So, the day has arrived where I finally pull my finger out and get shot of the Puma. Only five months after I got the Mondeo, cough cough.
Long story short - the chap I got half the spare parts from - start motor, alternator, axle set of wheels, etc has taken it off my hands for a small amount, and will be hiding it under a tarp in his yard till he gets around to cleaning it up. He has a few Thunders as well which are awaiting the same treatment.
He has the space and time that I don't, basically. And there's no point taxing and insuring a car that I can't justify chucking another £600+ of work on (and that's not including the £400 for the new fuel tank I just had fitted before the MOT....).
So, after deciding we didn't *need* a battery, we shoved it till the brakes freed up, and then wanged it on his trailer:
It's not like the car has sat for a while or owt....
Hasn't lost a drop of fluid since it's been sitting, mind.
So yeah, that's that.
Decided to go for a coffee with the bro after Ian from Puma Bits had got under way, and we kept on crossing paths in town - he'd taken the wife and kids with him for a day out to Scarbs (because why not? Sunshine and scrappy cars!) so managed to get one last shot of Little Puma....
So that's that. I don't think I did an EoTR but I'll probably throw one on this thread later.
Been a good five years and 45,000 miles with that car (and only about 100 in the last two years...), so I'm sure I can prattle on a bit about it.
Dread to think how much it's cost me in that time...
Last edited by Beany on Sun May 20, 2018 9:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Fixing the clutch in the Citroen in bros car, more like - which he needs for work, of which there isn't much at the moment in Scarbs (he's doing temping, some trade stuff, some just general manual labour) so, er, yeah. That's eaten that, and more.
240PP wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2018 7:09 pm
I hadn't realised it was debadged for the ULTIMATE Q CAR look
I hadn't even realised meself TBH.
I'm sort of tempted to look at getting a shiny tip on the end that actually exits the valance, but that would probably require acquiring a Tit-X sport valance, which would mean getting a dual-exit pipe and that's a bit much.
That, and it's a motorway slag, it doesn't need to look like anything else.
I've seen a few Tit-X Sport wagons around since I got this. Other than the bodykit and the option of active cruise and bi-xenons, I don't think I'm missing out on much.
Fixing the clutch in the Citroen in bros car, more like - which he needs for work, of which there isn't much at the moment in Scarbs (he's doing temping, some trade stuff, some just general manual labour) so, er, yeah. That's eaten that, and more.
Aside, I've already had the Mondeo remapped to a subtle, but useful 180-190bhp and 280-300lb/ft - plenty of shove for motorway stuff.
I'm sort of tempted to have the DPF and swirl flaps removed, and (if the turbo would be able to use it) a slightly more open exhaust system, but unless it made major changes to throttle response - which is unlikely, it's a turbo diesel - then it's probably not worth any marginal power gains; the gearbox (or more specifically, dual mass flywheel) doesn't like much more than 300lb/ft anyway, as I understand it.
So, long time coming but the Puma has been effectively off the road for over a year now, and dead in the water for the last six months after I drew the fucking line at another £600 MOT - this time requiring £400 of fuel tank, and then subsequently, £600 of welding, brake pipes (they were all fubar) and new shocks at the rear. I got a second opinion, which was much the same but they thought that one of the brake pipes might be 'borderline', so basically, I just decided to fuck it off.
I already knew that my breaker chum, Ian from Puma Bits, always has an interest in Pumas for breaking (there's a steady market for 1.7 VCT conversion kits for Fiestas, which he does) although I didn't realise that he keeps a few rarer ones for himself, should the values creep up - he has the space, skills and time to clean them up, so I made him an offer of just picking the thing up before it started costing me in fines, and he politely refused and we settled on a suitable token amount so that he didn't feel like he was ripping me off.
So, it's gone.
So what's the overall feeling at the end of...ooh, five or six years and 40,000 miles (bought with 106k, sold with 144k) of rotbox hot hatchery? Regrets?
I have a few, but mostly my own fault really. It filled a niche I had at the time perfectly - I had that Micra, which was dull as dishwater and frankly, a bit flaky. It came up at the right time, and for the backroads of North Yorkshire and the odd bit of A-road bombing, it was bob on - very friendly, rode well enough, being a Fiesta it was perfectly benign around town and generally pretty reliable mechanically, the only real issues were that it was a fifteen year old car from one of the last floorpans before Ford really worked out how rustproofing worked - so it suffered from the common problems, specifically chassis rot.
Once it sets in on Fords of this age, you either spend £600 stripping the entire underside down, welding up every last bit of tinworm, and resealing it, or
You spend £150 at a time patching it every other year.
Suffice to say, not being hugely flush most of the time, I patched it - a never ending job, basically.
So that didn't surprise me - neither did the way it utterly ate pattern part lower arms at the front end - I should have picked up Ford arms much sooner, but meh, you live and learn. If you're a young lurker, looking at a Fiesta-based Fords of that age (Ka, Puma, Fiesta ST/Zetecs), just buy the damned Ford lower arms. It'll cost you less in the long run.
Brakes - I should have got the 280mm ST150 brakes on it much sooner too, those things are perfect for the car - just a little bit more powerful than you'd need, and I never got them to fade no matter how hard I tried, unlike the 258s on it as standard, which I could cook if I tried hard enough. If there's a difference in unsprung weight, I never noticed, and I could drive that car through thought alone by the end. The rear drums are pathetic though, I mean, they stop just fine (it's not a heavy car) but they bind, spit out wheel cylinders and the handbrake mechanisms are notoriously crap. I went through two handbrake cables and had the rear brakes stripped and rebuild three times - in fact, the drums themselves were the only parts I hadn't changed, both sides had new wheel cylinders, pads and retention kits. Terrible stuff.
Fuel - with 125bhp delivered at >6000 rpm it never reliably managed much more than 30mpg with the sort of driving I did, which was Wide Open Throttle anywhere it was reasonably possible. It tipped over 40mpg on a motorway run once (so it was capable of it) but it was deathly dull. Far more entertaining to spent most of the motorway journey reaching for the limiter in fourth, then backing off as you pass people at 90mph cracking and popping like some kind of childish muppet. Result of that is rarely more than 200 miles from a 40-odd litre tank.
It wasn't a peaky engine though - there was a good spread of torque (some >85% avaialable from 1200rpm to the rev limiter) so it could pull nicely from near idle, which made it a doddle to pootle around town in, or when stuck in traffic. The flipside of this is that it's not a very tunable engine - it's no blacktop, you're basically limited to FRP parts. It's generally agreed that if you want to get above 150bhp reliably, you need a turbocharger, deep pockets, or both.
Would I have another one?
Not right now. The Mondeo is fulfilling the niche I need at the moment (motorway hack good for >500 mile weekends, as I've just done - Leeds to Scarbs, Scarbs to Herts, Herts to Leeds - I would never have considered that in the Puma, too painful)
Should my situation change and I'm doing more backroad hacking? If one turned up at the right price I'd not say no - but the first thing I'd do is swap out any pattern part suspension, and get the underside cleaned up immediately, and fix up some other choice parts - brake lines, fuel lines/tank, etc - as beyond those parts, the car only really went through basic servicing, an alternator and a starter motor in four years - which ain't bad at all for a near twenty year old car.
But I think if I fancy a toy car these days, I'd probably look at something a bit more 'interesting' - an RX8, a part finished Locost kit car type thing, etc. I think it'd have to be a second car explicitly, and I'd need to ensure I had somewhere to hide it away, too so that if it were to go squiffy, I could have it off the road and not worry about it.
So there you go, end of the line for the wee Ford but totally worth it, £600 MOTs and all.
Beany wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2018 9:18 pm
Aside, I've already had the Mondeo remapped to a subtle, but useful 180-190bhp and 280-300lb/ft - plenty of shove for motorway stuff.
I'm sort of tempted to have the DPF and swirl flaps removed, and (if the turbo would be able to use it) a slightly more open exhaust system, but unless it made major changes to throttle response - which is unlikely, it's a turbo diesel - then it's probably not worth any marginal power gains; the gearbox (or more specifically, dual mass flywheel) doesn't like much more than 300lb/ft anyway, as I understand it.
I read a news article today about new MOT tests that have come into force today (who knew? I certainly didn't). It cited that messing with DPF systems when fitted (e.g. removing one that used to exist) would be a fail, IIRC.
seb wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2018 10:56 pm
TBF, it says "if tampered with", so a full removal MIGHT be ok, so long as your gases are still clear and passing the various tests.
Or you just make sure there's a heatshield that prevents visual inspection of the DPF without removing it.
So I'm told.
Also, last i heard the smoke test is basically
Are you rolling coal?
Yes = fail.
No = pass.
I think the smoke has to be very, very sooty for it to fail.
As I say though, whether it's worth the bother or not is up for debate. Better throttle response would be nice, but I'd need to try one that had it done to see if it's worth it - I mean, we aren't talking a razors-edge track weapon here, it'd just mean impromptu overtakes would spool up a bit quicker, etc.
Be interesting to see what is getting failed in a few months but this is from the new guidelines.
The MoT inspection manual for the new test explains that if the “exhaust on a vehicle fitted with a diesel particulate filter emits visible smoke of any colour”, the car should be marked as having a Major defect, and fail its test.
seb wrote: ↑Sun May 20, 2018 10:56 pm
TBF, it says "if tampered with", so a full removal MIGHT be ok, so long as your gases are still clear and passing the various tests.
Defect Category
Emission control equipment fitted by the manufacturer missing, obviously modified or obviously defective
Major
An induction or exhaust leak that could affect emissions levels
Major
Evidence that the diesel particulate filter has been tampered with
Major
John wrote: ↑Mon May 21, 2018 9:44 am
Be interesting to see what is getting failed in a few months but this is from the new guidelines.
The MoT inspection manual for the new test explains that if the “exhaust on a vehicle fitted with a diesel particulate filter emits visible smoke of any colour”, the car should be marked as having a Major defect, and fail its test.
