Hating on the Focus RS

[kevm14]

Apparently Matt Farah came pretty close (or attempted to) selling his Focus RS to a friend. Some other folks said that actually meant that his friend would take over his lease payments. Anyway, I guess he kept it. I'd like more info on this...

[bill25]

So it is interesting... Kevin will argue that the RS has nice tires that are useless in the winter, and I will say, then get winter tires, and it will be good in the snow. I will also say that the Camaro would require winter tires too so it is a wash.

The Camaro is obviously way faster in a straight line, but everyone seems to agree that the new Camaro SS is good on a track also. Well, the Focus RS came in with a lap time within less than a tenth of a second difference of the Camaro SS. Sounds pretty good to me...

http://www.lsxmag.com/news/ford-focus-r ... -the-track

[kevm14]

Meanwhile in the M/T Leftovers article, the V6 1LE posted a lap time 0.82 seconds faster than the Focus RS. And the RS was on Sport Cup 2s of course. The chassis hardware of the V6 1LE is basically just a regular Camaro SS but with the V6. I don't know who did this comparison but I feel pretty comfortable saying the gap between these two cars is much larger than this. Mainly because all the other data we have says so.

[kevm14]

Here's some hate then: that Ecoboost in RS application has little headroom and may suffer some powertrain reliability issues as a result. There are enough documented issues on the Mustang side, in lower output. And generally I think the Ecoboost formula is to use the tiniest possible turbo you can get away with, which really helps in drivability, but longevity, not so much.

Bringing this back with an update.

http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/8591 ... new-engine

Those who tune the RS's 2.3L turbo four have found a few problems with the car's fundamentals, including the somewhat weak all-wheel drive system. Now, this Focus RS owner claims that his engine has crapped out with very few miles on the clock. Should other consumers be worried about this issue?

Maybe. Although it isn't a common problem, the video here claims that others have shared the same issue of a cracked block—that's a lot more serious than a leaky seal or blown turbo.

[bill25]

It will be interesting to see if this is common among stock RSs. Someone overtuning and blowing up the engine doesn't really fall on Ford. Granted we did think this was pretty much maxed out. If this happens to stock vehicles, that is a problem.

[kevm14]

Yeah I am not saying jump on them - a few early LT1s in C7s had issues and the Z06 had its own cooling issues.

[kevm14]

Just following up on the engine failure thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nan3LURIq3k

[bill25]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/th ... spartanntp

Here is the possible explanation. I didn't realize that the Focus and the Mustang engine were different, aside from being turned 90 degrees. That is kind of weird.

Apparently the Mustang head gaskets were potentially instead of the Focus head gaskets. Possibly a supply or manufacturing problem.

[kevm14]

According to what I read, there is more than just an incorrect head gasket at play here. I think without a design change these engines are not going to be very robust to hard usage, or modification. The cylinders are prone to warping because of how much water jacket volume there is around them (referred to as "open deck"). The video I linked already mentions the head gasket issue. Translation: the correct head gasket would have made engines last longer but not necessarily solve the issue.

That's my current prediction.

Maybe this will tank resale on higher mileage RSs in the future. That would be something. Then again, you want poor perceived reliability, not poor actual reliability!

[kevm14]

The difference is that the Focus RS has a bigger turbo on it than the Mustang, so it puts out about 20 more HP and 25 more lb-ft. The failure in your Mustang is an anomaly. This block actually dates back to the first generation Mazda6, and the Ecoboost engineers did a lot of work figuring out exactly how much power it could take to put in the Mustang, then 2 years later they were told to add even more for the RS.

Hmm. I mean this goes back to the earlier posts I made where some folks were of a mind that the engine in the RS is tuned to within an inch of its life and won't be a good platform for cranking up the boost later. Only time will tell for sure I guess. But I'm standing by this as the latest issues only support the point I think. Now we get to hear a bunch of Ford apologists say "hey, it was just the wrong head gasket, nothing to see here, move along" when there are more things possibly happening. Hopefully there will be good discussion and some evidence to support that discussion.