My 2013 Focus ST

[SM105K]

Here is my 2013 FoST. 

I retired my SHO from daily duties because in 10 months I put almost 18k miles on it. So I picked up my FoST in Feb 2019.  It enjoyed a stock life for about 3 months lol.

First came the tune.  Then this happened. Cliffnotes: Ford Racing's tune sucks. 

Gather around....it is story time.

I did my research. There is a guy here in Phoenix that documents everything that he does with his ST and he has the Ford Performance Calibration. He gave a good review, and since he was having no issues with our craptastic 91 octane, and he said installation was a breeze. I thought since it was a daily, and I had only heard good things and it was going to save me money I pulled the trigger. I confirmed on the website my laptop was compatible and low and behold it was.

I paid $450 for the tuning software and colder plugs. I wasn't worried about real time data and data logging. The ST is my daily and I didn't want to deal with those aspects because 85% of the miles on this car are highway miles.

The Calibration package arrived on a Saturday. I confirmed my computer was compatible with Ford's Software again and started the process. I the swapped the plugs out. I loaded the software and started the process of the loading the Calibration. During the process it failed, and bricked the car. I could not recover the stock tune, and the car was a paperweight.

I had it towed to went to a local Ford Dealership on Wednesday four days later after "working" with a Ford Performance Rep that could not understand why this happened. Ford talked with Ford Performance and the tech re-flashed the stock tune. I then in front of the tech with FP on the phone, tried to load FP Calibration. It once again failed and bricked the car for a second time. I had the tech re-flash the car back to stock, and sent the reports to FP. Ford charged me $159.99 for the re-flash.

So running tally......$450 Calibration + $159.99 re-flash = $609.99

After a couple days Ford Performance got back to me and told me the lead programmer said it was my computer that was the problem. So I went to Fry's Electronics and bought a lap top that was compatible with what the programmer told me. This would also allow me to use this laptop for tuning purposes for future builds including data logging the SHO (which my old lap top has zero issues with). So literally all in one. $499 dollars later. With the new laptop, and a new "Calibration Key" from FP, I went back to Ford and I loaded Calibration finally. I did it at Ford just in case it bricked again. They know me now, and they had zero issues helping me. The Calibration worked damn good as well. I was happy. However, I noticed that the car would bury the boost gauge sometimes at 25 psi, and that got me wondering.

So running tally.....$450.00 Calibration + $159.99 reflash + 550.99 new "tuning laptop" = $1160.98 running tally.

After chatting with Brad and having him review the Ford Calibration logs, he voiced some concerns. I took those and filed them in the back of my head. Once the heat showed up here in Phoenix, I started getting uneasy about the big boost, heat, and crappy 91 octane. Brad and I discussed that I could run my ST on Flex Fuel and straight E85 with no fuel system mods to the ST. I decided to jump ship. He told me to send him the strategy. I did and he said it was not valid for my ST. He explained the FP Calibration changes the strategy and that I would have to re-flash it back to stock using the FP software. I did, and it bricked for a third time. This happened on a Saturday afternoon.

Long story short, it was towed once again to a new Ford Dealership. the first Ford Dealership (never again) told me it would take them 10 days to do a re-flash. I told to the service manager, who literally sat next to me in the service bay of the tech working on my car for the first re-flash. She said, she might be able to squeeze me in, on Thursday...5 days later. I lol'd and basically told them to.....well you know. I called the new Ford Dealership at 2 pm on a Saturday (they close at 4 pm). I explained to the service manager what happened and he needless to say was disappointed in FP and the first Ford Dealership. He told me, if I could get the car to them before 4:30 pm (he was going to stay late) and he would personally re-flash the car and bill FP directly.

I called a tow company and got the car to them at 3:30 pm. I showed him my invoices, and emails and he apologized for something he had zero doings about. I showed him what was going on with my car and PF's software and he confirmed the car was bricked. He then re-flashed my car back to stock. There was no talk of a bill, the man shook my hand and said if you need anything let me know directly. Awesome. Everything was wrapped up by 4:15 pm.

Camelback Ford is now my choice dealership. My ST will gets it's recall work there (don't get me started about that) and if I buy another Ford I will look their first.

So $1160.98 for a Calibration to be loaded, car bricked three times, and two tows to the dealership.....

Yeah I should have worked with Brad first. For the money and time wasted on the ST Calibration, I could have bought a xdi HPFP for the SHO....

[SM105K]

After the whole FP tune debacle, I decided to go with AJPTurbo for my FoST.  I have a dedicated Flex Fuel tune.  I can put anything in the Focus from 87 octane to E85.  All I have to do is turn my ST off at the pump, and within 7 miles it is ready to rock.  Brad's tune is safer then the FP and I have flexibility to put whatever fuel my driving will dictate.  It is really nice. 

[SM105K]

On to the mods for my ST.  Since it is my daily I tried to keep it mild.  I wanted to boost fuel eco, increase stopping performance, and the long throw shifter had to go. 

First on the list was new brakes. The dealership I purchased the ST at had replaced the brake pads.  However after a couple of days of ownership I noticed a slight warp.  So new brakes were purchased. 

Brakes: I went with the Powerstop drilled and slotted rotors with their "Performance" Ceramic Pads.  Honestly, I am not a fan.  I don't rally this car by any means, and have hit fade numerous times.  That being said, I also have noticed the PS rotors are already getting warped.  If I have to moderately brake from 90+ I get the pedal pulses.  I wouldn't buy them again. 

Short Shifter: Second on list was the removal of the factory shifter.  I did some research and found the FSWerks short throw shifter plate.  It was $60 off Amazon and really shorted the shifts.  I recommend it over the RS short shifter personally.  Super easy to install, and is adjustable.   

BOV Upgrade:I think that turbo cars should make turbo car sounds!  So I picked up a Boomba BOV off another member, and it is probably my favorite mod.  It is stupid loud.  To the point people ask if there is something wrong with my car...Lol.  With the windows up and driving normal, it is pretty tame.

Megan Catless DP:  I got a deal on a brand new Megan DP.  This really opened the exhaust up and now I get a ton of turbine noise now.  That is still with the stock resonator and stock catback installed too.  It is a quality piece and fits well. 

Tires: I think tires are the most overlooked mod.  The car had a brand new pair of Nittos at purchase.  They were stock size and they worked pretty well.  They lasted roughly 25K miles. I have since upgraded to Continental Extreme Contact DWS06's.  I also went up one size in sidewall.  80 percent of the miles on my ST are freeway miles, so the taller sidewall helps. 

Wheels: I was really getting sick of seeing the stock painted silver rims.  I really like burnt copper, but I was on the fence of just jumping in and getting them painted.  So I plasti dipped them burnt copper. I didn't like them at first, but they grew on me.

Future Mods: Honestly, I think the only thing I will entertain is a resonator delete.  The Fukus is pretty much done.

Creature Comfort Mods: I tinted the windows, added a dash cam, and hardwired an Escort S55 Radar detector in. 

[SM105K]

Pros and Cons of owning my ST.

I bought it with 82K miles on the clock February of 2019 and I am the third owner.  As of this post June 2020 she just rolled over 114K miles.  So roughly 2K miles a month. 

Theses are my personal pros/cons of owning my ST.

Pros: 

Decent gas mileage.  I have averaged right at 28 mpg.  Not too bad I think. 

The car drives really nice.  Even for 7 years old, the suspension is still firm, steering is tight, and car handles pretty well. 

Interior has held up nicely.  Nothing major has broken, all buttons work, no tears in the upholstery ect.

Paint is doing well.  No fading...yet.

Cons:

The Recaro seats are really nice.  However they have zero front to back head rest adjustment.  That is literally a pain in the neck.

I wish they put a little larger fuel tank in the car. A 15 gallon fuel tank would be so much nicer.  Also with the recall of the fuel gauge, Ford really doesn't fix the issue.  I run out of fuel still between 20 and 30 miles to empty.  When I say I run out of fuel, there is no warning. Done. I never let it get below a 1/4 tank.

I really wish Ford didn't drop the ball on the FMIC.....grr.  They are pretty much junk over 100 degrees.

Things I have replaced: 

Fan sensor module.

The car was making a clunk on bumps in the road so I replaced the parts below.

Strut Bearings: still clunked.  Sanity was being tested.

Front Sway Bar End Links: still clunked.  Sanity was at whits end.

Passenger Top Motor Mount: clunk gone. Sanity slowly recovered. 

Tires.

Brakes.

Trans Fluid.

All in all, it has been a good car so far.

[4sfed]

Here is my 2013 FoST. 

I retired my SHO from daily duties because in 10 months I put almost 18k miles on it. So I picked up my FoST in Feb 2019.  It enjoyed a stock life for about 3 months lol.

First came the tune.  Then this happened. Cliffnotes: Ford Racing's tune sucks. 

Gather around....it is story time.

I did my research. There is a guy here in Phoenix that documents everything that he does with his ST and he has the Ford Performance Calibration. He gave a good review, and since he was having no issues with our craptastic 91 octane, and he said installation was a breeze. I thought since it was a daily, and I had only heard good things and it was going to save me money I pulled the trigger. I confirmed on the website my laptop was compatible and low and behold it was.

I paid $450 for the tuning software and colder plugs. I wasn't worried about real time data and data logging. The ST is my daily and I didn't want to deal with those aspects because 85% of the miles on this car are highway miles.

The Calibration package arrived on a Saturday. I confirmed my computer was compatible with Ford's Software again and started the process. I the swapped the plugs out. I loaded the software and started the process of the loading the Calibration. During the process it failed, and bricked the car. I could not recover the stock tune, and the car was a paperweight.

I had it towed to went to a local Ford Dealership on Wednesday four days later after "working" with a Ford Performance Rep that could not understand why this happened. Ford talked with Ford Performance and the tech re-flashed the stock tune. I then in front of the tech with FP on the phone, tried to load FP Calibration. It once again failed and bricked the car for a second time. I had the tech re-flash the car back to stock, and sent the reports to FP. Ford charged me $159.99 for the re-flash.

So running tally......$450 Calibration + $159.99 re-flash = $609.99

After a couple days Ford Performance got back to me and told me the lead programmer said it was my computer that was the problem. So I went to Fry's Electronics and bought a lap top that was compatible with what the programmer told me. This would also allow me to use this laptop for tuning purposes for future builds including data logging the SHO (which my old lap top has zero issues with). So literally all in one. $499 dollars later. With the new laptop, and a new "Calibration Key" from FP, I went back to Ford and I loaded Calibration finally. I did it at Ford just in case it bricked again. They know me now, and they had zero issues helping me. The Calibration worked damn good as well. I was happy. However, I noticed that the car would bury the boost gauge sometimes at 25 psi, and that got me wondering.

So running tally.....$450.00 Calibration + $159.99 reflash + 550.99 new "tuning laptop" = $1160.98 running tally.

After chatting with Brad and having him review the Ford Calibration logs, he voiced some concerns. I took those and filed them in the back of my head. Once the heat showed up here in Phoenix, I started getting uneasy about the big boost, heat, and crappy 91 octane. Brad and I discussed that I could run my ST on Flex Fuel and straight E85 with no fuel system mods to the ST. I decided to jump ship. He told me to send him the strategy. I did and he said it was not valid for my ST. He explained the FP Calibration changes the strategy and that I would have to re-flash it back to stock using the FP software. I did, and it bricked for a third time. This happened on a Saturday afternoon.

Long story short, it was towed once again to a new Ford Dealership. the first Ford Dealership (never again) told me it would take them 10 days to do a re-flash. I told to the service manager, who literally sat next to me in the service bay of the tech working on my car for the first re-flash. She said, she might be able to squeeze me in, on Thursday...5 days later. I lol'd and basically told them to.....well you know. I called the new Ford Dealership at 2 pm on a Saturday (they close at 4 pm). I explained to the service manager what happened and he needless to say was disappointed in FP and the first Ford Dealership. He told me, if I could get the car to them before 4:30 pm (he was going to stay late) and he would personally re-flash the car and bill FP directly.

I called a tow company and got the car to them at 3:30 pm. I showed him my invoices, and emails and he apologized for something he had zero doings about. I showed him what was going on with my car and PF's software and he confirmed the car was bricked. He then re-flashed my car back to stock. There was no talk of a bill, the man shook my hand and said if you need anything let me know directly. Awesome. Everything was wrapped up by 4:15 pm.

Camelback Ford is now my choice dealership. My ST will gets it's recall work there (don't get me started about that) and if I buy another Ford I will look their first.

So $1160.98 for a Calibration to be loaded, car bricked three times, and two tows to the dealership.....

Yeah I should have worked with Brad first. For the money and time wasted on the ST Calibration, I could have bought a xdi HPFP for the SHO....

Holy cow!  What a series of events!

And yeah ..+1 for AJPTurbo!

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[802SHO]

I like the copper dip on the ST wheels.  Any other pics of it? 

Sent from my LM-G710VM using Tapatalk

[SM105K]

Here is my 2013 FoST. 

I retired my SHO from daily duties because in 10 months I put almost 18k miles on it. So I picked up my FoST in Feb 2019.  It enjoyed a stock life for about 3 months lol.

First came the tune.  Then this happened. Cliffnotes: Ford Racing's tune sucks. 

Gather around....it is story time.

I did my research. There is a guy here in Phoenix that documents everything that he does with his ST and he has the Ford Performance Calibration. He gave a good review, and since he was having no issues with our craptastic 91 octane, and he said installation was a breeze. I thought since it was a daily, and I had only heard good things and it was going to save me money I pulled the trigger. I confirmed on the website my laptop was compatible and low and behold it was.

I paid $450 for the tuning software and colder plugs. I wasn't worried about real time data and data logging. The ST is my daily and I didn't want to deal with those aspects because 85% of the miles on this car are highway miles.

The Calibration package arrived on a Saturday. I confirmed my computer was compatible with Ford's Software again and started the process. I the swapped the plugs out. I loaded the software and started the process of the loading the Calibration. During the process it failed, and bricked the car. I could not recover the stock tune, and the car was a paperweight.

I had it towed to went to a local Ford Dealership on Wednesday four days later after "working" with a Ford Performance Rep that could not understand why this happened. Ford talked with Ford Performance and the tech re-flashed the stock tune. I then in front of the tech with FP on the phone, tried to load FP Calibration. It once again failed and bricked the car for a second time. I had the tech re-flash the car back to stock, and sent the reports to FP. Ford charged me $159.99 for the re-flash.

So running tally......$450 Calibration + $159.99 re-flash = $609.99

After a couple days Ford Performance got back to me and told me the lead programmer said it was my computer that was the problem. So I went to Fry's Electronics and bought a lap top that was compatible with what the programmer told me. This would also allow me to use this laptop for tuning purposes for future builds including data logging the SHO (which my old lap top has zero issues with). So literally all in one. $499 dollars later. With the new laptop, and a new "Calibration Key" from FP, I went back to Ford and I loaded Calibration finally. I did it at Ford just in case it bricked again. They know me now, and they had zero issues helping me. The Calibration worked damn good as well. I was happy. However, I noticed that the car would bury the boost gauge sometimes at 25 psi, and that got me wondering.

So running tally.....$450.00 Calibration + $159.99 reflash + 550.99 new "tuning laptop" = $1160.98 running tally.

After chatting with Brad and having him review the Ford Calibration logs, he voiced some concerns. I took those and filed them in the back of my head. Once the heat showed up here in Phoenix, I started getting uneasy about the big boost, heat, and crappy 91 octane. Brad and I discussed that I could run my ST on Flex Fuel and straight E85 with no fuel system mods to the ST. I decided to jump ship. He told me to send him the strategy. I did and he said it was not valid for my ST. He explained the FP Calibration changes the strategy and that I would have to re-flash it back to stock using the FP software. I did, and it bricked for a third time. This happened on a Saturday afternoon.

Long story short, it was towed once again to a new Ford Dealership. the first Ford Dealership (never again) told me it would take them 10 days to do a re-flash. I told to the service manager, who literally sat next to me in the service bay of the tech working on my car for the first re-flash. She said, she might be able to squeeze me in, on Thursday...5 days later. I lol'd and basically told them to.....well you know. I called the new Ford Dealership at 2 pm on a Saturday (they close at 4 pm). I explained to the service manager what happened and he needless to say was disappointed in FP and the first Ford Dealership. He told me, if I could get the car to them before 4:30 pm (he was going to stay late) and he would personally re-flash the car and bill FP directly.

I called a tow company and got the car to them at 3:30 pm. I showed him my invoices, and emails and he apologized for something he had zero doings about. I showed him what was going on with my car and PF's software and he confirmed the car was bricked. He then re-flashed my car back to stock. There was no talk of a bill, the man shook my hand and said if you need anything let me know directly. Awesome. Everything was wrapped up by 4:15 pm.

Camelback Ford is now my choice dealership. My ST will gets it's recall work there (don't get me started about that) and if I buy another Ford I will look their first.

So $1160.98 for a Calibration to be loaded, car bricked three times, and two tows to the dealership.....

Yeah I should have worked with Brad first. For the money and time wasted on the ST Calibration, I could have bought a xdi HPFP for the SHO....

Holy cow!  What a series of events!

And yeah ..+1 for AJPTurbo!

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Yeah it was really an ordeal to say the least.  I really enjoy AJPTurbo's tune, and kick myself for not going to him in the first place.

[SM105K]

I like the copper dip on the ST wheels.  Any other pics of it? 

Sent from my LM-G710VM using Tapatalk

I actually haven't taken that many pictures of them.  I will clean it up this weekend and snap some pics.