Extending the Life of a 2014 Fiesta ST

[Original J-Pat]

So I rolled my fiesta st off the showroom floor brand new and it's still kicking. All to say I did have do replace the engine at 120k~ after my alternator died and I replaced it myself. From there I messed up my serpentine belt replaced at a dealer local to me thinking it would be done right. Got the car back and the technician delivered it himself to my house (great service right?). Come to find out he didn't know how to drive stick so not sure how he made it to my house. Anyways I then have no power in 4th gear and returned it to them and told them to fix whatever they messed up. Next thing I know they say cannot release the car to me because it will not run. I get quoted now for a new engine at $14,000 not including labor. I tow the car to a place recommended by a mechanic friend of his and have it all done for 9k with a used motor with 50k miles on it. With all that being said what can I do now to extend the life besides the normal 5k mile interval oil change. Will upgrading the radiator and intecooler help? TIA

P.S. I've been here since the forum opened so not sure who's still around.

 

[our guile]

Damn, and here I thought I'd been around for a while.

Even $9k seems insanely expensive for an engine swap. Is that for an engine sourced from a Fist? If so you might be able to bring the cost down by finding one from an Escape (the internals are the same, the only difference is the tuning). Upgrading the radiator and intercooler are good "while you're in there" mods too.

 

[Original J-Pat]

Damn, and here I thought I'd been around for a while.

Even $9k seems insanely expensive for an engine swap. Is that for an engine sourced from a Fist? If so you might be able to bring the cost down by finding one from an Escape (the internals are the same, the only difference is the tuning). Upgrading the radiator and intercooler are good "while you're in there" mods too.

I thought so too, but I was in a bind. It might have been 5k all said and done. The swap is done and the car has another engine so I'm just wondering what else I can do to prolong the life of the engine and car as a whole.

If I remember correctly I was on this forum when everyone put in orders and people didn't even have cars delivered yet. I come by and look to see but sounds like everything done to these cars are set in stone.

 

[Dpro]

The platform is mature at this point S280 is one of the more popular turbos people upgrade to with great results retaining a stock feeling down low but after 2800-3k really making the car come alive all the way to redline. Things to for upgrades are radiator and intercooler in the preventive and help retain power department, Ford has disco’d some of the parts for the car already since its out of production and they do not do cars anymore?
5k keeps it cheap enough to squeeze more years out of the car with no worries.

 

[our guile]

Ah ok, so the engine swap is already finished. In that case it's a sunk cost, and $5k sounds pretty reasonable to me. The radiator and intercooler are great mods, and while the intercooler won't necessarily prolong the life of the engine, the radiator will keep temps lower which isn't a bad thing. It sounds like you're doing regular maintenance already, which is the best thing you could do for your car. That, and driving it regularly and on long enough trips so that it fully heat cycles.

 

[Original J-Pat]

The platform is mature at this point S280 is one of the more popular turbos people upgrade to with great results retaining a stock feeling down low but after 2800-3k really making the car come alive all the way to redline. Things to for upgrades are radiator and intercooler in the preventive and help retain power department, Ford has disco’d some of the parts for the car already since its out of production and they do not do cars anymore?
5k keeps it cheap enough to squeeze more years out of the car with no worries.

Yes totally has matured. Curious if it'll make a comeback like the sentra se-r's or older miatas but who knows. Nowadays all it takes is a viral video from a car fluencer and they'll be back popular. I'll eventually do the intercooler and radiator.

 

[Original J-Pat]

Ah ok, so the engine swap is already finished. In that case it's a sunk cost, and $5k sounds pretty reasonable to me. The radiator and intercooler are great mods, and while the intercooler won't necessarily prolong the life of the engine, the radiator will keep temps lower which isn't a bad thing. It sounds like you're doing regular maintenance already, which is the best thing you could do for your car. That, and driving it regularly and on long enough trips so that it fully heat cycles.

Yea so far so good. The hard part is what to upgrade to next. I never really had a problem with this car besides probably wanting better MPG and also a little more room. Moving to that territory looks like a hybrid or a car that's not very fun.

 

[Dpro]

Yea so far so good. The hard part is what to upgrade to next. I never really had a problem with this car besides probably wanting better MPG and also a little more room. Moving to that territory looks like a hybrid or a car that's not very fun.

Ya you want better mileage it’s pretty much a hybrid and of those a Corolla hybrid would be the closest you might get to Hybrid that might be a bit fun.

I just bought a GR Corolla myself because it’s just the next logical step from the FiST . A lot of of former FiST owners have made the jump and FoRS owners as well. AWD , 300HP ( actually more Toyota underrates the output) fully independent suspension ( double wishbone rear) 6 speed manual. There is a lot to like about the car. I was most likely going to buy a hybrid for a daily but decided to check out the GRC in person after hating on it from pics and people whining about the weight . A: most of us had not seen it in person B: most of us had not driven. Did both and came back with a different opinion and as of a week ago I am back in the JDM world.
Still have my FiST , though it’s sticking around for a minute or two.

 

[Original J-Pat]

Ya you want better mileage it’s pretty much a hybrid and of those a Corolla hybrid would be the closest you might get to Hybrid that might be a bit fun.

I just bought a GR Corolla myself because it’s just the next logical step from the FiST . A lot of of former FiST owners have made the jump and FoRS owners as well. AWD , 300HP ( actually more Toyota underrates the output) fully independent suspension ( double wishbone rear) 6 speed manual. There is a lot to like about the car. I was most likely going to buy a hybrid for a daily but decided to check out the GRC in person after hating on it from pics and people whining about the weight . A: most of us had not seen it in person B: most of us had not driven. Did both and came back with a different opinion and as of a week ago I am back in the JDM world.
Still have my FiST , though it’s sticking around for a minute or two.

I was looking at the corolla hybrid but the hatchback but I'm not all the impressed with the interior. I really like the accord hybrid 2025 but not a hatch and less space but love the interior and exterior. Also the newer CRV hybrid but I'm sure that's not fun at all. The civic sedans look nice and I don't mind the SI but again not a hatchback and I need more room. The new gen hatches for the civic look weird to me. GR corolla is definitely not in my budget and the MPG isn't better than the fist. This is only my second car so I'm pretty picky with cars. Might go with a truck but mpgs will not be good. Just depends on the financial situation at that point.

 

[Dpro]

I was looking at the corolla hybrid but the hatchback but I'm not all the impressed with the interior. I really like the accord hybrid 2025 but not a hatch and less space but love the interior and exterior. Also the newer CRV hybrid but I'm sure that's not fun at all. The civic sedans look nice and I don't mind the SI but again not a hatchback and I need more room. The new gen hatches for the civic look weird to me. GR corolla is definitely not in my budget and the MPG isn't better than the fist. This is only my second car so I'm pretty picky with cars. Might go with a truck but mpgs will not be good. Just depends on the financial situation at that point.

seriously your coming from a FiST and complaining about a Corolla interior😂. Ya there are differnet interior levels on Corollas including the Hybrids.
Though there are stil a step from our generation of FiST.
Of course Honda does go all in on their interiors on the Hybrids lately but also charge accordingly.
I did not buy the GR Corolla for the sake of mileage I bought it for the shear car it is. Mileage is about equal to a FiST and quite honestly for a AWD 300HP car it’s not bad at all.

 

[Original J-Pat]

seriously your coming from a FiST and complaining about a Corolla interior😂. Ya there are differnet interior levels on Corollas including the Hybrids.
Though there are stil a step from our generation of FiST.
Of course Honda does go all in on their interiors on the Hybrids lately but also charge accordingly.
I did not buy the GR Corolla for the sake of mileage I bought it for the shear car it is. Mileage is about equal to a FiST and quite honestly for a AWD 300HP car it’s not bad at all.

Weirdly enough I like the interior of the FiST. The corolla looks strange to me.

 

[Capri to ST]

To extend the life of this car, or any car for that matter, but especially this one that has a direct injected turbo engine, I recommend the following-
-use only full synthetic oil in the correct viscosity
-use top tier premium gas
-avoid frequent short trips where the car doesn't have a chance to fully warm up. If you're going somewhere that's really close, consider driving a little bit out of the way to let it warm up. Once a week or so give it a good run for 30 minutes or so at a decent speed

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^I will add; Use a DIRECT INJECTION focused/labeled, high PEA content, fuel additive/cleaner every 3K miles or so (or right before an oil change).

It will NOT help the infamous intake valve carbon buildup at all, but it WILL help keep those high pressure direct injector tips clean, and therefore help a bit with the dreaded LSPI problem -> (as will those high quality, fully synthetic oils you recommend).

 

[Dpro]

Weirdly enough I like the interior of the FiST. The corolla looks strange to me.

From a perspective point of view I have no qualms with the FiST interior beyond the fact that the door panels are cheap hard plastic that scratches real easy. The Corolla is close to that as well. Though the Dashboard design is more modern and oddly enough if you looked at the dash design of the MK8 FiST it closely resembles the Corolla.

There is a design esthetic between the two were the FiST dash on our cars slopes downwards towards you giving you a more sitting on the car feel rather than a sitting in. Of course it’s purely psychological . As the seating positions between the two are actually again quite similar. Yet in the Corolla you feel more like your sitting in it. Our dash does look really dated though on design language because it is. Our touch screen hump is border line ridiculous in design as it’s huge for a little screen. Our gauge cluster setup is nice. You probably feel weird about the Corolla dash gauge cluster setup because it’s digital and has their take on a switchable digital stack setup.

Though the minute I sat in a Circuit Interior GR I was like oh this is nicer than the FiST because it was more modern. My Premium has the Circuit interior and my friend owns a 2020 XSE the XSE interior is nice it’s comfortable. My Premium interior Is more comfortable than the FiST .
I still like my FiST but there is no fooling myself about these kind of things . It’s also possibly just all preferences and familiarity . Our brains are funny that way.

 

[Intuit]

So I rolled my fiesta st off the showroom floor brand new and it's still kicking. All to say I did have do replace the engine at 120k~ after my alternator died and I replaced it myself. From there I messed up my serpentine belt replaced at a dealer local to me thinking it would be done right. Got the car back and the technician delivered it himself to my house (great service right?). Come to find out he didn't know how to drive stick so not sure how he made it to my house. Anyways I then have no power in 4th gear and returned it to them and told them to fix whatever they messed up. Next thing I know they say cannot release the car to me because it will not run. I get quoted now for a new engine at $14,000 not including labor. I tow the car to a place recommended by a mechanic friend of his and have it all done for 9k with a used motor with 50k miles on it. With all that being said what can I do now to extend the life besides the normal 5k mile interval oil change. Will upgrading the radiator and intecooler help? TIA

P.S. I've been here since the forum opened so not sure who's still around.

Want it to last, keep others from f-ing touching your shat. If it doesn't involve paint or welding, do it yourself with knowledgeable family/friend to aid and assist with direction. Never ever ever do any work without consulting the service manual.
Also, stay on top of structural rust; which also includes areas hidden by other parts and panels.
Minimize unnecessary programming, part changes and maintenance. Drivetrain/suspension mods will shorten your available time, bank account and ultimately time of ownership.
Did I mention, perform your own work?
If you're worried about engine temps, find a way to monitor them.
Always vacuum fill your cooling system.
Keep in mind, engineers are running modern engines hotter on purpose, primarily for emissions purposes; but it also helps keep the cylinders cleaner with less carbon buildup.
Also, perform your own work.
Keep your spidey-sense on high alert. This (and next few years) would be THE PERFECT time for some dickweed to total your ride and have no way to reimburse you for the amounts you've invested; let alone afford another comparable ride.
Yeah, and finally, perform your own work.


.