Top drawer Sierra shite £ COLLECTED AND RE-HOMED!

[RobT]

One of the best cars I've owned in a while. 2.9 Sierras must be mega as this was quick enough, you'd be doing 90 on the motorway before you know it and it would keep on pulling.

 

Trim rattles annoy me no end, yet this has hardly any so they must have been quite well put together. In comparison the creaking and rattling I used to get from my Montego dash would do my head in on a long journey.

[oldford]

It's good to see another Sierra on the site that'll get used as intended and looked after.  Another one with a bit of history, mine is a lowly LX ex rental. I'm after one of those radios as I've managed to acquire a graphic and the wiring.

[inconsistant]

+1 for loving the Sierra. I think the looks of the early models put a lot of people off but they matured into really nice cars. 

[CortinaDave]

Early ones are good too. I had a Y reg 2.0 ghia in diamond white, boot spoiler, pepperpots, 30k on the clock with deep blue velour trim and all the computer gubbins in the dash. Bloody lovely and one of my favourite cars ever until some bint in a Toyota picnic rear ended it in Dundee while I was sat at a roundabout because - in her words - " sorry I was sorting my lippy"

[Cavcraft]

Very tidy looking car that.

[fordperv]

love the sierra estate its the only body shape of sierra that i havnt owned and i badly have the urge for one, as oldford said its good to see another sierra that is going to get treated well as they have not quite reached classic status yet, my daily is a k plate saph gls in black that was bought from the salesman who sold it to his son new in 1992 

[HMC]

Thanks for the nice comments guys, i just have to keep up with looking after her as rob and Wuvvum did!

 

Had a few other commitments today, but i did manage to give the old ford a quick clean and went for a drive.

 

Rob told me about the rad. The car never runs hot, but theres a weep from the rad when up to temperature which means topping up the coolant is a weekly routine, or more regularly depending on the mileage.

 

 

Between and behind the top two aircon pipes you can make out the weep down the rad. So I'm on the look out for a replacement rad at the mo. Im not that knowledgable about fords, id imagine there were lots of different sierra rads and finding the right one may be hard work. The transmission has an oil cooler that is a separate item, and this car has air con. Any ideas or reccommendations?

 

 

I really like the autobox, in some cars they seem to be almost fighting against the engine, but theyre really well matched to each other in the sierra. The lower 3 ratios have a freewheel effect on the over run, and 4th is effectively an overdrive. i did notice the odd shimmy through the drivelline in 3rd and 4th when building up speed, but having read my sierra owners manual theres a lock up torque convertor clutch on third and fourth dependiing on the speed, which is what this will be.

 

 

 

 

 

But at the moment im just enjoying driving it and wondering why I hadnt got one sooner!

[RobT]

I put a wanted post on the Sierra owners forum for a replacement rad, and they are quite hard to come by for the autos. Searching ebay and contacting people who were breaking cars confirmed this, hence why I'd left it which isn't ideal but she kept on going. 2.9 Granada ones should fit apparently.

 

One thing to note. At speed in a cross wind you might hear a thud thud noise. It's nothing to worry about, just the front NS mud flap knocking against the bodywork. My missus was reverse parking last week and she mounted the kerb almost ripping it off....she freely admits parking isn't her strong point. It was at a slow speed so won't have buggered up anything else, made me wince though as i was on the pavement watching!

[Stixy]

Nice looking Estate  

[Stixy]

Scorpio 2.0 / 2.3  rads fit but the "feet" of the rad are lower so a bit of imagination is needed 

 

this is one of mine 

 

[Bucketeer]

LUVLY LUKIN MOTA.

 

I had a 2.9 glsi 4x4 estate years ago (along with numerous V6 4x4 hatchbacks) and spent many happy roadtrips sleeping in the back of it. Unfortunately the tailgate was so rusty that I could almost stick my feet out through the holes and it seemed impossible to find a replacement.

 

I hope the two of you will be very happy together.

[charlie2555]

I'd really love to own a Sierra some time.  Well done on keeping another one running! Someone close to me has a bit of a thing for Sierra estates, it would seem...

[Urban_Paranoia]

Hmmmm....that reminds me....I've got a bottom-drawer Sierra which needs a new home...must sort some pics out and get it gone...

[trigger]

I keep looking at this and I'm now wishing I bought a Sierra like I wanted in the first place instead of the A'clam.

[HMC]

Trig, on another thread I saw u had black sierra hatch with some nice alloys on it. Was it a while ago and what happened to it?

[trigger]

 

 

Yeah it was this one but that was many years ago, it was a 1.6 GL that I paid £100 for with mot back in 2001-2002 time, I honestly loved that car and had some great laughs in it, It's the reason I want another one again, preferably a 2.0 DOHC one.

[HMC]

That looks really smart. They seem rare in black, particularly the lower spec ones. It might be because Uncle Henry changed his earlier policies and made you pay extra for your black ford, as I found as i thumbed through Ford Cars 1991. Again when bored at lunchtime.

 

 

 

 

This truely is what ford did best. Playing out the permutations through a carefully considered heirarchy of trim and equipment so everyone knew their place in the scheme of things. Trying follow the charts to see at what point the customer warranted an electric window or deserved to stare at a digital clock rather than a coin holder almost gave me a headache.

 

 

I like how the radios are all tuned to Radio Essex.

 

I costed my estate with the 760 on top for the auto, 475 premium sound and a painfull 1000 extra for the air con which brought the total to over 19 grand, or two sierra lasers. Or 3 fiestas.

 

 

 

You dont ever seem to see the alloys like on the fiesta anymore. I'd like a set of rs 7 spokes. The ones to the left look like the ones fitted to trigger's old Sierra.

 

 

 

 

 

[dollywobbler]

Hmmm. Warm-feeling thread. And the car is working its way closer to Wales! (a bit). 

 

Looks splendid. Ford did a proper tidy job on top-spec Sierras.

[oldford]

Have you noticed the position of the heater controls in the brochure pictures?  In the 1990 brochure edition 6, black paint was available at no charge on the basic Sapphire Classic and Sierra Laser.

[ProgRocker]

That Sierra is lovely! That stereo system and the illuminating lights - excellent stuff.

[purplebargeken]

Sierra's are great cars. I had ELV 76Y - 1.6L Mk1 hatch in Crystal Green. Did from London Colney to Liverpool in 2 hours. For a 1600 it fair nipped along. It was such a nice car to drive.

 

Top choice Sir!

[r.welfare]

How we used to live. I remember poring over issues of CARS, plus whatever the Rover and Vauxhall equivalents were, in the late 80s and early 90s trying to influence my dad's decision for his next company car.

 

I'm pretty sure almost all manufacturers used to charge extra for black back then. In fact, it's only fairly recently that the choice of 'free' colours has reduced to white, black or red, sometimes a shade of blue.

[phil_lihp]

Love the brochure scan, there's a red Mk3 Fiesta with the wheels and RS bodykit from that photo which crops up at car shows now and again, I think it came up for sale recently.  It's absolutely spotless, but then it should be, it's got some ridiculously low mileage like 8,000 on it I believe.

[HMC]

Been hacking about in the Sierra and as expected its been a reliable and economical old thing. Got extra brownie points from Mrs_Brookjm when it was called in to jump start her fairly new Freelander that had a dead battery. The headlining fell onto an innocent passenger the other day. I stuck a few more pins in it and its more or less back to where it should be.

 

An e bay trawl has found a retractable roll cover for the boot, and ive popped a sticker on a rear quarter window..........

 

 

My own statement against disposable consumerism and the pointlessness of that scheme. I wonder if there are any stats on scrappage numbers, models etc? I bet among the more high profile victims (wasnt there a Morris minor and an MGB?) there were probably more than a few Sierras too. Unsure how long ill keep it there, but it makes a point in my mind at least.

[Shep Shepherd]

^

 

I have a similar sticker on The Volvo. Goodness knows how many Volvo 200s, 700s and 900s were lost to NuLab's hateful scheme

[DaveAspley]

Loads of classics went sadly, we had a Renault 8, a chevette, a 100e ford and loads of 80's stuff. Chopped in for Hyundai I10s which of course never came back for servicing.

[Lord Sterling]

Cheers for the scans Brook. I never knew that despite the Sierra 2000E being slightly higher specced than a Ghia actually only came with an analogue clock rather than the 3-function digital the Ghia came with. Seems a rather small thing to omit from 2000E despite it having leather, extra trim finishers, a/c etc... over the Ghia.

 

I had an F-reg Sapphire Ghia back in the day when I was young, potless and stupid. It was Black which wasnt a highly used colour on Sierras. I only wished I kept the car, not being bullied by the state into scrapping it because I had nowhere else then to keep it off road.

 

It was like a knife going through my heart when a few months later my Sister said she saw stacked on top of some other cars in the scrapyard which could be seen from the road.

[HMC]

I'm a bit obsessed by number plates, Ever since i was a kid,  Where the car was originally registered.... What dealer may have supplied it.... Even whether the font and type of plate is correct for the year of the car.

Yes I need to get a life.

I guess this is one of the few places I can openly admit to it!

 

These arrived in the post today.......

I'd ordered them a week ago from DMB graphics. They do mainly ford dealer type plates but others too. I was pleased to see they do the pre 2001 style font, as I always think older cars look 'right' somehow with it. The front plate on the Sierra had been replaced with a 'new charles wright' plate with a gb logo......

 

 

So i started to browse. Theres quite a few Ford dealers to choose from, but as the car was Essex registered, and originally a Ford company vehicle, I decided that they would dispose of it through Dagenham Motors, which is ford owned, local ish to ford head office, and it just sounded right!

 

I ordered a dealer pack, which includes a pair of plates, tax disc holder and dealer window sticker. Just over 30 quid.

 

 

Fitted them this afternoon and im pleased with the results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pillock]

They're pretty bloody good, and not an unreasonable price either.

I agree niggly little things like 2001+ plates on an older car spoil it. Good work

[trigger]

Your not the only number plate perv around here brookjm, I am one too!, there's nothing that bugs me more than a older car, especially one that's just been restored, being fitted with modern plates.

 

Those ones look great for the money and really suit the car. Great effort.