1987 Ford Sierra Sapphire 1.8L - No thrill on trip to Brill Mill - see page 54

[EyesWeldedShut]

6 hours ago, lisbon_road said:

I do that.  Reckon the key point is 'sparingly'.  Which basically means a tiny smear, not slobbering it everywhere.  

 

6 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Probably makes me the devil to some though😆

Well you'll both have company in Hell when I get there too
£5 tub of the stuff plus a tin of Ye Olde Red Rubber Grease has been lasting me for years decades now.

[MrBig]

9 minutes ago, Peter C said:

But I am curious how you know that I could have walked to the destination.

Recognised where the Sierra was delivered to earlier in the thread (assuming you must live nearby) and then the car park in the pic above. Lived just up the road for more than 2 decades - behind the Rye. 

[Peter C]

26 minutes ago, MrBig said:

Recognised where the Sierra was delivered to earlier in the thread (assuming you must live nearby) and then the car park in the pic above. Lived just up the road for more than 2 decades - behind the Rye. 

You’re welcome to pop back to the ‘hood and check out the Sierra whenever you like.

[Brigsy]

8 hours ago, Andyrew said:

Proper brake grease is nicer to use , Copper grease is now not recommended as the theory is that it can cause issues with sensors in the hub area.

Does it actually? Probably not. 

 

Agreed, i use brake grease these days but used the oldskool thick copper grease without issues on the older shite.

Modern copper grease is that weak these days, it probably wont stay there long enough to cause any issues.

[cort1977]

Sierras were known for warping discs. Mate's dad fitted tarox discs on a year old one back in the day.

[beko1987]

21 hours ago, Brigsy said:

Agreed, i use brake grease these days but used the oldskool thick copper grease without issues on the older shite.

Modern copper grease is that weak these days, it probably wont stay there long enough to cause any issues.

I always thought it was best to use both ceratec/fancy grease for the sliding bits then coppaslip has always been fine for me on the backs of the pads and the pad sliding faces for over a decade.

Before application I spend 5 minutes with a wire brush and brake cleaner though and clean everything up well first which I guess is what alot of garages don't do, hence you get a claggy shitty mess after several years and no cleaning up but moar grease 

[Brigsy]

3 hours ago, beko1987 said:

I always thought it was best to use both ceratec/fancy grease for the sliding bits then coppaslip has always been fine for me on the backs of the pads and the pad sliding faces for over a decade.

Before application I spend 5 minutes with a wire brush and brake cleaner though and clean everything up well first which I guess is what alot of garages don't do, hence you get a claggy shitty mess after several years and no cleaning up but moar grease 

I do the same as you with brakes. Knotty wheel on a grinder on hub faces and sliding points for the pads with thorough cleandown. Once corrosion is gone, usually have the perfect clearance.

I only started using ceratec about 5 years ago when my mate give me enough tubes to last me until retirement😅 

 

[Peter C]

The weather looked nice enough this morning and there was no rain in the forecast until late evening so my wife and I decided to go for lunch / picnic at Brill Mill, Buckinghamshire, about 45 minutes from us.

On route, we saw this place, just outside Tring. It's massive!

And this happened a few minutes later.

Anyway, we got to Brill Mill. It looked nice enough at first.

But very soon clouds came out from nowhere and the wind picked up.

And it started to rain. Not torrential but enough to count as significant precipitation. 

We ended up having lunch in the Sapphire.

My wife sat in the back with a very wet dog (Daisy).

By the time we finished lunch, the windows had steamed up to the point where passers-by probably thought we were out dogging. With a wide and comfortable back seat, the Sapphire is probably well suited for this pastime. Anyone ever tried? 

I drove cautiously out of Brill and headed back towards the M40.

Luckily, the rain was only falling in vicinity of Brill and the Sierra stayed cleaned and dried off on route home.

Back home, I inspected the damage. Only a bit of mud down the sills and in the wheel arches.

Five minutes with a bucket and sponge and the Sapphire was clean again.

I think we're going to spend the rest of the afternoon at home.

[chadders]

We got one of our dogs, a Jack Russell, from there, well sort of.

She was found by a friend in mid winter with no tag, we assumed she'd run off or was dumped. Anyway the friend couldn't look after her so we adopted her.

She was a lovely dog, putting up with whatever the lads, who were young at the time, did, never snapping or anything. One day my missus took her to the vets to see why she was always tired, basically she was riddled with cancer so they put her down on the spot as she was in a lot of pain. I was in Barcelona so found out by being rung at work; not a great day.

[vaughant]

On 21/06/2024 at 16:19, Peter C said:

A nice selection of Ford dealership related photos, shamelessly stolen from a Facebook group.

@egg There's some early Mondeo content for you to perv at as well.

Apart from the MK2 Granada I've owned at least one of the other fords listed above including 3 series 1turbos.

FFS a big hanger from back in y2k now seems a great idea 😭😭😭.

 

Loving the thread by the way, I'm praying the car is still good as I'm still in 2024 at the moment, but I'm sure it will be after all your hard work @Peter C

[vaughant]

On 31/10/2025 at 09:32, danthecapriman said:

I sometimes put a light coat on the hub - disc join surface and disc - wheel join surface to stop corrosion and the parts seizing together. Probably makes me the devil to some though😆

Nowt wrong with that at all. 

I think cooper grease is ok until the brakes get hit for whatever reason and it them makes it like a paste which can get very sticky along with attached brake dust etc. I've had this happen on my old ml and then after using the WED WUBBER GWEASE (which was a tribute to a guy with a Woy Hodgson style speech defect) that came with the pads it was great. 

We used to manufacture brake discs in Ford for, well, fords 🤣🤣🤣, also Volvo/Jag etc and we used to machine a convex into the hub mounting face to avoid this very issue which worked very effectively on the later cars as most 80's fords always suffered from it. Didn't help most of them were driven very hard back then 😬😬😬😬.

My cossie has been fully polished by me and it's really easy to do, the only hard ones are the big ones on the rear arms but they can be done in a vice.

Mine are bright orange and not hugely stiff compared to some (purple from memory??). 

The front arms look just like yours so I'd guess the poly bushes would fit. 

There's two on the rear beam or in that area you're not meant to do as they have natural flex from the factory and that actually aids handling.

Nice things with these cars is pretty much every fault, issue, improvement etc has been well documented over the years through trial and error 🤣🤣.

Yours is a true credit to you @Peter Cand I'm so pleased to see it doing what it should do, and be AN CAR rather than just a show queen.

Regardless of what people think of their cars, I can assure them that ford engineers of this era were up there with the very best in the business, they really did take car manufacturing, or manufacturing in general incredibly seriously.

I would like to add I was never a ford engineer as I didn't have a degree, you needed 2:1 and above just to apply.

Even to this day I feel awkward being called an engineer as I'd have been dressed down really strictly if I'd tried that in there . However in most industries these days, particularly food ,an engineer is someone who might have walked past a spanner once and was able to use it to hit a bolt in or the like.

Very sad too see.

[Snipes]

Main problem with coppa slip was people would always put far too much on. You only need a very thin film bit people slap it on like mayo on chips.

[Peter C]

Whilst my mobility is restricted (see my MGB thread for details), all I can manage for the next six weeks or so is to open up the garage (with my left hand) and fire up the Sierra whenever an opportunity arises.

I would like to say that it starts first time every time but that wouldn't be true. If left standing for more than a week, fuel escapes from the float chamber and the Pinto needs to be cranked for 10-15 seconds before it rumbles into life and in the process it will fire and die a couple of times.

Once it gets going, the engine runs sweet.

The temperamental fuel gauge worked a treat today.

More in 2026. 

[High Jetter]

All the best for your recovery, take it easy, pal

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, Peter C said:

Whilst my mobility is restricted (see my MGB thread for details), all I can manage for the next six weeks or so is to open up the garage (with my left hand) and fire up the Sierra whenever an opportunity arises.

I would like to say that it starts first time every time but that wouldn't be true. If left standing for more than a week, fuel escapes from the float chamber and the Pinto needs to be cranked for 10-15 seconds before it rumbles into life and in the process it will fire and die a couple of times.

Once it gets going, the engine runs sweet.

The temperamental fuel gauge worked a treat today.

More in 2026. 

Hope you have a speedy recovery👍

If it’s any consolation re: the Sierra, my Capri does that too. Much more than a week of standing unused and it needs a bit of cranking to pump the fuel back up to the carb. There’s no one way valve on mine which probably doesn’t help but modern fuel is crap too and evaporates pretty quickly.