Twitchy puma

[balders118]

Hey there,

I'm new to fords, and my first one is a 1.7 puma (98). Everything is great, love how it drives. However, it does seem to me a little bit too twitchy and skittish when making progess over bump roads. Often feels like its trying to follow bumps and creveses (spelling?) in the road. Wheel alignment had just been done, so i'm thining maybe bushes are a bit tired?

My question is can anyone tell me roughly how much it would cost to get them changed? And how much extra it would be to upgrade to polys?

Secondly if they are nakered, and I can't afford to get them sorted right away can it cause further damage to other components to carry on until such a time that I can afford them comes around?

Cheers!

[Pumajay]

Sounds like your bushes have gone, Replace them with Powerflex ones, But when replacing the wishbone bushes make sure the car has the original ford wishbones... otherwise the poweflex bushes wont fit, oh and when replacing the bushes make sure you dont use the powerflex rear wishbone bush, its far to hard for normal road use, use the Racing Puma bush, its only £6 from ford!

but apart from that use powerflex on the Anti roll bar, rear beam and front wishbone bush, also replace the Anti roll bar drop links, they fail quite reguarly on puma's!

it wont damage other parts if they are worn, you might just notice a knocking noise from the suspension

But othersise just enjoy the car!

[balders118]

Pumajay said:

Sounds like your bushes have gone, Replace them with Powerflex ones, But when replacing the wishbone bushes make sure the car has the original ford wishbones... otherwise the poweflex bushes wont fit, oh and when replacing the bushes make sure you dont use the powerflex rear wishbone bush, its far to hard for normal road use, use the Racing Puma bush, its only £6 from ford!

but apart from that use powerflex on the Anti roll bar, rear beam and front wishbone bush, also replace the Anti roll bar drop links, they fail quite reguarly on puma's!

it wont damage other parts if they are worn, you might just notice a knocking noise from the suspension

But othersise just enjoy the car!

Thanks!! any idea on cost at a garage? Not something I can do myself unfortunatly.

[thetapeworm]

I'd agree with the bushes diagnosis, mine suffered the same and new rear bushes sorted it out, it transformed the car actually.

[balders118]

Also, would you recommend doing all the bushes even if they're not all nakered?

[balders118]

So THIS would be the right package?

It does seem expenive compared to THESE though.

Would it be easy to get hold of the FRP rear bushes if I bought everything seperatly from the second website?

Does anyone have any experience of either of these sites? Pumapeople.com recommend pumaspeed, but its more expenive by the looks of it.

[Pumajay]

yes just buy that package from pumaspeed that includes the FRP bush... its the one with the black rubber as opposed to the purple of the powerflex ones, that will replace all the bushes on the car

but just make sure that the wishbones on your puma have Ford stamped into them otherwise the powerflex bushes wont fit into pattern parts

and its £95 each from ford for new wishbones


the prices on the camskill website is for each bush...so you'd have to order 2 of each which then makes the price the same as the pumaspeed package

Edited by Pumajay on Monday 4th October 21:24

[balders118]

Pumajay said:

yes just buy that package from pumaspeed that includes the FRP bush... its the one with the black rubber as opposed to the purple of the powerflex ones, that will replace all the bushes on the car

but just make sure that the wishbones on your puma have Ford stamped into them otherwise the powerflex bushes wont fit into pattern parts

and its £95 each from ford for new wishbones


the prices on the camskill website is for each bush...so you'd have to order 2 of each which then makes the price the same as the pumaspeed package

Edited by Pumajay on Monday 4th October 21:24

Ahh okay, I thought that may be the case. I called my garage today and asked them what it would cost them to fit these if I supplied them... 5 hours labour - £320ish. So i've had a look at where pumaspeed are located and its just down the road! So there fitted price is £300. Definately going to get this done as soon as I can afford it.

Think i'll sort the fact the rust is starting to bubble on the rear arches first though!

[Pumajay]

Thats not to bad, the old bushes are a pig to get out, i had to heat use an air chisel to get the rear beam bushes out!

[Zad]

It might be an idea to make sure the dampers (aka shocks) are ok too. PumaSpeed know their stuff though, so they are definitely the people to ask.

[damci]

What tyres are you running and have you checked your pressures recently? Mine tramlines a bit when making progress but I put it down to my new Bridgestone tyres as it didn’t do it when I had Goodyear Eagle F1’s fitted.

[matthewg]

I have had a look at tyres recently. Front's are quite worn on the inside due to 'enthusiastic' use. Tracking etc is fine. I previously got toyo t1r's from camskill for 26 pound each, they are now 40 ish.

Anyone else noticed big rise in tyre prices!? Im sure they are 195/45/15 I put on.

[balders118]

damci said:

What tyres are you running and have you checked your pressures recently? Mine tramlines a bit when making progress but I put it down to my new Bridgestone tyres as it didn’t do it when I had Goodyear Eagle F1’s fitted.

P6000's on the front and cheapo's on the back (Not my choice thats how it came.) Still a lot of tread on them, I don't want them to be wasted so i'll use them over the winter and maybe get some better ones next summer.

[damci]

balders118 said:

damci said:

What tyres are you running and have you checked your pressures recently? Mine tramlines a bit when making progress but I put it down to my new Bridgestone tyres as it didn’t do it when I had Goodyear Eagle F1’s fitted.

P6000's on the front

I think that's where the problem is tbh. You could try swapping the cheapo’s to the front and see if the problem goes away, if it doesn’t then at least you know its not tyre related.

[balders118]

damci said:

balders118 said:

damci said:

What tyres are you running and have you checked your pressures recently? Mine tramlines a bit when making progress but I put it down to my new Bridgestone tyres as it didn’t do it when I had Goodyear Eagle F1’s fitted.

P6000's on the front

I think that's where the problem is tbh. You could try swapping the cheapo’s to the front and see if the problem goes away, if it doesn’t then at least you know its not tyre related.

Sorry for my lack of knowledge, but would cheapo's on the front and pirelli's on the back not cause it to tramline also?

[damci]

balders118 said:

damci said:

balders118 said:

damci said:

What tyres are you running and have you checked your pressures recently? Mine tramlines a bit when making progress but I put it down to my new Bridgestone tyres as it didn’t do it when I had Goodyear Eagle F1’s fitted.

P6000's on the front

I think that's where the problem is tbh. You could try swapping the cheapo’s to the front and see if the problem goes away, if it doesn’t then at least you know its not tyre related.

Sorry for my lack of knowledge, but would cheapo's on the front and pirelli's on the back not cause it to tramline also?

I'm no tyre expert but it’s worth a try. I originally had Goodyear's up front and Bridgestone’s on the back and had no tramlining but when I changed to Bridgestone’s all round the car now tramline's.