The £260 Fiesta

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The backstory..

The engine of the girlfriends Corsa went this week so a replacement was needed. I think I did start a thread for that car a long time ago but it never got updated. The Corsa was bought last year for around £500 (maybe a little more) and needed some work doing - it has mis-matched tyres all round, and the arb bushed were worn out. It was the 3 cylinder 1L version and the timing chain went. I wasn't a massive fan of the car as time went on and rarely drove it.



So the replacement!!

I just stumbled across this on Facebook Marketplace. The advert read:

Looking for a quick sale
Need gone by the end of the day
Ford Fiesta Ghia
5 Door
1.4 Petrol, Manual transmission
87,500 Miles
MOT until May 2020
Bump on front passenger side, see pictures
Open to offers
Feel free to message me for more information

Few pics from the advert:





As you can see there is from front bumper damage. I went around to have a look and the damage appears cosmetic. I noticed that the coolant level was low but could not see any leaks. There was no insurance on the car at the time so I couldn't test drive it but I turned it on and it all started fine, no warning lights, no smokey exhaust and no funny noises, the engine got up to temp ok so maybe it's just low coolant. The coolant bottle was new so maybe they didn't put enough coolant back in who knows..

Despite the possible head gasket issue we bought the car - It was up for £300 but we got them down to £250, however I ended up paying £260 though as the nearby cashpoint didn't have any £10 notes left The reason for sale was that the owner bought a new car so just wanted to get rid of this one and was let down by her friends. I also suspect this was taking up too much room on their drive given the amount of cars they had.

With the insurance sorted out I took the car out for a 5-10 minute drive. The brakes are not the best but everything else seemed ok and I must admit the car is miles quieter than the Corsa it's replaced.

So known issues:

- It needed a clean. Admittedly it wasn't too bad when we bought it given the price but it's good to clean a car as you might find other issues on the way.

- The steering wheel is a bit manky
- It's missing some trim on the rear door on the drivers side (plastic triangle above the door card)
- Aerial is broken
- The volume button doesn't work on the stereo and it doesn't turn off but the steering column controls work ok
- Plastic trim in the passenger footwell missing
- Button on the dash to open the rear hatch doesn't work
- Bonnet slightly damaged
- Grill Damaged
- Damage to the front and rear bumpers
- Paintwork bit rubbish with various marks and scratches, dried bird poo on the roof
- Washer fluid cap broken
- Brakes crappy
- Possible HGF (worse case scenario)
- Drivers side repeater loose and reflectors different each side
- Plastic boot trim missing
- Ford badges look work

As you can see most of the stuff is cosmetic and being such a cheap car there will be some niggles.

Here's the good points:

- MOT until May 2020
- Matching front tyres
- Good tyre tread all around
- Wipers all working and look to be in good condition
- Car looks quite dry and cannot see any obvious signs of rust
- Comes with 2 keys
- The remote central locking works
- All the doors and windows work as they should
- Only 2-3k since the last MOT
- Engine appears to be in good shape
- More space than the Corsa C it replaced

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1st Job - giving it a clean

Engine bay before:



i gave it a clean down followed by some Autoglym bumper and gel applicant.

Engine bay after:



Interior before:



I didn't really take many pics of the interior beforehand. Here's a few of the carpet afterwards and showing some stains I couldn't get out:





Pic of the dash prior to cleaning:



For the interior I used Meguires Interior Detailer for the plastics with Simoniz upholstery and Carpet Cleaner for the roof lining and seats and door car fabric and some Rain X glass cleaner for the windows:



Gave the outside a wash and wax with some Demon tyres to make the tyres shiny:





You can see the dried on bird poo a bit in this next pic. I might dig out the clay car at some point and see what I can do with it. The car also might get a machine polish at some point I just need to get some more pads 1st:

Edited by maxdb on Sunday 25th August 23:05

[maxdb]

Odd jobs:

Fixed the plastic hanging down in the boot. Turns out it wasn't screwed in for some reason.

Before:



Found some screws in the shed that fitted so a free fix!

After:



Side repeater before:



it looks like it the drivers side suffered from a light scrape at some point in it's life and I cannot get the indicator to clip in. I found some double sided number plate tape in the shed and wrapped it around the indicator. It stuck back in fine after: I'll probably buy a matching set off Ebay at some point but I just wanted to secure it for now.



Front passenger side door trim:



I noticed this was loose when cleaning the car but found some 3m double sided pads in the shed so fitted 3 of these behind the trim to stick it back into place.

Other stuff to do:



Clean the gunk out of this - I assume it may of happened when the old coolant bottle broke. If not then there's something wrong with the drivers suspension.



How can someone break a washer fluid cap?? New one to be obtained..



The bonnet is bent slightly outwards on the passenger side so I plan to give it a whack with a rubber mallet to make it sit a little better. The bare metal will be covered with touch up paint at some point.



Rear bumper cracked - the number plate screws will have covers added before the screws decide to rust up.The bumpers seem cheap enough to replace I'm just going to keep an eye out for any cars being broken.

I'll get the car booked in to get the coolant flushed soon and to get the front brakes looked at/replaced if needed.

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Thanks for the comments - there's some good tips I will try out and to be honest I never thought about the radio code matter

I've checked the coolant and all is well - no leaks or change of colour. I'm still going to get the coolant flushed and changed to be on the safeside as the old coolant didn't have much colour to it and I hope distilled water was used instead of tap water..

I checked the suspension and the water inside had dried out leaving a nice orange/brown mess:



I put some WD40 and grease on it to tidy it up and ordered some grommets for £2.99 to cover them up. I also bought some number plate screw covers for £1.50.



Looking at the wheel it looks a bit beyond saving



The plastics around the stereo also aren't the best so I'll look to get that replaced at some point. In the meantime I found someone local breaking a Fiesta so for £50 I got a bunch of stuff



We have

- Footwell trim
- Gear knob/gaiter
- Grill
- Screenwash cap

I swapped the badges over as the original badge was in better condition

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I gave the parts a bit of a clean up







Knob comparison



The knew knob is shorter and smaller than the old one but it fits around the rubber gaitor ok. The leather gaitor it was dirty and worn and the girlfriend preferred the rubber one.



Footwell plastic added




I took a rubber mallet to the bonnet to try and sort the bend out a bit. There's a slight improvement but I don't want to over do it given my non-existent panel beating experience. It was great fun either way.

Updated engine bay and grill bits - I wasn't a fan of the chrome..




When fitting a grill I noticed a bit of an issue...



It looks like the car hit the post a bit harder than I thought

I've checked around it and it's not hitting the radiator. Hopefully it won't cause issues when replacing the bumper.

A few other observations I've not noticed --

Heated windscreen!! - I only thought the Focus had these but admittedly my knowledge on Fords isn't the greatest



Despite some kerbing the wheels seem to be in ok shape with no obious signs of corrosion



A nice shiny Aux belt - I'll look to get this replaced soon



The sight of that belt makes me wonder about the timing belt. From what I read they should be replaced at every 100k or 10 years but some places recommend shorter mileages. The cars on 87k and is now 15 years old. The service history stopped in 2013



It looks like someone left the radiocode on the back though [



I'll see if I can check the condition of the belt.

Costs to date:

Coolant - £12.50
Rubber grommets - £2.99
Number plate screw covers - £1.50
Door trim (awaiting delivery) - £12.99
Bunch of parts/spares - £50.00

Total spend including car - £339.98

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Big bill alert!!

This month it was time to sort out a few things. I did a few hard reverses which did improve the braking but when driving down a fast road doing about 50mph I noticed some vibrations through the wheel under braking which suggested a warped disc. It wasn't noticeable at lower speeds of around 30mph so I booked it in the garage for the following

- New front discs and pads
- Change the Aux belts as you have to have the wheel off etc for access
- Coolant flush and change

With the labour it cost the same price as the car cost me

After nearly a month of ownership now the car hasn't lost any coolant and the engine bay has kept itself clean unlike my Mazda that gets dusty every 5 mins.. Now the aux belts are done I want to check the timing belt if I can to see what condition it's in. I also want to check the throttle body as sometimes on cold starts it doesn't want to idle properly and cut out but once warmed up its absolutely fine.



Another thing that needed addressing was the wipers as the old ones on the car were the wrong size and the same length each side which meant they didn't go all the way up the window on the drivers side. This might be fine if your'e a midget and can only see half way up the windscreen but I'm not so they got changed with some Bosch ones sourced from Halfords. As both were the wrong size they both had to be replaced



Next up was the aerial - a new base was bought on Ebay along with an aerial to go with it and overall it cost about £10.




The girlfriend is pleased as she can now listen to cr*ppy Heart instead of her Greatest Showman CD..

The interior still needs a few things done. The steering wheel got replaced as the old one was beyond saving.

Old wheel:



It was an absolute pain trying to get the airbag off as you have to unclip via a hole in the back of the steering wheel but after a long time and a lot of swearing we got there



New wheel:



Luckily the new wheel doesn't have any writing like the ST wheels do on the bottom, otherwise it will just look out of place with the rest of the interior. Whilst the battery was disconnected I took the time to remove the telematics box as it was getting in the way.



I tried to clean up the stereo/heater surround but the plastics gone all funny on that too where it's aged and been in the sun for ages. I got a bit carried away on Ebay and found a a replacement. Apparently the replacement is a rare piece thats sprayed black and come with some ST stripes but luckily the ST stripes aren't too visible.

Current surround:



New surround with other bits I ordered




It does have a small crack in that was mentioned when advertised but it's nothing too obvious and it was only £5-£10 more than the usual unsprayed plastic ones so it will work out cheaper than getting a spare and spraying it.

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The steering wheel was worn and looking tired so just fitted a new one in a better condition. Both front discs and pads have been fitted but I'm not sure on the brand. The brakes now work fine though

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Trims:

New trims fitted







There's a few clips loose on the doorcard and i stupidly scratched the stereo fitting the trim so I might replace the stereo at some point.

Lights:

New sidelights ordered/fitted along with some silvervision style front indicators. One of the old bulbs was ok but the other was faded and flaking away. Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of the offending bulb so you will have to look at a boring orange bulb pic instead



Fitting the drivers side bulb was interesting as you have to move the expansion tank out the way. Luckily it was easy enough to do as you just have to use a 10mm and lift it up.



No more faded front indicators or fried egg looking front lights!



Time to fix the side repeaters - I ended up getting a pair and replacing them both as they come in different styles and the old drivers one is already different to the passenger one.



Perfect fitment and the bulb doesn't have to be secured in the holder with masking tape!



The parts weren't expensive with £5.39 being spent on the silver indicator bulbs and £12.99 being spent on the side repeaters.

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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,,

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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.

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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

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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!

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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

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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..

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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.

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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

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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..

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So the Fiesta has been replaced after around 3 years or so..



I decided not to bother doing anything else to it a while ago as every time I saw it there appeared to be a new scratch or dent to it. Just before we got rid I noticed an oil leak underneath the car and the front splitter part was hanging off so it got removed. Also the starter motor was playing up so it was really annoying.

I was actually looking for a 3rd car for lugging stuff around and there was nothing really cheap worth having so I increased the budget a little and found this Citroen C3 Picassso for sale for £1650. The girlfriend really liked it to so I suggested she just have it if the garage selling it would take in her Fiesta.

Despite the Fiesta's issues, the garage took £500 for it, which took the Citroen C3 Picasso down to £1050. I then paid an extra £150 for a 3 month warranty in case the turbo decided to s*** itself etc.

As with the Fiesta, the C3 Picasso needs/needed some bits done on it but it's not worthy of a new thread. I'll do a quick summary below:

- A good clean (complete)
- New rear number plate light (in progress)
- New drivers window switch (complete)
- Parking sensors don't work (looking into)
- New bushes (in progress)

It's actually nice not having a car that's black