My Puma 1.7, more than a year on (A works in progress)

Let's hope it's a positive reply and if it's not they know what an ST160 is so at least you can get in :grin:
Barry

Well Paul and I were about to try and see if we could show our cars at the Ford RS owners club national day at Donington park so we arranged to meet in the first layby just off the M1 prior to going into the show. Anyway Andrew and I set off from my house at 8.30 and we'd travelled about 4 miles when this happened....
I got an engine management warning light!




Not wanting to possibly break down on the M1 we turned around, went home and set off again in my Fiesta. We enjoyed the show but it would have been better with the Puma there.
Now I have 2 weeks left to fix it before Ford Fair but I'm not unduly worried as I think it may well be water in one of my extended lambda leads. Even though I used plenty of heatshrink it was pi**ing it down when we set off. So, the investigation starts tomorrow.

Well I got rid of the warning light with the help of my mates code reader and then went for a ride in the Puma and result no more warning light!



The DTC code thrown up by the reader was PO420 (catalyst system below threshold) so I'm assuming that with it being heavy rain when I set off I must have splashed the cat going through a deep puddle thereby taking the heat out of it and effectively stopping it working. This would have given the second lambda a dodgy reading and triggered the EML.
Further to this I was worried about the cat when I fitted it as it was a bit tatty and full of holes and it had been welded up already. The car makes quite a bit of popping and banging on the overrun so I might have a bit of an air leak on the cat or it's joints which would not help the lambdas get the mixture right and consequently make my car prone to getting the EML. So when I get the time I'm going to take the cat off and air test it.

Good result Barry

Cheers James, how you getting on with the FRP and the brakes on the black one?

Good to hear it's nowt too serious Barry
Paul

Cheers Paul, I think it may happen again though as the cat may be marginal

tuonokid said:

Cheers James, how you getting on with the FRP and the brakes on the black one?

Click to expand...

Well, funny you should ask! The Black one is all detailed and ready for Ford Fair. No progress on the rear brake conversion at all! But it does look good!





Project bankrupt as its beginning to be affectionatley known (FRP!) is still work in progress. It's back from Chris and driving a million dollars. I need to update my project thread....

Wow James the black one was clean before you detailed it, it looks proper minty that. I f I polished mine as much as that I'd never want it to rain again! As for the FRP I thought your initial budget was a bit light but at least it's worth it.

tuonokid said:

Wow James the black one was clean before you detailed it, it looks proper minty that. I f I polished mine as much as that I'd never want it to rain again! As for the FRP I thought your initial budget was a bit light but at least it's worth it.

Click to expand...

I can't take the credit for the detailing, one of the FRP guys who shows his car did it. #detailingdefined. Amazing job.

As for the FRP. Yes, significantly under budgeted, especially with my unhealthy desire for new parts!

Thanks to my good friend James I now have a Laptop with Forscan and the ELM 327 scanner installed.



If this works ok I should be ok to check out local members cars, if required.
Yet to try it on the car as yet as the weather's been c**p.

Nice one, Barry!

Cheers Sinisa
It wouldn't have been possible without your info :grin:
Barry

tuonokid said:

Thanks to my good friend James I now have a Laptop with Forscan and the ELM 327 scanner installed.

If this works ok I should be ok to check out local members cars, if required.
Yet to try it on the car as yet as the weather's been c**p.

Click to expand...

No problem Barry.

I'd say try it on mine but then again I don't want it to come up with something expensive I don't know about. Ignorance is bliss!!!

Hi James
If it all works, you'll probably have an EML or ABS/TC light on before you need it.
Barry

Hi James
Due to me being a bit of a Jonah and now your ABS light is on if you have a laptop with a good battery we can install my ELM327 and Forscan on your laptop and you can do live testing on your ABS?
Barry

tuonokid said:

Hi James
Due to me being a bit of a Jonah and now your ABS light is on if you have a laptop with a good battery we can install my ELM327 and Forscan on your laptop and you can do live testing on your ABS?
Barry

Click to expand...

Not got one anymore Barry, I gave it to you! Let's hope the battery lasts more than a couple of mins. Randomly it turned off on the way home, only to come back on again two minutes from home

Hi James
We finally plugged your ex laptop into my Puma today and went through a few things on Forscan. It took a bit of connecting but Andrew managed to do it (I haven't a clue!).
We ran general tests and managed to re-set the idle control valve which was fairly scary as I was outside the car and it revved up by itself! We also found out that the cat is fairly marginal as Forscan told me to hold the revs at 2000 for 30 secs as the 2nd lambda wasn't reading correctly. We also checked the ABS which made Andrew jump when it rattled for a few seconds.
Overall we are both hugely impressed with this, both as a diagnostic tool and also a fixing tool.
Anyway, here's a few photos of the various screens:

Double post!, Sorry

Good news! Now, the thing about car diagnostics is that you should follow procedures as in TIS. Sometimes a real problem is masked as an error of different kind. But yes, this is incredible thing, car talking to you and various self tests built in the Forscan. The best thing about it (although not applicable to puma for obvious reasons) is that you could calibrate PSC for new diesel injector which is, IMHO, really a big thing!
Also, it can trigger a particle filter regeneration... And the soft is free; unbeleiveable, really!

Glad you mastered it, it opens another world of possibilities, especially when tracking down ABS issues. You can do a rolling test to see the individual speeds of each wheel as read by the system and also can do a telemetry recording of anything that might interest (lambda, A/F ratio, temps, revs, throttle opening, VCT advance, you name it...)

Enjoy it, Barry!