Just bought a Puma Thunder....Happy to be a new member and require help please

Hi All,

Very happy to be a member of this community, some of you may know I have been looking for a few weeks and have now put a deposit down on below Puma Thunder

https://www.gumtree.com/p/ford/ford-puma-thunder-low-mileage-full-mot-leather-interior-/1150733260

Have been following this 1 for a while, it started at £799 and I got it today for £499 comes with 1 year MOT, history from MOT history check looks pretty solid, no major concerns but has had 6 owners which I know is not great but by the looks of the pics, MOT history and low mileage of 75k I thought I would take the chance.

I am from Northern Ireland so could not view the car personally but spoke to the owner of the garage at length and he assures me it is a good enough car and has plenty of life in it and will travel to Ireland no problem, I will be picking it up within a week, will be a drive from Stoke on trent to Liverpool to get ferry to Ireland then a 3 hour drive to Londonderry, I am looking forward to the drive but need help to make it smooth trip.

I know doing a phone transaction is risky and should not buy a car this way but location does not allow me to test car and as was tracking this car and the price dropped to $499 think it's worth a punt.

So...this has no history of cambelt change...I want to do this whilst in Stoke, anyone know of a skilled garage or Ford quick fit nearby to get cambelt full kit, water pump and rocker gasket replaced, was looking to pay £250 - £300 for this work and want it done before my long journey, I will also need to get AA breakdown arranged or similar, any tips on best deals.

Any thing else I should consider, spare parts or things I may need ?

Thank you all.

Regards,

Brian.

Advert has been removed so puma reg is YF51 YAS so you can check MOT history and offer opinions....only problem I see in past may be suspension related, maybe I should get some bushes replaced ?

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pyperb said:

[post]345408[/post] Advert has been removed so puma reg is YF51 YAS

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That reg number right?

sorry YF51 YSA

Nice car but make sure you get the cambelt changed as soon as possible other wise its a ticking time bomb with no history of it being changed.

Bit optimistic £250 for cambelt/camcover seal,think an OE gasket is£40 now.

Will get the cambelt kit done before I make the journey back for sure, so looks like approx £350 to get the work done at a garage, ideally I want this done before I arrive to pick up the car, seller can recommend a local independant garage to do the work but I would prefer a ford rapidfit to do it but maybe I am being fussy :grin:

Be very careful who you pick to do the cambelt change as it's easy to get it wrong with disastrous consequences. If you don't get a recommendation on here make sure the garage has done a 1.7 before and can explain to you how the cambelt is tensioned.
Barry

Car looks OK MOT-wise. Some welding done on seat anchorage points a few years back, means that this car will also have had rear arch rusting, as that's how this stuff always seems to work. Arches may have been fixed properly, but equally might be filler and a quick blow-over job.

Don't bother with any suspension stuff, last 2 MOTs are clear of that (I always ignore the last MOT if a car was bought by a garage as every garage can get any car through a MOT, if needed)

Your main problem is the cam belt.

#1. It HAS to be done right. Many garages have no experience of doing them. See what Barry said above, I cannot stress what he wrote enough.

#2. Getting the existing owner to recommend somewhere locally for this is really not a great idea. Nor is getting it done before you've seen the car.

#3. Proper garages doing these allow 3 -4 hours for the car to be completely cold before touching it. It is then around a 3 hours job. In other words, it takes up a whole day.

I arrive in Stoke at 12.30, so if I book ford rapid fit (it's 15 mins away) for that day at say 1.30pm and they close at 6pm hopefully this plan will have everything done before I leave for my long journey, I hope I can fit in an oil (5w30) change and filter also so the full engine service is complete, I will feel alot more confident driving back if I can manage to fit this in.

I thought a cambelt change on a 1.7 was 4.5 hrs so it could be a bit tight time-wise and even though it's Ford I would still vet them about doing the change as they probably wouldn't have done one of these for years and could still f**k it up.
Barry

My advice would be don't panic about the cam belt change.
OK, so it is overdue and needs doing, but that doesn't mean it will definitely need doing like... now. It could go on for another 30k miles yet.
As long as you don't thrash the nuts off it I think you will be fine to drive it back to Ireland, then you can find someone who knows what they are doing, I'm sure there will be someone in NI who knows how to do the job right.
Paul

This is going to be tricky then, tight timescales, risk in getting the cambelt done by inexperienced mechanic, journey from stoke to londonderry is approx 211 miles and approx 5 hours drive, maybe better to risk it and source a local ford garage and drive her home.

pyperb said:

[post]345475[/post] I arrive in Stoke at 12.30, so if I book ford rapid fit (it's 15 mins away) for that day at say 1.30pm and they close at 6pm hopefully this plan will have everything done before I leave for my long journey, I hope I can fit in an oil (5w30) change and filter also so the full engine service is complete, I will feel alot more confident driving back if I can manage to fit this in.

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NO, NO, NO!!! Don't do it man! Listen to me and to others here. Your schedule is so tight, even the smallest mistake will mess it up. VCT engine's cambelt change is trickier than you'd think. I had to phone 4 garages around, because many said that's too complicated. I gave 4 pages of instructions to the mechanic -who finally said ok- and he was like, " oh, i know what to do". When I collected the car, all the pages were dirty and oilly, he said those infos were very helpful, mostly cause the tension spring... 4-5 hours NOT enough!! 2 hours for the engine to cool down properly - and trust me, they won't stand by your car and check the temp every minutes, so they can start to work on it... Plus they should change the waterpump and drive belt as well - when the mechanic done the cambelt set change on mine, he forgot the drive belt! But I live close and went back the next day, when I noticed it - you couldn't really go back, could you? I had a similar time-plan like yours and when I got there, they were still busy and started to work on the car 3 hours later! But luckily I live close and I was off work the next day!

Car should be left there overnight. If you rush and somehow ( honestly you have 15% chance) they will finish the car and they mess it up, (trust me that's very easy, look for the manual in the search or I might can send you a link) either the timing or the tension spring adjustment, the engine could stop on the middle of your journey back!
Probably you spend more money on the journey all together, then on the car, so do yourself a favour and book a room in a motel for that day. Or leave the cambelt set change, just check oil level and other reservoirs, visual check drive belt, probably that should be as old as the cambelt. If you really worry, take few tools with you, take top cambelt cover screws out ( 3-4, don't remember the sizes now, but can look it up tomorrow) and visual check the belt. If that looks ok, you should be ok for your journey.
I know how you feel, but think this "all in 1 day" plan through again.

EDIT: In that half on hour while I was typing the above in, you sent a message, that probably won't do it anyway...you see, I was rushing as well - for nothing. Oh, whatever. That's a good thing, that you have thought that through.

Thank you Sylvester....have already booked ferry so can't stay overnight....I will take car to Ford a £125 service and ask them to check cambelt for me and explain my dilema, also with this service Ford include a 1 year breakdown cover which will provide me some piece of mind driving to Ireland, I will vet garages in derry/belfast for full cambelt kit etc replacement

Brian

Sounds good Brian
I think you know now from the comments tonight how important it is to get the cambelt changed by someone who knows what they are doing. Good luck with it over in Ireland but I know that Fords are really well looked after over there
Barry

lol...cheers Barry

I'm with 748 here, don't panic about it. Especially not as much as some people are.
Everything you hear isn't gospel, just advice.
Mine was done after I drove 50 miles, was only left a short time to cool while other work was done before belt was changed.
25k miles later I sold it and was sweet as a nut.
As long as the person knows what he/she's doing then you should have no problems k:

Yes, very happy with advice...have sourced a local in Belfast who has done a few before, only 1 I could find, I phoned ford on the approved list on this site and receptionist asked for reg, when she typed it in she responded with a high pitched voice "a puma" not seen one of them in here for years so thought better to avoid lol.

Thanks All,

Brian.