My Daily Fiesta ST

[Yelbom15]

I went to Reddit to ask a simple question. Is the Fiesta ST a good one and only daily. Within a day, 120 some people commented saying yes. Without question, one was available and I bought it.

2019 Ford Fiesta ST
54,000 miles
1 Owner
Not modded(as far as I can see)
Florida kept.

 

[D1JL]

Dave

 

[Dpro]

congrats and welcome from another Orange Spice owner.

 

[Yelbom15]

Any chance someone could give me a tip though? I’m locked in and sold on the vehicle. However, I hear a continuous rattle/light clunk noise as I press the clutch in and coast to a stop. It shifts like butter and nothing seems out of the ordinary but pressing in the clutch and hearing that noise just makes me wonder what it is. Normal? It’s nothing crazy loud. I have to have the car dead silent to hear it.

 

[Jabbit]

Any chance someone could give me a tip though? I’m locked in and sold on the vehicle. However, I hear a rattle/light clunk noise as I press the clutch in and come to a stop. It shifts like butter and nothing seems out of the ordinary but pressing in the clutch and hearing that noise just makes me wonder what it is. Normal? It’s nothing crazy loud. I have to have the car dead silent to hear it.

These cars have a noisy flywheel, that's likely what you are hearing.

 

[FiestaSTdude]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[XR650R]

I was probably one of those people. Welcome!

 

[Yelbom15]

I was probably one of those people. Welcome!

Ha! None of you were joking. It is a fantastic little car. All I’ve been doing is driving it the past couple of days. Is there anything you’d do right on the spot with this? Once I hit 60,000 miles, I’ll go ahead with filters, oil, transmission fluid, spark plugs and so on.
Anything else you’d recommend?

 

[ronniec687]

Rear motor mount if it hasnt already been done.

 

[Capri to ST]

Ha! None of you were joking. It is a fantastic little car. All I’ve been doing is driving it the past couple of days. Is there anything you’d do right on the spot with this? Once I hit 60,000 miles, I’ll go ahead with filters, oil, transmission fluid, spark plugs and so on.
Anything else you’d recommend?

I would replace the coolant and flush the brake and clutch fluids unless you have evidence that it was done within the last two years.

 

[Yelbom15]

It’s been 37 days since my purchase and I still find pleasure driving this day in and day out. I wasn’t able to say that about any vehicle in a very long time.
The complaints I heard about the car such as quality still has not bothered me in the slightest. I feel like I’m driving my old Saab 900 again but with the confidence that it won’t leave me stranded.

 

[atlantaM3]

Excellent find, love that color! Hope it gives you many miles of fun.

 

[SteveS]

It’s been 37 days since my purchase and I still find pleasure driving this day in and day out. I wasn’t able to say that about any vehicle in a very long time.
The complaints I heard about the car such as quality still has not bothered me in the slightest. I feel like I’m driving my old Saab 900 again but with the confidence that it won’t leave me stranded.

Ford's quality is not really bad despite the conventional schtick you hear repeated over and over again in the media and social media. Sure, the automatic transmission they used in the Focus and Fiesta was terrible, but in my mind that's what you get when you choose an automatic in a car that should be used with a manual. And yes, a fair number of the Fiestas from the plant in Mexico develop rust at body seams with no discernible cause after a number of years. And they put a weak slave cylinder inside the Fiesta ST transmission instead of outside. And blend door actuators with plastic gears develop clicking.

But in general these don't override the dynamic goodness of the Fiesta ST. And my F150 with the 5.0 is a great truck.

 

[wroughtirony]

At 60k, I replaced the clutch and upgraded the shocks and struts. I probably could have gotten more life out of the suspension parts, but the clutch was starting to slip and then I was a dumbass and cooked it on an incline when I shifted into second instead of first.

 

[Yelbom15]

Only updating this so it serves almost like my diary. Only thing that bugged me was a smell. Took it to a detailer to be shampooed and they made it much worse.
Lifted the seat and found this. A smell of what I can only describe as vomit and alcohol(Army days). Seat belts were tucked under the seats so it led to more discoveries of unknown materials. Basically gutting everything back there at the moment.

 

[XR650R]

That's unfortunate, but not too hard to fix.

 

[FiestaSTdude]

Only updating this so it serves almost like my diary. Only thing that bugged me was a smell. Took it to a detailer to be shampooed and they made it much worse.
Lifted the seat and found this. A smell of what I can only describe as vomit and alcohol(Army days). Seat belts were tucked under the seats so it led to more discoveries of unknown materials. Basically gutting everything back there at the moment. View attachment 59222

If that’s from water sitting back there, you might have leaks in the back or sunroof (if you have one). There’s a couple of threads on here about how to deal with it.