Discussion
Lol great thread, had me chuckling at quite a few points!
And good to see your racking up the miles! I'm also playing the cambelt lottery, only I don't even have someones word that its been done! 120k 1999 Fiesta 1.4 Zetec, I've done 7k in it and two trackdays.. surely it wont have lasted this long on the original.. that's what I'm telling myself anyway!
Thing is I have a fresh mountune built blueprinted engine that I picked up from Mark Fish (was sitting in his engine room since 98!) To go in, so doesn't seem much point in changing the belt on the current lump!
And good to see your racking up the miles! I'm also playing the cambelt lottery, only I don't even have someones word that its been done! 120k 1999 Fiesta 1.4 Zetec, I've done 7k in it and two trackdays.. surely it wont have lasted this long on the original.. that's what I'm telling myself anyway!
Thing is I have a fresh mountune built blueprinted engine that I picked up from Mark Fish (was sitting in his engine room since 98!) To go in, so doesn't seem much point in changing the belt on the current lump!
That's what I need to do to mine, get a sneaky look under the cover at the belt to see what make it is. However I'm not sure it would make a difference as I probably still wouldn't replace it! It just seems pointless as would rather use the money towards putting the new engine in, also if I do put a new belt on the current engine I know It'll take any urgency off putting the new motor in!
daniel-5zjw7 said:
That's what I need to do to mine, get a sneaky look under the cover at the belt to see what make it is. However I'm not sure it would make a difference as I probably still wouldn't replace it! It just seems pointless as would rather use the money towards putting the new engine in, also if I do put a new belt on the current engine I know It'll take any urgency off putting the new motor in!
For what it's worth my mate was charged £165 by an independent to change the cambelt on his last Puma shortly after he bought it. I know it's still a pretty substantial sum in shed terms, but I thought that was pretty incredible!Gallons Per Mile said:
£165 is very cheap to do a belt on one of these! I assume that was only the labour and not including the parts too.
Quite possibly, it wasn't his first Puma so he may well have had a spare belt etc.It's also a place that has looked after several cars for him over the years so probably a bit cheaper than the going rate too. Absolute bargain though!
It's been several months now, and I'm pleased to report that a) I didn't get around to selling the Puma, and b) it's still going strong with zero actual problems to date! I've covered 10,600 miles to date and the cost of the car and maintenance thus far is a huuuuge £697.32 That's 69732 pence / 10600 miles which equals around 6.6 pence per mile to run (excluding insurance/tax/petrol as I've got those costs with any car I run). Not too bad, and the best bit is that it should average down with more milage assuming nothing breaks.
Even the completely flat battery when I took ownership of the car isn't playing up in the cold weather. The only niggling thing that actually prompted me to do some work was the remote central locking that decided it wouldn't work on first press of the button. Or second press. Or nineteenth press, but would eventually work at some point when it felt like it. Lucily for me, my friend from the start of this thread whom I acquired the car from just so happened to have a blank Puma key and new fob battery that he didn't need any more seeing as the car is now mine. I took the original key and used the new remote fob part to create a working key that didn't need to be cut and had remote central locking working properly. The reason the original remote body was on the blink was one of the plastic tabs holding one side of the battery down had broken so the battery was slightly loose. Problem solved. Locking now works at a good distance from the car and always locks/unlocks when you want it to.
Aside from the above, all is good. I'm *still * playing cam belt roulette, but I've begun to believe that the PO of the engine was correct in saying the belt had been done in the not too distant past, so it won't be getting changed for a while, depending on how much longer I decide to run with this daily shed for.
Gratuitous pic of afformentioned shed from a little while back in good weather. It looks exactly the same today anyway. I evenconned my father in to washing it washed it on Christmas eve as it was black rather than silver. The headlights are actually quite a lot brighter now. Note to self: wash car more often than every 6 months...
Even the completely flat battery when I took ownership of the car isn't playing up in the cold weather. The only niggling thing that actually prompted me to do some work was the remote central locking that decided it wouldn't work on first press of the button. Or second press. Or nineteenth press, but would eventually work at some point when it felt like it. Lucily for me, my friend from the start of this thread whom I acquired the car from just so happened to have a blank Puma key and new fob battery that he didn't need any more seeing as the car is now mine. I took the original key and used the new remote fob part to create a working key that didn't need to be cut and had remote central locking working properly. The reason the original remote body was on the blink was one of the plastic tabs holding one side of the battery down had broken so the battery was slightly loose. Problem solved. Locking now works at a good distance from the car and always locks/unlocks when you want it to.
Aside from the above, all is good. I'm *still * playing cam belt roulette, but I've begun to believe that the PO of the engine was correct in saying the belt had been done in the not too distant past, so it won't be getting changed for a while, depending on how much longer I decide to run with this daily shed for.
Gratuitous pic of afformentioned shed from a little while back in good weather. It looks exactly the same today anyway. I even
Edited by Gallons Per Mile on Wednesday 2nd August 21:14
Thanks! Yes quite a few seem to get broken up and people like putting the engine in to their Fiestas. This car's not a bad example but it's had its fair share of wear and tear over the years. I'm quite happy with it as a daily shed for the time being, but things may change once I've finished tinkering with my E46 M3. Not driven it in anger since the summer and I miss it!
Small update to this thread:
Another 6 months on and the Puma has just passed its MOT with zero work required! I think I've only jacked it up once on the drive since the last MOT and that was only for a service. Not bad for a shed motor at an age that most people would be put off using it every day. It's on 114k miles now, and since it's caused me zero grief I think it's going to do a few more under my ownership. I've even splashed out a bit as it's becoming evident that a few small jobs are going to need doing in the future. There's slight play in one of the anti-roll bar drop links and one of the front top suspension mounts has play too. I've got new ones on order. Also, the wonky brake discs from when I took ownership are still on there! They still went through the MOT fine and do stop the car but one side definitely feels a bit wobbly if you brake hard. I've decided to break shed rules and replace them and the pads so everyhing matches for the first time in my ownership. Shed rules have been well and truly broken because I'll have replaced stuff that didn't actually *need* replacing, but it'll make a nicer drive, and the amount of money spent on this car in total will still be ridiculously small!
Updates with pictures to come once I have the parts :-)
Another 6 months on and the Puma has just passed its MOT with zero work required! I think I've only jacked it up once on the drive since the last MOT and that was only for a service. Not bad for a shed motor at an age that most people would be put off using it every day. It's on 114k miles now, and since it's caused me zero grief I think it's going to do a few more under my ownership. I've even splashed out a bit as it's becoming evident that a few small jobs are going to need doing in the future. There's slight play in one of the anti-roll bar drop links and one of the front top suspension mounts has play too. I've got new ones on order. Also, the wonky brake discs from when I took ownership are still on there! They still went through the MOT fine and do stop the car but one side definitely feels a bit wobbly if you brake hard. I've decided to break shed rules and replace them and the pads so everyhing matches for the first time in my ownership. Shed rules have been well and truly broken because I'll have replaced stuff that didn't actually *need* replacing, but it'll make a nicer drive, and the amount of money spent on this car in total will still be ridiculously small!
Updates with pictures to come once I have the parts :-)
Excellent.
I owned a Puma for quite a short time. I got it FOC from my stepmam when she got a MINI Cooper S.
Not the best example...and needed too much work doing for me to justify keeping it longer, but it was a fun 3 months or so.
1999 1.7 (base model, no extras)
It really was as good to drive as everyone says. Superb steering, gearchange and engine. (rorty sound in the last 1,000 revs reminded me of old Escort rally cars) Economical too, i saw more than 40mpg regularly, including some zoomage.
Brakes were fairly poor though, again, as some seem to comment.
Great car. Quite practical too, in a strange way, with a big boot and room in the back for a child seat....
I miss it. Sold for approx £200ish on ebay with work needing doing.
I owned a Puma for quite a short time. I got it FOC from my stepmam when she got a MINI Cooper S.
Not the best example...and needed too much work doing for me to justify keeping it longer, but it was a fun 3 months or so.
1999 1.7 (base model, no extras)
It really was as good to drive as everyone says. Superb steering, gearchange and engine. (rorty sound in the last 1,000 revs reminded me of old Escort rally cars) Economical too, i saw more than 40mpg regularly, including some zoomage.
Brakes were fairly poor though, again, as some seem to comment.
Great car. Quite practical too, in a strange way, with a big boot and room in the back for a child seat....
I miss it. Sold for approx £200ish on ebay with work needing doing.
Swampy1982 said:
Top shedding, even if you do break a few rules you will end up well ahead.
Can I ask if the brake pads are going to come to more than you initially purchased the whole car for?
Pads only cost half the original price of the car! Discs were about the same, so for the complete brake swap I've spent the price of the car...Can I ask if the brake pads are going to come to more than you initially purchased the whole car for?
If everyone's interested I've got a spreadsheet running on all the costs, servicing and oil top ups etc and I could post a screen shot.
M1C said:
Excellent.
I owned a Puma for quite a short time. I got it FOC from my stepmam when she got a MINI Cooper S.
Not the best example...and needed too much work doing for me to justify keeping it longer, but it was a fun 3 months or so.
1999 1.7 (base model, no extras)
It really was as good to drive as everyone says. Superb steering, gearchange and engine. (rorty sound in the last 1,000 revs reminded me of old Escort rally cars) Economical too, i saw more than 40mpg regularly, including some zoomage.
Brakes were fairly poor though, again, as some seem to comment.
Great car. Quite practical too, in a strange way, with a big boot and room in the back for a child seat....
I miss it. Sold for approx £200ish on ebay with work needing doing.
Excellent! Mine's doing usually 36mpg with mixed town and motorway driving. On a run it does 45mpg. The brakes got upgraded in 2000 I think to 260mm discs from 240mm. I'd imagine the later ones didn't get the complaints about brakes as they're not a heavy car. As you say, steering and gearchange are brilliant. I just wish the engine didn't use a bit of oil, but I've had plenty of these engines in various cars and they've all done it. Just a design feature I guess, but you do have to keep an eye on it. As for the boot, it's quite deep which is good, but it's a really awkward shape!!I owned a Puma for quite a short time. I got it FOC from my stepmam when she got a MINI Cooper S.
Not the best example...and needed too much work doing for me to justify keeping it longer, but it was a fun 3 months or so.
1999 1.7 (base model, no extras)
It really was as good to drive as everyone says. Superb steering, gearchange and engine. (rorty sound in the last 1,000 revs reminded me of old Escort rally cars) Economical too, i saw more than 40mpg regularly, including some zoomage.
Brakes were fairly poor though, again, as some seem to comment.
Great car. Quite practical too, in a strange way, with a big boot and room in the back for a child seat....
I miss it. Sold for approx £200ish on ebay with work needing doing.
duudiz said:
Great little shed.
Thanks!Gallons Per Mile said:
The brakes got upgraded in 2000 I think to 260mm discs from 240mm.
We had a 2002 Puma 1.7 'Black' about 10 years ago. Front discs, rear drums.I don't know if I'd call the brakes "poor", but they were quite dull and not really consistent with the sharpness of the other controls. They did the job and no more. If I had another one I think I'd want a Fiesta rear disc conversion.
a said:
Gallons Per Mile said:
The brakes got upgraded in 2000 I think to 260mm discs from 240mm.
We had a 2002 Puma 1.7 'Black' about 10 years ago. Front discs, rear drums.I don't know if I'd call the brakes "poor", but they were quite dull and not really consistent with the sharpness of the other controls. They did the job and no more. If I had another one I think I'd want a Fiesta rear disc conversion.
Biker's Nemesis said:
I love threads like this.
Cheers! Shed money + fun = win! a said:
We had a 2002 Puma 1.7 'Black' about 10 years ago. Front discs, rear drums.
I don't know if I'd call the brakes "poor", but they were quite dull and not really consistent with the sharpness of the other controls. They did the job and no more. If I had another one I think I'd want a Fiesta rear disc conversion.
Rear drums in 2002!I don't know if I'd call the brakes "poor", but they were quite dull and not really consistent with the sharpness of the other controls. They did the job and no more. If I had another one I think I'd want a Fiesta rear disc conversion.
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