I appear to have bought a private ambulance!
Discussion
It cost me £67 to join Costco for the year. I mainly use it for diesel in the van, although I'll use it for everything now. I came on holiday yesterday and put petrol in the car from Costco. Their premium ( 97 ron ) was £1.56 a litre. The non premium, 95 ron at the local Esso was £1.62.
The Connect has had very little use for several months due to me falling ill. I was working away in Boscombe near Bournemouth last July, and had just accepted a year long contract to work away in the south. Didn't get the chance to start it, as being from Newcastle and only having an address there, I had to come back to be seen by a local hospital for a diagnosis and treatment to a potentially long term illness, so no way to stay where I regard my spiritual home of Southampton to be.
Typically, I'd just fitted a four siren vibration sensor set of alarms ( one on every door ), as the place where I stay when I'm in the south ( Hamble, if anyone knows it ) had recently become a target for vans with the local and not so local scum, but it's probably a sensible ( and inexpensive ) addition anyway.
It's meant for bicycles or motorbikes, is remote ( the remote will operate up to 8 sirens ) wireless, and rechargeable through usb ( although it never seems to need to be recharged ). It's called Cruxer , bought off ebay, and the more sirens you buy, the better the deal gets. Mine came to about £50 all in and it's better than I dared hope. No false alarms on the most sensitive setting, but smart enough to give off a warning if a door handle is tried. It's about 120 db. I'll be using it on my Evo as a back up to the Clifford if I ever manage to get that back home, but that's another story!
Anyway. So the van, having had a major service at Hendy Ford in Eastleigh near Southampton last year at about 48k miles in June of last year, required it's next service recently. Annoyingly, it's only done 6k miles since then, and without thinking about the timing, I'd just changed the oil, as I always do between dealer services every 6k or so, as I won't run it for 20k on the same oil and filter, which is the Ford mileage interval.
After a haggle last year, Hendy charged me what I felt was a reasonable £400 for the major, which included all filters, so I was a bit pissed off with the £210 just for oil and filter this time around at Lookers near Newcastle, especially as the same dealership sell me oil, oil and air filter, and genuine wiper blades from their parts dept for about £80. But at the age and mileage, I need to consider the possibility of resale and the effect of not having another dealer stamp, so it's done.
Otherwise, it's generally been as painless as usual, although it's now on it's second fan belt tensioner after the belt started squealing on start up, immediately followed as I pulled away by the battery light illuminating. It got me home, I was really ill over the next two days and didn't look at it until 3 days later, when it became apparent that one of the bolts on the tensioner had worked loose, putting all of the strain on the area around the other bolt and the tensioner itself had snapped in half.
Easy enough to replace, but something to watch. The first one failed the day I bought the van and I was 45 miles or so into the drive back from Dartford to Newcastle, the bearing failing on that occasion.
I was meant to drive to Manchester yesterday to collect something I'd bought on ebay. Didn't really have to postpone, but...........
the air direction control elected to jam itself in the " pointing at feet " position.....no big deal, but I didn't fancy a 320 mile round trip with the possibility of being too hot! I'm getting soft in my dotage.
......this meant a bit of a dashboard teardown starting with this to release the head unit surround......
.....followed by the removal of this........
.....to allow the removal of the trim under the head unit surround and access to the four torx screws holding the aircon / heater switchpack that needed to come out.
I couldn't find one piece of useful info on the net about this going wrong, so looked on ebay for a replacement switchpack. The pics in the adverts of the back of the switches indicated that the unit was completely electronic, with no cables doing the adjustment. I thought about doing a quick battery disconnect to try and jolt the thing back into life, but it was so totally stuck that I felt it had to be a mechanical problem.
Given that it was already mullered, and already resigned to financial outlay, I decided to strip the back down, figuring what was the worst that could happen! Nothing but good things as it turned out, as it quickly became evident that the cog that is part of the direction controller had become dislodged from the one it meshes with somehow, and was on the tilt in relation to it. 10 mins of faffing about in not much space got them correctly aligned, and a quick play before reassembly confirmed that all 5 settings were easily available again, so a totes result, both free and unexpected.
Sorry for the usual sideways pics, I really must learn to remember this iphone nonsense and compensate.
I like a remap for most things turbo, and keep on thinking about it for this, but I'm tempered by the lack of any meaningful info on the strength of the box in particular. The increases aren't particularly spectacular, although an extra 58 ft lbs wouldn't go amiss, but I don't know how close to the edge a 120 Connect runs things as standard, and my last one did the clutch when standard at 48k. So I've more or less decided regrettably to play it safe and swerve that particular potential for both a van and also a wallet remap!
" New " tyres tomorrow, as now it's fixed I'm intending to try again for Manchester on Friday, and the fronts, although still legal, aren't especially grippy in the wet now. I have a stash of original fitment Continentals put by, as I've been lucky enough to come across two sets of low mileage wheels and tyres, so won't need any more for a while.
Typically, I'd just fitted a four siren vibration sensor set of alarms ( one on every door ), as the place where I stay when I'm in the south ( Hamble, if anyone knows it ) had recently become a target for vans with the local and not so local scum, but it's probably a sensible ( and inexpensive ) addition anyway.
It's meant for bicycles or motorbikes, is remote ( the remote will operate up to 8 sirens ) wireless, and rechargeable through usb ( although it never seems to need to be recharged ). It's called Cruxer , bought off ebay, and the more sirens you buy, the better the deal gets. Mine came to about £50 all in and it's better than I dared hope. No false alarms on the most sensitive setting, but smart enough to give off a warning if a door handle is tried. It's about 120 db. I'll be using it on my Evo as a back up to the Clifford if I ever manage to get that back home, but that's another story!
Anyway. So the van, having had a major service at Hendy Ford in Eastleigh near Southampton last year at about 48k miles in June of last year, required it's next service recently. Annoyingly, it's only done 6k miles since then, and without thinking about the timing, I'd just changed the oil, as I always do between dealer services every 6k or so, as I won't run it for 20k on the same oil and filter, which is the Ford mileage interval.
After a haggle last year, Hendy charged me what I felt was a reasonable £400 for the major, which included all filters, so I was a bit pissed off with the £210 just for oil and filter this time around at Lookers near Newcastle, especially as the same dealership sell me oil, oil and air filter, and genuine wiper blades from their parts dept for about £80. But at the age and mileage, I need to consider the possibility of resale and the effect of not having another dealer stamp, so it's done.
Otherwise, it's generally been as painless as usual, although it's now on it's second fan belt tensioner after the belt started squealing on start up, immediately followed as I pulled away by the battery light illuminating. It got me home, I was really ill over the next two days and didn't look at it until 3 days later, when it became apparent that one of the bolts on the tensioner had worked loose, putting all of the strain on the area around the other bolt and the tensioner itself had snapped in half.
Easy enough to replace, but something to watch. The first one failed the day I bought the van and I was 45 miles or so into the drive back from Dartford to Newcastle, the bearing failing on that occasion.
I was meant to drive to Manchester yesterday to collect something I'd bought on ebay. Didn't really have to postpone, but...........
the air direction control elected to jam itself in the " pointing at feet " position.....no big deal, but I didn't fancy a 320 mile round trip with the possibility of being too hot! I'm getting soft in my dotage.
......this meant a bit of a dashboard teardown starting with this to release the head unit surround......
.....followed by the removal of this........
.....to allow the removal of the trim under the head unit surround and access to the four torx screws holding the aircon / heater switchpack that needed to come out.
I couldn't find one piece of useful info on the net about this going wrong, so looked on ebay for a replacement switchpack. The pics in the adverts of the back of the switches indicated that the unit was completely electronic, with no cables doing the adjustment. I thought about doing a quick battery disconnect to try and jolt the thing back into life, but it was so totally stuck that I felt it had to be a mechanical problem.
Given that it was already mullered, and already resigned to financial outlay, I decided to strip the back down, figuring what was the worst that could happen! Nothing but good things as it turned out, as it quickly became evident that the cog that is part of the direction controller had become dislodged from the one it meshes with somehow, and was on the tilt in relation to it. 10 mins of faffing about in not much space got them correctly aligned, and a quick play before reassembly confirmed that all 5 settings were easily available again, so a totes result, both free and unexpected.
Sorry for the usual sideways pics, I really must learn to remember this iphone nonsense and compensate.
I like a remap for most things turbo, and keep on thinking about it for this, but I'm tempered by the lack of any meaningful info on the strength of the box in particular. The increases aren't particularly spectacular, although an extra 58 ft lbs wouldn't go amiss, but I don't know how close to the edge a 120 Connect runs things as standard, and my last one did the clutch when standard at 48k. So I've more or less decided regrettably to play it safe and swerve that particular potential for both a van and also a wallet remap!
" New " tyres tomorrow, as now it's fixed I'm intending to try again for Manchester on Friday, and the fronts, although still legal, aren't especially grippy in the wet now. I have a stash of original fitment Continentals put by, as I've been lucky enough to come across two sets of low mileage wheels and tyres, so won't need any more for a while.
carinaman said:
Heaveho said:
RC1807 said:
Sorry to learn you've been unwell, and that you had to work in Boscombe.
The illness is ongoing and unpleasant, but not life threatening, so no big deal! As long as I can still drive and mess about with cars, I won't get too down about it.
I'm trying to figure out a way of securing the side door on the Connect to prevent " peeling " that seems all the rage with the scumbags now, but don't really want to fit deadlocks. I'm thinking of drilling the top inside edge at the rear of the door and welding in a length of rebar down the gap between the inner and outer skin to prevent the door from bending. The alarm is good, very sensitive, so there's a reasonable chance it'll sound before any damage occurs, which is my main concern. It'll be mad money to replace the door.
So, as a follow up to my last post, I made a start yesterday on making the side door more secure. Bought this, as the company have finally started to make a dedicated bracket for the later Connects.......
It's a start. It secures the front top edge of the sliding door. The fitting was fun.......
The keep that sits against the bulkhead is initially secured in the right place by one of the bulkhead bolts, then is supposed to be riveted through 4 holes. However, the back of the rivets would then appear in the cab. Yack! Not very aesthetically pleasing, so not happening......
I used some stainless buttonhead allen bolts and washers that were supposed to be getting used on the Evo.......
....and secured them with nyloc nuts on the work side......
I'll cut all of these back flush at the weekend, just did the one yesterday as I wasn't sure the lock would clear it......
Onto this next........
....which is the leading edge of the sliding door.....
....liberal application of copaslip after drilling the holes with this. I slid several nuts onto the drill bit and taped them there to prevent the drill bit from going too far and wounding the outer skin of the door.........
.....and immediately ran into grief with my ancient riveter which clearly wasn't up to dealing with stainless rivets, and self destructed on the first attempt......
....leading to the purchase of this from Toolstation at 3.30pm. Getting irritated now, as I was on a deadline to get to the pub to watch the MotoGP at 4.30......
....however it proved man enough, even if the pressure to break the rivet spikes off meant by thumb getting mullered 9 times. The end result........
Job done, and pub deadline met!
My next trick will be something I'll steal from a Youtube vid, where the guy drills a hole in the top of the sliding door at the back and drops in a long length of 20mm diameter rebar from top to bottom. I'm not mad about his methods, and I'll probs just weld mine to the inside skin of the van, as there's clearance when the door opens. As he says in a wonderfully broad Scottish accent " Ne f
ker's bending tha' "! 
There's also still the possibility of my carpet gripper rod mod, which, when stuck along the inside top edge of the door will also act as a DNA gathering device! I'll do it if poss, but in reality, it'll probs destroy the upper seal and cause leaks, so will sadly likely have to be omitted.
It's a start. It secures the front top edge of the sliding door. The fitting was fun.......
The keep that sits against the bulkhead is initially secured in the right place by one of the bulkhead bolts, then is supposed to be riveted through 4 holes. However, the back of the rivets would then appear in the cab. Yack! Not very aesthetically pleasing, so not happening......
I used some stainless buttonhead allen bolts and washers that were supposed to be getting used on the Evo.......
....and secured them with nyloc nuts on the work side......
I'll cut all of these back flush at the weekend, just did the one yesterday as I wasn't sure the lock would clear it......
Onto this next........
....which is the leading edge of the sliding door.....
....liberal application of copaslip after drilling the holes with this. I slid several nuts onto the drill bit and taped them there to prevent the drill bit from going too far and wounding the outer skin of the door.........
.....and immediately ran into grief with my ancient riveter which clearly wasn't up to dealing with stainless rivets, and self destructed on the first attempt......
....leading to the purchase of this from Toolstation at 3.30pm. Getting irritated now, as I was on a deadline to get to the pub to watch the MotoGP at 4.30......
....however it proved man enough, even if the pressure to break the rivet spikes off meant by thumb getting mullered 9 times. The end result........
Job done, and pub deadline met!
My next trick will be something I'll steal from a Youtube vid, where the guy drills a hole in the top of the sliding door at the back and drops in a long length of 20mm diameter rebar from top to bottom. I'm not mad about his methods, and I'll probs just weld mine to the inside skin of the van, as there's clearance when the door opens. As he says in a wonderfully broad Scottish accent " Ne f
ker's bending tha' "! There's also still the possibility of my carpet gripper rod mod, which, when stuck along the inside top edge of the door will also act as a DNA gathering device!
I'll do it if poss, but in reality, it'll probs destroy the upper seal and cause leaks, so will sadly likely have to be omitted.Edited by Heaveho on Monday 20th November 22:43
Mammasaid said:
Nice work.
Just as an fyi, I share your pain with those type of rivet guns.
I now use this type when I can, so much easier to use.
I wish I'd had the option, but it was a spur of the moment, needs must issue on the day. I can't remember the last time I used one. That thing in your pic looks like it'll be effective. To be fair, the one I bought ( Draper, £15 ), did the job, but after the first one I was cringing every time it was about to snap the rivet off as I knew I was getting battered again.Just as an fyi, I share your pain with those type of rivet guns.
I now use this type when I can, so much easier to use.
Heaveho said:
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I drive a lot at night, so am considering adding to the front end with a pair of large-ish spot lamps. However, I don't want to change the appearance of the front end of the van, so if possible, these will be fitted behind the front grill.
I also got around to addressing this. I drive a lot at night, so am considering adding to the front end with a pair of large-ish spot lamps. However, I don't want to change the appearance of the front end of the van, so if possible, these will be fitted behind the front grill.
Ebay, 40 leds in each lamp, same colour range as the headlight leds I fitted, £16 the pair, wired to high beam. Tight fit behind the grill, but, as required, all but invisible when switched off.
Got sick of stuff crashing around i the cab, so thought I'd see if I could address at least one thing......turns out the Mondeo roof console from circa 2006 has a sunglasses holder that is a direct fit into the blank in the Connect roof console. £20 ebay purchase later and I've robbed it of the required parts.....
....and transplanted them to here.......
Took a guess on the colour and got lucky. You have to drop the entire roof shelf on the Connect to get some of the gubbins fitted for the mechanism, but only a half hours work.
I'm going to do the unthinkable and add up the costs. It won't be deadly accurate, because I haven't done the maths on fuel expenses, but purchase price, parts and general maintenance will hopefully all be remembered and included, and I can always edit it as I horrify myself with the stuff I'll have initially undoubtedly have forgotten!
Purchase price £12600
Extended warranty over 2 years £660
Ford servicing £610 for 2 services, major and minor
Intermediate home services £200
Timing belt inc. fitting £400
2x alternator belt tensioners ( not sure, need to look at service history )
Front discs and pads £120
Steel wheels and nearly new Continentals £300
4x winter Michelin Alpins £72
Zunsport front grills £206
2x replacement body mouldings £60
Bulbs for front end inc. driving lights £276
Dealer number plates £30
Painted mirror caps £120
Painted door handle covers £25
Roof rails and bars £160
Powder coated ladder roller fittings £70
Rear window tint £60
Rear window security grill £100 ( I think )
Replacement upper and lower rear lights £160
Rear bumper upper trim protector £60
Rear door replacement internal pull strap £6
Tailored seat covers £106
Side door anti peel kit £120
Remote 4 siren alarm £55
Mondeo sunglasses holder £20
Heater control knobs £9
Brodit mobile phone holder about £50
Insurance. Much more expensive than my previous van £660 per annum
I'll have had it 3 years in March. Mileage and income generated is significantly less than normal due to long term illness. I've done 18k miles since I got it, currently on 53k. I'm not going to count detailing products as I've used them on other things as well as the van.
£18190 ish plus fuel plus things I've forgotten. I reckon fuel to have cost between 3 - 3.5k.
It's hard to value now. It's not a Limited top spec, but is very highly specced for a Trend. It's the only one I've seen with a tailgate. It's low mileage with a heap of history. The insurance co still value it at 17k. Academic really, I'll only need to know if it gets totalled or stolen, I'll not be parting with it willingly.
Purchase price £12600
Extended warranty over 2 years £660
Ford servicing £610 for 2 services, major and minor
Intermediate home services £200
Timing belt inc. fitting £400
2x alternator belt tensioners ( not sure, need to look at service history )
Front discs and pads £120
Steel wheels and nearly new Continentals £300
4x winter Michelin Alpins £72
Zunsport front grills £206
2x replacement body mouldings £60
Bulbs for front end inc. driving lights £276
Dealer number plates £30
Painted mirror caps £120
Painted door handle covers £25
Roof rails and bars £160
Powder coated ladder roller fittings £70
Rear window tint £60
Rear window security grill £100 ( I think )
Replacement upper and lower rear lights £160
Rear bumper upper trim protector £60
Rear door replacement internal pull strap £6
Tailored seat covers £106
Side door anti peel kit £120
Remote 4 siren alarm £55
Mondeo sunglasses holder £20
Heater control knobs £9
Brodit mobile phone holder about £50
Insurance. Much more expensive than my previous van £660 per annum
I'll have had it 3 years in March. Mileage and income generated is significantly less than normal due to long term illness. I've done 18k miles since I got it, currently on 53k. I'm not going to count detailing products as I've used them on other things as well as the van.
£18190 ish plus fuel plus things I've forgotten. I reckon fuel to have cost between 3 - 3.5k.
It's hard to value now. It's not a Limited top spec, but is very highly specced for a Trend. It's the only one I've seen with a tailgate. It's low mileage with a heap of history. The insurance co still value it at 17k. Academic really, I'll only need to know if it gets totalled or stolen, I'll not be parting with it willingly.
Edited by Heaveho on Tuesday 21st November 14:33
Bobupndown said:
Do you find the spot lights have a decent output from behind the grill?
In all honesty, the led headlight and foglight bulbs I upgraded to, used together, are such an impressive improvement over the standard candles that the driving lights are almost surplus to requirements for the driving I do now. When I fitted them, I was expecting to be regularly working near, and driving through, the New Forest in the dark, where horses are regularly appearing in the road. I fell ill and had to sacrifice the contract before I got started on it, so all in all, it was probs a waste of time. The grille doesn't seem to impinge on the light output at all, they look unimpaired when viewed from the front when on. However, they're pretty much invisible when switched off, so the grille must be taking something away from them. It's a compromise I'm happy with, I didn't want them on show, and they were cheap enough as an experiment.
Edited by Heaveho on Friday 24th November 00:07
So we had some fairly significant snow in Newcastle a couple of weeks ago. I had work a few miles away, and the weather caught me out beore I'd found time to swap to my winter wheels. The customer rang to say maybe I shouldn't go i. Good advice as it turned out. But no, I knew better!
I got to his house, which is on a steep hill, and which, on this day, was totally whited out. I couldn't get up the hill, so did 3 sides of a square and came down the street. I got to his house and it started to go wrong from hereon in, as the van wouldn't reverse into the available space due to lack of traction.
Oh well, I tried. At this point, I had no option but to set off gingerly down an extremely slippery steep hill. I selected reverse, kept the clutch in and very gradually started to ease off. Completely predictably, it locked up on the brakes more or less immediately and due the the camber got fairly significantly sideways. Full opposite lock sideways. Between parked cars on either side of the road. So off the brakes to get it straight and let the clutch out to get it wheelspinning in reverse to slow the now fairly rapid downhill progress. Not entirely successfully.
I'm now heading toward a busy main road at the the junction, with little hope of stopping before the give way line. Cue window down, on the horn, waving at the slow moving traffic coming in from the right to get their attention. And fortunately succeeded. A gap was made and I slid gracefully and gratefully into it, stopping immediately on the gritted surface.
Multiple heart attacks later, I'm back home, on ebay, and come across something unexpected. An ultra rare set of 17" alloys that were a factory option. Nobody ever did actually choose them, although they seem more common on American Connects. Seemingly in very nice nick. And with a set of nearly new Michelin cross climate 2 tyres! Contacted the seller, who suggested £400 would seal the deal. Game on, shot over to Manchester on the Wednesday when the weather was ok and after a very quiet and speedy 290 miles in 4.5 hours, arrived back home at 3pm with enough light to fit them.
Bit disappointed to discover that I wasn't that enamoured with the appearance of them after all this trouble, but I know myself well enough to know that I would probably come round the them one I get used to them and fortunately I have. So all's well in the world of the hearse again.
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