Michel's Motors

[Michel]

Seeing as it's a "fun" car, I have decided it may get some mods. The wheel trims are horrible and broken, so it's going to get them binned off. I shall clean the steel wheels, up, paint them white with a lacquer coat and while I'm at it, paint the calipers and rear drums bright red for a giggle. I'll use proper paint, but it will be all tongue-in-cheek. I'm also going to get plenty of leopard-print tat for the inside. It will all be removable, of course, but it'll amuse me no end. Oh, and eyelashes..

It's already been named "Jodie", after my gym instructor, as it's small and noisy..

[Zelandeth]

You forgot one very important mod: the milled alloy gearknob from a Puma.

[Michel]

You forgot one very important mod: the milled alloy gearknob from a Puma.

Puma - the only car I've had to wear gloves in winter to drive, because of that very gearknob! Had one over winter 2008 and 2009, it got down to -15 more than once . Icy cold thing to use at 6am going to work!

[Zelandeth]

Cold in the winter, yes...but what a wonderfully nice tactile thing - right up there with the wooden steering wheel I had in the Cappuccino. Seem to recall that description also summing up the action of the Puma's gearshift too.

...thought springs to mind, what's the gate pattern on them again? Is reverse to the right and back?

[Michel]

Cold in the winter, yes...but what a wonderfully nice tactile thing - right up there with the wooden steering wheel I had in the Cappuccino. Seem to recall that description also summing up the action of the Puma's gearshift too.

...thought springs to mind, what's the gate pattern on them again? Is reverse to the right and back?

Our first Puma was a wonderful thing. It had sticky road-legal slicks on it, a lovely, lovely gearchange and fantastic handling. It is the one and only car I've ever had that I could do anything I liked, cornering or handling wise with. You just *knew* exactly what it was going to do, at every bend. We only sold it because it was too small when the baby came along. I got another, but it wasn't in as good condition, sadly.

Standard Ford pattern. reverse right and back. It's got an old Escort/Sierra style knob on it, and a Lancashire knob behind the wheel..

[daviemck2006]

Ive driven two of those style of ka, both were relatively low mileage and both were so surprisingly good to drive, and both were falling to bits with rust! I have also had a 50 mile drive of a new ka, the one which is basically a fiat 500 in disguise and it was crap in comparision.

[CitroJim]

That really is a littler cracker Mike Excellent!!!

I too am amazed to see the old Valencia has multi-point injection... In fact amazed equally to see an OHV engine in such a late car... With Fraud having the little (and rather good) 16v Zetec 1.25 in its portfolio it's a big surprise the Valencia lasted as long as it did...

Rough they are... Dad had a Fester and a Ka with the Valencia - they made the BMC A-Series (another OHV survivor) seem almost refined!!!

I wonder if the Ka was the last mass-produced car to have an OHV engine?

[Michel]

That really is a littler cracker Mike Excellent!!!

I too am amazed to see the old Valencia has multi-point injection... In fact amazed equally to see an OHV engine in such a late car... With Fraud having the little (and rather good) 16v Zetec 1.25 in its portfolio it's a big surprise the Valencia lasted as long as it did...

Rough they are... Dad had a Fester and a Ka with the Valencia - they made the BMC A-Series (another OHV survivor) seem almost refined!!!

I wonder if the Ka was the last mass-produced car to have an OHV engine?

It has hilarious accessories like a cassette player (Sam : "what's a cassette dad?") and manually adjustable tappets!

You'd be unsurprised that there were Yanks and at least one Vauxhall being made with pushrods after the Ka MK1 finished - the Corvette with the LS02 engine still had pushrods, and this engine was used in the Vauxhall Monaro too..

[CitroJim]

It has hilarious accessories like a cassette player (Sam : "what's a cassette dad?") and manually adjustable tappets!

Just like my Saxo then! Reminds me, I need to do my tappets at some point... I can just hear them...

Strikes me that your Ka, like my Saxo is too good as a winter car Mike... Yours is potentially the only decent Ka left on the road and needs to be preserved!

I'm not going to run my Saxo in the salty, dark depths of the winter... The 207 can do duty on such days

[Michel]

ha, mine has plenty of vicar-related body scars on it Jim, it's not as shiny as the pics make it look.

[CitroJim]

ha, mine has plenty of vicar-related body scars on it Jim, it's not as shiny as the pics make it look.

Cameras are good at lying when it come to car pictures. They say the camera never lies but when it comes to cars they certainly do!

[Michel]

Cameras are good at lying when it come to car pictures. They say the camera never lies but when it comes to cars they certainly do!

Here is a great example of that. I've always liked these and went to look at this very one before I bought the Picasso..

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified ... 0039895985

It's a complete shed. Filthy, knackered leaky clutch slave cylinder, scratches, dents and rust all over it..

[Zelandeth]

Think Skoda were still using the 135 OHV engine as far as the Fabia as well... essentially the alloy headed version of the motor from the Estelle's.

[Michel]

Well, today was a very frustrating day all told. First of all... the Focus is still leaking oil.

Focus oil leak

This is behind the engine. I think it's probably a turbo feed or something. It's spraying oil on the heater hose pipes - only a very little bit and it's not actually using much at all, but it's getting on the hot exhaust below and filling the car with stinky smells. So, I politely (ish) voiced my displeasure at them not having resolved it first time. I understand why they didn't - it was obvious the oil filter housing was leaking before, and that was at the front of the motor. That was changed at great expense, but they missed the leak at the back.

They asked me to take it back again, to Camberly, a 17 mile drive. I did so begrudgingly on the promise that courtesy car would be waiting for me at 12pm at the garage arranged by the dealer (The dealer uses a reputable garage about 15 mins away from their showroom), but the garage had no cars available today, so the dealer promised to have me one of their cars there. They did... at 1.20pm. I had sat around for an hour and 20 mins waiting, so I was getting a tad frustrated, but my new mantra of "f@ck it" helps me stay calm.

So, I got my courtesy car. To be on topic for the FCF, helpfully, it was a 107.

So, that's a 107 with a duff headlight - helpful when I work nights, and a completely missing rear wiper blade, so the arm tapped on the rear screen annoyingly. Couple this with the empty washer bottle and pretty empty fuel tank - last bar flashing , my mantra was wearing thin. I called in at the local factors and bought an H4 Bulb and a rear wiper blade for the Ka, as that was worn out. I swapped the old blade from the Ka onto the 107. I then sent them an email (all comms via email since the oil leak appeared) detailing the issues with the 107, that it wasn't acceptable and I'd had to stop and repair it myself. To be fair to them, I've written them some pretty harsh but polite emails the last few days, and they haven't taken the bait and argued back. They sent me a very polite email apologizing profusely, thanking me for sorting the car out, and said they'll get the Focus valeted as a sweetner for me before I collect it. We shall see..

That was before I realised the funny smell in the 107 was an exhaust leak into the cabin, giving me a headache. I recognised the smell from my 2CV days when I had a head seal leaking into the heater system! Driving with the window open in the rain, great.

I got home and decided the only thing to do was to sit in front of my SAD lamp for half an hour, it really makes a difference!

I then went and hammered myself at the gym to work out some of the day, and came up with a solution to the non-working radio in the Ka.. my portable bluetooth speaker which charges off USB, and my phone. The speaker fits nicely in the glovebox! I expect it sounds a lot better than 15 year old Ka speakers too..

[Zelandeth]

I pity you changing that bulb too...it's a swine of a job. I remove the headlight to do it as it's easier. Assuming the pre facelift car has the headlight as close to the suspension turret as the later cars anyway.