Piss Balling about with banger Fords

[loserone]

It's OK, that fully synthetic oil will keep him safe

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, loserone said:

It's OK, that fully synthetic oil will keep him safe

I’ll repoint it in lime mortar before I set off. 

[sierraman]

A wall jumped out at the wife yesterday, as they do. She is of the mindset of don’t bother repairing it but it’s a fairly tidy old thing so another door in the right colour has been duly sourced for £40. I can’t make my mind up whether to pull the dent on the arch out, I figure the silver would be a twat to match up. For now it’s got some zinc primer where the metal was showing. 

[sierraman]

Another door sourced. Eventually... 

This one isn’t perfect by any means, it’s got a bit of a crease on the top edge but it was cheap and looks a whole lot better than a big gouge. Finding a useable panel (most wont deliver...) in the right colour was surprisingly tricky. Nearly all of them were dented to fuck, scraped, rusty or from a post facelift version. 

First job was getting the remaining trim off, a plastic trim tool and a heat gun helped massively with this.

[sierraman]

Door fitted, bit of a fuck about, one of the hinge bolts sheared off. Drilled the cunt out and tapped a new thread in with one of the ten million mysterious bolts left over from previous breakers. A bit of trim tape shit reunited the correct trim with the door. I don’t know why people fuck about with no nails when this just works. Ok it’s not perfect but for sake of fifty quid it looks a damn sight better than the gouged door. 

[RoverFolkUs]

On 7/21/2023 at 8:46 PM, sierraman said:

Door fitted, bit of a fuck about, one of the hinge bolts sheared off. Drilled the cunt out and tapped a new thread in with one of the ten million mysterious bolts left over from previous breakers. A bit of trim tape shit reunited the correct trim with the door. I don’t know why people fuck about with no nails when this just works. Ok it’s not perfect but for sake of fifty quid it looks a damn sight better than the gouged door. 

Zetec wheels on a GHIA, mine has had MK2.5 Zetec wheels lobbed on by a previous owner, those look like MK2 Zetec wheels.

Looks strangely base spec, probably because of the resale silver!

Anyway, as you were 😅

[RoverFolkUs]

On 7/4/2023 at 7:38 AM, sierraman said:

A wall jumped out at the wife yesterday, as they do.

Laugh was for this bit

[sierraman]

10 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Zetec wheels on a GHIA, mine has had MK2.5 Zetec wheels lobbed on by a previous owner, those look like MK2 Zetec wheels.

Looks strangely base spec, probably because of the resale silver!

Anyway, as you were 😅

It did have the old lacquered Ghia wheels but as they all do, went all manky. The Zetec wheels I pulled off one I was breaking. 

[sierraman]

Handbrake cable done on Mondeo today, what a twat of a job even on a ramp. Plus fuel filter, needed a bit of priming with a fluid extractor but it got there in the end. 

[sierraman]

Had a letter through for a recall for an airbag for the Mondeo. Invited down to the local stealers for this, gratis obviously. Anyone had this done? Is it going to waste too much of my day? 

[RoverFolkUs]

I'd just get it done, you'll get a valet and health check to ignore if you're lucky! Maybe even a courtesy car... stealers are usually good in that way

[sierraman]

9 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

I'd just get it done, you'll get a valet and health check to ignore if you're lucky! Maybe even a courtesy car... stealers are usually good in that way

Booked it in for October, it’s costing me £20 for the courtesy car but it would cost me more than that in taxi fares to get to work so it’s bye the bye I guess. I’ll be interested to hear the damning indictment of the ‘essential’ work that it will need. I was offered various service plans etc but I politely explained it was a 15 year old car with, at best, maybe a year or two left in its life. 😂

[grogee]

I wonder if it's explodey Takata airbags recall? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takata_Corporation?wprov=sfla1

From memory the inflator part breaks up on activation and shoots all metal shards in your cakehole. 

[sierraman]

10 minutes ago, grogee said:

I wonder if it's explodey Takata airbags recall? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takata_Corporation?wprov=sfla1

From memory the inflator part breaks up on activation and shoots all metal shards in your cakehole. 

Yes, it says in the letter it’s a Takata airbag. I was surprised they’d written to us on what is a 15 year old car, I thought the duty of care that far down the line would be nil. 

[mk2_craig]

56 minutes ago, sierraman said:

15 year old car

My wife’s E46 convertible got picked up when BMW were doing the recall. It was far and away the shabbiest vehicle on the dealer premises, parked in amongst brand new Porsches and Aston Martins - at least they didn’t try the “when are you next looking to change your car sir?” trick!

[sierraman]

12 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

My wife’s E46 convertible got picked up when BMW were doing the recall. It was far and away the shabbiest vehicle on the dealer premises, parked in amongst brand new Porsches and Aston Martins - at least they didn’t try the “when are you next looking to change your car sir?” trick!

It is quite obvious looking at mine I am not their target demographic to sell to. 😂

I have opted for a courtesy car, wonder what it will be? 

[grogee]

Pretty sure I got a letter from Honda asking me to take my 2000 Legend in for a recall. Like a twat I'd sold it by then. Great car (apart from the ride). 

[RoverFolkUs]

49 minutes ago, sierraman said:

It is quite obvious looking at mine I am not their target demographic to sell to. 😂

I have opted for a courtesy car, wonder what it will be? 

A Puma. Almost guaranteed!

[RoverFolkUs]

4 minutes ago, grogee said:

Pretty sure I got a letter from Honda asking me to take my 2000 Legend in for a recall. Like a twat I'd sold it by then. Great car (apart from the ride). 

At least up until very recently, Suzuki were still honouring the recall action for the front suspension arm mountings falling apart on this shape swift: 

Although I imagine most claims just resulted in a derisory buy back value.

I know someone that had one a few years ago and successfully claimed to have it repaired! It was well over 20 years old by that point. 

[artdjones]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

Yes, it says in the letter it’s a Takata airbag. I was surprised they’d written to us on what is a 15 year old car, I thought the duty of care that far down the line would be nil. 

I think it's a design fault rather than a wear and tear fault. And it has resulted in loads of people getting a face full of shrapnel, some of them dying.

[RoverFolkUs]

So if your budget tyres dont kill you, the airbags will! 

[sierraman]

48 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

So if your budget tyres dont kill you, the airbags will! 

Life kills! 
 

Ok so it maybe a Puma. I’ll take that, though it’s an absolute fact it will overheat, melt the pistons and snap the belt on the 3 mile journey to work. This will happen. I don’t know how but it will as I read it on Pistonheads. 

[sierraman]

Drivebelt changed today, old one had a cut in the centre. Spotted purely by chance when checking the oil, seems a job neglected on a lot of cars these days yet if it breaks there’s a possibility it might take the timing belt with it. 

[sierraman]

New set of plugs fitted today on the Focus, old ones had been in 5 years, probably it’s done 20k in that time but at £8.20 for four of them it’s a false economy to not do them, especially as failing plugs fuck up the coil. The old ones weren’t gapped properly either, new ones gapped to Ford spec and it seems to run just that bit smoother. 

[Matty]

Long series plugs 😆

 

[sierraman]

MOT next month for the Focus, the EML now will not go out even for a period in relation to the O2 sensor heater circuit so it looks like I’m going to have to bite the bullet and drop the manicat and replace the sensor which should be fun as it’s seized in. 

[RoverFolkUs]

8 minutes ago, sierraman said:

MOT next month for the Focus, the EML now will not go out even for a period in relation to the O2 sensor heater circuit so it looks like I’m going to have to bite the bullet and drop the manicat and replace the sensor which should be fun as it’s seized in. 

It's not too bad of a job but you do need to remove the subframe. 

I've removed it complete with ARB, steering rack, lower arms etc with a couple of transmission jacks on a 2 poster, can't imagine it would be a nice job lying on your back with axle stands and jack

No need to use alignment pins if you don't have them, I just spray paint around the mounting points and put it back in the same place. Alignment was ok afterwards

While you've got it out its worth trying to free off the other 3 in case you need to get to them in future

[RoverFolkUs]

Just an idea, you could just plug the new sensor in for the MOT and leave it hidden somewhere

I think the light would stay off long enough for the MOT before logging a "no activity" code 

[sierraman]

Not a prayer am I doing it on a driveway. I’ve been using it last few days, it’s one of those cars that ‘just works’ so if it costs a few hundred just to do it properly then fuck it so be it. It’s got the test coming up in November so I’d sooner kill it with one trip, if it snaps I’m hopeful it won’t fuck the thread up too much on the manicat getting the bastard out. 

[RoverFolkUs]

Have you tried with a lambda socket? The one I did where I was replacing the mani-cat itself - all four of the sensors were murderously tight as if they were seized in but they eventually gave and came out no bother. Might be worth trying although they'd round off easily with an open ended spanner given the amount of force you'll need so a lambda socket is best