What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?

[portland_bill]

This Fiesta..

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Now you're probably thinking "i've seen 8 of those today and I've not even left the house"..and yes they are about as interesting as the lamppost it's parked beside.

However this one turned up in the summer..and it's defining characteristic is that it's always there. Always, day and night 7 days a week.

Was just one of those oddities you ignore until the other day, walked past, back seat is folded down the engine is in the boot.

Wow Ford...4 years good job.

Almost certainly the 3cyl Ecoboost. Quite fragile in later years, and also if not driven sympathetically, or oil changes are missed. The wet cambelt does like fresh oil.
If it becomes an eyesore, your local authority website will probably have a way to report an abandoned car. Or watch with anticipation, as the owner tries to source a good replacement. Replacements are available, good ones, a bit rarer.

 

[vexorg]

it leaves the van vulnerable to theft, containing everyones dreams. Insurance will not cover theft if left running and open, and I doubt the driver can afford to replace all the lost parcels.

Not their van, not their parcels, and selfishly view of it as not their problem. The modern way to be these days for a lot of people.

 

[portland_bill]

Not their van, not their parcels, and selfishly view of it as not their problem. The modern way to be these days for a lot of people.

Around here, they're mostly owner/operators, paid per parcel, so it is their van. I doubt the delivery company will want to wear the cost of losses if the van had effectively been given away.
A lot of the branded parcel vans are leased by the driver, and they're self-employed, paid by the parcel. A difficult way to earn, until established and moved onto the more lucrative routes.

 

[irc]

the engine is in the boot.

Wow Ford...4 years good job.

Ahhh... the joys of the EcoBurst engine.
One day you're sitting in traffic, thinking everything is good and then...
It just goes pop. No warning.

Not one of Fords high points.

 

[StevenRB45]

Almost certainly the 3cyl Ecoboost. Quite fragile in later years, and also if not driven sympathetically, or oil changes are missed. The wet cambelt does like fresh oil.
If it becomes an eyesore, your local authority website will probably have a way to report an abandoned car. Or watch with anticipation, as the owner tries to source a good replacement. Replacements are available, good ones, a bit rarer.

Of course the ecoburst has a name for itself I'm just amazed that it's not even got near it's later years. This is the later version so should have all "Fixes" in place.

MOT suggests it's not crossed 40k miles yet and it's been dead at least 6 months so was likely dead shortly after it's 4th birthday.

I suspect it'll disappear once the MOT runs out.. although it's of the age that the (probably second) owner is likely still paying finance on it.

Just amazed it's gone pop so young even with poor maintenance that's lived for about 10 minutes.

 

[portland_bill]

Just amazed it's gone pop so young even with poor maintenance that's lived for about 10 minutes.

They will give blistering performance when pushed hard. The 123hp will go to 75mph in 2nd gear, the 100hp will go to about 65mph in 2nd. Great for joining dual carriageways on short slip roads, or for very quick overtakes. Never a problem when it is not yours, and it will be with you for 12 months only. (Avoid ex-driving school cars)
I'm guessing this one has been used in a similar fashion, but regularly, not just occasionally, so it went pop.

The turbo is water cooled. If driven normally, this seems fine. If driven briskly, then stopped, the coolant boils in the turbo, quite spectacularly, pushing steam violently into the expansion tank. I used to have a student near the top of a long straight hill. Up the hill at 60 all the way, turn into his drive, turn the car around and switch off. Moments later, loud gurgling from under the bonnet. A 'characteristic', but will shorten the life of the turbo.

 

[StevenRB45]

I'm still baffled as to why Ford didn't join the height of late 90s technology and have an electric water pump to cool the turbo while the engine was off... nevermind going the whole way and accepting you are building a turbo engine for stop start and adding an auxiliary oil pump that can circulate it without the engine on.

Strangely enough ours has both...and similar performance as a 123bhp (the 1.0 doesn't produce as much torque so overall speed ends up about the same)..and other than accepted wet belt issues has nowhere near as many cases of them just going bang. Usually it's someone leaves the belt for too long then ignores the oil light if it's gonna go but that's usually a good 8 years into the cars life if not more.

Although as an engine it's fitted to cars less likely to be remapped and driven by an absolute shaft than the ecoburst.

 

[vexorg]

Very odd with boiling the water in the turbo, water cooled turbos have been around for year without any issue. It was always the non-water cooled ones that you had to watch and allow a cool down, but water ones were a case of switch off by the time you've parked.

 

[StevenRB45]

I'm fairly certain it's pretty much unheard of as most turbo cars and even stop start cars have an auxiliary water pump not driven off the engine.

This is mainly used so when the engine is off the coolant can still be cycled for cabin heating but given it's still circulating coolant through the system it shouldn't then boil in the turbo.

A quick Google suggests this engine does indeed have 2 water pumps...one engine driven and one electric auxiliary. Unless of course Ford in their infinite wisdom ignition switched it...

 

[portland_bill]

I had several of the things, and apart from a few minutes of fan running, nothing else ran after switch off. I guess the electric water pump was ignition switched. Typical Ford genius.

 

[AndyRKett]

Wow Ford...4 years good job.

I dare say that with these sort of cars being bought on PCP deals where people stretch themselves to the limits of their budget just to have a "new" car and get one up on their friends. Then as they are already at their limit they skimp on things like servicing and repairs. Covid means they probably didn't use it for a year, so it had probably gone 4 years without servicing and when it was used, was probably abused.

Any car that is not looked after is not going to last long.

 

[vexorg]

I'd have said the opposite, I thought PCP would have meant more dealer servicing since they have all the penalties at the end if not looked after right.

 

[StevenRB45]

Same here, if you batter a PCP or lease car outside of what's allowed in the agreement you get hammered for it.

So bad driving not a problem as long as it doesn't leave a mark but if you skip service then the penalties at the end of a lease or the value you get at the end of the PCP are pretty big.

At the end of the day, if you hand it back unwarrantyable then you've harmed the value of their asset significantly most approved used schemes only take cars with full history so it would end up at auction.

Either way though...less than 4 years or 40k would suggest there's very little mechanical "goodwill" in that engine no wonder they have a rep as soon as they drop out of the dealer network and get treated like people treat small cheap cars they'll pop.

 

[AndyRKett]

When someone sees the car as either being traded in or given back after 3 years they don't see that car as their own and so don't look after it.
These people then make zero effort to look after it.

When I worked in the trade, you would not believe the state of some of the cars that came back to us either as repossessions, or they traded it in again for another car.

Often people would stop paying for the car after any sort of serious mechanical problem, as they didn't want to pay to have it fixed so would literally abandon the car which could be a very new or very valuable car, but because they didn't have the money to repair it, they didn't car what happened to it.

We had cars that were sold on 3-4 year deals and they would come back at the end of that term having not had a single service done in that time.

 

[bugsymike]

I have seen Motobility cars with excessive rust as the occupants would park on the seafront watching the waves breaking.

 

[StevenRB45]

Think the point there though is, you saw them because they still ran.

They'd get an oil change, deep clean and sent back out and the likelihood is the next owner ran it exactly the same way then chopped it in, whereby the garage would again fix anything obviously broken and send it back out.

Eventually at about the 3rd owner...it would start biting properly...and the owner would likely turn up on the internet complaining how X car manufacturer make crap cars when there is a reasonable chance the issues they are currently seeing are due to the previous 2 owners hammering it into the ground for 7-8 years..

This hasn't even lasted possibly past it's first owner. Not to say maintenance is unimportant but in most cases you can get fairly significant gaps in the history and thing will apparently have no real ill effects.

It might die at 120k rather than the 200k it might have done if serviced but so soon is bad. Although of course he could have money shifted it....

 

[bugsymike]

Had a BT contractor set up a cherry picker across my drive to access a telegraph pole, no contact, luckily I wasn't going out, but the guy over the road couldn't get out to take his daughter to work as the operator had just left it with orange lights flashing and gone several doors up on the other side of the road to his mate presumably doing some cable work there. I saw where he was and told my neighbour so he could "ask" the driver to move.
The contractor was totally oblivious to how his actions affect others or just didn't give a sh*t.

 

[vexorg]

We had cars that were sold on 3-4 year deals and they would come back at the end of that term having not had a single service done in that time.

But you'd take a huge chink of money off the value, and then being good honest sales people, mark down the car for resale stating that it hadn't been fully looked after

 

[StevenRB45]

But you'd take a huge chink of money off the value, and then being good honest sales people, mark down the car for resale stating that it hadn't been fully looked after

When I sold my Uno many many years ago I had a giggle at the Ad which proudly proclaimed "service history".

It was technically correct in that I'd supplied it with all the bills I'd paid during in my 9 month tenure of the car, they were numerous as it was a dog that was a low miles OAP owned garaged car all of sudden brought out into the northern winter and subjected to a 17 year old.

The other 12 years of the cars life...there was absolutely Nada.

It's not a lie...it's just bending the truth.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Continuing the carer saga, here is a short video to make you both smile, and cry.
I have a cheap webcam (great as a webcam) set up to look out the window. Each week when the bins are out, I set it running to record. Frequently, the bin men will walk past my waste food bin, even after emptying my neighbours (hers not out today). Then when I request they revisit, they will deny it was out, making it my fault, so no return visit. The video brings them back, used it twice now. Picture quality is poor, as it is not designed for this distance, or through the double glazing, but it works. Vids are deleted once bins are empty.

You will watch, as the carer arrives, and tries to park on the drive, already full of Panda and Doblo. She hits the waste food bin, rescued by my neighbour. Then there's a delay, until she gets out, and realises her car is stuck out into the road. It takes a few moments of confusion, before realising that the line of parked vehicles across the road has space for three Fiestas. The surprise is something to behold.
View attachment 433684

This highlights a problem many suffer from. When looking for a specific thing, such as one house, the brain closes down on the picture, and fails to see 'the bigger picture'. Planning earlier, and scanning more makes this easier. Entering the road, one should be scanning for all issues, as well as potential parking places, then when the address is located, the parking decision will already have been made.

Oh deers. She should go to Brain Savers. Clearly the Panda is not the right colour to be visible and of course anyway, its too BIG.