The £260 Fiesta
Discussion
miken2k8 said:
Why bother with all these jobs? it's a 260 pound car by the time you've finished you'll wish you had just gone and bought a nice one in the first place I would drive this till it breaks then scrap it.
Missing the point entirely. Some of us enjoy fixing things, working on cars, finding bargains and doing little upgrades and improvements. Good thread, OP.deggles said:
Missing the point entirely. Some of us enjoy fixing things, working on cars, finding bargains and doing little upgrades and improvements. Good thread, OP.
Yes but the thread title is 260 pound fiesta so that would suggest it was bought because of the low price hence spending any money defeats the object. I only clicked the thread because of it's title in the first placeSteBrown91 said:
Not sure why you bothered removing the expansion tank - in prefacelifts the grille lifts out on clips then it’s 3 bolts to remove the whole light
Or you can undo one bolt on the expansion tank and move it out the way to change the bulb. Far far quicker that your method.
It's just turned into a cheap fun project whilst I wait for stuff to get done on my main car. If we can get the car sailing through the next MOT then hopefully it will be worthwhile. Unfortunately I can be too much of a perfectionist so can end up doing non essential things to make the car more pleasing to the eye 
If the car lasts then I can use it for longer trips away as it's more comfortable and cheaper to run plus I'll be able to do some more extreme things to the other car
Here's a breakdown to date:
Car £260.00
Essentials (stuff that could fail an MOT):
Big bill (brakes, coolant flush, belt change) £260.00
Wipers £24.00
Indicators £12.99
Bulbs £5.39
Total inc car: £562.38
Cosmetic/non-essential stuff:
Steering wheel, grill, gearknob, washercap £50.00
Stereo surround £30.00
Touch up paint/pen & clearcoat £9.98
Interior door trim £5.89
Rubber bumper trim £7.95
Aerial base £6.95
Aerial antenna £3.89
Tailgate lock motor £10.29
£124.95 for the cosmetic/non-essential stuff
Grand total inc car: £687.33
Extras:
Electrical contact cleaner £4.99
Coolant £12.99
Bumper protectors that were rubbish and got binned £17.95
Total for the extras: £35.93
Future Expenses:
Front and rear bumpers £70.00
Radio (maybe): £25.00
Trim clips for the doors £3.00?
Total for the future expenses £98.00
So all in with the future expenses it will be around £821.26. That's without any unexpected items or failures - touch wood,,
If the car lasts then I can use it for longer trips away as it's more comfortable and cheaper to run plus I'll be able to do some more extreme things to the other car
Here's a breakdown to date:
Car £260.00
Essentials (stuff that could fail an MOT):
Big bill (brakes, coolant flush, belt change) £260.00
Wipers £24.00
Indicators £12.99
Bulbs £5.39
Total inc car: £562.38
Cosmetic/non-essential stuff:
Steering wheel, grill, gearknob, washercap £50.00
Stereo surround £30.00
Touch up paint/pen & clearcoat £9.98
Interior door trim £5.89
Rubber bumper trim £7.95
Aerial base £6.95
Aerial antenna £3.89
Tailgate lock motor £10.29
£124.95 for the cosmetic/non-essential stuff
Grand total inc car: £687.33
Extras:
Electrical contact cleaner £4.99
Coolant £12.99
Bumper protectors that were rubbish and got binned £17.95
Total for the extras: £35.93
Future Expenses:
Front and rear bumpers £70.00
Radio (maybe): £25.00
Trim clips for the doors £3.00?
Total for the future expenses £98.00
So all in with the future expenses it will be around £821.26. That's without any unexpected items or failures - touch wood,,
miken2k8 said:
Yes but the thread title is 260 pound fiesta so that would suggest it was bought because of the low price hence spending any money defeats the object. I only clicked the thread because of it's title in the first place
I think the point is that the car was super cheap, and he's doing some cheap fixes so that it'll be a nice car to drive and sit in. Even if the OP spends £500 on this, he'll still have a bargain with a car that is pretty sorted. OP, keep up the good work, enjoying seeing what you can do!
Finding some bumpers that were cheap and half decent was a hard task but I picked up a pair of bumpers for £70. Both have some damage but the fronts not too bad.
Getting off the old messy bumper
Close up of the crashbar
The bumper was a pain in the ... to remove given the location of the bolts - the bumper on the Mazda I have much easier to take off and remove
More damage not worth repairing - not done by me..
New bumper ready to go on
The clips have snapped where the arch liner goes so I did a cheap bodge and drilled in a screw at the bottom on each side
I also had to deal with broken fog light brackets but luckily the new bumper also came with a pair of fogs so I managed to mix and match
The rear bumper hasn't yet been fitted and is in worse condition with a number of scrapes and marks in the paint. It's also a facelift bumper, which I'm not keen on. I'll probably keep it off the car and practice some spray painting/touch up skills on it over the winter and spring time. If it comes out well enough then I might put it on the car.
The front end though looks a bit more presentable and is just awaiting a tow eye cover to finish it off.
Getting off the old messy bumper
Close up of the crashbar
The bumper was a pain in the ... to remove given the location of the bolts - the bumper on the Mazda I have much easier to take off and remove
More damage not worth repairing - not done by me..
New bumper ready to go on
The clips have snapped where the arch liner goes so I did a cheap bodge and drilled in a screw at the bottom on each side
I also had to deal with broken fog light brackets but luckily the new bumper also came with a pair of fogs so I managed to mix and match
The rear bumper hasn't yet been fitted and is in worse condition with a number of scrapes and marks in the paint. It's also a facelift bumper, which I'm not keen on. I'll probably keep it off the car and practice some spray painting/touch up skills on it over the winter and spring time. If it comes out well enough then I might put it on the car.
The front end though looks a bit more presentable and is just awaiting a tow eye cover to finish it off.
Great work OP. I love a shed thread - always good fun to do stuff yourself and it's eco friendly to keep a car going like this rather than being scrapped.
I have a 1.4 Fiesta like yours (a 2006 3 door). They are largely easy to work on, don't rust and parts are pretty cheap. TADTS on the suspension tops. Brakes should be good, handbrake can seize a bit but the shedding way round this is to pull it on going down a big hill.
As to what you spent, I need a five door soon (wife and I are expecting and I want an Impreza while we can still have petrol). WABC offered me £400 so you won't lose much.
I have a 1.4 Fiesta like yours (a 2006 3 door). They are largely easy to work on, don't rust and parts are pretty cheap. TADTS on the suspension tops. Brakes should be good, handbrake can seize a bit but the shedding way round this is to pull it on going down a big hill.
As to what you spent, I need a five door soon (wife and I are expecting and I want an Impreza while we can still have petrol). WABC offered me £400 so you won't lose much.
Stuart Fordyce said:
Great work OP. I love a shed thread - always good fun to do stuff yourself and it's eco friendly to keep a car going like this rather than being scrapped.
I have a 1.4 Fiesta like yours (a 2006 3 door). They are largely easy to work on, don't rust and parts are pretty cheap. TADTS on the suspension tops. Brakes should be good, handbrake can seize a bit but the shedding way round this is to pull it on going down a big hill.
As to what you spent, I need a five door soon (wife and I are expecting and I want an Impreza while we can still have petrol). WABC offered me £400 so you won't lose much.
Our 56 reg has rusted through one of the sills. There must be a blocked drain somewhere. I have a 1.4 Fiesta like yours (a 2006 3 door). They are largely easy to work on, don't rust and parts are pretty cheap. TADTS on the suspension tops. Brakes should be good, handbrake can seize a bit but the shedding way round this is to pull it on going down a big hill.
As to what you spent, I need a five door soon (wife and I are expecting and I want an Impreza while we can still have petrol). WABC offered me £400 so you won't lose much.
This is a nice little thread. My good lady has a 'mega spec' 1.6 TDCI model as a winter car which I'm running around in whilst my car receives an A/C compressor.
They drive very sweetly, and the heated front screen is lovely when it's cold.
'mega spec' includes rear parking sensors, a sunroof, auto lights and wipers, AND ESC!
Hers was £600 with the traction light on the dash and a mere 28,000 miles. A new pressure sensor sorted that. Been grand so far. Happy shedding.
They drive very sweetly, and the heated front screen is lovely when it's cold.
'mega spec' includes rear parking sensors, a sunroof, auto lights and wipers, AND ESC!
Hers was £600 with the traction light on the dash and a mere 28,000 miles. A new pressure sensor sorted that. Been grand so far. Happy shedding.
Stuart Fordyce said:
MC Bodge said:
Our 56 reg has rusted through one of the sills. There must be a blocked drain somewhere.
Is your door drain hole blocked? Can cause a wet spot there, but get it up on the axle stands. Bar the strut tower tops ours is solid. The cutting out issue:
This did stop for a while then recently came back in full vengeance in the last few weeks. Problems got worse as the car wouldn't idle even when warmed up which made driving it a pain!
A check of the engine uncovered a split vacuum hose so a new one was ordered for around £8.50.
The hose was replaced and the issue.. remained!!
I picked up another hose for a fiver which included a valve so I changed the valves other and then...
The issue remained!!
Some research suggested that the idle control valve was built in with the throttle body. I messaged a person I got the interior parts of previously to see if he had one spare so for £20 I got another one and swapped it over. I've added some pics below but it was quite straight forward to do and I stuck some gasket sealant on the bottom once done:
img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/9hyCCvFn.jpg[/img]
Time to test it and..
The issue remained!!
After a bit of swearing and cursing Fords i thought i would take the sensor out that connects below the throttlebody as seen in the last pic. I think it's just a throttle positioning sensor as these cars don't have MAF sensors and I gave it a clean up with some electrical cleaner.
All put back and guess what - the issue remained!! Even when disconnecting the battery with hope of it re-setting the ECU.
The clutch on the car was slipping so it was booked in to the local garage to do the work. We asked them to have a look at the issue in case there was a sensor that needed replacing. They have a diagnostics machine so gave the ecu a refresh which fixed the idle issue Now the car feels great with a new clutch and starts first time!!
Another bit of bad luck was with the rear bumper on the car as the GF reversed from a parking space into the side of the other car. Fortunately I hadn't put the new bumper on but the old bumper is now slightly handing and has a new scrape on it along with another scrape being on the rear bumper.
On the subject of rear bumpers I picked up a Zetec S rear bumper for £50. It has a lot of scratches on it so I might end up giving it a respray but I prefer the look of these bumpers as they don't have the round reflectors like on the facelifts. I'll probably end up selling the other one and sticking this one on once done
This did stop for a while then recently came back in full vengeance in the last few weeks. Problems got worse as the car wouldn't idle even when warmed up which made driving it a pain!
A check of the engine uncovered a split vacuum hose so a new one was ordered for around £8.50.
The hose was replaced and the issue.. remained!!
I picked up another hose for a fiver which included a valve so I changed the valves other and then...
The issue remained!!
Some research suggested that the idle control valve was built in with the throttle body. I messaged a person I got the interior parts of previously to see if he had one spare so for £20 I got another one and swapped it over. I've added some pics below but it was quite straight forward to do and I stuck some gasket sealant on the bottom once done:
img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/9hyCCvFn.jpg[/img]
Time to test it and..
The issue remained!!
After a bit of swearing and cursing Fords i thought i would take the sensor out that connects below the throttlebody as seen in the last pic. I think it's just a throttle positioning sensor as these cars don't have MAF sensors and I gave it a clean up with some electrical cleaner.
All put back and guess what - the issue remained!! Even when disconnecting the battery with hope of it re-setting the ECU.
The clutch on the car was slipping so it was booked in to the local garage to do the work. We asked them to have a look at the issue in case there was a sensor that needed replacing. They have a diagnostics machine so gave the ecu a refresh which fixed the idle issue
Now the car feels great with a new clutch and starts first time!!Another bit of bad luck was with the rear bumper on the car as the GF reversed from a parking space into the side of the other car. Fortunately I hadn't put the new bumper on but the old bumper is now slightly handing and has a new scrape on it along with another scrape being on the rear bumper.
On the subject of rear bumpers I picked up a Zetec S rear bumper for £50. It has a lot of scratches on it so I might end up giving it a respray but I prefer the look of these bumpers as they don't have the round reflectors like on the facelifts. I'll probably end up selling the other one and sticking this one on once done
i gave the interior a clean as it hasn't been cleaned since.. probably the last time I cleaned it.
Whilst at it I found where the corona virus originated from
One thing I do fancy doing at some point is changing the seats so I might as well add a new carpet to that list
I found a couple of black screws to replace the annoying tork screws that go on the light's. I've just done the 2 bottom screws for now otherwise as I only had 2 screws that were suitable. At least there's no more holes where the screw should be.
A couple of pics of the damage.
Not a lot from this side just a few scratches and most of it is covered by dirt.
The bumper and boot got a scrape and the rivets come out on one side. I want to replace this with a screw or bolt but I don't have any in my collection so will have to order a couple.
The outside does really need a good clean but I had no time to do this at the weekend. On a positive note I'll be able to buy some poorboys 2.5 shortly and should have some more daylight to get the machine polisher and touch up pens out!
Someone local was breaking a Fiesta, which included a leather rear bench so the following was bought:-
Rear bench - £50.00
Carpet and sound deadening - £25.00
Badgeless grill - £5.00
Pair of facelift headlights inc bulbs - £5.00
It was just the interior bits I needed but with the other parts so cheap I couldn't say no so with having no garage I filled up the front room with car parts
I replaced the old bench 1st as needed the space indoors.
These are quite easy to take out as they just need a T40 torx. Annoyingly the front seats and seatbelts use a T50.
Old seats out
New non-mouldy seats in
Rear bench - £50.00
Carpet and sound deadening - £25.00
Badgeless grill - £5.00
Pair of facelift headlights inc bulbs - £5.00
It was just the interior bits I needed but with the other parts so cheap I couldn't say no so with having no garage I filled up the front room with car parts
I replaced the old bench 1st as needed the space indoors.
These are quite easy to take out as they just need a T40 torx. Annoyingly the front seats and seatbelts use a T50.
Old seats out
New non-mouldy seats in
Time to replace the Covid Carpet!
I gave this vent a good clean out as there was loads of dust inside.
Got a bit bored so put in some bucket seats..
Rest of the interior stripped out
Carpet finally out - it was such a pain to do!!
New carpet in
In addition to this I got some Fiesta specific car mats which were miles better than the old ones. I'm just going to be on the look out for some cheap front seats to finish it off..
I gave this vent a good clean out as there was loads of dust inside.
Got a bit bored so put in some bucket seats..
Rest of the interior stripped out
Carpet finally out - it was such a pain to do!!
New carpet in
In addition to this I got some Fiesta specific car mats which were miles better than the old ones. I'm just going to be on the look out for some cheap front seats to finish it off..
The grill:
Car before with the facelift lights added
Cheap grill
3 of the clips were broken so I had to cut the clips off the normal grill and stick them in place with some adhesive.
All fitted but a bit of a pain getting the alignment right. Maybe some more work is needed. I've skipped an update on the lights as they're still work in progress and there's a chance I might just pinch the bulbs from them and go back to the pre-facelift lights.
Car before with the facelift lights added
Cheap grill
3 of the clips were broken so I had to cut the clips off the normal grill and stick them in place with some adhesive.
All fitted but a bit of a pain getting the alignment right. Maybe some more work is needed. I've skipped an update on the lights as they're still work in progress and there's a chance I might just pinch the bulbs from them and go back to the pre-facelift lights.
Just some small updates as I put the old lights back on as I couldn't get on with the Facelift lights. The grill also kept coming loose so I ended up drilling some holes in it and used some cable ties to fix it in place.
Before:
After:
During the swap I took out the centre bits that go over the main lights that reduce visibility then I swapped the better bulbs over that were in the facelift lights.
As the cars not being used so much we put in in for an MOT last month and it passed with an advisory on one of the rear number plate lights being out and also with advisories on the brake lines being corroded.
So it looks like we will have this car for another year at least if all goes well
Before:
After:
During the swap I took out the centre bits that go over the main lights that reduce visibility then I swapped the better bulbs over that were in the facelift lights.
As the cars not being used so much we put in in for an MOT last month and it passed with an advisory on one of the rear number plate lights being out and also with advisories on the brake lines being corroded.
So it looks like we will have this car for another year at least if all goes well
I finally managed to find some front seats that weren't overpriced. I wasn't expecting the leather ones to be so sought after but how wrong was I!
A trip to Ford county was in order so picked up these so they match the rears
Fitting was straight forward
Apparently a common issue but it's not really a problem as we have a 5 door
To tidy it up a bit I ordered a pair of plastic handles for around £9
The only issue now is the airbag lights on. I disconnected the battery before replacement and tried cleaning up and reconnecting the connectors to no avail. I get 2 single flashes which suggests its a code 22 but my knowledge isn't great with guessing airbag codes.
I initially thought it was one of the pre-tensioners so ordered a new passenger side one thinking it could be the passenger side as we had trouble getting the plug disconnected when taking it out the car. I swapped that over and the light remains on.
I did plug the passenger one I took out into the drivers side to see if it made the airbag light go out but that didn't work. I've ordered a 2nd drivers side pre-tensioner to see if that will help it. If that doesn't work I'll see if my local garage can re-set the ECU and check for any new codes.
Overall though the new seats are much better and old you in and they sit lower down unlike the old seat that never seemed to want to go down..
A trip to Ford county was in order so picked up these so they match the rears
Fitting was straight forward
Apparently a common issue but it's not really a problem as we have a 5 door
To tidy it up a bit I ordered a pair of plastic handles for around £9
The only issue now is the airbag lights on. I disconnected the battery before replacement and tried cleaning up and reconnecting the connectors to no avail. I get 2 single flashes which suggests its a code 22 but my knowledge isn't great with guessing airbag codes.
I initially thought it was one of the pre-tensioners so ordered a new passenger side one thinking it could be the passenger side as we had trouble getting the plug disconnected when taking it out the car. I swapped that over and the light remains on.
I did plug the passenger one I took out into the drivers side to see if it made the airbag light go out but that didn't work. I've ordered a 2nd drivers side pre-tensioner to see if that will help it. If that doesn't work I'll see if my local garage can re-set the ECU and check for any new codes.
Overall though the new seats are much better and old you in and they sit lower down unlike the old seat that never seemed to want to go down..
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