Ford Puma

[anonymous-user]

I know they are cheap at the moment but they are great little cars and one day expect them to be sort after.
Here's my latest one a red one with 77k on the clock and no rusty wheel arches.

[anonymous-user]

My previous one needed a new clutch at 85K miles but a great little car nonetheless.

[anonymous-user]

paulmakin said:

i've had a 1.7 for a daily/local for about a month now.

was very cheap but it is good to drive and the handling is as good as the reports suggest.

mine has the usual puma faults, in spades, including the bothersome, yet comedic, "digital dash crashing leaving you with no instruments until it reboots".

it idles too high, a new iacv fixed it but introduced some quite alarming hunting at idle so it's back to the 1k rpm tickover.

no heat from cabin heater - this will have been the heater control unit when it first happened but when i looked it had been bypassed, probably years ago. haven't fitted a new one as weather's a bit warmer now and i hear bleeding it can be a bit of a chore ?.

remotes are intermittent at best, i'm not brave enough to try a new battery and attempt a recode.

wibbly parcel shelf i can live with, the squeakiness less so. it can live in the boot for now


having said all that, arches not too crusty. and, man maths tells me that the heated front screen and TCS justify the price on safety grounds

paul

Get yourself a new heater control valve, piece of cake to fit and you've got heat sorted(hopefully). No trouble with air in the system, it will just need a little top up with coolant, air makes it's way to the highest point the expansion tank, just check you have no leaks near the new hcv when fitted.
Regarding the erratic idling could be down to Lamda sensor, get someone to check CO levels and if they are high as well I reckon it will be the Lamda.

[anonymous-user]

paulmakin said:

i have the heater control, will sort it sometime soon. when i trialled it in to see how it fixed to the bulkhead it seems like its higher than the expansion tank though, must have had it fixed wrong. i bailed at that point, will do it when i can leave it to self bleed for a goodly amount of time !!

didn't consider the lambda for the erratic idle - with the new iacv it's fine until it hits normal operating temp, then horrendous. i'm guessing that's when it goes closed loop ?

i must be liking this little car more than i expected to; i'm asking questions about it and eyeing up some quick cosmetic fixes !

OP, did the red one come from near Clacton ?, i saw a very nice looking red one over there on gumtree last week - seemed good value and it's a good thing the ATM destroyed my card or i would have been chasing it for myself (logic being that i bought a very cheap one and liked it so now i'll buy a better one and like it more)

paul

You might be right about the height of the hcv but the loss of coolant is minimal and when I did mine it was just a little down in the expansion bottle so it did manifest itself there. As pointed out they used them on KA as well.
When the black puma I had started the erratic idling + high co levels I bought a tool to undo the lambda sensor which was useless, it bent when I went to undo it, they can be tight mind you.
I did buy it in Essex in Brentwood

[anonymous-user]

MrMoonyMan said:

I think you're spot on. These are certainly going to be very popular once they've become a bit harder to get.

I bought this for the missus to use through winter. It's been reliable and great fun. It even feels well built with the nice solid thunk as you close the doors.

I'm a bit too tall for it and you'd not want to go far on a motorway; but on a and B roads they're just brilliant fun.

Couldn't agree more!
Like yourself I'm a bit too tall for the puma but rides so good I put up with it, the 'A' post can sometimes be a pain but a great little car nonetheless.