My Red Pony

[Whitedevil95]

Euro Tail Lights for sale?

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[Vlad Soare]

To be honest, I haven't thought of that. But I'm inclined to say no. When it comes to shipping to/from non-EU countries, dealing with our incredibly primitive mail service is an extremely painful and humiliating process, which I'd rather not go through. Besides, they could be useful if the red ones failed (they're aftermarket, so I have no clue about their long-term reliability), or if I ever wanted to go back to the Euro style for any reason. So I'd rather keep them, just in case.

 

[WD Pro]

Hi Vlad,

If you are interested, the little black guards that are layered under your RokBloks can be removed easily - just pull the fender liner back and there are two 7mm bolts and a 20mm square of VHB

WD

 

[Rapid Red]

I said above that my red theme was complete. It wasn't. Now it's complete.

Don't toss the plastic button removed from the center of the original hood release. It will fit in the new one and finish it .

That mod is actually a very good functional mod.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Even though I do like the look of the white European tail lights, in my case I thought red ones would look even better. Had my car been any other colour, I would have lived happily ever after with the white ones. But a red car looks best with red tail lights.

So, thanks to our colleague @Ace I'm now poorer, but happier.

They're really awesome. Fantastic build quality, indistinguishable from OEM. Everything works perfectly (for instance, there's no delay when signalling and braking at the same time, like you get with the Vlands), and despite the red lens the turn signals are actually a nice and bright amber, which makes them perfectly legal.

Besides being a better match for a red car, there are two more things that I love about them.

First, that all three bars are also brake lights, as opposed to the originals, where only the innermost two bars had this function.
Second, and most important, that the turn signals are sequential, like the American version (albeit in amber).

Sadly, my love affair with these ExoticPonyMods tail lights has come to an abrupt end. It seems that even though the lamps themselves are well built, the electronic control modules are quite low in quality and have a limited life (if they work at all to begin with). I've had them for merely eight months, and one of them has already started to act up.
So, with a heavy heart, I had to revert to the factory lights. They may not be as glamorous as the red sequential ones, but at least I can trust them.

 

[Rapid Red]

Sadly, my love affair with these ExoticPonyMods tail lights has come to an abrupt end. It seems that even though the lamps themselves are well built, the electronic control modules are quite low in quality and have a limited life (if they work at all to begin with). I've had them for merely eight months, and one of them has already started to act up.
So, with a heavy heart, I had to revert to the factory lights. They may not be as glamorous as the red sequential ones, but at least I can trust them.

If the modules were available separately, I'd replace the defective one and then I'd put the EPM lights up for sale. But they don't seem to be. So I can't even sell them. Which means I'm now stuck with two very expensive doorstops.

Unfortunately, that is the sad reality of these electronic after markets. Flash with cheap hardware items.

The good news, tail lights are an easy in and out swap. Post the one working, you will have a 50/50 chance someone could need that side.....

Cheers
Greg

 

[Vlad Soare]

I had a Steeda clutch assist spring and perch, which I had not installed because the clutch seemed fine to me as it was. I didn't understand what all the fuss was about - lack of feeling, lack of control, and all that. I could feel the engagement point just fine, thank you. So I put it down to some people not being able to drive manual cars properly and forgot about it.
But last week I felt a bit guilty about having never even given it a chance. After all, what did I have to lose? I can always revert to the factory spring if I don't like it. So I installed it.
And I love it. The improvement is subtle, but undeniable.

I'm glad I waited this long to install it, because now, having got completely used to the feel of the stock clutch pedal after one year of daily driving, I can be absolutely certain that the difference I perceive is real, not placebo. Had I installed it as soon as I got the car, I would never have known whether it was indeed effective, and to what extent.

It takes a bit more force to fully depress the pedal, but just a bit. I wouldn't call it stiff. It's quite all right. I feel that the required effort is somewhat on par with the cable-operated clutches of the olden days, which I rather like.
The force required to disengage the clutch completely is indeed linear now over the entire pedal travel, like everybody is reporting. This makes it much easier to engage the clutch smoothly. I was already able to do that, but it took a conscious effort (which I thought was normal, just a part of what driving a manual means), whereas now it feels like the clutch actually wants to engage smoothly of its own accord.
I love it. The clutch was OK before, but now it's perfect.

The stock perch looks just fine to me. I don't see how one could break it. It looks as tough as it gets. Maybe it used to be flimsier before, and they changed it in 2020? I don't know. I installed the Steeda perch since I happened to have it, but if I had known I would have cut the extra expense.

 

[Rapid Red]

I had a different experience, having driven manuals before.

At first I went with different car different feel. After driveing the car for couple hundred miles. Knew very well not for me. Came to the conclusion, funky & uneven engagement thru the pedel cycle, in & out.

The spring rate was indeed not helping. I assume with so many armatures, trying to drive a 6sp .

Somehow Ford thought the stock spring rate was a good idea. I understand the the why, example. Car on incline, brake release is delayed. Anyone with with experience, can handle that without problems.

So the 2 go together for different reasons, are helpers for the inexperienced.

 

[Vlad Soare]

I think Ford just wanted to make the pedal easier to push. I've seen a similar spring in other cars as well, which makes me think it's pretty common. Maybe Ford chose to make it stiffer just to keep people who are new to manual gearboxes from complaining that the pedal is too hard to push.

Now that I got to compare the feeling with and without the stock spring, I agree that the stock spring did feel a bit... let's say... unnatural, for lack of a better word. I could feel the engagement point, but I could tell that there were two distinct phases in the movement of the pedal. One from completely disengaged to the engagement point, and one from that point to completely engaged. I didn't mind, I didn't see it as a problem, but rather as a character trait of this particular car, something you just accept and deal with. And I dealt with it just fine.
But it does indeed feel nicer with the Steeda spring. My upshifts used to be smooth thanks to careful pedal work, whereas now they're smooth with no conscious effort on my part. And rev matching is noticeably easier. If I match the revs closely enough but not quite perfectly, I can now mask the imperfection by means of careful clutch work, which was very difficult before.

The only glitch is that the clutch pedal has developed an annoying squeak. It didn't cross my mind when I did the job to put some Vaseline on the perch. I guess I should have. I'll try tomorrow.

 

[WD Pro]

My perch was covered in white (lithium ?) grease

WD

 

[Vlad Soare]

Yes, I think white grease should do the trick. I've covered it in a generous layer now. We'll see. Fingers crossed...

 

[Vlad Soare]

The squeak is gone.

While I was at it, I also installed the Steeda heel and toe pedal. I already had the Steeda pedal set, but with a normal-sized gas pedal.
The instructions from Steeda state that the gas pedal should be attached to the OEM metal cover by means of self-tapping screws. And when I installed the complete set I did just that - a job I wasn't quite satisfied with, to be honest, because it didn't look quite as clean as I'd wished. But now I've done it properly - removed the pedal assembly from the car, removed the stock metal cover (one torx screw on the back), drilled holes through the pedal, and attached the new aluminium piece directly to the pedal itself, using bolts and nuts.

I'm not sure yet whether I should also raise the gas pedal by one centimetre or so. It would be easy to do, but I'm not sure it's a good idea. It would make heel and toe easier when braking softly on the street, but it could also make it more difficult, or perhaps impossible, to brake hard without accelerating at the same time. I'm afraid I might rev the hell out of the engine every time I need to brake a bit harder than normal. I don't know. I'll think about it.

 

[Vlad Soare]

I decided to raise the gas pedal a bit. After measuring the standard gap, running some tests with pieces of foam, and reading other posts on this subject, I decided that one centimetre would be a good starting point.

For this purpose I used washers like these:

I then determined the required number of washers.

Thirteen washers make 10.4 mm. Twelve washers would have been 9.66 mm.
So, I went with thirteen.

And this is how the pedal looks from the side, with a one centimetre gap between the pedal itself and the aluminium cover.

 

[WD Pro]

When you find the sweet spot : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114126717696 (or similar)

WD

 

[Rapid Red]

By chance you plan on trimming those back. Would not want that to get hung on the carpet, what a ride that would be LMAO

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