Welcome to my new home!
It finally happen, the house came through and we're here. We finally got the keys on the 18th of February, which was only 6 months after we put the bloody offer in, but I suppose it's given us more time to get more money together.
The cars came in very handy for the move. Jamie has picked himself up a Vectra Diesal estate which is ideal for his work. If I'm honest it's a bit better on the load hauling than the Mondeo. His rear seat bases lift up so the loading area is flat. It's also alot lower too so there's more height. Either way, we did a few car loads each, both cars more than doing their duty and getting all the 40+ boxes and other crap over there without batting an headlight.
Mechanically wise my car had a bit of a hiccup back in January. The battery went dead! Most annoying after work to fine the car not starting in the worst rain storm known to man. Jamie came to rescue me with some tools. Figured it was the battery and drove to Halford down the road, got a new battery (£100!!!!) and a spanner set, came back to the car to find the spanner set was imperial in a metric packaging! Grr so back in the car, back to Halfords, right set this time, back to the car then swopped the battery over. Anyway, it all worked and the car has been fine since.
On the ICE front I got my new head unit. I was sad to let go of my old one as I'd had it since new for nearly 4 yeas, but the new one actually works with my iPod so I've been using that in the car. Doesn't work with the steering wheel controls but it's something I've learnt to live without.
Petrol consumption was suffering a bit with the traffic from work, however since the move I've been leaving early in the mornings and it's actually not been too bad. If anything it's literally turn left, left and left again and literally stay on that road until I get to the Hogs Back. It's all 40/National speed limit which has helps the mpg alot.
Nothing much more to report however, going OK.
Bye for now.
Summer is over!
It's been some time since I last updated any of my blogs. It has been a hectic time in my life with me moving in with Jamie, leaving my old job, getting a new one, finding a place of our own and getting the morgage arranged! Needless to say, all of the above has left me little time to do much about this blog, but never mind, I'm back now.
Quite a few bits have been done on the Mondeo front. First major issue was the exhaust. After spending thousands of miles getting rather pissed off with the rattling from the rear, I finally took the plunge and got myself a cat back stainless exhaust from MIJ performance. It took about 8 hours (!) to fit it and I spent all 8 of those hours (plus 4 hours traveling to the Midlands too!) sitting on my arse drink too much vending machine chicken soup, but the job was finally completed.
It's a bit louder than I was really expecting if I'm honest but now I love it. It's louder than the Ka, but it has quieten down over the miles to a lovely burble that roars when you boot it. The chav is certainly coming out in me!
Ford Fair has been and gone. Gloriously sunny hot day, Silverstone a great venue as always and some pretty great stands there. It will be probably my last show there if I'm honest. I haven't got the time to get into another car club like before so it's not the same if you are with a bunch of people you don't know. I enjoyed myself, but I think I'm growing out of that phase. :)
Next problem raised it ugly head not long after this. It was on my way home from work that I noticed the temperature gauge creeping past it's usual halfway mark. After this happened the sencond day I alerted Jamie and we did an investigation. Long story short, the car was off the road for two weeks while we tried to get hold of a metal impellor water pump from Ebay (ended up getting a whole new pump and housing from Ford in the end). Jamie also cleaned out the entire top part of the engine, such as the secondaries, fuel rail, intake etc etc... while the engine was in bits on the driveway. Good to say that after all this he remembered how to put it back together and the cars performance has noticably improved!
Most recent problem was the alternator. Coming back from seeing my family at the weekend the battery light came on after a bit of brisk acceleration up a slip road. I had to get the car home in the dark, praying there was enough juice in the battery to get me home. It was an...erm.. interesting hour drive home with no music or heating in the car! Again the car was off the road for the week while we waited for the replacement alternator to turn up. It was a bitch of a job to change over and Jamie spent the best part of 5 hours solid one day trying to do up a bolt with 12 bits of racket/extender bars and wobble joints going at 1mm turn a time! But we got there in the end.
Come October and the weather has started to turn. We deciding on getting the front disc and pads sorted for the up coming MOT as well as some new front tyres before it gets too cold to carry out any work on the car in the winter months. Having sorted these out in a day, Jamie decided to take it for it's MOT 2 weeks early to see what it would fail on.
Luckily, it passed with only one advisory on the windscreen! Result! It's something I want to get sorted ASAP as coming into the ice on the car mornings, it's pretty annoying only having certain sections of your heated front screen working!
Presently, the car is working wonderfully (touch wood). I think someone has bumped into my car at work as theres a couple of scuff marks in the rear wing on the driverside which I noticed today. Nothing that wont buff out but a little disconcerting none the less. I've still to get the hand brake gaitor sorted! It's currently in the glove box awaiting to be fitted but we just haven't got the time to put the passenger seat out right now.
I've also got some ICE in my car finally. My old trusty Pioneer CD player is in, along with a small ported sub box. It's not loud loud, but it's nice to have some decent music back in the car. My only gripe is the steering wheel control adaptor we got doesn't seem to work at the moment, but it maybe to do with the head unit being quite old. But never mind, I can live without it! :)
The car is currently around the 141500 marker which is set to raise quite alot this weekend with a trip home on Saturday and then to Lemington Spa on Sunday. MPG is consistantly around the mid 27MPG marker. I have got this upto mid 30's on a motorway run, it's the stop start in traffic of the mornings that's bring it down. Something that improves drastically when it's half bloody term!
Right, other than that not much to tell! I'll probably update this around Christmas time I think. Right now with the impending house move and the lack of Internet access which goes with upheaval, I can't see me being able to contribute anything to this for awhile until things have settled down for us. Exciting times for us though, nice first time place with perfect amounts of parking for playing with the cars too! Just hope the cat enjoys it! lol
Hello again! :)
We've made a little progress on the Mondeo. The other week we jack the Mondeo up to take a stab at the washer jets which at this point had completely given up the ghost. we discovered that the washer jet hoses were no longer connected properly and the screen wash was just leaking out. It took some time to get them sorted as there wasn't that much slack for Jamie to reattach the L shaped connectors and we had to remove one of the horns to get to the hose. But anyway, we got it done and then spent 5 minutes clearing out one of the jets so that both holes worked, and then ajusted them both so that they actually covered the screen and not the roof.
While the car was jacked up we found a plug that wasn't doing anything but hanging about getting all dirty. Not too sure where it's come from, someone on the ST owners club suggested that it was probably a bit of loom that Ghia X's have which lets you know if the washer bottle is empty.
We also took the opportunity to have a look at the exhaust to see what was rattling around under there. This is what we found...
The bottom photo is of the random plug we found.
So, 134,000 mile original, Ford stamped exhaust anyone? It's not blowing, but the rust 'skin' is hitting against the heat shield on the left box which is the cause of the noise when at certain revs and changing gears. It's something we will need to get sorted, at the moment it's just an annoyance. We also discovered that the front discs and pads could be done sometime soon too, which we'll do soon along with the service. I've got to go to Ford soon and get an oil filter and some caliper bolts just in case.
Gave it another clean on Thursday as it was nice and warm out. Clayed the windscreen and front to get rid of the dead bugs. Also fitted the leather gearstick gaitor, yet to fit the handbrake one as Ford in their infinate wisdom decided that it needs plastic welding to get the gaitor surround out the car... joy.
Anyhoo, enough for now, off to work!:D
Well, here we go. My Ka ownership has come to an end after 5 years and a new car is on the drive. After 'ermming' and 'erring' over what car to get next I stumbled across the
ST Owners Club while arranging for some car clubs to attend the
Ka Klub's annual Ka National Day. After having a look about the idea of getting myself an Mondeo ST200 became stuck in my head and I spent a good hours every night trawling through Ebay and Autotrader looking at the latest examples on each site. We found some very nice examples on there, as well as some complete dogs of cars (more about these ones later!). It wasn't until my finances come about that the hunt got serious, and thus this story begins.
It was one Sunday when we found an ST200 Estate in out Ebay watch list that was ending that day. Considering I was after a Hatch version I wasn't particularly bothered about this one, that and the discription was somewhat lacking in any detail meant I didn't really give it a second though. Jamie, on the other hand was getting more and more interested in it as the day went on as it was a silly low price. After talking it through with him it was decided that for the money, even if it had some issues it would work out alot cheaper than if I had got myself another one which was in good nick but for the average price. So, during Sunday lunch, Jamie excused himself, came back 5 minutes later to inform me that I was now the proud owner of a car we didn't really know that much about!
To cut a long story short it was arranged to collect the Mondeo that next Sunday (as well as another Ebay bargain - a Citroen AX that has since been sold on). First impressions was that it was a little bit too purple in colour for my liking and it wasn't as big as I originally thought. After signing all the paperwork and finding everything in order it was time to get it home. Jamie drove it while I drove his Mk 3 Mondeo Ghia X behind. All I can say is that from that 100 miles drive home, Jamie was most impressed. It would seem that the secondaries were nice and free, opening marvelously around the 3500rpm mark, the air con was blooding nice and cold, all eletrics were working etc... the only issue we found was that there was a rattling from the rear when pulling away. Signs point to a loose exhaust or possibly new back boxes (something we have yet to look at and have been factured into the budget).
So far I've done about 1500 miles in it (not thought of a name yet!) and apart from the rattle and a few blown bulbs it's been bloody excellent to drive. Parking is probably better in this than a hatch due to the visibility all round, it's also nice to have a little road presence rather than being punted off the road every time I go out. I also think people are a bit wary of it as these cars were often used for Police cruisers so I now am getting people slowing in front of me and pulling out of my way! Which is quite funny!
So, some photos. These first lot were taken the day we picked it up. Obviously before it was cleaned. I was a bit put off with the state of it if I'm honest. Personally if you are going to sell a car you'd get it a bloody good clean first.
As for all photos, click on them for a larger view!
As you can see, it was pretty grubby inside. The car itelf had covered 133K, which will explain the thousands of stone chips on the front end of the car and the hole in teh drivers side mat, but the engine was replaced by Ford at 85K after they had blown it up (wrong oil, ragged it on a test run, that old chestnut). I was a litle hestitant with this little gem of info but considering the engine had been in there for going on 50K it was more than bedded in and any running issues sorted.
Since the first photos were taken it's had more than a few washes. I gave it a going over the Monday after getting it so I could get a idea of any bodywork that needed attention. The front grill isn't sitting 100% true and the stone chips are a bit annoying to say the least, but there's nothing much to worry about, just the usual dints and marks from it's 7 years on the road. Slight curbing to a couple of the wheels with the drivers side rear being the worst affected. Front alloys from memory are curb free. Tyres are in good condition, with the rears being replaced recently. Brakes and pads on teh front were done last year. I did have an issue with the bonnet catch and the drivers front seat. Both were extremely hard to move (the seat wouldn't budgt forward and the bonnet wouldn't catch) but after some lubricant both are loosening up nicely. To help with the rest of the car, I did all the door locks and hindges with grease to prevent them seizing.
So, after it's first clean it looked miles better.
So, with it looking a bit cleaner I did abit of running about in it, one journey was collecting some Ka interior bits from Chelmsford to put the Turbo back to standard to sell it. I was very suprised at the way the boot just swallowed the parts with no messing about. The load cover is just spring released to remove and the back seats go down with easy, with no flaffing about with lifing the bottom part up first (as like the mk3 Mondeo). The ride quality is stop on too. The Ka I found was a bit harsh on the old spine, but this felt firm enough that it doesn't wallow around bends, but soft enough that my spine and jaw isn't jarred everytime I encounter something larger than a stone on the tarmac.
My only issue with the car now was that it was dirty again!
Ok, it wasn't that dirty, but it was enought for me to buy some Claybar stuff and attack the paint and glass work over two days. It was a tough job todo considering the age of the car and the high miles it had covered, but the results were amazing.
I'd used Claybar on the Ka before and was really impressed with it, the Mondeo took two days to do due to the sheer size of the car, but I'm glad I didn't rush it or cut corners as it's made a massive improvement to the paintwork. It was given a coat of Meg's wax after the final wash and dry which brought the paint up beautifully. However, a few days later this should happen!
That bloody orange dust has made it's yearly appearance! Most annoying, but another excuse for a wash!
So, I've had the car for just over a month now, so far I've got the necessary bits and bobs needed for a service, just need an oil filter now. I've also got myself some lovely black leather gaitors as the old ones where a little tired and worst for wear. A couple of weeks back I had to replace the passenger side front indicator as that blew, and I've just got myself a couple of rear number plate light bulbs as one of those has gone. I feel bulb replacement might be the crux of this car! Hopefully at the weekend we will be looking at the exhaust rattle and investigate why the screen wash is a bit feeble.
I'll update this soon with MPG averages and gaitor photos when they are put in. :)
