The £650 Puma

[YOG]

Everyone makes mistakes, I'm sure you'll find the manager will be helpful. You've always had good service from them in the past, so why change?
I would be discussing having the power steering leak fixed free, or the leaking radiator, or a free MOT.

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

Everyone makes mistakes, I'm sure you'll find the manager will be helpful. You've always had good service from them in the past, so why change?
I would be discussing having the power steering leak fixed free, or the leaking radiator, or a free MOT.

Might not be possible. Usually it comes down to the power steering pump which went bad and needs replacing…. Hope it is not the case with you (was with mine )

 

[Noobrider]

can't see any reason to undo those bolts?...split the balljoint and pull out the shaft, simple?

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Makes the opening bigger to thread the drive shaft back through although I managed without when I did it.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Phoned them today. Complete denial of them having removed or loosened the bolts or any fault on their behalf.

"We don't undo the subframe to remove or refit drive shafts. You must have removed them to do the gearbox."

No, I certainly did not and they were all done up when the car left my care. You would have thought that, if the bolts were loose when they were changing the seal, they would have noticed them sitting an inch proud of the subframe just where they were working. Simple and only explanation - they undid them to ease access and forgot to do them back up. Still they flatly deny any wrong-doing so I will flatly deny any further of my money going into their pockets. Oh and I'll bung a poor Google review on as well - social media is one of the best ways to show disapproval.

Poor effort. If the manager had just said " Very sorry - I'll have a word with the lads" I'd have left it at that.

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

Are you sure you have spoken to the manager and not to a guy who probably did it? From my experiences, the guys who screwed up something will never admit it, especially not in front of their boss(es)…

I have to say these days I trust more small workshops, at the best one-man efforts who can't hide and can't delegate any blame! They know they will lose a customer and do it right and stand behind their effort...

 

[The Arch Bishop]

It was definitely the manager. I've been going in there and buying tyres for years. In today's blame culture, there's no way anyone will admit to anything.

Bolts are reinstalled and torqued up now. I also had a look for this power steering leak which appears not to be there. :roll:

The damp patch on my radiator is certainly there though, although a bucket under the leaking area has yet to catch a drop...

I'm booked in for a rolling road charity event next week, but the Puma's been sidelined due it's incontinence. The Forester will be taking it's place instead! :lol:

 

[dubmeup]

That subframe bolt tale is a disgrace. Can't believe they would let you drive off in what they had made into a death trap :evil:
Having scanned the thread I have to say, well done. You have the patience of a saint! Big up your determination with Jeggers.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Cheers! Yes, patience is wearing thin a bit, but I'll plod on!

With pay day having just happened, it was time to order some new cooling parts...

When I bought Jegger, he had blue coolant rather than the Ford recommended red. So with the radiator needing replacement, I thought it was worth changing this and also doing the other major cooling components while I was at it.

So I bought the radiator, 10 litres of red coolant, a thermostat and a housing to go with it (a lot of people seem to have problems with these failing so may as well).

I'll hopefully have the time soon to start taking it all apart and trying to work out how to flush the old coolant out completely!

 

[dubmeup]

Good move. When i did mine i back flushed through everything and then flushed the other way. Back and forth a couple of times. To be honest it was flowing clear pretty quickly anyway but i wanted to be sure i'd got it all out. I went the distilled water route as we are on bore hole water and it's iron rich.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

I went for ready mixed in the end. It wasn't any more expensive and shouldn't have any tap water deposit stuff in it.

I'm guessing removing the thermostat, replacing the cover and flushing it through with the hose should do the trick.

 

[dubmeup]

I didn't do that. I left the cover off and disconnected a few hoses like the hcv ones and rad ones. Then i hosed through everything sort of individually. Just gave me a bit more confidence that bits were clear doing it that way. Meant i could check the heater matrix and stuff too.
You are right ofc, pre-mix eill have 'good' water.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Today dawned with some time to get started on the cooling system overhaul.

Drained the old blue coolant out and removed the old radiator - stain visible;

Then I set about some of the other pipework. I've been following tuonokid's excellent thread where he mentioned that the water block below the coil pack seems to be a common weeping point, so I removed the pipework and found this crusty mess;

Took quite a bit to remove it all from that and the other tail! All cleaned up and then reconnected.

Next I moved on to the thermostat housing took a bit of effort with the aux belt tensioner but got there in the end. Replaced the old thermostat - the seal was pretty knarled up;

And replaced the housing and bolted the alternator back up.

I also removed the heater control valve to purge the old coolant from the heater matrix. I found the best way was to attach a length of hose into the hose to the matrix and put a catch pot under the other matrix pipe. Then you just blow the old coolant out, attach a funnel to the length of hose and refill, rinse and repeat until the water comes out clear.

Then it was a case of putting on the new radiator and filling the system up. It all went pretty well and it's piece of mind to see the correct coolant in the reservoir;

All done, bled, took most of the day but pleased with the result!

I seem to have another issue though which may actually be the power-steering leak that bodger-garage mentioned. It's along the front of car slightly to the right behind the bumper. It's thin oily stuff and stops soon after the engine stops. Anyone know if this is the power-steering line and, if so, what's involved with fixing it?

 

[slayllian]

Cars looking as ace as ever. Just reading through, bit shocking about the subframe bolt, has it affected the sub frame alignment or were the others still tight?

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Two were loose and the others untouched, so alignment shouldn't be affected. Haven't driven it since due to the various leaks though so if it crabs badly, I'll know why!

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Bumper off;

Hmmm.... that cross-member looks like it's taken a good old thump at some point! :lol:

Looks like the fracture is around here somewhere;

 

[The Arch Bishop]

After a fruitless search looking for a second hand replacement for the early-style power steering pipe (only on '97 to early '98 cars), I caved in and bought a brand new one from Foray Ford parts. To be fair, as others mentioned on my Wanted thread, the chances of finding a 17 year old replacement that was in even half-decent nick was a tall order.

Shiny and new...

I'll hopefully start wrestling the old one off this weekend. Does anyone know how much fluid is washing around in the power steering system?

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

Even the specs say to fill the system up until it is full. Not a mention of capacity

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Gah! Not sure how much to buy!

I'll have to see how much I lose when I change the pipe and take a guess from there.

 

[quest63]

I closed off the top of mine with clingfilm and put the screw cap back on top of that, then taped up the bottom, I didn't lose much and just got a litre bottle iirc.