Not a good few days

[FrattonEnder]

Not had too much luck this year with the fleet. All three have needed cash chucking at them in some shape or form to get them running. ZT needed new rack, rear brakes & front drop links. Mondeo needed new shocks and the Mini needed new front springs.


So, this weekend took my daughter back to unit in the Mondeo. Good run down to the South coast, apart from the hour's delay on the M4 because of a sunken road surface shut two lanes. Return run started well, until the timing belt went in the roadworks on the M27. All belts had been done on the schedule and she's done less than 20k sinec the timing belt was done. Managed to haul her off between the cones to the hard shoulder for what turned into a monumental three-legged home trip, taking almost 5 hours. So glad I switched back to the AA this year! Anyway, looking at a right-off here I reckon, so will be searching for a new daily driver load lugger.


Took the ZT to pick the other half up from work yesterday. All fine until I started reversing up the drive. Sounded like I was ripping the rear wheel arch liners out. It was pitch black and there's not a huge amount of space on the drive, so won't be investigating until the weekend. Strangely, it's only when I reverse.


So today, I'm pootling around in my daughter's Mini Cooper. Not as nippy as I'm expecting and sounding a tiny bit asthmatic, so I'm wondering what's up with that. Can't really face the prospect of going from 3 usable cars to zero in the course of a week!
Hey ho, the joys of motoring!

[planenut]

Good luck for overcoming these trials.

[macafee2]

well, lets hope that as it comes in threes you have had all the bad luck you are going to have.

Bad news about the Mondeo, don't often hear about them stuffing their engines.

macafee2

[FrattonEnder]

Originally Posted by macafee2

Bad news about the Mondeo, don't often hear about them stuffing their engines.

That was one reason I went for the Mondeo when my ZS got written off - the bullet proof (relative to the K-series) diesel 1.8 - that and the need to get something cheapish to go on hols 5 days later, but if a timing belt wants to go walkabout while doing 50... There was enough of a metallic thud when it went to suggest I wasn't fortunate enough to not have a mangled set of valves. I might get oily at the weekend and take a look under the cam cover to see if there's anything that can be done that doesn't involve shelling out four figures. And by four figures, I don't mean £10.99!

[FrattonEnder]

After a spot of reading up, I'm not going to bother with even taking a look at the Mondeo engine. Apparently the timing belt on the 1.8 diesel is a twin belt set up - one toothed belt from the crank to the fuel pump and a V-belt from the pump to the cam. It's the toothed belt garages miss at the timing belt service interval, as earlier versions of the 'Lynx' engine had a chain drive from the crank to the pump. My later one was the toothed belt.
Because of the compression ratio and the minimal tolerances, valve, piston and cam damage is all but guaranteed. So, it'll be a farewell to the trusty load lugger and I'll be back here later to ask for the collective wisdom of the forum as to what's a good buy for a daily driver.