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 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
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
posted by yahbitch @ 10:10 pm
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