After 6 days of fixing, I drove her for the 1st time!

Hi guys!

I bought a 1.7 Puma last friday and didn't drive her at all, she was dropped off to my address.
Unfortunatelly I found more and more problems and she didn't move from the driveway for 6 days.
But with the help and infos -thanks again guys, probably I'll be back for more soon - I have fixed what I could and today I drove 2 miles!
I know that's not much, but to me, it was very important!

About the driving: I didn't go fast, city centre, but after holding the gas a bit longer than suppose to, I'm slowly getting the picture, why she is a much loved car...I'm smiling right now, just to thinking about it! I wasn't going to drive more today, but I probably will!
I thought the gas pedal is way too sensitive, when I gave a few pumps days ago on the driveway and I was a bit scared about it, but during driving, it's as smooth as the silk and even in 2nd gear you can manage to pull off quite easily, even when you had almost stopped. Bloody hell,I'm still smiling!

2 miles it's not much, but I already got a few questions:

1-Engine was so HOT, after 8-10 minutes drive, that I couldn't touch the top cover. NOTE: I took the silver plastic cover off yestersday, so it's just the metal top. Coolant and reservoir are finely leveled.
2-The rear mirror is nearly in the middle of my vision. I have searched a topic about it, but nothing. Any ideas, how to remove and put it a bit higher?

I still have to do a few things, probably cambelt-, but auxiliary belt change for sure. At least 2 new tyres. But after those, hopefully the big and important stuff will be done.
I'm still getting a bit adrenalin rush, just to think about the driving! Gotta love it!

The needle in the temperature gauge should sit in the middle of the dial after a few minutes of driving and stay there. So long as that happens how hot you think the top of the engine is doesn't matter.

The mirror is held onto the screen with a £1 sticky pad and will just pull off, however folks cleverer than us have already probably figured out that its in the best position because if you put it higher you probably wont be able to see what you need to reflected through the window properly.

quest63 said:

The needle in the temperature gauge should sit in the middle of the dial after a few minutes of driving and stay there. So long as that happens how hot you think the top of the engine is doesn't matter.

The mirror is held onto the screen with a £1 sticky pad and will just pull off, however folks cleverer than us have already probably figured out that its in the best position because if you put it higher you probably wont be able to see what you need to reflected through the window properly.

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The temp. gauge is sits in the middle after 2-3 minutes, I know the engine's normal temp is 88-89C, it just feels more.
I wi try to move the rear mirror and if the rear view is not the best, I will just put it back.
Cheers.

I wouldn’t rely on the needle moving past the middle of gauge when the temperature exceeds it’s normal operating temperature of around 87/88°C:
My Puma is a 2001-2, I got the following results using a ScanGauge II:
Starting from cold, heater control set to Max, no fan speed on and car stationary.
- Ran engine at around 2000/2250 rpm.
- Needle had moved to middle of temperature gauge at approximately 87°C.
- Continued with revs and high-speed fan cut in when temperature reached 109/110°C.
- Let revs drop down to tick-over and fan stopped running at 103/104°C.
During this process, the temperature gauge needle remained in the middle position (no movement at all).

The problem with the mirror is that when you remove it, there is a black "square" left on the screen and it is difficult to remove. I went up the breakers and got another mirror with a shorter/more offset arm. Unfortunately, I got it some time before fitting, so I can't remember what the car was, apart from it being "foreign". The actual mirror housing is virtually identical to the Ford one. In fact, the "ball" fitting can be popped out of one and fits the other!
Here's the new arm mount, which is metal:
And the new arm:
Here's the old and new for comparison. In the second pic, you can see the rearward offset, which makes all the difference:

Just a note, when removing these metal mounts, they can adhere so strongly that they can break away part of the glass they're stuck to!
One of the things I did, prior to looking for a new mirror, was to buy a cheap suction version (without an arm), to try different positions. When stuck over the black "Square" they are definitely too high to see clearly out the rear window.
I seem to remember some people rotating the mirror body over to sit it slightly higher.

Hi Yog
Regarding the temp gauge sitting in the middle...I think I remember reading something a while ago that the ECU is programed to not move the needle above halfway until the temperature reaches a certain threshold. Then it will sweep up into the red.
Paul

I don't recollect seeing anything like that, though that's not to say it's not true. If you find anything, can you post it here?

Only time I saw mine go close to the red was when I was at the Ring queuing to come off the track after a lap and it was a bloody hot day....I had to blast the heaters to keep it cool until I got off the track. Later on I fitted a switch so I could keep the fan running at all times if I wanted.

Even later down the line I realised that I'd inadvertently connected the fan so it ran the wrong way so wasn't efficient in cooling to say the least :lol:

Hi

I have read your heat-test in another topic, a few days ago, very nice. If I'm right, the temp gauge won't show minor changes, but if it moves, than it will move to the red area straight. Just weird, that after 2 minutes it reaches the opt. temperature. My previous car took at least 5-6 minutes. I drove 15 miles today- Yey- when I got back, I opened the hood, just to help the engine cool. Prbably doensn't matter, but probably I'll do it whenever I can.

I will remove the rear view, unless I will hear the windshield strat to crack. Probably I'll look for something like yours or similar. The black spot will be covered by the next mirrors body, so will be time to remove it properly. I'm tall, me head almost reaches the roof, so the changed angle won't matter much.
Thanks for the advices.

yippeekiay said:

Later on I fitted a switch so I could keep the fan running at all times if I wanted.

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That's very nice! I need one switch like that as well!

If your worried about engine temps get yourself an OBD Bluetooth reader and download torque on your smart phone..
Then you can get realtime coolant temps and the Torque App is very handy for any fault reading you get in the future..

Its very cheap and does a good job

Dwighet said:

If your worried about engine temps get yourself an OBD Bluetooth reader and download torque on your smart phone..
Then you can get realtime coolant temps and the Torque App is very handy for any fault reading you get in the future..

Its very cheap and does a good job

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Probably will have a look later. Thanks.

748 said:

Hi Yog
Regarding the temp gauge sitting in the middle...I think I remember reading something a while ago that the ECU is programed to not move the needle above halfway until the temperature reaches a certain threshold. Then it will sweep up into the red.
Paul

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Certainly something is odd about how the Puma does this stuff. Where should the needle be? - about half way, because we expect it to be, it usually is and on every other car I've driven the gauge is marked at 11 o' clock and 1 o' clock telling you that is the normal range. OK, so far. Now look at the actual Puma temp gauge -



Yeah, normally the Puma temp is halfway, but they seem to think it perfectly acceptable if it shoots up to just before the red!

I've only ever had it do that once, on a boiling hot day stuck in traffic and after a minute or two the fan would kick in and the temp would immediately drop from the near red position. I just put the air con on (which also forces that fan to come on) as my nerve couldn't take that near red situation, whether Ford thinks it normal or not.

I really wouldn't bother opening the bonnet to let the engine cool, it's not necessary.

I have moved my mirror a bit higher and the black square is behind the body of the mirror and you cant see it from inside the car

Puma Babe said:

I really wouldn't bother opening the bonnet to let the engine cool, it's not necessary.

I have moved my mirror a bit higher and the black square is behind the body of the mirror and you cant see it from inside the car

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Hi

I think they should have cut an extra hole on the bonett, at least on the 1.7 models, in a different style, like 206 Pug.
There are screws in the back of the engine, which are rusted from the heat.
I was thinking the same about the rear view mirror. I'll give a try next week. Thanks.

Heat doesn't cause rust. Rust is oxidisation of iron usually due to the presence of water. The action of heat i.e. drying the metal will probably reduce the incidence of rust formation

If the standard cooling system was good enough for the Racing Puma it's more than enough for the standard one

Puma Babe said:

Heat doesn't cause rust. Rust is oxidisation of iron usually due to the presence of water. The action of heat i.e. drying the metal will probably reduce the incidence of rust formation

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My bad, it's not exactly rust. The screw tops (8) are coming of layer by layer, but they're not as soft as the other rusty screws, but quite hard. It's on the top middle, behind the engine, these screws are holding 2 separated horizontal aluminum(?) covers. If you start the engine, after just 1 minute, quite hot air comjng from there. Anyway, as long as the heat doesn't cause problems, I'm fine with it.

oilburner said:

If the standard cooling system was good enough for the Racing Puma it's more than enough for the standard one

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I was checking around other topics and many owner reported problems due hot weather+hot engine. It seems, that most of the problems start, when the car stuck in traffic on hot days, so the air doesn't flow to the engine. But as if it doesn't cause problems, than I'm fine with it.

Sylvester said:

Puma Babe said:

Heat doesn't cause rust. Rust is oxidisation of iron usually due to the presence of water. The action of heat i.e. drying the metal will probably reduce the incidence of rust formation

Click to expand...

My bad, it's not exactly rust. The screw tops (8) are coming of layer by layer, but they're not as soft as the other rusty screws, but quite hard. It's on the top middle, behind the engine, these screws are holding 2 separated horizontal aluminum(?) covers. If you start the engine, after just 1 minute, quite hot air comjng from there. Anyway, as long as the heat doesn't cause problems, I'm fine with it.

Click to expand...

That would be the exhaust heat shield, which generally do get hot, seeing as it's the exhaust. Also, hot stuff rusts because the paint/rust protection is cooked off over the years.