60K Major Service

[Rezab]

The suction pump actually is very effective. The principles is exactly as those suction machines are used in dealerships. But unfortunately they are not available here.
On the other note you are right "casabonka" about getting under the car because even with such machine yet somebody has to go under the car in order to change the filter! so in conclusion not the best use of 50 bucks for some one like me who has just one car to service a every year or so.

@mohit, thanks for the link. it is a pretty good and comprehensive step by step guide. I appreciate your effort there. Nice pics too. before seeing your guide I had no clue where is the sump bolt! (-:

Just couple more question for you guys:
1- Do I need 2 or 4 jack stands? and how strong they should be? (they have different weight levels)
2- I bought my car second hand I at the time I didn't notice it's missing the accessory pack (you know the bag with some screw drivers and wrench or etc) is it possible to buy that bag any where?
3- I found autobarn, supercheapauto and repco for parts and supplies, which one do you think worths the time?
4- How to get rid of the used oil? obviously it can't be thrown out.

Thanks again for all great infos.

[Rezab]

Guys I would really appreciate your kind advice regard my questions.

Cheers

[Citwit]

1. Depends whether you want to have both ends of the car up at once. I usually only work on one end at a time and have 2 stands. They have a load rating of 750 kg per stand. All the cars that I have had since I bought the stands have been around 1300 kg weight so there is a sufficient safety margin. The important thing is to ensure a sufficient safety margin.
2. Mine didn't come with any tool kit. I like to have the comfort of having some tools available when driving. Sort of an insurance policy which fortunately to date I haven't had to use. I bought one of those cheap tool kits with a range of sockets, spanners pilers etc from one of the accessory shops for about $25.
3. I have found all of them to be OK.
4. I take mine to the recycling center at the local tip. Usually there is a small charge but sometimes they don't bother with the charge.

[BlackLS]

If you are going to do the plugs, and have an LS service book, don't trust the part number given (not sure if they updated it in later service books)

Order Mazda 3 spark plugs, or to be certain, pull the plug from your car and grab the part number.

[Rezab]

First of all thanks to all of you guys which without your kind help I couldn't find my way.
Until now I did 3 basic jobs (after all as a newbie I thought it's better to go step by step and don't rush!).
I've changed engine oil, air element filter and pollen filter (cabin filter).
During the process of procuring tools and materials and doing the job I've gained some experiences which I want to share. Maybe someone finds them useful.

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1st- Finding the best price for auto parts it's a real challenge here! If you want to keep every possible dollar then you have to take a look every where.
I went to Repco, Supercheap Auto and Burson and what I found is that you can't be sure about their price being best just based on one or two item.
Here is an example, Castrol Edge 5W-30.
Supercheap Auto: $50
Repco: $40
Burson: $57

Another example, NGK ITR6F13 Spark Plugs (pack of 4),
Supercheap Auto: $124
Repco: $140
Burson: $88

So you see that there is a significant difference between their price for exactly same items. (which is really bizarre to me). the good thing was that Repco has a price beating policy so the best thing for me was to get prices from other two and go to Repco for a 5% lower! (except for the spark plugs cause even $88 is higher than what it should be). Also Supercheap Auto's website is very useful in this regard. Repco has an old style website without price database and Burson doesn't let you to see their database unless you become a member (which I found to be really stupid) and when I asked them in the shop they told me it involves a lot of paper work and it suites workshop owners. (which is even more stupid)

Not to mention that prices I've got were almost half the price Ford dealers asked me for.

2nd- Don't trust the sales persons! do your research. They no nothing for sure about your particular car.

3rd- We need a tutorial or Do It Yourself section in the forum. Finding the necessary information on the forum was a heavy task itself! For example after extensive searches I found Focus's changing pollen filter instruction in the Mondeo section of forum!!!

4th- If you can do basic services then don't hesitate and be sure it's far better than trusting a busy service centre.
Here is an example to emphasise my point:
After lot of research and finding the necessary pollen filter (which by the way I bought $32 from Burson) and changing instruction (thanks fordforums.com.au and specially thanks "20focus05").
Opening the pollen filter box was the hardest thing to do and after finally managing to open it what was in it? NOTHING! There was no pollen filter there and the box was empty. The car had 3 "A" services each 15000km and yet there was nothing there. I don't know, maybe it's an optional add-on which in that case I also don't know why changing the pollen filter has been mentioned in the service manual.
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Again thank you guys for your kind helps and advices.


P.S.
One side note question,
I found a very good and cheap set of 15 inch wheels and tyres with 195/60 88v specs. My car has 205/55/16 91v right now but I know 195/65/15 91 vcould be used to. Now my question is, could I use that set instead of the recommended specs?

[DZFord]

Going from a 205/55/16 to a 195/65/15 setup will not affect thr accruracy of your speedo. However, going from a 205/55/16 to a 195/60/15 setup WILL, your vehicle speed will be slower than what is actually displayed on the speedo itself.

[DZFord]

By the way, for anyone who is wondering, here is the pollen filter thread:
http://fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=68870

[DragonMesh]

evening all figured i'd ask this here rather than start a new topic... I've got my car going in for its 45,000km service(its on 51,000) now tho :S anyway i looked on my last service report to see how much its gonna cost me and i noticed they have put. "Recommended Fuel System service and throttle body service" im assuming they are gonna try and do it tmro when i take it in and charge something silly for it. Do i need to get them done would you guys think?

[mohit]

Originally Posted by DragonMesh

evening all figured i'd ask this here rather than start a new topic... I've got my car going in for its 45,000km service(its on 51,000) now tho :S anyway i looked on my last service report to see how much its gonna cost me and i noticed they have put. "Recommended Fuel System service and throttle body service" im assuming they are gonna try and do it tmro when i take it in and charge something silly for it. Do i need to get them done would you guys think?

Fuel system service usually means they put a bottle of injector cleaner into the fuel tank

Throttle body service usually means spraying some carby cleaner into the throttle body and cleaning it

Ask the dealer if the above is what they do and if they say yes tell them to forget about it as you can easily do this yourself (or a friend or relative if you're uncomfy doing it yourself)

[#Russ#Es#]

Finally got my 60k done today, although my Focus did have over 68k on the clock! Cost was $239 - bought my own oil/oil filter/air filter (K&N, installed myself)/spark plugs.
Driving this afternoon, it definitely accelerated a little smoother and seemed to deal with the heat better than usual. Dealer was Sinclair Ford (Penrith), can highly recommend them.

They also mentioned the brake rotors/pads have another 15k on them, so will be cheering to get 75k out of them! Even the service guy was surprised by the lack of wear. :

[Conquest_Tsi]

Nice work Russ, aim to do mine at about 65k