Best city friendly, off road suspension upgrade?

[BiGs]

First up, G'day. Ben Here. First post.

I've been helping my sister purchase a new car of late and we have recently purchased a 2009 LV Focus diesel.

But first some history leading up to this purchase. We have lived on a 300 acre property 100km north west of Sydney for about 17 years now. The property has a 1.2km private driveway with another 3.5km of unsealed state forest roads to get to the main tarmac road. These dirt roads are very harsh on vehicles. Very accessible by 2wd, just very rough, specially at speed. Corrugation is bad on one part, water ruts on another part gets bad the few months before a grade and after a lot of rain.

To begin with we had a brand new 1996 Rav4 which went through 5 front and 2 rear suspension replacements during its 3 year warranty and also a couple engine mounts. Since then, a Hilux, Holden Barina, Toyota Camry, Mitsubishi Magna, a Great Wall SUV, a Suzuki Jimny and Holden Colerado. All the small SUV had a similar fate at the Rav4. The (purchased new) 2006 Jimny being the most effected, now sitting in a wrecking yard, barely clocking over 100kkm. Great Wall had all but one engine mount break (caused from failed struts) which eventually caused a major gearbox problem recently discovered and cost $5000 to fix, it was then sold off. The camry and magna held up ok, both had aftermarket struts put in once and the magna is still running today along these roads. The Colorado and Hilux have run flawlessly through this punishment and have had no ill effects whatsoever. Hilux purchased new in 2000 has had the longest proving record.

One thing I've noticed in all of this is that the supposedly (city) 4wds have clearly had the most trouble with the roads, they are also expensive to buy, fuel and upkeep in every way.

So with my sister needing a new car I thought I would sit down and plan the next purchase with all this in mind. We want a small car, hatchback is plenty, diesel would be a bonus, but most importantly upgradable suspension gear specifically designed for these rough roads. At first we looked at the Hyundai i30 but after a ring around, discovered no one does any after market shocks for them. Looked at some Subarus, but they are pretty much in the same cost category as a small SUV, only the newest models were diesel and were out of the budget anyway.

I soon discovered that the focus came in diesel. Being in Australian, Europeon and world rally events and having the XR5 model distributed in Australia I figured that there must be a pretty high aftermarket suspension demand and availability for this vehicle, so we decided on this car and went and purchased one. Also, in addition to our roads, my sister's work is down another 3km (each way) of even rougher private dirt roads.

I have got some contacts of suspension places that are 'friends of friends' etc but before I approach a business with a single bias opinion, about to get a sale, I thought I would post in the local forums first and see if I can get a consensus of mostly non bias opinions and make a decision off that.

So I ask for advice on suspension upgrade in this regard. What extra height can safely be achieved using the stock arms/CV gear? Can you recommend a brand of adjustable coilovers and/or a business (or site sponsor) in Sydney/Newcastle that has had focus handling mod experience that you would recommend? I would be interested in strut tower bracing and general chassis stiffening as well (sway bars, harder bushes etc).

Thanks ahead for you help.
Best regards,
Ben

[marg99]

diesel sits very low to the ground for the sort of work you want it to do.
Given the history with cars on your roads I would not have recommended a focus

[BiGs]

Originally Posted by marg99

diesel sits very low to the ground for the sort of work you want it to do.
Given the history with cars on your roads I would not have recommended a focus

Diesels have the same ground clearance as the petrols according to my research.

http://vehiclists.com/cars/Ford/Focus/LX/55850
http://vehiclists.com/cars/Ford/Focus/TDCi/55855

But anyway, clearance is not the issue.

What diesel small car would you have recommended otherwise?

[caprispecial]

Most modern hatchbacks are set up with low profile tyres which are only good on smooth tar roads. What will be needed is some high profile dirt style tyres, this will probably be the most important mod to make.

[Yellow_Festiva]

I think you will need to have someone put a 'kit' together. Any suspension place will be able to swap a few bits around to beef up the suspension (stronger dampers, harder coils).

If ground clearance isn't an issue, play with the rubber. I remember putting LW wheels / tyres on my LV and it raised it ever so slightly, and also made the speedo spot on. I think the change was from 195/55/15 to 205/55. You will get a little extra sidewall with the larger width.

Also, you may look into a problem my Focus had (and a few others) where the inner edges of all 4 tyres would chew out pretty fast. Like you were running bad neg camber.

I was told it couldn't be adjusted out, and that I needed a 'kit' to fix it. May be able to be fixed if you are playing with the suspension.

[Franco Cozzo]

I was using my LV TDCI Focus for some real rough roads before I lowered it, badly potholed and rutted dirt roads, it held up alright, they have pretty good factory clearance.

As Yellow Festiva said above, if you fit larger wheels you will lift it up off the ground a touch more.

How the suspension holds up, I'm not too sure mine was all swapped out with Bilstein stuff and lowered.

Mine has a 22mm rear adjustable Whiteline sway bar.

[BiGs]

Yeah we will look at tires when these ones are used. I like the idea of A/Ts on a focus xD. I had a set for my 14" Corolla kharna car about 5 years ago. But still not really the issue, we only had puncture problems on these roads when tires were bald. The inside wear problem is interesting, i'll keep it in mind.

I have spoken to Dave from Pedders Hornsby who I know well. He is putting a packaged quote together and will get back to me.

I might try a Bilstein fitter also.

Can anyone recommend another suspension brand that has had proven success for members on these forums?

[DeKa]

I would probably "downgrade" to 15" wheels from the CL model, with the standard higher profile tyres. This won't change the ride height, but will give you a more compliant ride and allow the sidewalls to take some of the harshness out.

According to the LV Spec sheet, the TDCI has 16" wheels with 205/55R16 tyres (the same as the petrol LX). The CL however had 15" steel wheels with 195/65R15 tyres.
These have almost exactly the same rolling radius - with the 15" wheels, the speedo will show 100.41km/h when the speedo shows 100km/h. My guess is Ford wouldn't have even reconfigured the speedo between the models...

It would be a cheap thing to try compared to suspension.