Minnesota Focus Owners Club

So somewhere along the line I warped the hell out of the rotors on my '05. Not really sure because I'm normally pretty kind to my car and there was a good amount of pad left (let's call it 40%) despite the 84K miles.

I decided to go with the FRPP SVT kit from Steve (thanks Steve) and got it all in tonight. Pretty simple job really since the '05+ knuckles don't need to be swapped. I didn't know this but the '05 calipers are almost identical to size and layout as the SVT versions while the ones on my girlfriend's '03 SE seem smaller.

When it's all said and done there was definitely a wow factor with the difference in performance. I don't know if it's because I've been driving with warped, chattery brakes for a little while or if it's all just in my head but I'll still say you SVT guys don't realize how good you have it! It just seems like the brakes are so much more responsive and aggressive then the stockers were.

PLUS:

The engine ticking has been resolved by Apple Valley Ford after they replaced the intake manifold! Turns out it was one of those little do-dads (can't remember what it's called now) in there that had rattled itself loose as was making a racket.

All in all a good couple days for the Focus!

MNiceGuy wrote:you SVT guys don't realize how good you have it!

Oh yes we do, I've owned two normal ZX3's besides my SVT so I'm quite aware of how nice the SVT brakes are

Glad to hear you're happy with them.

How hard is it to swap the SVT brakes into the 05+'s? Any really big hurdles?

Just time, cash and/or mechanical ability.

FORDSVTPARTS wrote:

MNiceGuy wrote:you SVT guys don't realize how good you have it!

Oh yes we do, I've owned two normal ZX3's besides my SVT so I'm quite aware of how nice the SVT brakes are

Glad to hear you're happy with them.

ppppfpfpgbbbshhhhhhhhhh what eva! the small brakes are good for makin stinky stops, and the drums are fantabulious!!!!!!!!! aint nothing i like more than stinky brake fade comming into a ninety degree right hander and havin to downshift 40 kabillion times cus ma brakes are out to lunch

focinite wrote:

FORDSVTPARTS wrote:

MNiceGuy wrote:you SVT guys don't realize how good you have it!

Oh yes we do, I've owned two normal ZX3's besides my SVT so I'm quite aware of how nice the SVT brakes are

Glad to hear you're happy with them.

ppppfpfpgbbbshhhhhhhhhh what eva! the small brakes are good for makin stinky stops, and the drums are fantabulious!!!!!!!!! aint nothing i like more than stinky brake fade comming into a ninety degree right hander and havin to downshift 40 kabillion times cus ma brakes are out to lunch

That does explain why the SVTs have better brakes...ever tried to engine brake one? All it does is make noise...

focinite wrote:

FORDSVTPARTS wrote: aint nothing i like more than stinky brake fade comming into a ninety degree right hander and havin to downshift 40 kabillion times cus ma brains are out to lunch

Fixed that for ya.

FORDSVTPARTS wrote:

focinite wrote:

FORDSVTPARTS wrote: aint nothing i like more than stinky brake fade comming into a ninety degree right hander and havin to downshift 40 kabillion times cus ma brains are out to lunch

Fixed that for ya.

ooh that's a good one Steve!

They're not that hard to install at all. I've done brakes before but even so I took my fine sweet time and all went well. The only minor glitch I ran into was getting the passenger line off the hard line. After that just throw the car up on stands, take the wheels off, flush out the old fluid, bleed each corner, and you're all done.

lol focinite. For the record though the '05-07 brakes are not the worst I've experienced on a car like ours. I had a Probe GT (insert Probe joke here) back in the day and Ford used the same front rotor/caliper setup across the entire range of Probes. Better yet the base models were available with 14" steelies so in order to get everything to fit in there Ford just put some pizza cutters in there. THOSE were scary brakes.

FORDSVTPARTS wrote:

focinite wrote:

FORDSVTPARTS wrote: aint nothing i like more than stinky brake fade comming into a ninety degree right hander and havin to downshift 40 kabillion times cus ma brains are out to lunch

Fixed that for ya.

what now you think cus yer daughter is cute , you are as well? no a while back a friend of mine had a rocket and we where being stupid out in st francise, there is a set od 90 degree switch backs goin down hill and then a long sweeper going up, after trying to scare him i managed to melt my front pads....stupid yes, fun .....very.