[lunamense87]

Hi All! Hope you're enjoying a nice 2013 xmas




I have owned a 2001 1.7 Puma Black Edition for over two years now and after owning 6 other cars she's totally been my love. With just over 90k on the clock, she's got no rust on her at all (which is pretty amazing I'm sure you'll agree!) and runs mechanically like a dream.


I've been out of work for nearly 9 months due to an accident so had to SORN her. I've now moved to Aberporth in Wales and been back to work for a couple of months though I've had to take a job at almost minimum wage (even as apparently a 'Senior' System Admin :/) I would spare no expense to keep her in top condition and if I had the money I'd have her fully restored from bore to bush.


Anyway to cut to the chase, now I had the money I took her for an MOT, thought maybe a few items would fail but it came back with FIFTEEN failures :'( listed below;


1 - Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault [3.4.1c].
2 - Electronic stability system warning lamp indicates a fault [3.4.1c].
3 - (o/s and n/s) Front position lamp(s) has a product on the light source so it is not visible from a reasonable distance [1.1.A.3d]
4 - Nearside stop lamp not working [1.2.1b] (FIXED myself - not hard!)
5 - Brake pedal spongy [3.3.B.1b]
6 - Offside Headlamp aim too high and too far to the left. [1.8]
7 - Nearside front Brake hose excessively deteriorated [3.6.B.4d]
8 - Offside front Brake hose excessively deteriorated [3.6.B.4d]
9 - Nearside front Tyre tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm [4.1.E.1]
10 - Offside front Tyre tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm [4.1.E.1] - (So I need new front tyres )
11 - Offside front coil spring broken [2.4.C.1a] - (wtf, seems fine to me?)
12 - Nearside rear Trailing arm has excessive play in a pin/bush [2.4.G.2]
13 - Nearside front Macpherson strut has excessive movement at the upper attachment [2.5.A.1c]
14 - Offside Rear wheel bearing has excessive play [2.6.2]
15 - Offside rear brake recording little or no effort [3.7.A.5a]
16 - (Advisory) O/s/r tyre badly worn on inner edge. (OK, so maybe I should just get 4 new tyres!)


Can anyone help point me in the direction of where to go from here? I really don't want to leave her as I literally had a new clutch, thrust bearing and slave cylinder put in a week before the MOT as it was starting to slip (which cost enough!). Here she is below, around 9 months ago (before I SORN'd her.):




Much love all,
-luna.

This post has been edited by lunamense87: 23 December 2013 - 12:45 PM

[JopieBK]

In simple terms, the braking system needs an overhaul, and the suspension needs a good look at the very least. Most of those things look like they'll be inter-related The wear on the OSR tyre is probably related to the bearing. I can only suggest you ring around a few places to get some quotes or estimates.

A proper word of warning: don't drive it anywhere to get those things fixed. If you drive it on below-limit tyres then you can get three penalty points and a fine for each tyre. (Some people will tell you that you'll get three points for each tyre - that isn't really the case, for reasons I don't have the time to go into.) There are no driving-it-to-get-new-tyres exemptions.

There's also the offence of driving with defective brakes. Again, it carries three penalty points and there's no exemption for driving it somewhere to get the brakes fixed. So even if you pick up two new tyres and fit them you're still not able to drive it to a garage to get it fixed. Drive it with dodgy brakes and two low tyres and it'll still 'only' be three penalty points in total, but a decent level of fines plus 2 x CU20 and a CU10 on your licence which will probably punish you for insurance.

So when ringing round, you'll need to explain that they'd have to collect and trailer the car.

On the plus side, if it's rust free it'll surely be worth getting the work done.

[happy-kat]

I am no mechanic but much of what is listed is just natural wear on the car and once fixed might give another 10+ years of motoring (excluding tyres...). Any Puma round this age needs suspension done and many have had brake pipe overhauls.
Does read like the suspension/bushes needs TLC and then your tyres should last as normal hopefully.
No idea what 2 means.
3 reads like a dirty front head lamp lense. Take a good look at it, does it need a thorough clean maybe using a cutting compound and some elbow grease, say Safe Cut or similar and polish the lamp unit.
As your brakes sound neglected perhaps 5 is a brake fluid change needed which would be done probably when the pipes are overhauled.
6 with a wall and a manual you might be able to realign the lamps yourself.
I would be asking what your last MOT through up, your car has been sorn so either you did an enormouse amount of miles in the last couple months or you took a different car to the MOT, tyres wear but not that fast really roughly about 1000 miles a mm though knackered suspension excelorates wear. Re maintenance has the cam belt been changed, it is every 5 years or 80k miles, which ever occurs first for the 1.7.
Glad to read your are working again.
You might try a search in the Dealer Praise and Woe section and turf up a garage near you that others have used.
Good luck.

[lunamense87]

Hi guys,

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply

I'm going to have a go at fixing most of the items myself;
1- I'll get a new set of discs and pads for the front, new shoes for the rear drums, flush the brake fluid & bleed it out.
2- Get some new tyres and hopefully pick up a new spring and install it myself.
3- Install a new Rear wheel bearing.
4 - Install 2 new brake flexi hoses.


Hopefully that should reduce the bill at a garage for the other items! I'm not comfortable with much of the other stuff, but considering I was quoted nearly £1000 for these repairs I think they were extracting the urine a bit. On a related note, does anyone know of any Kat loving garages near the Cardigan area in Wales? SA43 2HD area... that would help immensely!


Merry Xmas to all too!
-luna.