Newbie with a (currently being naughty) pink millie

Hiya :grin:
Well this is not actually my first Puma i had a blue v reg lux model which i absolutely loved! but had to part with, i had a couple of cars inbetween just to "give them a try" but always missed my puma, so decided to get another.
i spotted a hot pink one on ebay and fell in love with it, i think its probably one of them love it or hate it colours lol. It came with the private reg P3YNK which i thought was pretty cute aswell, i didn't actually see it before i bought it, so i was taking a big gamble when i just did a "buy it now" on ebay, since i didn't want to lose out on it, it hasn't exactly paid off, at least not at the moment.
My brother and his gf went to collect it as i wasn't able to, I was very excited when i saw it, then i noticed a few niggles to start off..
I paid £2500 for it and i had to replace the front tyres the very next day, the ones that were on were so bald i wouldn't have dared even leave them on for a few days! then i noticed that the window doesn't pop in to the seal right, you have to push it in a little till it gets right to the top, and it kinda rattles inside the door, i was told there was two teeth broken off a cog or something to that effect and to just put up with it until it breaks completely!... hmmm ok so that problem irritates me, but doesn't affect the driving of the car, so that one will have to wait.
Next up i find that i'm struggling to get it from 4th to 2nd, like i have to kinda crunch it in or something (excuse my technical terms lol, if i get really stuck i may have to resort to saying "that thingy") i also found that the speedometor is intermitantly staying at zero, once for 2 days, then came back, but when i first noticed it i had a new speed sensor fitted and a new clutch at the same time... problem solved? nope. I got back on to the mechanic and he came back, he said its a short shift gear change and i probs just needed to get used to it, its not been as bad but still a little crunchy at times, the speedo however still keeps dropping and sticking at zero and seems to lose power at the same time, today when i was driving back home i came up to a junction and it seemed to just lose power and cut out, the battery light came on just before it did, i turned it back on and it started straight up again, but still zero on the speedo.
I've contacted the mechanic who dealt with it and as yet am still waiting to hear back from him, i think he's a very busy man. I had actually popped to 3 garages in the meantime, one said they dont really do that kinda thing (it was a sunday... i think he just couldn't be arsed to even take a look! lol) the second said its better if i get back to the guy who fitted it seeing as i'd already paid for it to be fixed, and then said also if not might be better going to ford... and ford said gimme £60 and we'll stick it on the diagnostic thingy, so i said i'd wait and see what the first mechanic said when he gets back to me... swings and roundabouts!!
I'm hoping that all these electrical things all correlate to the same problem and get sorted in one fell swoop, i've been tryna read as much info as poss and am wondering if it could be 2 of the wires touching and causing interference, or even maybe the alternator, it cant be the speed sensor since thats just been replaced. Anyway i'm going on and on, I hope i haven't sent you all to sleep with my junk filled essay, but thanks for reading if you managed to stick it out lol. Oh and i just remembered i had new fuel injectors fitted, and theres a hole in the exhaust... but i can't be arsed to waffle on about that now, i'm exhausted my self now after all that whinging lol.

Welcome along! :grin:

welcome along officially sugar, you do like your essays dont ya lol :wink:

Haha what a post well a formal welcome to our site, we are here to try and help where ever possible and everyones experiences could and do help new and existing members alike. I'm sorry to hear that your Puma is not running quite right at the moment and hopefully all the running issues will be swiftly sorted. The stalling coming to a stop can be caused by sensors such as the Idle Control Valve, sometimes a clean can help it.
The crunching of gears doesn't sound ideal and I imagine the ' get used to it' comment was just to fob you off.. I don't often go from fourth to second but maybe i'll try it for you when I take my car to it's MOT on Friday.

I'm not sure why the speed would drop to zero if you're a new speed sensor... could ou try and plug the hole in the exhaust as a temporary fix?

As you say as the issues may all be inter-related such as 2 wires touch causing a short somewhere or a bad earth.. hopefully your mechanic will be able to diagnose it.

I know about 'On a whim eBay flings' that's how I ended up with my Bandit which in all fairness has been pretty solid, but you just never know.

ANyway enjoy the site and if you've any questions just ask away k:

Make up a list of problems...all of them...and then we can all have a stab at what we think or know will be the cure or at least give you back a list of stuff to check before replacing parts willy nilly

I know, I'm so sorry , i just can't seem to help myself lol, even when i try to condense them i seem to go on forever, i'm gonna have to try to restrain myself from going on n on n on n on n on n .................................................. thanks for the welcomes and comments by the way :grin:

oh now there's more comments that i hadnt read since replying, so just so u don't think i was being ignorant and ignoring your questions and comments... Red i would quite gladly plug something where the sun doesn't shine in that exhaust lol, its too noisy... but seriously, i am supposed to be gettin that sorted... but it has this big ass stainless steel exhaust on it which is harder to repair or summit? its a milltek frp 4-2-1 race one, if that means anything? i'm getting controversial views about it, my other half and my brother think i should not get rid of it as whoevers had it fitted has paid alot for it and had it done proffessionally, whereas the mechanic suggested i maybe i change it but keep the tail bit for the look of, but thats probably because i was stressing about it being a problem, so i dunno. Yippee i will try and do a list of all the things i can think that are wrong with it, better drink lots of coffee or redbull before u read it though lol. I'm hoping i'm just being a drama queen and that its not as bad as i'm thinking though, fingers crossed :grin:

sugarpink said:

I know, I'm so sorry , i just can't seem to help myself lol, even when i try to condense them i seem to go on forever, i'm gonna have to try to restrain myself from going on n on n on n on n on n .................................................. thanks for the welcomes and comments by the way :grin:

Click to expand...

dont worry girls are supposed to go on and on lol

Welcome! Thats a lot of getting use to on one car! Seeing as you already owned a Puma and had no problem with it's shifting its likely to be a problem, possibly linkage misaligned due to the clutch replacement.

Welcome along- again ha.

Some on here will know the isses and there fixes.

Miltek is a good exhaust, that's what I and a lot of others have fitted. Since it's stainless it's more likely to be blowing out of a join rather than a hole and if it is a hole in the stainless section then Miltek should cover it under their lifetime warranty.

I think I was your Puma up for a sale a couple of years ago, and I couldn't believe that someone had sprayed a Millie pink! A limited edition car, and someone's gone and taken away one of the very things that identifies it as a Millie. :fists: But that wasn't you, just some numpty... (I'm a bit defensive of the Millie, sorry! )

As Red says, Milteks are good, but it depends on how you want the car. They do improve performance a little (that's mostly to do with the exhaust gases being able to escape quicker) but the full system can be very loud. The exhaust is made up of three sections: manifold (from the engine), cat and cat-back, the mechanic had a sensible suggestion if it's too loud for you; change the manifold and cat back to standard, and keep the cat-back. You will still get some performace gain, and some noise, but it won't be as loud. Dal's old puma had a Miltek cat-back only, and that had a good ol' grumble when it got warmed up after being on the car for 3 years. The other advantage of stainless steel systems, is that they won't rust like a normal mild steel one.

2nd to 3rd... could be a linkage of some kind in the gear box, one of our resident experts/mechanics should be able to give you some more definite ideas.

Speedo/power loss... I hate anything to do with the electrics. It could be a short, or the alternator, or something I've not thought of... which doesn't help that much really!

Welcome along

Welcome

If the speedo does drop to 0 and you need to know how fast(or slow) you are going, you could put the car into diagnositcs mode, there is a digital speedo intergrated into that.

Turn the car off, hold in the little button in the middle of the speedo(see, I use technical terms too ), then turn the key to the first ignition position, keep holding the button and after a few seconds the needles should go bonkers, when that happens, take your finger off the button, and there should be a display (where it usually tells you your miles etc)..press the button to scroll through options, one of them is something along the lines of spd.. or something short of speed.. when you find that, simply start the car and it will tell you how fast your going on the digital display.

(if anyone notices that i've said something wrong or cocked up somewhere, feel free to correct me lol)..

Hope that helps untill you sort the problem .

Sounds near enough except you have to start the car with the trip button pressed until the clocks do a sweep and the odometer says test

Thanks very much for all the tips and advice, very much appreciated :grin: well i've seen the mechanic today, and he says my alternator is knackered, so i'll be getting a new one fitted tomorrow, i'm reeeally hoping this sorts out most of the problems, i don't think my flexible friend can take much more :-( nor can i lol, I noticed on the kwik fit website that they are doing a free exhaust inspection at the mo so thought it might be worth while taking it along and seeing what the crack is (no pun intended lol) just in case any of you are interested in getting it checked aswell, u can just book it online and there's no obligation to have to get any work done (you can get a free battery check too) Mr. Park3r i'll definately bare the speedo thing in mind for future reference, its handy to know u can do that :grin: Red... its also good to know that milltek do a lifetime warranty, the only thing is would it have to go back to where it was originally fitted do you know? only thats like a million miles away from me i think :-( thanks again to you all for your replies :grin:

Hello and welcome along!

mmm...you'll go to shit fit and they'll say there's all sorts wrong and say they can't let you drive the car in the condition it is and that they'll fix it for mega bucks. Or you can risk it and if it is shot go elsewhere or do as I say below re: contacting milltek.

Go elsewhere, most garages won't charge anyway to inspect it as they need to look at it to see if it is blowing if a customer thinks it is. They won't (well most won't) just change it because you think it's blowing. Chances are as it's stainless it might be a dodgy connection as stated above and they may charge for puttng new connectors/u-bolts or to reseat it better.

If it is blowing i.e. has a hole then give milltek a ring (possibly ring the last owner for details of where/when fitted) and state your problem as I'm not sure if exhausts with lifetime guarantee's are transferable when the car is sold on. That's how a lot of guarantee's are void....sneaky gits...lol.

dont dont dont take it to kwik fit!!!!!! they cant even fit exhausts and tyres without f'ing something up!

I remember the last owner of a pink millie, talking about it on PP an d getting into an argument about whether it was or wasn't!

I would check the joins, preferably early in the morning so you can see gasses escaping. It will need loosening, possibly put in some sealant then re-tighten.

I had a Miltek on my Puma and it sounded subtle although that wasn;t the 4-2-1 FRP one, that will likely be louder.

Anyway, welcome along.

Hmmm.... i thought it was too good to be true thinking that they were doing something out of the goodness of their hearts!! so u think i should probs give that "free" exhaust check a miss then eh? lol. I don't really think the exhaust will be that bad in my non mechanical opinion lol, its more that i'm having to rev the ass off it to get it to pull due to the lack of power (i guess the dodgy alternator would explain that) the exhaust might just be something i don't need to get fixed instantly... or am i wrong? if so then i may just leave it a while longer till all the other essential stuff is sorted (which i'm hoping will just be the alternator now) as since i bought a couple of months ago or so i've had to fork out over another £800 on top of what i paid for the car, i was already pushing my limit just to buy the car, i bet the woman who sold me it was laughing all the way to the bank! lol. I'm soooo hoping its mostly sorted tomorrow.