Ford poooma update

[Jazoli]

After buying a thoroughly miserable to drive renault megane floppytop for the wife a couple of months back and ending up being stuck with it myself it was time to search for another car, efforts to pass it on to some unsuspecting fool on here failed badly as the wife is a snob and didn't like any of the swaps offered so on to the local mong infested facebook groups it went

 

 

I'm sure you've all seen it on here before but this was its final journey for me, It is a good looking car, although I was never keen on the wheels but it did benefit from the extra 10bhp afforded by its red brake calipers, I'm sure they were very nice to drive when they were new but it was awful, it crashed and banged over every bump in the road, wandered about quite a bit and had the structural  integrity of a wet lettuce, on the plus side the heater was probably the best I've ever experienced in a car, that was it for the pluses..

 

Not much happened for a month, I had the usual offers of stolen xbox's and air rifles as swaps (just what the fuck are some people on?) when finally I had a nibble from a semi literate bloke who wanted to swap it for a Focus plus a bit of cash, after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing and some serious flooding in between making travel impossible I finally clapped eyes on the focus

 

 

It was a 1.4 with low mileage and 12 months mot but had loads of faults, a deal was done and cash monies and a V5 made its way into my hands, the journey home was spent cursing the car as it had a serious misfire, the eml light kept flashing and I was thinking just what have I ended up with, even though it didn't owe me anything I still needed a car for the wife to drive 2 miles to work and the occasional motorway trip.

 

I then started finding all the issues with it, the heater motor was knackered and squealed like a pig with a poker up its arse, the alternator bearings were knackered, the airbag light was on, the wipers didn't park properly, it wouldn't idle properly and took ages for the revs to stabilise, it had the aforementioned misfire and couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding and the remote central locking was inoperative.

 

Armed with a list of parts I popped along to my local (very traditional old style muddy filthy) scrapyard with a bag of tools and found a focus there with all the necessary parts (hardly surprising as there were bajillions of them sold) and began to purloin some bits, a 'new' alternator, heater blower, emissions hose, wiper relay and a few trim parts were purchased for the grand sum of £15.

 

On returning home it was time to make a start, the misfire was the first job to tackle, this was an easy one to diagnose once I'd removed the spark plug caps, the plugs were swimming in their own little bath of water each, II sucked all the water out with my vacuum pump, gave everything a liberal squirt of wd40 and the misfire was gone, as was the eml light, I have read its a common issue with the core plugs leaking but it was fixed for now anyway, next job was the alternator, removed the belt guard to loosen the tensioner and found there wasn't a tensioner, it was a stretch belt, and a bit awkward but once I'd sussed the technique to get it on and off it wasn't so bad, I also replaced the emissions hose which had split and cleaned the iacv whilst I was in there, which fixed the idle issue.

 

Next up the heater blower was fitted as was the wiper relay, a 10 minute job for both, which was nice, a new battery was fitted in the key and the central locking now worked, I also fixed the airbag light by cleaning the contacts under the drivers seat, job done, all the issues fixed in three hours, one of which was spent going to the scrappy, everything worked, took the car for a test drive and it was ok, apart from being gutless, which is no good when the wife is bombing down the motorway regularly so I listed back on a local FB group again, you would not believe the response I had, i had a dozen texts and messages within 10 minutes, I know they are a popular car but bloody hell, got the full asking price in my hand within the hour and the car taken away (I sold it to a local chap who'd lost everything in the floods last week, I very nearly gave him the car but I simply couldn't afford to) which left me with an issue, how was the wife going to get to work tomorrow?

 

I quick squizz on ebay saw something interesting show up 20 miles away, messages were exchanged offers were made and I went to collect, I only have the ebay images to show and there's no petrol station shot as there was enough fuel in it to get home.

 

 

 

 

Took it for a spin last night and its a riot, 125bhp in something this small and light is plenty, I have driven one before but it was almost 16 years ago when they first came out, its like a go kart, not quite as light and on its toes as the Ka but not far off, I wouldn't want to drive it everyday as the ride is too hard, the seats are crap and you sit too high but as its for the wife I can be happy stealing it to go for a thrash.

 

It seems solid enough, its done 140k but with a full and comprehensive history, the arches have been done properly and it looks very smart, I'm very happy for what we paid, what else does £600 buy you?

[Angry Sheep]

I love Poomas and that looks like a bloody good one for the money.

[fordperv]

Puma's are great buzzy little things

[beko1987]

Ooooh a Thunder, nicely bought! They do GLF, and are amazing on twisty back roads!

 

If the heating ever stops working, you need a heater control valve, it sits under the windscreen on the passenger side, easy to change, but buy a gen ford one for £not a lot, I bought an ECP one which lasted about 4 days.

 

The drivers seat goes up and down doesn't it? Mine did, but I had leather, so maybe the cloth didn't get it. 6x9's can be fitted in the rear speaker pods with a bit of cutting of the 4x8 hole that's there already.

 

Mind opening the boot in the rain, the water floods over the seals and into the boot. Apparently they should 'pop' up when the release button on the key is pressed. Mine never did as the struts were not great, and I never fixed it as it was better to let it pop up off the latch, then slowly left it, letting the water run off before the tailgate went too high, and it flooded the boot.

 

My fuel cap was also a prick on a hot day, the tank pressurized or something, or my cap was bust.

 

Arches showing any rust yet?

[Tamworthbay]

Cracking buy, they can't be that cheap for long surely.

[Jazoli]

 

 

If the heating ever stops working....

 

Arches showing any rust yet?

Yes had a few ford's so I'm familiar with the valve, the arches have just been done

 

 

Also there is a height adjuster on the seat but they still seem high on the lowest setting.

[garethj]

That's an impressive bit of work to get the Focus fixed! Excellent trading up too, by this time next year your wife should be rolling in a ten grand motor with the only drawback being she doesn't know what car to look for as she's had so many.

[beko1987]

Yes had a few ford's so I'm familiar with the valve, the arches have just been done

 

 

Also there is a height adjuster on the seat but they still seem high on the lowest setting.

Nice! Should get at least 2 years rust free motoring out of that then now!

[mercrocker]

Its a long time since I had a Ford of any sort, but its good to see that they can still be so successfully scrapyard-fettled. Never tried a Puma but there is a bloke near me with two expensive red Italian stallions in his garage still using a Puma as his daily sothat probably says a lot....

[fatharris]

I had one for about six months, went through two sets of front tyres, had a blowout , a slow puncture, a cockpit electrical fire, an engine fire and two total brake failures from burst rear pipes, one whilst coming off a dual carriageway!

 

Would have another though.

 

Check the rear rigid brake pipes, the carpet arch liner traps dirt and moisture against the pipe, which then rots and bursts.

 

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[D Spares & Tyres]

Pumas are great cars ☺

[Mr A Lawrence]

We bought a 6 month old focus in 2001 and there was a puma in the showroom which looked nice until I got in it.

 

I banged my head getting in and out of it EVERY TIME!!

 

If we'd bought one instead of the focus I'd have brain damage now!

 

Nice looking car though.

[Jazoli]

 

 

We bought a 6 month old focus in 2001 and there was a puma in the showroom which looked nice until I got in it.

 

I banged my head getting in and out of it EVERY TIME!!

 

If we'd bought one instead of the focus I'd have brain damage now!

 

Nice looking car though.

Yep done that a few times already when fitting the parrot kit grrrrr

 

Just driven it to Preston and it's pretty good on the motorway too, its not what I'd called refined but it bowls along like an eager puppy, I need to have a look at the nsf suspension as it has a clonk and bump steers a bit but apart from that it drives really well.

[Jazoli]

 

 

Check the rear rigid brake pipes, the carpet arch liner traps dirt and moisture against the pipe, which then rots and bursts.

 

They've been done according to the history

[Jazoli]

So had a run up to Sheffield yesterday to pick up an ebay bargain

 

out with the old 

 

 

 

And in with the new

 

 

The interior looks so much better, I'm still really enjoying this car when I get chance to drive it, I'm forever banging my head on the door when I get in and the driving position still sucks but its so much fun to throw around, and parts are silly cheap too, changed the ARB bushes and a track rod end last weekend, total cost was £12.

[laser wheels]

Speaking as a current SportKa and recent 1.7 Pooma owner I can confirm that the latter is the superior car in every way. Mine was rusty, leggy and baggy but still ace, and once you have given yourself a serious wallop on the bonce you learn to be careful.

[beko1987]

The leather seats are gr-6 in the summer though with shorts. Same with the gearknob

[twosmoke300]

Love my 1.7