Focus ST Basic Maintenance - Engine Oil, Gear Oil, Spark Plugs 

For anyone wondering you can use the FL400S motorcraft oil filter and you can use full 6 quarts.

I'm a huge fan of this oil. I actually do the Schaeffer's Oil Analysis every change. I now have 11K mile oil change intervals an have been steadily increasing 2000 mile increments with no issues in the last 80k miles. Immaculate oil.

This is another excellent and very informative maintenance video. First, thank you for not calling it a "tune-up." Yes, fill your oil filter. It pre-soaks the filtering element and reduces oil starvation. There is one more thing I do; I use the "ole trick," where I push both the clutch pedal and the throttle to stop the engine from running, and that gives the engine a chance to pre-charge the lubrication system. I do one full interval until the starter disengages, wait 30 seconds (starter motor cool-down), then I do it again, count to five, and release the throttle to let the engine run. I also never ever try to remove the sparkplugs out of a hot engine. I always wait until it cools down... I do that because of the difference in metallurgy and expansion rates... Yes, I am weird.

May be basics, but these are actually some of my favorite days doing a fresh, clean maintenance day on my cars. The Focus ST may be an economy hatchback, but its a performance car nonetheless. The oil and plugs get used up fast in the ecoboost engine and I change my plugs about every 7-8k miles, oil 4-5k miles (now that I'm big turbo, even more often). Also a good time to flush some brake/clutch fluid, bleed the brakes (you should be running higher temp fluids anyways like Motul600), and inspect the pads on both sides (not just with the wheel off peaking in for a quick glance). Changing oil is a good time to dump your OCCs too and check your plugs if you're not changing them out every oil change (thats a bit excessive). If you want to utilize all 6qts, grab the Ford MotoCraft FL400-S oil filter. Its got a slightly higher capacity (i think its for the Fusions or something), but it will allow for more oil capacity and adds .25qts. In other words, dump all 6 in, good to go. One thing I do too when draining oil, is I measure how much comes out before i put it into the main recycle bin that gets recycled at an auto parts store. Its important to see how much comes out. I was seeing almost normal levels on the dipstick last time, and it only drained barely 4qts....my system takes 6.7qts because I run the bigger filter and an oil cooler. But a lot of oil does get stuck up in the cooler, so its hard to tell how much i had in there without removing the cooler and draining that. I use Mobil 1 Synthetic for engine oil, MOTUL600 for the brakes/clutch, and MOTUL DCTF for the transmission. Just plan on doing a trans fluid flush every year, regardless of miles. $60 in fluid is a good insurance you're only running nice, fresh fluids through those harsh conditions. It wont likely kill the trans or its components if you wait, but its like you having a nice refreshing cold drink when you're hot vs drinking a room temp drink thats been sitting out...just not as refreshing lol

Always useful information. My car needs the trans fluid changed and this was helpful.

Nice to see 75w90 catching on. 👌 alot better for transmission vs dctf.

just bought my focus st 1 week ago glad to see this

75-90 gear lube. I remember back in the 1970s using that stuff in my 4-speed trans and when winter came along with temps in the teens and below the shifting wasn't the easiest when everything was still cold. The rock crusher wasn't crushing anything! lol!

Great video, covering the basics is also very important, I'd love to do this myself if I had enough space around my ST.

Thank you for this, we were all once beginners.

gear lube and dctf will both work in the transmission. ford even says it will work because it meets the same standards for the transmission.

My favorite is the bigger filter, balance shaft delete and aux oil cooler. That's nearly 10 qts running through that engine.

I have a mechanic that wants me to leave my car with him all day in order to change my spark plugs - I should probably do it on my own at this point, but I'm wondering if it's necessary to leave all day. His reasoning is so that expansion from temperature in the engine need to come down so that everything is uniform and there's no issues with the spark plugs (or something like that). Basically me driving the car to him, he says it needs to rest and bring the temps down to ambient and then he can change them. Great video, thank you.

Fundamentals are everything!

You can use a basic set of needle nose pliers to grab the spark plugs out, if you don't have a sparkplug socket/worn out socket

I think you missed a step: "Reinstall transmission drain plug before adding new fluid." but it will be obvious if that is missed. 🥴😅 Thanks for the demonstration. I think I will change my own transmission fluid once I pull my car from winter storage!

I wana confrim do all NGK LTR71X-II Iridium spark plugs regardless of wherever I get from comes 1 step colder?

The owner's manual states to use Motorcraft dual clutch transmission fluid in this transmission. This is the same fluid as the Focus with automatic transmission. Rear differential oil "might" work. But I wouldn't want to take that chance.

What are some other maintenance things to do for these cars ?

Please explain something to me. My ST 2016 MK3.5 is at the mech currently for an intercooler upgrade. New FMIC has watermeth injection capabilities. He is also saying because we are at altitude (1753m above sea level), it will not require a tune to make more power. Will it run cooler or is the watermethanol not just cooling the sensor directly and IAT is fooled? Without a tune to optimize the new octane level, surely it will make less power because the AFR is different? Does the ST 2016 MK3.5 have an automatic adjustment to detect different AFR's and IAT's, then adjust boost pressure and timing accordingly?? Please help! I am very confused since I see a lot of cars that just get the WMI system installed, seem to make less power. But am being told otherwise from the mech.

I have a set of NGK Iridium spark plugs do I need to tune my focus st if I want to install the iridium ones

People said not to use this oil since it calls for dctf? I just bought 2 bottles and waiting for my oil.

hi there thank you for this video is colder plugs ok for stock tune

Ngk 0.8 gap ?

I hope there are no yellow metals in the transmission like copper or brass because gl5 gear oils will eat those metals.

If you're a beginner you probably shouldn't be gapping iridium plugs. Especially if you dont have gapping pliers or a gapping tool.

Can i just use a hammer to gently gap the plugs? 😅

carbon synchro upgrade require different gear oil?