Discussion
Obviously not content with a fully stripped XR2 in need of a repaint and rebuild over here, I somehow became the owner of a rather sheddy Puma.
It all started with a text from a friend in November last year, as these things tend to. It read something like "I'm going to see a Puma tomorrow. It's £50, should I buy it? I only want the wing mirrors". My reply was along the lines of "That's insane value, just buy it!!". He went to have a look. The previous owner muttered something about a starter motor problem as the car was stranded in a work car park somewhere on a retail estate. A quick look under the cam belt cover revealed that all was well in starter-motor world, but very unhappy in cam belt land. It had snapped. I wasn't present when he went to view the car but I gather the owner went a bit sheepish, accepted the pittance he'd asked for it and my friend was now the owner of a borked Puma.
Here it is beingdumped unloaded on to his drive:
You may be thinking: "Hang on, your friend bought the car for £50, not you? What's going on?!". Said friend, upon purchasing aforementioned car, had it delivered home on a recovery truck. And then his wife found out...
Cue short conversation with moi something along the lines of "Would you like my Puma for £50, the wife won't let me have 2 and this is the third! Oh, I found a spare engine for £30 just up the road and the guy says you can park it in the barn next to the one being broken for bits". One small BACS transfer later, and the rest is history. The car even had MOT til June!
It's December last year. Hmm, so now I own a borked Puma and I have a place to store it, and I even have a good engine to put in to it. Except the engine is still in the donor car, and it's the middle of winter. Perfect for swapping engines in an open-on-one-side barn full of boats and two borked Puma's, right? I seemed to think so at the time. It was definitely -2 C on at least one of the days I spent under the car.
First things first, this car was minging inside and out. Mouldy floor mats, full of rubbish, the works. All the tyres were mismatched ditch finders and the only 'good' one was a worn out Michelin with a huge chunk taken out of the side wall. I seriously considered just weighing it in, and while starting to remove bits underneath I had a good check for rust too. Luckily for the car, there was only 1 smallish hole in the sill, one rear arch was good and the other was only a little rusty, so it just about convinced me it would be worth sorting out!
The owner of the donor car was duly paid £30 and I was told to knock myself out with removing the engine any way I saw fit. The donor had a very minor front ender which literally bent the bonnet, front bumper and pushed the cross member back a little in the middle. The bumper was already off, so my angle grinder made short work of the cross member. Donor engine out, phew. Now rinse and repeat for my car
This was a total budget build. Cost so far: £50 - car, £30 - engine - £40 months' worth of barn space from friendly farmer with big barn.
Owner of the donor Puma wasn't fussed about the gearbox. Both cars had done near identical mileage so it didn't matter anyway, but I had a pool of parts to play mix and match with. I had both clutches off and chose the 'least worse', along with a variety of other bits and pieces not terribly important to how the car works such as coolant hoses and drive shafts
Cue more spannerage and suddenly the car was looking a bit more in one piece again. It was still minging though, and I didn't even know if all my effort had been worth it; I'd never heard the other engine run but I knew it had an intact cam belt and some oil in it. When I say 'some', I mean the dip stick had black on the bottom, much below the min... I filled it up with free coolant my friend found in his shed and turned the key. Then I went home and charged the battery.
With slightly dodgy looking battery of unknown age 'charged' (not really charged according to the indicator on the battery), I turned the key again. [Borat] Great success!! [/Borat] Engine came to life on the first go and actually sounded alright. Unfortunately I couldn't test drive around the farm I was was blocked in by many boats being stored over winter.
At this point, a friend of a friend heard I might be interested in selling the current barge of an Audi A4 Avant TDi with almost 250k on the clock that I'd been using up to this point to carry as much stuff to the tip in one go as possible, and all my tools to the barn of borked Pumas etc. This brought about the thought that I should sell the slightly boring, washed-only-twice-since-I-bought-it, moon-miles-but-totally-reliable-because-I-spent-too-much-money-on-servicing-EVERTHING-on-it Audi, and drive the totally-unknown-reliability-built-in-a-barn-but-much-more-fun-to-drive Puma. I put my sensible hat on, and then threw it away and sold the Audi. Purely because I already know the Puma will be a total hoot to drive and I think the Audi had played host to a rather corpulent gentleman at some point in it's previous life because the drivers seat was rather 'flat' and my back definitely didn't enjoy it one bit.
The Audi received the correct end of a sponge and leather, I even put the front bumper back on properly after not really bothering from when I changed the cam belt 7 months previously. My Puma enthusiast friend gave me a lift to the barn of borked/unborked Pumas and we set about moving boats on trailers to dig the Puma out. At this point I should mention that I've still not test driven the car anywhere apart from about 6 inches forwards and backwards to make sure the clutch and at least 1st and reverse worked. With the boats out of the way it drove out of the barn with no problems. Looks like we're in business!
The drive home was 'interesting'. The tracking was a country mile out, the engine still had no oil, the wiper blades had disintegrated making corners on the dark country lanes by the barn more of a guess than anything else, and the brakes were a tad wonky. I noticed a single new brake disc in the boot; it would seem the previous owner went full retard on the caliper bolts at some point, managing to round them all and leaving me with half a brake change. At least he put new pads on the one old disc... I made it home unscathed with my Puma enthusiast friend in hot persuit with a steel tow bar, you know, just in case my no-expenses spared project should come to a grinding halt. Even with all the faults, I loved it. Such a good car to drive. All this fun and I'm only in for £120!!
Successful test drive over, I decided I should pull out the big guns and spend a whole £30 on a service. I needed this car to get to work in so really it should have some new oil, and probably the correct amount, too. The lower arms were shot to bits, which probably goes some way to explain the tracking problems. I got a reasonable deal at Euro Car Parts for 2 Lemforder lower arms for £66. The tyres were desperate to be changed too, and luckily the guy with the donor car in the barn had a set of wheels for sale in decent condition with good quality tyres all around. All for the grand sum of £80. I got some new wiper blades too and even splashed out £34 I think on some brand new genuine Ford floor mats my Puma enthusiast friend just so happened to have spare!
Less than 2 weeks of being on the road and it was time for a quick trip to Somerset from Kent for an overnight stay away with the girlfriend. I figured that the car had done a couple of hundred miles and nothing had really fallen off, so what could possibly go wrong? I did give in to my own conscience and asked a local friendly garage owner to top up my gearbox oil on his ramp, as I'd spilled a bit during the engine swap and some had also leaked because I'd put the gearbox breather in the wrong way around. Breather was refitted the correct way around and gearbox 'topped up' with almost the full capacity it should take. Probably a good thing I had that checked then. It was literally the morning we were about to head off for our night away, I was dressed in non-greasy, girlfriend-approved clothes and couldn't really be bothered to look at the problem. Good thing I had it checked, I think I avoided a gearbox explosion somewhere on the M25, M4 or M5. That means I'd only be playing cam belt roulette for the trip. Yay!
Long story short; the car performed absolutely faultlessly. Even the gf had a go atbreaking driving it for while and liked how it went. 500 miles in two days, 45mpg achieved and zero problems. Result!
I've been driving the car every day since, and this happened:
Here is the most recent pic of how the car stands, taken earlier today:
I've gone totally mad, and spent a bit more money! £25 on a scrap yard hunt for a couple of trim bits, non-rounded caliper bolts, a working clock, and light stalk that doesn't stick on main beams when you try to flash someone (I got a few confused looks before I realised what was going on). I should proabably fit that sometime soon. I've even spent £11 on an Ebay special heater control valve as the current one chooses a temperature at startup (either boiling hot or stone cold) and there's nothing you can do about it. I still need to buy a rounded bolt undoing tool and then I might get around to replacing that brake disc. To be fair, now the car's in constant use the brakes aren't actually that wonky at all, but it definitely does need to be sorted!
No real problems to report apart from when the front bolt on the passenger side lower arm worked itself loose somehow the other day. Wondered where the rattle over bumps had come from, and the steering was really wandering all over the place! Tightened that back up and all is well again in Puma world. I also managed to get the throttle pedal stuck down on the edge of my poorly placed new floor mats, in the middle of changing gear while joining the motorway! Took me a couple of seconds to realise what was going on, meanwhile the engine's bouncing off the limiter somewhere over 7k rpm!! Oops!
Oh, and I'm still playing cam belt roulette - I did have a peek under the cam belt cover eventually (and after the rev limiter incident) and there's definitely a belt there. It's a Gates one, which is nice. Owner of donor car thinks it was changed a couple of years ago maybe. We'll see...
Total cost so far: ~ £425
Hope you enjoyed my little Puma adventure so far.
It all started with a text from a friend in November last year, as these things tend to. It read something like "I'm going to see a Puma tomorrow. It's £50, should I buy it? I only want the wing mirrors". My reply was along the lines of "That's insane value, just buy it!!". He went to have a look. The previous owner muttered something about a starter motor problem as the car was stranded in a work car park somewhere on a retail estate. A quick look under the cam belt cover revealed that all was well in starter-motor world, but very unhappy in cam belt land. It had snapped. I wasn't present when he went to view the car but I gather the owner went a bit sheepish, accepted the pittance he'd asked for it and my friend was now the owner of a borked Puma.
Here it is being
You may be thinking: "Hang on, your friend bought the car for £50, not you? What's going on?!". Said friend, upon purchasing aforementioned car, had it delivered home on a recovery truck. And then his wife found out...
Cue short conversation with moi something along the lines of "Would you like my Puma for £50, the wife won't let me have 2 and this is the third! Oh, I found a spare engine for £30 just up the road and the guy says you can park it in the barn next to the one being broken for bits". One small BACS transfer later, and the rest is history. The car even had MOT til June!
It's December last year. Hmm, so now I own a borked Puma and I have a place to store it, and I even have a good engine to put in to it. Except the engine is still in the donor car, and it's the middle of winter. Perfect for swapping engines in an open-on-one-side barn full of boats and two borked Puma's, right? I seemed to think so at the time. It was definitely -2 C on at least one of the days I spent under the car.
First things first, this car was minging inside and out. Mouldy floor mats, full of rubbish, the works. All the tyres were mismatched ditch finders and the only 'good' one was a worn out Michelin with a huge chunk taken out of the side wall. I seriously considered just weighing it in, and while starting to remove bits underneath I had a good check for rust too. Luckily for the car, there was only 1 smallish hole in the sill, one rear arch was good and the other was only a little rusty, so it just about convinced me it would be worth sorting out!
The owner of the donor car was duly paid £30 and I was told to knock myself out with removing the engine any way I saw fit. The donor had a very minor front ender which literally bent the bonnet, front bumper and pushed the cross member back a little in the middle. The bumper was already off, so my angle grinder made short work of the cross member. Donor engine out, phew. Now rinse and repeat for my car
This was a total budget build. Cost so far: £50 - car, £30 - engine - £40 months' worth of barn space from friendly farmer with big barn.
Owner of the donor Puma wasn't fussed about the gearbox. Both cars had done near identical mileage so it didn't matter anyway, but I had a pool of parts to play mix and match with. I had both clutches off and chose the 'least worse', along with a variety of other bits and pieces not terribly important to how the car works such as coolant hoses and drive shafts
Cue more spannerage and suddenly the car was looking a bit more in one piece again. It was still minging though, and I didn't even know if all my effort had been worth it; I'd never heard the other engine run but I knew it had an intact cam belt and some oil in it. When I say 'some', I mean the dip stick had black on the bottom, much below the min... I filled it up with free coolant my friend found in his shed and turned the key. Then I went home and charged the battery.
With slightly dodgy looking battery of unknown age 'charged' (not really charged according to the indicator on the battery), I turned the key again. [Borat] Great success!! [/Borat] Engine came to life on the first go and actually sounded alright. Unfortunately I couldn't test drive around the farm I was was blocked in by many boats being stored over winter.
At this point, a friend of a friend heard I might be interested in selling the current barge of an Audi A4 Avant TDi with almost 250k on the clock that I'd been using up to this point to carry as much stuff to the tip in one go as possible, and all my tools to the barn of borked Pumas etc. This brought about the thought that I should sell the slightly boring, washed-only-twice-since-I-bought-it, moon-miles-but-totally-reliable-because-I-spent-too-much-money-on-servicing-EVERTHING-on-it Audi, and drive the totally-unknown-reliability-built-in-a-barn-but-much-more-fun-to-drive Puma. I put my sensible hat on, and then threw it away and sold the Audi. Purely because I already know the Puma will be a total hoot to drive and I think the Audi had played host to a rather corpulent gentleman at some point in it's previous life because the drivers seat was rather 'flat' and my back definitely didn't enjoy it one bit.
The Audi received the correct end of a sponge and leather, I even put the front bumper back on properly after not really bothering from when I changed the cam belt 7 months previously. My Puma enthusiast friend gave me a lift to the barn of borked/unborked Pumas and we set about moving boats on trailers to dig the Puma out. At this point I should mention that I've still not test driven the car anywhere apart from about 6 inches forwards and backwards to make sure the clutch and at least 1st and reverse worked. With the boats out of the way it drove out of the barn with no problems. Looks like we're in business!
The drive home was 'interesting'. The tracking was a country mile out, the engine still had no oil, the wiper blades had disintegrated making corners on the dark country lanes by the barn more of a guess than anything else, and the brakes were a tad wonky. I noticed a single new brake disc in the boot; it would seem the previous owner went full retard on the caliper bolts at some point, managing to round them all and leaving me with half a brake change. At least he put new pads on the one old disc... I made it home unscathed with my Puma enthusiast friend in hot persuit with a steel tow bar, you know, just in case my no-expenses spared project should come to a grinding halt. Even with all the faults, I loved it. Such a good car to drive. All this fun and I'm only in for £120!!
Successful test drive over, I decided I should pull out the big guns and spend a whole £30 on a service. I needed this car to get to work in so really it should have some new oil, and probably the correct amount, too. The lower arms were shot to bits, which probably goes some way to explain the tracking problems. I got a reasonable deal at Euro Car Parts for 2 Lemforder lower arms for £66. The tyres were desperate to be changed too, and luckily the guy with the donor car in the barn had a set of wheels for sale in decent condition with good quality tyres all around. All for the grand sum of £80. I got some new wiper blades too and even splashed out £34 I think on some brand new genuine Ford floor mats my Puma enthusiast friend just so happened to have spare!
Less than 2 weeks of being on the road and it was time for a quick trip to Somerset from Kent for an overnight stay away with the girlfriend. I figured that the car had done a couple of hundred miles and nothing had really fallen off, so what could possibly go wrong? I did give in to my own conscience and asked a local friendly garage owner to top up my gearbox oil on his ramp, as I'd spilled a bit during the engine swap and some had also leaked because I'd put the gearbox breather in the wrong way around. Breather was refitted the correct way around and gearbox 'topped up' with almost the full capacity it should take. Probably a good thing I had that checked then. It was literally the morning we were about to head off for our night away, I was dressed in non-greasy, girlfriend-approved clothes and couldn't really be bothered to look at the problem. Good thing I had it checked, I think I avoided a gearbox explosion somewhere on the M25, M4 or M5. That means I'd only be playing cam belt roulette for the trip. Yay!
Long story short; the car performed absolutely faultlessly. Even the gf had a go at
I've been driving the car every day since, and this happened:
Here is the most recent pic of how the car stands, taken earlier today:
I've gone totally mad, and spent a bit more money! £25 on a scrap yard hunt for a couple of trim bits, non-rounded caliper bolts, a working clock, and light stalk that doesn't stick on main beams when you try to flash someone (I got a few confused looks before I realised what was going on). I should proabably fit that sometime soon. I've even spent £11 on an Ebay special heater control valve as the current one chooses a temperature at startup (either boiling hot or stone cold) and there's nothing you can do about it. I still need to buy a rounded bolt undoing tool and then I might get around to replacing that brake disc. To be fair, now the car's in constant use the brakes aren't actually that wonky at all, but it definitely does need to be sorted!
No real problems to report apart from when the front bolt on the passenger side lower arm worked itself loose somehow the other day. Wondered where the rattle over bumps had come from, and the steering was really wandering all over the place! Tightened that back up and all is well again in Puma world. I also managed to get the throttle pedal stuck down on the edge of my poorly placed new floor mats, in the middle of changing gear while joining the motorway! Took me a couple of seconds to realise what was going on, meanwhile the engine's bouncing off the limiter somewhere over 7k rpm!! Oops!
Oh, and I'm still playing cam belt roulette - I did have a peek under the cam belt cover eventually (and after the rev limiter incident) and there's definitely a belt there. It's a Gates one, which is nice. Owner of donor car thinks it was changed a couple of years ago maybe. We'll see...
Total cost so far: ~ £425
Hope you enjoyed my little Puma adventure so far.
Edited by Gallons Per Mile on Wednesday 2nd August 21:10
Teocali said:
Great thread!
How was the engine swap? Difficult for a first timer?
My engine really needs swapping out and trying to gauge if its diy-able!
Thanks! Erm, well, this wasn't my first time changing a Puma engine! I've had a Mk4 Fiesta with a Puma lump. That decided it didn't want to do 100 mile a day commute at max leptons any more and spat part of a liner out. Still ran it to work for a couple of weeks like that, but it was making rather a lot of blue smoke and using a litre of oil every 300 miles. Swapped that engine in two weekends quite comfortably on my drive - dead engine out one weekend and new one in the next weekend, back to the 100 mile daily grind with no issues.How was the engine swap? Difficult for a first timer?
My engine really needs swapping out and trying to gauge if its diy-able!
I also bought a green Puma with a dead engine a couple of years ago. I must have been bored or something as I saw an ad for the car complete with spare engine in the boot, delivered to my house for £300. I swapped the engines around and then didn't really know what to do with it so sold it on!
I had a mk5 Fiesta Zetec S too, (basically same engine as Puma) that had three different engines under my ownership... the crank doesn't have a key way for the pulley and I messed up a cam belt change. Twice. I remember taking that Fiesta on a tour of Holland and Germany via the 'Ring with a 'fixed' engine only for it to develop a funny 'wobble'. Much oil consumption later, no track action at the ring and a steady cruise home on the autobahns @ only 90ish and we just about made it. I think a bearing took a knock as I'd used the original bottom end and a spare head to make that engine whole again.
Basically, I got pretty good at changing those engines! They're really not difficult even for a first timer though. The worst part is probably getting the thing jacked up high enough in the first place to allow the engine to drop out of the bottom. It's slightly more fiddly if the car has air con. My shed does, but of course it doesn't work! If you're happy to crack out the spanners and need advice, just PM/email me. The green Puma I mentioned earlier; a friend put the clutch back together on the new engine for me while I wasn't looking and managed to put the clutch plate on the wrong way around. Couldn't get any gears, but I only realised this once the car was back together and on the floor again! Took me an afternoon on my own to pull the 'box back off and swap the clutch plate around. 'Flywheel side' label on the plate gave it away once I got the box off! I still take the mickey out of him for that one years later!
Thanks all for your comments. I'll keep this updated. Now, I wonder how well it'll survive a track day? May have to get one booked soon! Oh, and that rev limiter thing I spoke about? I did it again today by accident. REALLY need to use the supplied grommets for the carpet that keeps the mat in the right position!
avenger286 said:
Fantastic wee read . Welcome to puma land !
We currently have 3 silver 1red and 1 black .
3 standard cars and 2 rally cars . Very cheap and reliable our highest is running 165k now with no problems . Change the oil every 5k and they seam to go forever .
Well dun on your purchase and hard work .
G
You're worse than my Puma enthusiast friend! He had a silver one and a Millenium yellow one. And then this silver one which is now mine. The other had to be sold and the yellow one resides in his garage still.We currently have 3 silver 1red and 1 black .
3 standard cars and 2 rally cars . Very cheap and reliable our highest is running 165k now with no problems . Change the oil every 5k and they seam to go forever .
Well dun on your purchase and hard work .
G
Small update from the world of all things Puma.
I finally decided now that the warm weather has sort-of made an appearance, I'd like not to be boiled alive every time I drive the car. Time to change the heater control valve for the £11 Ebay special and see what happens! I don't know why I put this job off for so long because it was ridiculously easy. Having said that, I've still got to secure the mats properly to solve the surprise-rev-limiter-when-changing-gear problem and sort out the light stalks too. I'm currently avoiding letting people out of junctions so I don't have to flash them and then make confused faces at my dash board while they work out whether I'm angry at them by flashing for ages or actually letting them go... The current setup works really well when someone cuts you up though
On to the pics. It all happened so fast I nearly didn't bother taking any, but where would be the fun in that?!
Old heater valve disconnected. The rear facing pipes disintegrated as I took the rubber hoses off. Well overdue replacement, and I'm probably quite lucky I didn't spring a major coolant leak and end up on the side of a motorway having cooked the engine. The other hoses got checked when I did the engine swap so I know they're all ok:
New valve in place. It really is as simple as diconnect pipes, pull off bulkhead and push new one in to place:
Hoses, electrical connector and rubber shroud thing back in place. Hmm, probably should have cleaned in there a bit, but the Puma cares not for being cleaned currently:
Front facing hoses connected back up and that's the job done. Apart from running the car up to temp with the expansion cap off and the heater set to hot just to bleed any air out:
So, did it fix the problem? To coin a phrase - sort of. I can now get cool air but it's rather tempremental and does still go boiling hot of it's own accord sometimes. Also, if I want warm air it seems to have a fit and just give me boiling hot most of the time, and then doesn't like returning to cold when I decide I don't want a tropical climate. Moral of the story? Cheap Ebay valves are w*nk. Should've bought Ford, but they cost as much as the car did originally. I've devised a cunning way of having cool air though. Now it's decided to play ball on the cool setting, just never, *ever* touch it again. Working well so far. Early starts for work are a bit cool though! I'll persevere for now and maybe even spend some actual money on a proper valve one day...
I finally decided now that the warm weather has sort-of made an appearance, I'd like not to be boiled alive every time I drive the car. Time to change the heater control valve for the £11 Ebay special and see what happens! I don't know why I put this job off for so long because it was ridiculously easy. Having said that, I've still got to secure the mats properly to solve the surprise-rev-limiter-when-changing-gear problem and sort out the light stalks too. I'm currently avoiding letting people out of junctions so I don't have to flash them and then make confused faces at my dash board while they work out whether I'm angry at them by flashing for ages or actually letting them go... The current setup works really well when someone cuts you up though
On to the pics. It all happened so fast I nearly didn't bother taking any, but where would be the fun in that?!
Old heater valve disconnected. The rear facing pipes disintegrated as I took the rubber hoses off. Well overdue replacement, and I'm probably quite lucky I didn't spring a major coolant leak and end up on the side of a motorway having cooked the engine. The other hoses got checked when I did the engine swap so I know they're all ok:
New valve in place. It really is as simple as diconnect pipes, pull off bulkhead and push new one in to place:
Hoses, electrical connector and rubber shroud thing back in place. Hmm, probably should have cleaned in there a bit, but the Puma cares not for being cleaned currently:
Front facing hoses connected back up and that's the job done. Apart from running the car up to temp with the expansion cap off and the heater set to hot just to bleed any air out:
So, did it fix the problem? To coin a phrase - sort of. I can now get cool air but it's rather tempremental and does still go boiling hot of it's own accord sometimes. Also, if I want warm air it seems to have a fit and just give me boiling hot most of the time, and then doesn't like returning to cold when I decide I don't want a tropical climate. Moral of the story? Cheap Ebay valves are w*nk. Should've bought Ford, but they cost as much as the car did originally. I've devised a cunning way of having cool air though. Now it's decided to play ball on the cool setting, just never, *ever* touch it again. Working well so far. Early starts for work are a bit cool though! I'll persevere for now and maybe even spend some actual money on a proper valve one day...
Edited by Gallons Per Mile on Wednesday 2nd August 21:12
I fixed the driver mat in place today as it really did need sorting out! I also spent 45 whole pounds on a brand s
ng new set of light/wiper stalks for it as the main beam problem was getting tedious. The set of stalks I picked up at the scrappy were the wrong part - apparently there were two different types that look and fit exactly the same but one set has 20 pins on the electrical connectors and the other has 21. No pics I'm afraid as I did those bits on the spur of the moment, but it's just that little bit nicer to drive now. Over 102k miles now on the clock which means I've done ~2500 miles in two and a half months 
ng new set of light/wiper stalks for it as the main beam problem was getting tedious. The set of stalks I picked up at the scrappy were the wrong part - apparently there were two different types that look and fit exactly the same but one set has 20 pins on the electrical connectors and the other has 21. No pics I'm afraid as I did those bits on the spur of the moment, but it's just that little bit nicer to drive now. Over 102k miles now on the clock which means I've done ~2500 miles in two and a half months Small update! In preparation for the MOT, I thought I'd better sort out the passenger sill as there was an interesting hole and some other scabs of rust that looked ominous...
I forgot to take a pic before I started, so here's a lump of sill that's no longer attached to the car:
And here's where that lump of metal used to live:
A close up:
As this is a shed motor, it was a quick and dirty fix. Didn't worry about the inner sill looking crusty. It's actually completely fine as far as I can see apart from the very bit in the pic that you can see. And even that's not that bad. I probably spent a bit too much time to qualify as 'quick' but I'm out of practice with welding - thin metal meant I kept blowing holes through it, and even though I ground down the edge of the sill it just didn't want to weld all that well. Still, I got there in the end, ground all my welding back to resemble something nearly acceptable and went to look for some paint to cover it all up with. I also had a small poke along the top of the sill to see what lurked under where the rubber door seal sits. Wish I hadn't bothered as I found a couple more holes. Duly ground them back and welded those too...
Scabby bit further back along the sill. Pleased to find it was totally solid so I just ground the worst of it back ready for a lick of paint. That'll keep it at bay for a little while:
Ground back:
I found some silver-ish paint knocking around and went to town. Just look at the amazing colour match!!
Told you it was quick and dirty. Well, dirty then. It's all solid now and that's the main thing. I may have to re-do that patch at some point as I'm really not happy with the state of my welding, but it's definitely on there properly and that's the important thing for now.
I forgot to take a pic before I started, so here's a lump of sill that's no longer attached to the car:
And here's where that lump of metal used to live:
A close up:
As this is a shed motor, it was a quick and dirty fix. Didn't worry about the inner sill looking crusty. It's actually completely fine as far as I can see apart from the very bit in the pic that you can see. And even that's not that bad. I probably spent a bit too much time to qualify as 'quick' but I'm out of practice with welding - thin metal meant I kept blowing holes through it, and even though I ground down the edge of the sill it just didn't want to weld all that well. Still, I got there in the end, ground all my welding back to resemble something nearly acceptable and went to look for some paint to cover it all up with. I also had a small poke along the top of the sill to see what lurked under where the rubber door seal sits. Wish I hadn't bothered as I found a couple more holes. Duly ground them back and welded those too...
Scabby bit further back along the sill. Pleased to find it was totally solid so I just ground the worst of it back ready for a lick of paint. That'll keep it at bay for a little while:
Ground back:
I found some silver-ish paint knocking around and went to town. Just look at the amazing colour match!!
Told you it was quick and dirty. Well, dirty then. It's all solid now and that's the main thing. I may have to re-do that patch at some point as I'm really not happy with the state of my welding, but it's definitely on there properly and that's the important thing for now.
Edited by Gallons Per Mile on Wednesday 2nd August 21:13
Swampy - I've emailed you!
Mods deleted my whole last post for being 'an advert' but rather unkindly didn't leave the bulk of it giving the most recent update
In summary: Car is still running great. MOT passed with no issues, but I was advised that one CV boot was a bit dead and the flexy brake hoses were past their best. It's my current daily driver so I got them sorted. I'm on 104k miles now and no problems at all. I had a minor hiccup with a slight misfire but that was resolved with a coil pack and leads combination that I had spare in the garage left over from other Fiestas and Pumas I've owned in the past. That fix cost me a whopping zero pounds! I'm moving on to an E46 M3 in the very near future as it's gathering dust and needs to be used. Total cost of running the car to date: £654.06 which includes some labour charges for the flexy brake hoses and CV boot as I was feeling lazy and let MOT man do them for me :-D I've had rather a lot of fun with this car and it's still only cost just over half of shed budget!
Mods deleted my whole last post for being 'an advert' but rather unkindly didn't leave the bulk of it giving the most recent update
In summary: Car is still running great. MOT passed with no issues, but I was advised that one CV boot was a bit dead and the flexy brake hoses were past their best. It's my current daily driver so I got them sorted. I'm on 104k miles now and no problems at all. I had a minor hiccup with a slight misfire but that was resolved with a coil pack and leads combination that I had spare in the garage left over from other Fiestas and Pumas I've owned in the past. That fix cost me a whopping zero pounds! I'm moving on to an E46 M3 in the very near future as it's gathering dust and needs to be used. Total cost of running the car to date: £654.06 which includes some labour charges for the flexy brake hoses and CV boot as I was feeling lazy and let MOT man do them for me :-D I've had rather a lot of fun with this car and it's still only cost just over half of shed budget!
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 :-)
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! 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!LARK F1 GTR said:
What a great read! I love stories like this, especially when they're written so well 
Thanks!paulyv said:
Puma stuff
Excellent shedding, sir! Yours looks to be in better condition than mine :-)Update time, with pictures and everything!
That pile of bits I bought above looks like this:
Time to get the front end jacked up. I got giddy with enthusiasm and had the aux belt and tensioner off in no time. I only remembered to take a pic at the end once I'd put the new tensioner and the belt back on. It's looking a bit oily down that side of the engine but I'm pretty sure it's an old leak. The crank seal might have a very slight weep on it was there was a very small amount of fresh oil below it though.
On to brakes and other things. I remembered to take pictures at opportune moments by this point! Here's the old disc that didn't get replaced by the owner who sold it to my friend. Doesn't look too bad on the outside...
The reason it didn't get replaced when the other side did. Rounded bolts. And check out the inside face of the disc!
To get the rounded bolts off I used this excellent box of tricks. I'd recommend these for removing anything rounded, they work amazingly well and grip like you wouldn't believe:
Rounded bolts removed. My 13mm standard socket and impact socket wouldn't touch them but the socket set in the pic above took them off in seconds. Replaced with 2nd hand but not rounded versions from my local scrap yard.
The inside of the old disc that hadn't been changed:
Then, things started getting a bit more serious:
That'll be the shock and spring on the floor then. Suspension top mount and bearing replaced. Everything fell apart and went back together very easily, which was nice. The hub face was cleaned and then I put everything back together:
Extra PistonHeads points if you spotted my new ARB drop link. All looking rather better on this corner of the car. Time to turn the car around and work in the shade for the other side - I'm slightly sun burnt...
Rinse and repeat of the above for passenger side. Here's the new old disc that came on the car. Can you see the massive mistake the PO made when he put this disc on the car? Look at the pads for a clue...
Yep, that's right. Wrong disc size! Difficult to spot until you take the disc and pads off the car. So I'd been using two different size discs, one old and one new, but at least the pads all got changed at the same time as they all had loads of meat and were the same brand.
Passenger hub cleaning:
All cleaned and copper greased:
Fully assembled, ready to go:
That leaves me with new top suspension mounts and bearings, new ARB drop links, new discs and pads, plus a new aux belt tensioner to stop the squeaking when it's cold and damp. I should have bought a new idler pulley too as the current one sounds like a bag of spanners when you spin it, but I'll have to dig deep to afford another nine whole pounds for one
I checked the ARB bushes too while I was there and they'll need doing too if I want to get all pedantic. Uh oh, that's another eight pounds on top! Then there are the rear beam bushes which are definitely past their best - 25 quid for Ebay spec poly bushes or Febi Bilstein OEM replacements. Oh, and the exhaust just started to blow. The back box seems to be rusting through where the pipe goes in to the box. Looks like that's another item for the shopping list. A whole standard system from the cat back is about 70 quid so I'll probably just replace the lot. If I end up doing that lot then I'll have a very sorted Puma, but for now it's a lot better than it was. The brakes are much nicer Edited by Gallons Per Mile on Wednesday 2nd August 21:18
Digitalize said:
If you're still having problems with your heater, try getting a replacement heater board that goes in the dash, they often fail causing erratic behaviour, especially if you've changed the valve itself. One of mine had the issue.
Absolutely love the Puma, I've actually got a Mk5 Fiesta ZS and a Puma Engine/Box/ECU/Loom, waiting to go in, but I bought the Fiesta 5 years ago, and the engine 4 years ago, so not sure when that will happen!
The heater works ok now since I changed the valve again for an OEM spec one from Euro car parts - the Ebay cheapie I bought just wasn't very good. No surprises there!Absolutely love the Puma, I've actually got a Mk5 Fiesta ZS and a Puma Engine/Box/ECU/Loom, waiting to go in, but I bought the Fiesta 5 years ago, and the engine 4 years ago, so not sure when that will happen!
It's an easy engine swap as everything just bolts in. Get cracking!!
Another update!
I started looking around at prices for an exhaust as it was obvious I'd need one soon. Euro car parts only wanted £53 for a whole cat back system including a clamp, so I thought I'd just get on with it!
The old centre section had seen better days anyway:
Looks like it might well have been the original, so it did well to last this long, look a Ford stamp on the middle box!
The backbox was a Bosal unit and was definitely the casuse of the blow:
I broke it to get it off the car easily. It didn't take much persuasion:
It was also going rotten along the seam. Definitely needed to be changed:
Annoyingly I haven't taken any pics of the Klarius system that replaced it. I'm not that happy with the fit, the backbox is sitting a bit awkwardly and the centre section hangs a tiny bit lower than perhaps it should do. Still, it does the job and cost very little, so I can't complain too much. Only took a small amount of time for me to fit too.
I started looking around at prices for an exhaust as it was obvious I'd need one soon. Euro car parts only wanted £53 for a whole cat back system including a clamp, so I thought I'd just get on with it!
The old centre section had seen better days anyway:
Looks like it might well have been the original, so it did well to last this long, look a Ford stamp on the middle box!
The backbox was a Bosal unit and was definitely the casuse of the blow:
I broke it to get it off the car easily. It didn't take much persuasion:
It was also going rotten along the seam. Definitely needed to be changed:
Annoyingly I haven't taken any pics of the Klarius system that replaced it. I'm not that happy with the fit, the backbox is sitting a bit awkwardly and the centre section hangs a tiny bit lower than perhaps it should do. Still, it does the job and cost very little, so I can't complain too much. Only took a small amount of time for me to fit too.
Edited by Gallons Per Mile on Wednesday 2nd August 21:19
I've been through the thread and re-linked all the images after the Photobucket fail.
Nothing new to report, other than I had a small problem with the starter motor trying to part company with the gearbox. 2 of the 3 bolts holding the starter to the gearbox went MIA and the 3rd bolt, also the main earthing point back to the battery was loose. Symptoms included not starting at 5am when I wanted to go to work and slow wipers in the rain. I decided this was an actual problem so had a look under the car the other day. Tightened the one remaining bolt and found a spare bolt that would do the trick in the garage - to replace one of the MIA ones. Starting 100% on the button again, wipers work properly again and the windows are definitely quicker to go up too! Cost £0 and about 10 mins under the car.
I probably should go to a scrap yard and find another bolt for the starter motor, but not before a quick trip to the most northern part of Scotland. From Kent. Watch this space for pics.
Over 16k miles and counting in this shed so far. Cam belt still working... Wheels changed for original ones with tyres swapped around to make a set of 4 that aren't worn out.
Nothing new to report, other than I had a small problem with the starter motor trying to part company with the gearbox. 2 of the 3 bolts holding the starter to the gearbox went MIA and the 3rd bolt, also the main earthing point back to the battery was loose. Symptoms included not starting at 5am when I wanted to go to work and slow wipers in the rain. I decided this was an actual problem so had a look under the car the other day. Tightened the one remaining bolt and found a spare bolt that would do the trick in the garage - to replace one of the MIA ones. Starting 100% on the button again, wipers work properly again and the windows are definitely quicker to go up too! Cost £0 and about 10 mins under the car.
I probably should go to a scrap yard and find another bolt for the starter motor, but not before a quick trip to the most northern part of Scotland. From Kent. Watch this space for pics.
Over 16k miles and counting in this shed so far. Cam belt still working... Wheels changed for original ones with tyres swapped around to make a set of 4 that aren't worn out.
Back from my North Scotland trip. I'm quite lucky in that my parents live there so accommodation and food was free!
Car on the drive after almost 700 miles in one day:
Went for a walk around a local wind farm the next day. You know it's remote when the only road in sight is a track!
Also, signs like this are an amusement when you're used to excellent signal down south:
Had a trip to the most northerly Weatherspoons in the country. There aren't many drinking establishments up this way that actually resemble a nice pub, so this did the trick one rainy afternoon:
Stopped to take a pic of the zip wire that goes above a nice little beach. This is on the NC500 route for anyone interested - western end of the North coast. The road I'm standing on is actually the main A road for the area. How quaint
View from the top of Castle Varrich. Well, it's called a castle, but it's more of a small tower no bigger in footprint than a shed! This is looking out over the Kyle of Tongue:
Small beach approx 10 mins walk from my parents' house:
The start of my journey home. This is the large beach the other side of the village. It stretches out to the left, behind the sand bank on the left of the pic. It's miles long and always has bugger all people on it because access is annoying - about a mile walk along the side of the river on the left of the pic before you actually get to the beach. There's even an old shipwreck buried in the sand. Totally worth the exercise.
Nice mountains before you enter Tongue going West. I've been to the top of one of them:
Some other scenery South of the coast heading inland on my way home. Not on the NC500 so I doubt many people see this. Lovely scenery and you really are in the middle of nowhere. I was the only car on the road for a long time:
The Puma was in its element on roads like that. The first 580 odd boring miles of the trip were worth it just for the last 100 or so from Inverness all the way North. Vice versa on the way home too, though I did have a blast through Rutland/ Northamptonshire's beautiful countryside as there was an accident on the A1 and I didn't want to sit in traffic.
Zero maintenance required apart from a pint of oil to top up what was used. 1400ish trouble free miles, and my pence per mile cost has dropped in to the 5's now
Car on the drive after almost 700 miles in one day:
Went for a walk around a local wind farm the next day. You know it's remote when the only road in sight is a track!
Also, signs like this are an amusement when you're used to excellent signal down south:
Had a trip to the most northerly Weatherspoons in the country. There aren't many drinking establishments up this way that actually resemble a nice pub, so this did the trick one rainy afternoon:
Stopped to take a pic of the zip wire that goes above a nice little beach. This is on the NC500 route for anyone interested - western end of the North coast. The road I'm standing on is actually the main A road for the area. How quaint
View from the top of Castle Varrich. Well, it's called a castle, but it's more of a small tower no bigger in footprint than a shed! This is looking out over the Kyle of Tongue:
Small beach approx 10 mins walk from my parents' house:
The start of my journey home. This is the large beach the other side of the village. It stretches out to the left, behind the sand bank on the left of the pic. It's miles long and always has bugger all people on it because access is annoying - about a mile walk along the side of the river on the left of the pic before you actually get to the beach. There's even an old shipwreck buried in the sand. Totally worth the exercise.
Nice mountains before you enter Tongue going West. I've been to the top of one of them:
Some other scenery South of the coast heading inland on my way home. Not on the NC500 so I doubt many people see this. Lovely scenery and you really are in the middle of nowhere. I was the only car on the road for a long time:
The Puma was in its element on roads like that. The first 580 odd boring miles of the trip were worth it just for the last 100 or so from Inverness all the way North. Vice versa on the way home too, though I did have a blast through Rutland/ Northamptonshire's beautiful countryside as there was an accident on the A1 and I didn't want to sit in traffic.
Zero maintenance required apart from a pint of oil to top up what was used. 1400ish trouble free miles, and my pence per mile cost has dropped in to the 5's now
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff