*********Motors Chat - Round 10 *********

OSI

Continuation from Motors Chat - Round 9






1.This thread is for motoring topics which you feel are not worthy of starting a new thread for, banter from a meet or general motoring related chit chat.

2.No lonely hearts (This is not a personal dig at anyone, it's how we feel is the best way to describe what we want to avoid. )

3.Keep it clean.

4.The Motors charter applies.

GvidoR

Unfortunately it turns out that the problem for the courtesy light was not in the ground or switch, which only leaves the wire which disappears somewhere under the carpet.

(yay, 1st post in round 10 :pac:)

ShaunieVW

Is there any focus mk2.5 owners on here? Spefically with the 1.6 tdci? I'm going to buy one soon enough as I have to have a boring car for a while . Just looking for an idea of what they are like to live with day to day such as real life mpg, issues and things I need to look out for.

I have no clue about fords as they have been banned from the family for 25 years now every since 2 of my mothers mk3 escorts burnt to the ground within 6 months of each other lol.

Noccy_Mondy

Look OSI, I know you're doing your best ad mod duties, but you forgot the fundamental rule when creating a new chat thread. That is, the addition of the 10th star!

CIP4

ShaunieVW wrote: »

Is there any focus mk2.5 owners on here? Spefically with the 1.6 tdci? I'm going to buy one soon enough as I have to have a boring car for a while . Just looking for an idea of what they are like to live with day to day such as real life mpg, issues and things I need to look out for.

I have no clue about fords as they have been banned from the family for 25 years now every since 2 of my mothers mk3 escorts burnt to the ground within 6 months of each other lol.

I had a mk2 focus 1.6tdci and got about 52mpg at best on long trips but at the same time never seen it below 48 mpg. They are a nice car to drive and handle engine is grand power wise for what it is. I think the mk2.5 still looks fresh and is a lot nicer than the mk2 and they are good value for money. In saying all that I wouldn't touch a 1.6 one again kept it for 13 months and gave up on it then as you can only through so much money into a hole before you move on. 1.8 tdci are supposed to be alot better but all the fords of that era seem to have stupid niggly faults.

CIP4

GvidoR wrote: »

Unfortunately it turns out that the problem for the courtesy light was not in the ground or switch, which only leaves the wire which disappears somewhere under the carpet.

(yay, 1st post in round 10 :pac:)

If you have a multi meter you could test the continuity of the cable to see if there's a break or not to save you having to dig up the cable under the carpet if it's not the issue. Alternatively you could get a piece of cable and run it from the switch and feed it directly to the light through the door or whatever (just as a temporary test) Join it in at both ends and if it works then it's the cable that's at fault.

Mister Jingles

GvidoR wrote: »

Unfortunately it turns out that the problem for the courtesy light was not in the ground or switch, which only leaves the wire which disappears somewhere under the carpet.

(yay, 1st post in round 10 :pac:)

Seen your escort on instagram yesterday

Ded_Zebra

Hello new thread


Can anyone recommend me a good image hosting site that's free? I used to use pix.ie but it hasn't worked properly in ages I've got loads of progress on the jeep to report and want to get it written up in the project thread.

dr.fuzzenstein

CIP4 wrote: »

I had a mk2 focus 1.6tdci and got about 52mpg at best on long trips but at the same time never seen it below 48 mpg. They are a nice car to drive and handle engine is grand power wise for what it is. I think the mk2.5 still looks fresh and is a lot nicer than the mk2 and they are good value for money. In saying all that I wouldn't touch a 1.6 one again kept it for 13 months and gave up on it then as you can only through so much money into a hole before you move on. 1.8 tdci are supposed to be alot better but all the fords of that era seem to have stupid niggly faults.

Well the 1.8 keeps splitting it's intercooler pipe
But it's only needed 2 in 6 years and over 200k km.
The 1.8 can suffer from split pipes, eats wheelbearings for breakfast and a fuel line drawing air laid it up for a while, because the indy couldn't diagnose the fault. Ford found it in a few days. The turbo is untouched from new, but whining a bit (for the last 3-4 years ) but it seems to go just fine.
10 years old, 360k km, needed all shocks, all discs, a few bushings and bearings, a new fuel line, a resistor for the fan, clutch, timing belt and many an oilchange. Otherwise it's been the best damn car I ever owned. Really comfy, fast enough to keep up with traffic (even in de faaasht lane), roomy, good stereo and current mpg is 49 dead on. If it goes below 47 I know there is something wrong.

Big Nasty

Ded_Zebra wrote: »

Hello new thread


Can anyone recommend me a good image hosting site that's free? I used to use pix.ie but it hasn't worked properly in ages I've got loads of progress on the jeep to report and want to get it written up in the project thread.

Imagur / Photobucket

GvidoR

Mister Jingles wrote:

Seen your escort on instagram yesterday

Did you follow me? :P

Noccy_Mondy

Was travelling from Galway out to Connemara at about 11 one night earlier on in the week. Such a quiet run, usually meet very very few cars. Only met one oncoming car that night, on a 50 mile journey!! However, I was bombing it on at about 110km out the deserted roads, was about 30 miles out of the city. Seen in my rear view mirror the distant lights of a car behind me - about a mile behind me. I'd say within the guts of a minute they had caught up to me and were travelling close behind me. They had front fogs on too. They had ample opportunities to overtake, however they didn't. In total they were behind me for about 10 miles. I continued to drive on, as most usually do in the winding roads of Connemara, cut a lot of the corners (ones that aren't blind, just windy needlessly). Came into a very remote village, just 2 shops, nothing else, no footpaths, street lights or anything, nobody around, yet it's a 60 zone for about 100 metres. I bombed through that as it was deserted, car behind keeps up. I pop on the indicator to turn up my chosen road, they were going straight on. Said I'd look behind me to see what kind of car it was after turning, as I was trying to make it out from the lights. Turned back and of course it was a marked garda i40!! Such luck. Didn't cop it whatsoever, especially seeing as they had the front fog lights on. So to sum up, I was breaking the speed limit (barely), cut the odd corner or 2, and didn't slow down for a 60 zone (which is utterly pointless anyway). Surely if they wanted to pull me up on this, they'd have stuck on the blues? As soon as I turned up my road, they took off. They must have been going at some speed in the first place in order to catch up on me so soon. Usually the gardai out there don't really give a fcuk. Hope I won't be expecting anything in the post anytime soon!

Don't worry for those of you who are keyboard warriors, I'm turning in my licence in the morning, I won't be a threat to ye're lives anymore.

ShadowHearth

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Well the 1.8 keeps splitting it's intercooler pipe
But it's only needed 2 in 6 years and over 200k km.
The 1.8 can suffer from split pipes, eats wheelbearings for breakfast and a fuel line drawing air laid it up for a while, because the indy couldn't diagnose the fault. Ford found it in a few days. The turbo is untouched from new, but whining a bit (for the last 3-4 years ) but it seems to go just fine.
10 years old, 360k km, needed all shocks, all discs, a few bushings and bearings, a new fuel line, a resistor for the fan, clutch, timing belt and many an oilchange. Otherwise it's been the best damn car I ever owned. Really comfy, fast enough to keep up with traffic (even in de faaasht lane), roomy, good stereo and current mpg is 49 dead on. If it goes below 47 I know there is something wrong.

I was looking at 1.6 diesel focus too, bit my mechanic/friend told me to stay the feck away from them, unless I want to be broke.
I heard very mixed reviews on 1.8 version of it and that its not great in mondeo too. You way better off with 2.0 diesel, bit it's pretty much UK only.

Its really hard to find d a car in region of 5-10k that would be at least semi reliable. Everything I look in to is a money pit.
I am almost tempted to get back in to my Scooby if it does not sells and suck up petrol, tax, insurance bills just because the damn thing is like tank.

CIP4

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Well the 1.8 keeps splitting it's intercooler pipe
But it's only needed 2 in 6 years and over 200k km.
The 1.8 can suffer from split pipes, eats wheelbearings for breakfast and a fuel line drawing air laid it up for a while, because the indy couldn't diagnose the fault. Ford found it in a few days. The turbo is untouched from new, but whining a bit (for the last 3-4 years ) but it seems to go just fine.
10 years old, 360k km, needed all shocks, all discs, a few bushings and bearings, a new fuel line, a resistor for the fan, clutch, timing belt and many an oilchange. Otherwise it's been the best damn car I ever owned. Really comfy, fast enough to keep up with traffic (even in de faaasht lane), roomy, good stereo and current mpg is 49 dead on. If it goes below 47 I know there is something wrong.

That car has definitely served you well but if it had been 1.6tdci I don't think you would have gotten of so lightly maintenance way. Now I know some people on here argue the 1.6 psa engine is actually quite reliable and maybe I got a bad one but I've never heard anyone outside of boards with a good word to say about them.

Even stupid things like ford not putting a fuel lift pump on them and no primer so when you change the fuel filter it's hours of tears and towing the fcuking car up and down the road to get it to start I mean there is no need for it. Even an experienced mechanic that changed my one said they are an utter pain so it's not like I was missing some trick to changing them.

Although by the mk2.5 id like to think they ironed out some of the flaws at that stage. Sure it helped me learn a lot about cars on the bright side the constant where the fcuk is today's oil leak coming from :pac:

shietpilot

CIP4 wrote: »

That car has definitely served you well but if it had been 1.6tdci I don't think you would have gotten of so lightly maintenance way. Now I know some people on here argue the 1.6 psa engine is actually quite reliable and maybe I got a bad one but I've never heard anyone outside of boards with a good word to say about them.

Even stupid things like ford not putting a fuel lift pump on them and no primer so when you change the fuel filter it's hours of tears and towing the fcuking car up and down the road to get it to start I mean there is no need for it. Even an experienced mechanic that changed my one said they are an utter pain so it's not like I was missing some trick to changing them.

Although by the mk2.5 id like to think they ironed out some of the flaws at that stage. Sure it helped me learn a lot about cars on the bright side the constant where the fcuk is today's oil leak coming from :pac:

Yeah it's the same with the 1.8 TDCI. There is no manual fuel primer so you need to use a vacuum pump.

When I changed the fuel filter I didn't even refill the filter with the duuurty diesel. Sucked with the vacuum pump until clear diesel came out and it started up without any chugging and ran.

Dunno what you would do if you ran out of diesel on the side of the road though :pac:

CIP4

shietpilot wrote: »

Dunno what you would do if you ran out of diesel on the side of the road though :pac:

You'd spend 5 hours sitting on the m8 wondering where it all went wrong it actually happened to me leaving cork at 6pm didn't get much further than the toll bridge overtaking lane busy motorway at the time beep warning power steering failure engine had cut out at 120kmh :eek: power steering gone brakes not great and I had to negotiate my way to the hard shoulder. The car wouldn't restart. It was a scary enough experience to make it worse there was 1/4 of a tank 15 litres of diesel in it. There wasn't anything wrong with it but because the lack of lift pump it just wouldn't drive on low fuel.

Then when I was selling it on I was straight up with the guy he had an actual ford dealer mechanic there and I said look the car cuts out if you let it go under 1/4 of a tank you have to keep it topped up. Ford mechanic straight out 'ah I wouldn't that most of them 1.6tdci focus do that this is actually one of the cleanest I've seen in ages most are wrecked' :pac: I couldn't believe he actually said that they bought it and all.

fancy pigeon

The black plague is strong and mighty, a challenge to remove totally...

Hello new thread

CIP4

Anyone see that micksgarage are selling kast oils and suspension parts. I've never heard of them I wonder what they are like they seem to be on the lower end of the price scale.

ShadowHearth

Is boards.ie still getting ddosed? Feels very slow and sluggish again.

Who would be bothered to do that to boards.ie some hacker crybabies who got banned?

colm_mcm

Dose of Terraclean. Be grand

dr.fuzzenstein

CIP4 wrote: »

You'd spend 5 hours sitting on the m8 wondering where it all went wrong it actually happened to me leaving cork at 6pm didn't get much further than the toll bridge overtaking lane busy motorway at the time beep warning power steering failure engine had cut out at 120kmh :eek: power steering gone brakes not great and I had to negotiate my way to the hard shoulder. The car wouldn't restart. It was a scary enough experience to make it worse there was 1/4 of a tank 15 litres of diesel in it. There wasn't anything wrong with it but because the lack of lift pump it just wouldn't drive on low fuel.

Then when I was selling it on I was straight up with the guy he had an actual ford dealer mechanic there and I said look the car cuts out if you let it go under 1/4 of a tank you have to keep it topped up. Ford mechanic straight out 'ah I wouldn't that most of them 1.6tdci focus do that this is actually one of the cleanest I've seen in ages most are wrecked' :pac: I couldn't believe he actually said that they bought it and all.

Should definitely not happen. Mine also does not have a lift pump, but I often drive it till the light comes on. One 2 occasions my range was below 5 miles. Once it was zero. The needle was bending round the stop.
What does happen though, if the fuel line is in anything but perfect nick and is drawing even a tiny bit of air, the car will stall randomly on the motorway as you have experienced. This can happen even by changing the fuel filter and disconnecting and reconnecting the lines.

CIP4

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Should definitely not happen. Mine also does not have a lift pump, but I often drive it till the light comes on. One 2 occasions my range was below 5 miles. Once it was zero. The needle was bending round the stop.
What does happen though, if the fuel line is in anything but perfect nick and is drawing even a tiny bit of air, the car will stall randomly on the motorway as you have experienced. This can happen even by changing the fuel filter and disconnecting and reconnecting the lines.

No it happened me twice the second time I got it to a petrol station brimmed it and it was ok always happened when it got just under 1/4 of a tank. I just kept it at 1/2 and above and it didn't cause any trouble but I do recon it was drawing air and there was a small crack that was submerged in fuel once it was above a certain level.

Anyway it doesn't make much difference now what was wrong with it I don't care My current concern is when the trim removal tools will arrive so I can replace the blown dash bulbs before looking at the half lit dash causes me to have a breakdown :pac:

joujoujou

Hello new thread.

Hello everybody!

Toyotafanboi

Had the Astra in for its EnCiTi last night... things were ok. Just need two tires as the fronts are 1.8mm. everything else was fine, knew the tyres were near the end of their days anyway.

so here's the thing, i've never been lucky enough to buy such big tyres before, they are 235/50/18 and i've only gotten one quote so far of €220 a corner. it's not that i'm afraid to pay it, but i'm used to buying good brand 16's for under €100 a corner, so what would be a good price for an 18" that size in a good brand.

going to ring around a few places today, just you can't believe a word any tyre fitter says. the one place i was in starts off by saying

fitter - "oh, they look ok for another while"
me - "they aren't the worst i've seen, but i need them for the NCT"
... after a bit of chit chat inside
fitter - "you'l need them done sooner rather than later anyway, they're lethal on it"

me - "i'd like to keep brands matching if i could, price on similar Conti's?"
fitter - "Conti's are ****e, i wouldn't put them on the car, one of the worst premium tyres we do"
me - "well, Opel thought them good enough for the car when new and i've done 65k kms and never once felt like they lacked grip and they've lasted a good long time"
fitter - "don't judge a tyre on how long it lasts, judge it by how many km's are on it (i just did :rolleyes:) and the first set always last longer anyway"

so anyway, got my quote €220 a corner for Dunlops or if i thought that was too dear, €130 for pingpongs.

why does it have to be all lies, smoke and mirrors and bull****. why can there be no honesty. it absolutely ****ing rots me. it must be the only area of retail where i can-not ask for what i want and reasonably expect to get it.

i'm not usually for it, but is there anywhere known in Cork that would fit two tyres i buy online without getting into a rage about it? i see Oponeo are doing the same Dunlop (SP Sport 1) we were offered for €148 each or the Conti Sport Contact 5 that's already on the car for €138 each. even if you payed €30 a corner for fitting, you'd be saving a tasty bit.

i will say this though, the staff in Little Island NCT center were infinitely friendlier than my local place.

Foxhole Norman

TyreStop out by Turners Cross will fit tyres once they're new, think it's about 10/15 per tyre.

MuppetCheck

Try Mikes tyres in Fermoy. It's a bit of a spin (and a toll each way) but he got me 4 Michellin for the 20s I had on the GTC for similar money to what you're been quoted. I know they have off sized tyres on them anyway but he might be able to get close to the online prices once fitting is included.

Donnelly117

SH, Not sure if you got an answer to your question in the old chat thread? But, both myself and the mother have ordered new cars this month and the delivery (includes delivery, number plates and prep before the car goes out etc) charges were €350 on both (a Mini and a Ford)

ShaunieVW

Thanks for all the ford advice guys, I'll be bringing one in from The UK, I had my heart set on a 1.6tdci 110bhp version as the VRT is cheap on them but may need to look around some more.

See thing is the golf is out of my price range, All the French cars are down right ugly. Mazda 3 doesn't appeal so that leaves me with a default of a focus. Any curveballs?

Must be 08 onwards
High MPG
Nice spec
Budget of 5.5k( hence why I'm going to the UK)

MuppetCheck

Proceed? Civic?

RobTheLad

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Had the Astra in for its EnCiTi last night... things were ok. Just need two tires as the fronts are 1.8mm. everything else was fine, knew the tyres were near the end of their days anyway.

so here's the thing, i've never been lucky enough to buy such big tyres before, they are 235/50/18 and i've only gotten one quote so far of €220 a corner. it's not that i'm afraid to pay it, but i'm used to buying good brand 16's for under €100 a corner, so what would be a good price for an 18" that size in a good brand.

going to ring around a few places today, just you can't believe a word any tyre fitter says. the one place i was in starts off by saying

fitter - "oh, they look ok for another while"
me - "they aren't the worst i've seen, but i need them for the NCT"
... after a bit of chit chat inside
fitter - "you'l need them done sooner rather than later anyway, they're lethal on it"

me - "i'd like to keep brands matching if i could, price on similar Conti's?"
fitter - "Conti's are ****e, i wouldn't put them on the car, one of the worst premium tyres we do"
me - "well, Opel thought them good enough for the car when new and i've done 65k kms and never once felt like they lacked grip and they've lasted a good long time"
fitter - "don't judge a tyre on how long it lasts, judge it by how many km's are on it (i just did :rolleyes:) and the first set always last longer anyway"

so anyway, got my quote €220 a corner for Dunlops or if i thought that was too dear, €130 for pingpongs.

why does it have to be all lies, smoke and mirrors and bull****. why can there be no honesty. it absolutely ****ing rots me. it must be the only area of retail where i can-not ask for what i want and reasonably expect to get it.

i'm not usually for it, but is there anywhere known in Cork that would fit two tyres i buy online without getting into a rage about it? i see Oponeo are doing the same Dunlop (SP Sport 1) we were offered for €148 each or the Conti Sport Contact 5 that's already on the car for €138 each. even if you payed €30 a corner for fitting, you'd be saving a tasty bit.

i will say this though, the staff in Little Island NCT center were infinitely friendlier than my local place.

I have the same Astra as you, and know an old neighbour with one too, who had a blow out on his 2012 GTC not long after he got it. It was one of the rear tyres and ended up destroying his rear bumper, so he was faced with a bill of ~700 for the bumper, and because the tyre type is quite unusual/rare, nowhere seemed to stock it, he ended up having to get it off Opel too, which was about 230 quid, so the guts of a grand for the two!

Edit: My 2014 GTC came with Bridgestone Potenza's

Mister Jingles

GvidoR wrote: »

Did you follow me? :P

Yeah but it was on the heritage Ford page that I saw it first.