Service Ford Focus ST 225 2.5 Turbo – DIY

Service Ford Focus ST Parts

This guide explains how to service Ford Focus ST 225, which features the Volvo (t5) 2.5 litre turbo engine. I will walk you through everything you require from the parts you will need before hand, and how to find and remove items such as the sump plug and the oil filter.

The price from Ford for the same service would come to £250+, and I know I can do the same service for a fraction of the price, and make sure everything is done correctly for peace of mind.

This guide is suitable for the following models:

  • Ford Focus ST2 – 2.5 Litre Turbo (2005-2012)
  • Ford Focus ST3 – 2.5 Litre Turbo (2005-2012)

You will notice this guide follows the Ford Focus ST MK2.5 (Facelift) but the same principals cover the MK2 Ford Focus ST.

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Service Ford Focus ST Info

The Ford Focus ST should be serviced every 12,500 miles, or every year, as per Ford’s guidelines. However, it may be good to have a mid service, where you could just drop your oil and replace with fresh oil (This seems to be a regular talk among Ford Owners Clubs). The full service Ford Focus ST Schedule can be found below.

Ford Focus ST Service Schedule

Year 1 (12,500 Miles)

  • Replace Oil Filter
  • Replace Oil
  • Replace Air Filter

Year 2 (25,000 Miles)

  • Replace Oil Filter
  • Replace Oil
  • Replace Air Filter
  • Replace Brake Fluid

Year 3 (37,500 Miles)

  • Replace Oil Filter
  • Replace Oil
  • Replace Air Filter
  • Replace Spark Plugs

Repeat from Year 1 every 12,500 miles, until 10 years or 125,000 miles where you will require your coolant and timing chain to be replaced. You can also get the service schedule from the Ford ETIS Website.

Service Ford Focus ST Parts Required

These are the following parts you will have to purchase to service your Ford Focus ST (note you will only need the top 3 for a small service)

  • 6.4 litre Oil – Recommend Castrol Magnatec 5W30 – Get yourself 2x 4.5 litre bottles (usually on offer in Halfords)
  • 1x Oil Filter (Ford Fin: 1421704) or obtainable from Halfords
  • 1x Sump Plug Washer (Ford Fin: 1386502) or from Halfords
  • 1x Air Filter (Ford Fin: 1418712)
  • 1x Pollen Filter (Ford Fin: 1354953)
  • 5x Spark Plugs (Ford Fin: 1505812)

Tools Required

You will need to confirm you have the following tools, especially the oil filter socket!

  • Phillips Head Screw Driver
  • Flat Head Screwdriver
  • T30 Torx Screwdriver / Socket Bit
  • 17mm Socket
  • 36mm Socket (Better to get a slim line oil filter sockets)
  • Wrench (Compatible with the 36mm socket above)
  • Extension Bar (as the oil filter is tucked away a little bit)
  • Wrench Pivot bit (as the oil filter is off-set)
  • Car Jack
  • 2x Axle Stands
  • Bucket (to empty your oil into)
  • Rag – as it can get a little messy

Confirm you have all of the before attempting to service your car, else there it may be a long way to walk to your local auto parts store when your car has no oil in.

Service Ford Focus ST Steps

As stated above, make sure you have the correct tools – It helps to line them all out to make sure.

Service Ford Focus ST Parts

First use your jack to jack the car up, and place axle stands under the car to support it while you work under the car. Once the car has been raised and is supported, you will need to remove the under tray to gain access to the sump.

Ford Focus ST Under Tray

The under tray is held in place using 7x T30 screws, so using your Torx Screwdriver, remove the screws as outlined in the image below.

Ford Focus ST Under Tray Removed

Now that the screws have been removed, pull the front lip down, and slide the under tray towards the front of the vehicle, as the tray is held in place by two positioning clips at the rear of the tray.

You will now have access to the alloy sump, and the sump plug, which is found on the rear of the sump. (sorry for the bad image of the 17mm sump plug)

Ford Focus ST Sump Plug Ford Focus ST Alloy Sump

Now back to the top of the car, open your bonnet, and unscrew the oil filler cap, and also slide the dip stick out a little – This will allow the oil to flow out easily from the sump when we remove the sump plug.

Ford Focus ST Oil Filler Cap

Now to start the messy part, dropping the oil from the sump. First place your bucket under the vehicle (make sure it fits – Hopefully you have jacked your car up high enough, or you could use a slim line bucket, but make sure there’s enough room for all 6.5(ish) litre of oil which will be removed from the car.

Ford Focus ST Oil Change

Now using your 17mm socket and wrench, undo the sump plug until you can unscrew the rest by hand, be careful at this point not to drop the sump plug into the oil, else you’ll have to become extremely messy when you have to go ‘fishing’ for your sump plug.

Ford Focus ST Oil Removal

While the oil is draining from the sump, we can now remove the oil filter from its housing. This is fairly tricky as there’s not a lot of room to work with. To make things a little easier (and I say little in the loosest of terms), we will remove the cold air intake, which will require the slam  panel to be removed. This is just held in place by plastic screws and caps.

Ford Focus ST Cold Air IntakeFord Focus Slam Panel RemovalFord Focus Slam PanelFord Focus Bonnet Lock

You will then need to remove the two screws and caps (as pictured below) to remove the cold air feed.

Ford Focus ST Cold Air Feed Removal

Twist the cold air feed towards the arrow, and it will simply pull straight out. This allows us to get our hands in a little easier to remove the oil filter housing.

Now using your 36mm socket with your extension bars and an elbow / CV joint bit, you can unscrew the oil filter housing.

Ford Focus ST Oil Filter Housing

Once you have unscrewed this, you will need to get your hand in, and remove the oil filter housing. This can be a little tricky as its a tight fit, I found if you pulled the cold air feed pipe towards the front of the car, it would allow you to squeeze the housing cap out of the gap. Once removed, you can check you have the correct oil filter.

Ford Focus ST Oil Filter Old & New
Ford Focus ST Oil Filter HousingFord Focus ST Oil Filter RemovalFord Focus ST Oil Filter Fitting

You will also need to replace the rubber seal on the housing with a new one – Make sure you lubricate this seal using a little bit of oil on your finger, and run this around the seal once you have fitted the new on. This is where the flat head screw driver comes into use.

Ford Focus ST Oil Filter SealFord Focus ST Oil Filter Seal

I found the next part a little easier if you first put your new oil filter into the oil filter housing on the engine, then fit the cap into the tight space, and finally re-tighten the hosing cap.

Once you have tightened the oil filter cap, you can get back under the car, and re-fit the sump plug (with its new washer), and we are ready to re-fill the car with fresh oil.

Look at the state of the old oil I removed from mine.

Ford Focus ST Dirty Oil

You can go ahead and pour a fill 4.5litre bottle of oil into the car, as it will easily take all this. Then go ahead and pour in another 1.5 (ish) litre of oil from your other bottle. While the oil is settling into the sump, you can go ahead and put the car back on the ground.

At this point, I removed the air filter and replaced mine with a re-usable K&N Filter, this is done by removing the following two screws, and pulling the filter box towards you.

Ford Focus ST Air Filter

Finally, using your rag, take the dipstick out, give it a clean, and insert the dip stick back into its housing. Wait a second or two and remove the dip stick again, and check its level. You are aiming to get the oil a little over half way at this stage (as there is currently no oil in the filter, or the pipes leading to this). If you are a little low, top up your oil, wait a little bit for the oil to drain through the engine, and test again.

Once you have your oil level over half, start your car – keep an eye on your oil pressure gauge at this stage, because if it doesn’t gain pressure after a few seconds, turn your car off as something is seriously wrong. If your car does gain pressure, you have done a perfect job. Let the car run for a moment or two, then turn the car off and check the oil once again. If the oil has dropped below half, give it a little top up to get the oil around half way up the reading on the dip stick – Remember oil expands when its warm, so chances are when you have taken the car for a drive and the oil is up to pressure, the oil will be a little under the full mark on the dipstick.

Another positive feature of changing your oil, you’ll notice the MPG increase! – Here’s mine after taking it straight to the petrol station and driving back home. Service Ford Focus ST – Simples! Now go give your car a wash and a fresh tank of 99 octane fuel, and it will thank you for its birthday!

Focus ST MPG




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43 comments
  1. Hi James thanks for posting this. It’s been a big help, but is there more pics with the spark plug replacement as I’m about to service mine but not sure about what to set the torque at for the plugs.

  2. Hi James you seem to know what your doing so just wondering if you can help. Every now and again I get the abs light come up on the dash this causes the outside temp to go off and the indercater repeater to stop also the dimmer on the lights don’t raise up. All the lights work. If I hit a bump it goes off and it all works again this only happens when I got new tyres do you know what it could be thanks

    1. Hi Barry,

      I would say that this is one of two things… The first part when you say ABS light comes on, would suggest a bad connection on the ABS sensor somewhere, this would be the case when you say this only happened when you got your tyre changed, but this wouldnt cause the other issues. This leads me to believe an earth point is loose / corroded. I would start with checking the ABS cable connections behind the wheels, making sure they are not lose.

      1. The management light is always on since I modified my exhaust system……I had them take off the catalytic converter…..she was running fine

  3. HI James,
    cheers for the info, however you still yet to mention, or update instructions with regards to spark plugs. this would be much appreciated.

  4. Hi James.

    Great articale. Just ons question. I Have a 2007 ST. The previous owner didnt look to well after the car and caused the engine to seize. So ive got a new engine in and would like some key tips on how to keep it in good condition in order to prevent something like that happening again.

    Thanks

    Ruan

  5. Thanks James,

    Great instructions, just followed them, changed the oil done it right and saved myself $$$.
    Any similar instruction on changing out the spark plugs? Very hard to find any info on this on the web.

    Steve (Sydney Aus)

  6. G’day James I’m in australia looking at putting k&n panel filter in my 2010 ( xr5) st can’t get part no, hope you can help regards pete

  7. hi James
    Have a 07 st and 3 problems with it .
    Last few days boost goes after awhile .only gets up to .3 bar and no engine management on.
    Then next day it will back again and then goes after a while again.
    And the handbrake does nt engage fully until you pump the foot brake ?
    Also fuse 25 used to blow and power would go down after a few days (found this out from mechanic from previous owner)
    cheers pat

  8. Hi James, I’ve recently purchased a 2.5 ST 2007 that had a blown engine and I am in the process of putting it together and I require as much info regarding the reassembly of the block and head and putting the entire motor back together. I would appreciate any information or instructions that you can pass onto me. Or if there is someone out there that lives in Johannesburg South Africa that can assist.

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  10. thanks james for your concise instructions; today was the first time that I’d attempted a DIY service on a modern car, the last time being an L reg escort, but today me and me mate john did one on my st3 in 3 hours and cost me about £130 including magnatech oil, pipercross air filter and rs plugs. my main reason for not doing it sooner was not being able to get the cars on ramps due to the low front trim but we managed to get the undertray off on the ground thanks to your photo and only had to raise it on one side to get to the sump plug. the hardest thing was getting the air pipe over the engine cover off but we managed and it was very satisfying knowing we’d saved a few quid and done a good job with the correct torque settings. drove great afterwards. thanks again … mike.

  11. Hello James.

    I am about making the service to my ST focus 2008, Do you recommend the oil brand “royal purple”?

    I already have the air filter and the oil filter(the original ones), I asked also about the fuel filter, but they told me the st doe not use this one.

    Thanks

  12. Hi James. I was after some advice. You know how you removed the big plastic tray underneath the car? Well I was hoping to replace the smaller plastic tray underneath the air con and coolant rads. I have ordered the part. I believe its called the air deflector. Is this an easy job? Anything to look out for? Thanks in advance. P.s focus mk 2.5 1600

  13. Hi i had alternotor belt broken then i drive my focus st3 to back home only 6 minutes away..
    Next day i put new alternotor belt on and i get engine manegment light on with p0016 & p0017 cam and crank timing ..
    So i think vvt valve solenoids do not work propely!!
    I check voltage ecu to selonoids only stays 2.5 volt, when i rev engine up or idle does not voltage change!!
    And you know std focus st exhaust banging from exhaust i can hear this banging in inlet manifold so i think vvt valves doesn’t work!!
    What do you think best way to fix this problem
    Riff
    Thanks for interesting

    1. It sounds as if your timing belt may have slipped a cog or so… Maybe the alternator belt got jammed when it broke and caused the cogs to jump a tooth?

      Best get that checked by a garage ASAP

  14. Hi I have the 2006 st-3 the engine management light came on so took it to the garage and the faults read running too rich on idle bank 1 also fuel pressure sensor took it to get fixed and they said it was two wires had got hot and fused which blew a fuse got it back this morning and again the management light came back on. The previous owner has done a few mods to the ie by putting in an k&n induction kit and a different exhaust maybe this could be the probs
    Kind regards
    Kyle

  15. Is the sump washer reuseable or is it a collapsable one? Struggling to get the correct one from nearby dealers. If not is there specific ones from halfords. So far found the following numbers 1386502 or halfords HFX228.

    1. Hi Kierran,

      It is advised to change the sump washer (although I used the same one again) and its sealed again, but I wouldn’t use it more then two changes.

      The part numbers you have advised are the correct ones for the Focus ST.

      Thanks

      James

  16. Thanks for a great ‘piece’ James.
    Me and my ST-2 have done nearly 70k together. I still love and want to keep it going a bit longer.

    Does anyone know anything about fuel filters or fuel pressure problems. I appear to have and intermittent issue on cold mornings where the ECU resets and runs with ‘reduced acceleration’ plus a red light on the dash. Someone suggested that it might be caused low fuel pressure.

  17. There is timing installation marks in both cam pulleys (dots)and they line up with the dots on the timing cover and there is also a dot on the crank pullet also that lines up with a dot on the oil pump.

  18. Hi sir
    I am desperately trying to get some technical info on how to set my timing belt properly. I recently changed the cam shaft seals, and may have disturbed the cam timing as there were no ‘marks’ on the cam pulleys. There is a slight loss in power, and I can see the turbo boost is also slightly lower than normal.
    Any help will be appreciated, thank you.
    Jason

    1. Hi Jason,

      I cannot speak from experience with this one, as I’ve never had to do anything like this. I will see if I can find any information for you, but I personally would take the car to a Ford dealer for some advice.

      Thanks

      James

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