit for the 05+ for the front springs (same for sedan and wagon) and bought an 00-04 wagon kit for the rear springs (same for all years for wagon) ... the four springs that remained became essentially an 00-04 sedan/hatch kit which now proudly supports another members ZX5.

The big surprise for me was how much difference to the handling the upgraded rear bar made ... and then when I had the front bar installed (not really a DIY job) the difference that made.

I am still running the stock struts and shocks with no problems after more than 20k ... but I have a set of ST struts standing by for the front when that becomes necessary.

What year is your wagon?

I'm running the full Apex sport kit on my '02 wagon, 160,000km on it and going strong.

Glad you did your research on the kits before buying though.

My wagon's a 2003 SE. Is the rear sway bar a DIY job? Maybe I'll just do that just to flatten out the rear end transitions.

greanie,Jun 23 2008, 12:04 PM Wrote:My wagon's a 2003 SE. Is the rear sway bar a DIY job? Maybe I'll just do that just to flatten out the rear end transitions.
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If you already have the stock sway bar (IIRC all wagons came standard with rear bar) then putting on a heavier one is simple as pie ... if it didn't come with a sway bar from the factory, then it will be missing the attachment points on the body - but they can be purchased in the aftermarket.

The only other consideration is the replacment of the endlinks which is recommended when replacing the bar ... they're not expensive and most guys go with an aftermarket piece such as Moog or Energy.

Make sure to start a thread with your pics and welcome to the club

ZX3_2NV,Jun 23 2008, 03:17 PM Wrote:Make sure to start a thread with your pics and welcome to the club
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Its only been three weeks and so far I've picked up polished focus door sills, a chrome exhaust tip (genuine ford one that slips on) and upgraded to a Sony ipod headunit. Also picked up some OEM 16" 5-spoke wheels but I may keep those in storage till next year.

I'll put some pics up soon.

oh i thought you are 80 yrs old.. :)