Newbie .......

[pbaldacchino]

Hiya all,

Have been meaning to post for a couple of weeks, but have only now just got around to it...

So, during the months of Sept / Oct / Nov / Dec of last year I was looking to get a replacement car for A-B / work / daily grind... I have a family and the main car is left at home with the waffe ..

Wasn't really sure what to look for ... In my mind went through many different cars. Something with a wee bit of poke, fun and not too expensive to run... Many moons ago, probably about 1998 a work colleague had a very newish Puma. Having been in his car as a passenger and thinking back to then it was great little car. I thought I would look at the Puma option. After much googling and forum hunting, I stumbled across this one(forum). Lots of advice, folks in the know, and many of the common faults discussed and detailed fixes described...
So I started looking, mainly on Autotrader during the tail end of last year. Budget seemed to keep going up as I kept thinking to go for a car with lower mileage. That then pushed the spend into areas of other models out there... However, I kept reverting back to the Puma for the reasons mentioned above. During Xmas / New Year, I found one advertised with a trader, Dec1998, 38k miles, lux pack, AC, silver, clean rear arches .... Looking at the past MOTs, the car had hardly been used for the last few years. Trader wasn't able to prove the cambelt had ever been changed. Car bought. Drive 50 miles home. Noticed the following issues -

It was quite cold, but it seemed to take an age to get to normal running temperature. Immediately thought thermostat…

Once at normal running temperature the heater temperature seemed to be all over the place. Could have been related to the thermostat, but I also thought maybe the HCV. (after researching this forum and reading this being a common fault.)
Anyhow, once the car was back I had read some of STEAVIE’s posts on this forum and PM’d him. 1st on the list - cambelt, I didn’t think it was worth the risk driving it until this was done. Well, if you do the cambelt, you may as well change the water pump, and it would be silly to not change the aux belt. With my first drive experience I thought might as well look to change the HCV and the thermostat and change the coolant. Ordered in all the parts over New Year. Post delays were a bit of **** .. But hey Ho. Parts finally arrived, car taken to STEAVIE …. VERY reasonable price to do all the work. Job done…
No more issues (apart from that darn parcel shelf!). What a great little car!! Have really enjoyed driving it and seeing what it can do. Must admit I agree with many that brakes are a bit wimpy. Fine for normal driving, but if pushed it’s immediately obvious that the car would benefit from more stopping power. I would love to in future look at the 4-2-1 manifold + s’steel exhaust. But to be honest, for me, the car is exactly what I wanted. Nippy, fun, well supported, and different. What other car has aged so well since 1997 / 1998 !! ? And big thanks to STEAVIE for doing the work on the car… A**** job, and great car you have there Steve with all those upgrades!
PB
:grin:

 

[Dal]

Welcome along - good to hear you've sorted through some common problems already k:

 

[spike.]

welcome along... stevie will look after your motor for you

 

[Midnight Blue]

Hi - welcome along

 

[yippeekiay]

Hi and welcome. k:

What you have done in the way you went about buying a car is brilliant and many people could learn a thing about car buying by following your lead. To do the research first, then have the foresight to read up about the common problems on a Forum so you know exactly what's what with the car is excellent.

These actions paid off the instance you got the car as you pinpointed the niggles without having to stress like most of us would thinking we'd been sold a duffer when the problems were only slight. Plus you already knew exactly what might need changing/renewing i.e. cambelt etc, before you bought the car so there was no nasty costly suprises which I'm afraid seems to happen to a lot of buyers.

Well done and hope you enjoy your new Puma.....oh, get some later 260mm Puma front brakes on as I'm assuming yours are the 240mm ones....or even better, get the Mondeo/St170 300mm upgrade....these are excellent and cheap too :thumbs:

 

[red]

Welcome along, sounds like you are getting on well with your new a2b car

 

[pbaldacchino]

Thanks all. It's fair to say A2B is great fun. Reasons for going A2B are becoming more and more frequent and it is very addictive! (Wife wonders why there are 12 pints of milk in the fridge!.....("Just popping out to get some more milk."))

I think one of things anyone has to expect, buying a car of this age no matter the mileage is bound to have some issues. Fortunately, all seem to be covered on this site. I know with mine, I see it as a gradual work in progress to try and get everything right.

A couple of follow on questions though, if I may. Steavie pointed out a couple of things. First off, the spare is missing. Anyone know what I should look for in a spare? I've read it's a steel wheel, does anyone know where to find one?

Secondly, Steavie mentioned the front anti-roll bar bushes should be next on the list. I've noticed, just recently a small knocking sound when I hit any sort of minor bumps. Would that be consistent with the fr anti roll bar bushes or something else? If it is, are the powerflex bushes recommended as replacements?

Oh, last question. I have been jet washing the arches on a regular basis. Every time, more crud will come out. My intention is try and keep the arches as clean as possible and in Spring, go nuts with the underseal. Is this the best approach?

Anyways, thanks folks - and from now on I will post into relevant subject areas.

PB.....

Anyways, thanks for the welcome and if you see a S reg silver Puma on the roads in South Bucks / East Berks, it might be me. :grin:

 

[red]

Spare is a full size steel, you can get them new still I think.

Worn bushes could definitely cause some clonks.

Yes there's lots of people that have used lots of random products to under seal their cars. A lot of the information will be in peoples project threads.

 

[yippeekiay]

Ah, I wasn't aware that the spare was a steel as mine came with an alloy. Makes a change as a lot of my previous cars only came with a steel one.

Any kind of underseal has got to be good because the Puma as you know is going to rust at that point sooner or later. The sooner you get something on it the later it will show hopefully.

 

[Patch]

Welcome k: Was yours the black or silver one I saw in the garage?

Steavie did alot of work on my Red 1.4 and I got my current 1.7 off him 2 weeks ago

 

[pbaldacchino]

Thanks again for all the comments and the advice. I'll get undersealing in April, and get looking for a spare ... Thanks Patch, mine was the Silver one at the garage. I left it with Steavie for a week.. (Mainly for my own convenience as it's a bit of a trek from where I live)...

PB...

 

[Patch]

If you saw the one he had for sale, that now belongs to me

 

[pbaldacchino]

Excellent, I think I did see the one you bought when I dropped the car off. You'll know it's been properly checked over... :grin: