By
uk_senator
My collections doing my head in, got too many coming & not enough room, so things need to go, & the first in this cull is the skort...
Has a years MOT, was 1 owner till I got it a few weeks ago, done 150k, but been over serviced (inc 2 timing belts within 10,000 miles, a water pump, a clutch & a recent battery. It starts & runs well, with only a small amount of CVH rattle (been semi using it as a daily & I'm surprised at how many looks & comments it gets). MOT guy said its running cleaner than most moderns (did you hear that government? WELL DID YOU?). It has run on a few times, & when I checked the plugs they were sooty, so I'm guessing the pistons are a bit coked up due to the previous OAP doing 3-5 miles once a fortnight for the last however many years. Likely solvable with a bit of water injection.
The battery tray does leak depending what angle you park it at in the rain, so that could use a weld, or a jolly good masticing.
Its no oil painting, various dinks, scuffs & scrapes & rust (rear arch), a worn through drivers bolster, a cracked door card. The boot strut mounting bracket has cracked, so the strut pops off (chunk of wood included).
Functionality-wise, the passenger windows sticking (motor & mechs ok, just needs an adjust & WD), central locking goes mental, so fuse removed (likely dirty drivers door microswitch, same fuse as interior lights, so they aren't working because of it). petrol gauge not working (fill up, do 150-200 miles, then fill up again), rear wiper dead (the heated rear screen was deaded too, but it's suddenly working, so possible cracked loom at the boot hinge).
Other notes.. The front wishbone bushes needs doing, the shocks are tired, the NSR wheel locks up under heavy braking, so either needs adjusting or shoes, the front tires are out of balance at 60-70*mph. It has 4 different keys, one for each lock, both screen rubbers are perished & there's some milkiness to the front one in a couple of places (has a heated screen, but doesn't seem to work)... It's mostly easy but fiddly stuff, easy to deal with if you've got time, but in reality I don't, & I keep spending more & more time on it which is taking time away from other projects.
I could stick it up for eleventy billion pounds seeing as it's a classic Escort, but it's up for a bargain £699, fellow shitters will get it for less.
I may swap for a Transit sized van (post 2001 for LEZ reasons, or anything petrol), but, I`d much rather have wonga due to space issues.
Its giving the feeling that it`d happily drive anywhere indefinitely, and last another 5-10 years. I wouldn't be concerned about driving it across the country.
In EN5 bit of that there London, just off M25 & A1.
By eddyramrod
By uk_senator
By Burnside