1998 Ford Escort GTi from UK and Ireland - Comments

Had loads of problems myself with the wishbones on Escorts they eat front tyres (10 in 2 years- dear do!). Used to have a finesse now got a GTi and I think the tracking's out on this. I heard if you lower em its worse! Anyone know a way of strengthing them?

Hi, I'm 22, from kent, recently purchased a escort gti, dark metalic blue 5 door. i love it. i paid 1750 for it,68k on the clock... tax an tested. i pay 1013pound ins, i have a claim an no no claims.. only problem I've had is my self adjuster rachet under the clutch broke, i had it repaired, then 5 days later, broke again!!since then had repaired, not broke yet, touch wood, i think a new clutch is is order... do u???

2nd gear...3-5000 revs just kills it..3rd gear 4000revs is also good!also drives well just cruising,4th gear low revs.. u get sum looks in it round town...I'm gettin the windows tinted all round, limo blak at the rear an 25% on the front 2.mongoose back box, then taking it to dep pipes to go stainless all the way through. DNT bother buying an induction... waste of time an money in my opinion.

I don't no wat all the fuss about with these saxos, but I don't like the look of them for a start... look like girls cars... who cares if they may be slightly faster, the escort makes up for it in looks..blatantly...infact I may go for a drive now lol...laters.

My escort gti rocks with a 2.0l throttle body and piper cross cam and bolt on turbo on the beauty. it will smash any saxo vtr. it has 148bhp at the wheels. easily modified and looks great. also it has 89k on the clock. not bad.

I want a escort gti, but worrying will it be to slow what do you think?

Gti does 0-60 in 10 seconds. you can be the judge of that. I used to have a 206 gti 140bhp; it did 0-60 in 8.4 (and I thought it was slow).

Re: the wishbone bushes.

These are an endemic fault on Escorts and Fiestas (and probably Focuses as well) as the inboard bushes are asked to accommodate a good deal of movement and tend to fatigue and split.

The material used has to be a compromise between being stiff enough to locate the wishbones and soft enough to accommodate the movement.

Stiffer material will just break down more quickly.

Lowering the suspension will reduce the movement range so may prolong the life of the bushes, although the required stiffening of the springs may increase the longitudinal shocks the bushes have to bear (i.e. the roadwheels being pushed rearwards).

They're hardly difficult to replace though. The nearside usually goes first.

Hi peeps. Just looking to buy my first gti in black tomorrow; 40k on the clock. reg full history all he wants for it is a 1k its looks show room suff. well happy. Where can I get a bolt on turbo, and how much quicker would it be? cheers gentz email is muttlee03@hotmail.com.

A grand 40k miles that's a good deal man you can make a few bob on that.

If you fit the mondeo 2L cams, throttle body or MAF sensor (any) do you have to reprogram the ECU (mines a SLUG, not a JEST) got my eye on a Superchip though so would this sort it if you did have to fiddle with the ECU?

HI there all I've just picked up a Black Escort GTi as I had to come down in car size, I'm coming down from a 192bhp Pug 306 GTi-6 which moved like it was ran with rockets, I've just today test drove a saxo vts it does not feel very nice inside, but I can tell you now it's a hell of a lot faster than the escort gti, Why didn't I buy it cause it was damn horrable to look at and damn horrable inside. I've been in nicer rubish bins to be honest. The escort is slow and does not have very good pick up what so ever, but is that cause I'm use to being in cars with 170+ Bhp, But the one thing it does have is when you sit down inside it you feel like your suppose to driver it and when you do it feels kinda nice.

Saxo VTS - Faster Car

Escort GTI - Slower Car, but much better looking and much better feel to it.

To all Escort GTi (115ps) owners. Don't be ripped off by the scum on ebay - you don't need the MAF sensor off a 2.0L Mondeo Zetec- you only need the throttle body. If you have a Escort Si (105ps) then the MAF may benefit you. However the MAF sensor (part No. 93BB-12B579-BAAFH60-02A) is the same on both Escort & Mondeo. Cost me 40 quid to work this out!

Re: speedometer @ 140mph.

Right, the car doesn't do 140 mph. lets get that strait. the speedometer on these cars are WAY out. I'm not sure on the factory top speed, but I can tell you that with 2.0L CAM's, 2.0L TB, good exhaust, a decent panel filter & a chip. The car will do 125mph (GPS verified). and will feel much faster than standard.

However, your money IMO is better spent fitting a 2.0L engine and ecu from a mondao.. together with a '1.8 head' to increase compresion will give you a (GPS verified) top speed of 135mph, maybe more if ur lucky. And enough acceleration to keep a civic type R at bay up to 115 mph.

"And enough acceleration to keep a civic type R at bay up to 115 mph."

Lol that's a good one thanks.

Hi there, I have had had an Escort Harrier mk 5 1.4, Fiat Tipo 1.4 s ie, a Focus Zetec S, and currently have a Saxo VTR! I am only 20.

The Saxo VTR compares to my Focus very much in ACCELERATION and how QUICK it feels. Can't imagine my chipped 4 branched piperx vipered and mongoose'd Saxo coming close to the escort as my friends 1.6 with pretty much the same just about keeps up.

I enjoyed my focus a lot, but love the Saxo for handling and sound it makes. Although now I have the urge to get another Escort, in particular the GTi, as the Escort is my passion and I don't care about speed, I just want to look good.

Hi, can anybody out there help me? I just bought a 1998 1.8gti. It starts and revs OK, but cuts out when I take my foot off the throttle. Can you help?

Thanks.

email johnfeather1954@aol.com