I bought mine second-hand 1 month ago, September 04.
<br>I had a reasonable look around it but didnt pay too much attention to the bodywork. It was all straight, being dent and repair free. With 145,000 miles on the clock I was more interested in the engine, gearbox and running gear. The car drives beautifully, the interior is spotless and the bodywork fine. If you took the plates off most people would guess it was less than a year old.
<br>After wandering around the forums at the Ford Focus Owners Club website I found some references to rust. It appears the Focus rusts in four specific places. Unfortunately Ive now discovered three out of the four rust problems on my car.
<br>1. Underneath the door mirrors on the door skin. The triangular mirror mount vibrates against the upper horizontal surface of the door skin and hammers its way through the paint.
<br>2. The trim strip over the rear number plate holding the number plate lights. The foam gasket between the trim and the boot lid is either too thin or of poor quality and becomes compressed over time. Again the trim vibrates against the paint. On my car it has rusted on the lower part of the trim, some cars rust above the trim.
<br>3. Directly beneath the centre of the rear window. The glass comes down in a point. If the glass has been bonded low down in the tailgate frame the glass can hammer on the paint. It doesnt help the matter that the gap below the rear window is a water trap and does not drain.
<br>4. The really good one!
<br>Ford had a bad batch of doors, apparently somewhere between 1999-2000. When a door is made the outer door skin is folded around the doorframe. The overlapped skin joint is then sealed with a bead of mastic material and painted along with the rest of the door. On the bad batch of doors the mastic is too brittle and does not make a waterproof seal with the metal. The metal under the mastic (which has no paint or corrosion protection) then rusts. Unfortunately the mastic hides the rust until it is bad enough to rust through the outer skin. To catch this before it happens you have to a: know about the problem and b: examine the mastic bead on your doors frequently. To identify the correct mastic try to make an impression in it with your fingernail or key. If you cant its from the bad batch.
<br>Apparently tailgates suffer from this problem as well but at the moment mine is ok.
<br>Shame really. Its a nice car and has taken the miles well but Im going to have to spend a lot of time and money if I want to keep it looking good. Whod have thought I would be looking for my trusty Waxoil gun for a four year old car?
<br>Perhaps I should have bought that Alfa instead, at least Id have been looking out for the tin worm. |
