Bought a ford focus zetec...But..

shown73

I'm very happy to be proved wrong, I just have a very suspicious mind. Good luck with it, hope you have many happy miles!

forgotmyname

Only had a few months = Leave it to someone else to buy. Getting a company car soon. Unless it was on the drive sparkling away then double leave it to someone else.

No service history and no cambelt, You wouldnt have seen me dor the dust.

Where do you buy your timing belt kits from? Its under £90 for the kit. For a 1.6 its under £60. Proper brands also not budget ones which are even cheaper.

Get a proper ODBII code reader, Dash diagnostics reveal very very little.
Most fault codes wont show up and the codes that you do see maybe ancient ones or related to something else.

Dodgy sellers wont hace spare keys and manuals? Have you checked ebay? Keys are £8.50 for a standard £15 for a remote.
Service books, Do you want a blank one or prestamped at various mileages?

Mileage no clocked because its not low? A car i bought with 200,000 miles + and sold years later with even more, It was seen recently with 180,000 on the clock.
Somewhere its lost at least 70,000 miles.

Because MOT's are easy to check now the best time to clock them is before the 1st MOT.

Lookout for cars that did a lot of miles in the 1st 2 years then the 2nd service and 1st MOT mileage are close together.

Ratboy

You say it was cheaper than norm, and are willing to spend money tarting it up, but in the same sentance say that you are unwilling to have the diags checked, or whether to do a full or minor service? Make your mind up!

There is no point in buying a coil (that will probably cost more than the diags to be done), when the diags will tell you if it needs replacing or not.

Check out the posted Ford forum for details how to run the built in diags, if the poster on here wasn't clear enough for you to understand them, you will need to go there anyway, to decode any stored codes, as they are usually displayed in binary form (they were on my Celica).

For the odd little bits of tired trim etc that it sounds like you want to replace, the best bet is avoid Ford, and goto a scrapyard. There are plenty of these there.

If you are unsure if the sparkplugs need replacing, take them out and inspect them! Ford don't 'make' them, they use a company like NGK or Bosch etc.

For the cars value, and all the money it sounds like it needs, I'd just keep it as it is, after the engine light issue is sorted, and run it into the ground. Should be good for 200,000 miles.

catoutthebag

Only had it a few months - he hasn't been selling it a few months, just the last couple weeks because I've been looking longer than that. He's had the car in his possession a few months, is what I said

I understand that 1-2 are skeptical because the history is part and engine light comes up? You could be right OR wrong.

The wing mirror could have been done by him or the previous owner. His drive is very narrow

Private sellers aren't bothered about renewing tax or mot. Costs £. Most private garages don't have cars with a full years tax or mot on all cars

Cam belts on these aren't done til 10yrs/100k. Saw ones same age & dearer who hadn't had it done

I don't know where the 1-2 'dodgy' shouts come from but please check your crystal ball & let me know the lotto numbers :rotfl:

It was reasonably priced and then I got it cheaper. It was no surplus to the guys requirements and was happy to do a deal. He didn't want to knock off more than £200, I got another £150 on top off

Engine light? I'll get sorted at an indie probably as they'll have the equipment. Probably spark plug or coil. Then sorted, right

Part history? Some cars have them despite being in overall good condition & women lose stuff :rofl: I don't plan on selling so has zero relevance to me in terms of that. As long as its got a good chunk of history, hpi clear, runs well & passes mot, we're good

I'll get the NORMAL age related dings sorted somewhere local at some point