As mentioned back in the 2.3L throttle body install post from last year, when modifying a vehicle it’s always worth looking through the OEM catalogue as you can usually find some parts from higher models or different years (or other vehicles entirely) that will swap over to your own car and help to personalize it or improve its performance. Obviously that’s something we’ve done a lot of over the years, from Titanium headlights (the original name for the blackhousings as they initially were limited to that model), to that Mustang throttle body, ST parts, Euro parts, and more. With the RS now on the scene – or rather, having been on the scene for the better parts of two years already – naturally some of its components have been retrofitted to various other Mk3s by this point as people discover more and more compatible pieces.

While we’re still waiting for someone to go all-out and give the world an RS sedan or wagon (looking at you, RDC. Haha), there are a number of smaller pieces that can easily be transferred over that don’t require a floor pan swap or the transplanting of an engine.

One such example would be the RS’ brake cooling deflectors. Mounted onto the control arms, they serve to direct incoming air to the front brakes to assist in their cooling. On the RS they are of course paired with functional brake ducts running from the front bumper, but on their own they still provide an increase in cooling over not running anything.

As part of my plans for Mustard this season, I had these deflectors on the list and a little while ago I ordered a set from Marshall at Advantage. Ford Performance now offers a complete kit (M-2004-FRS) but naturally the pieces can be ordered individually as well. Credit goes to Marshall for doing some extra work on his end, as he compared the price for the kit to that of buying the pieces individually, and in my case it worked out to be a few dollars cheaper to buy the parts separately so that’s how he ordered them. Either way it’s not going to be a massive bill should you choose to pick these up for your own Mk3.

Below are the part numbers for the individual components:

-Deflectors: G1FZ-8310-A and G1FZ-8311-B (Order one of each)

-Fasteners: W718379-S300 (Order one – you only need two but they come in a pack of four. It’s always good to have spares of hardware and clips!)

Since these are effectively just curved pieces of plastic with a couple of mounting tabs there’s not too much to really share on them. The biggest thing to note is that they will only fit ST/RS control arms however, and not standard Focus pieces. In Mustard’s case it already had ST control arms as part of its ST conversion, but if it didn’t I would have had to install them first or I wouldn’t have been able to fit these. For reference, in the photo above the original non-ST/RS arm is on the left (silver), with the new ST/RS arm (black) on the right.

Speaking of fitting these, I filmed it for the YouTube channel so should you wish to watch the install you can click play above! Each deflector slides over and clips onto its respective control arm, and is then locked in place by one of the fasteners; it’s very easy to do. In fact, you don’t even need to remove your wheels provided you have enough room to reach under your car!

As discussed in the video some people trim the splash guard to allow more air to directly flow through to the deflectors – Ford even shows this in their instructions for the kit. I – for now – have decided against that but it’ll be easy to change in the future should I choose to.

Anyway, that’s probably all there really is to share on the deflectors and their install. Affordable, easy to fit, and for those who actually track their vehicles (…), functional. If the OEM RS pieces aren’t exactly what you want there’s also an offering from Boomba, and Mountune UK has a set which are the factory pieces with larger faceplates attached. I’m sure we’ll see more offerings over time too, and hopefully someone will figure out a way to engineer a set for the non-ST/RS arms as well.

One final note before wrapping up – something else I touched upon in the video – is that in my case my brake calipers just contact the edges of the deflectors at full lock. Mustard still runs its original non-ST/RS steering rack so as to keep the tighter turning radius, and as a result the two components ever so slightly interfere with each other. I may very well trim down the deflectors in the future but it’s such a small amount of contact I don’t really see a need to. However, for STs (or other Mk3s fitted with the ST/RS steering rack) this won’t occur.

And so there it is; a quick look at the RS brake deflectors, and the first update on Mustard for 2018! While a very small install, it felt great to work on the car again and make a measurable amount of progress. Yolanda and I also recently threw a couple of small parts on her ST (of which she sent photos for a post), and with a massive thanks to Paul, I will soon have a complete set of OEM Arctic White door panel inserts following a non-stop 6 month (really!) search. I really can’t wait to finish that install!

-Bill