Bangernomics

albash82

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I moved on my old E39 530i sport touring in February, just before fuel went silly. It was about to start costing me lots to keep it nice, which I couldn't afford, so I thought I'd move it on, rather than run it into the ground.
I've had 2 of them (named "The Chancellor" Mk1 & Mk2). If you don't know about the joys of E39 ownership, then you're missing out.

Anyway, I discovered I didn't need a car straight away and then in July, ended up in a mates old family car, an E91 (3 series 320i se touring).
He said I could have it for £500. He's mechanically looked after it meticulously as it's been their workhorse. He told me the valve stem seals are on their way out, so it was burning oil. Engine rebuild (head off, anyway) to fix it, so not worth it. He said he reckoned it'd do a couple of years so told me to MOT it and whatever it cost to pass, to knock off the £500 before I paid him.
It failed. Emissions. Catalytic converter dead. £650 ish to replace. That, on top of the fact the gearbox was ridiculously stiff and flaring up an old shoulder injury, meant we agreed I wouldn't be buying it.
He wasn't in a hurry to shift it as he'd he'd got a new motor, so told me to use it until I sorted something. It still had a few months of the old mot left. We used it for a North Wales family holiday and I've commuted in it a little bit. Bloody shame really, but it's gone to an old mate who's a BMW breaker.

So next up, I was about to take the plunge and buy myself an 8 year old Skoda Yeti. Fancied one for a while as heard they're awesome and it'd be a great family car for us...

But then, out of the blue, a mate rang me and said his girlfriend's mum has a 2008 focus that's been sat sorn for a year and she only wants few hundred for it. He knew I needed a motor and that the bonnet was stuck down and battery had gone flat. She didn't drive much, so just registered it sorn in September '21.
We looked into the broken bonnet lock on YouTube. It opens with the key and they're prone to getting stuck. So I went over that Sunday, with a socket set, a selection of big screwdrivers, a claw hammer and a battery.

Spent a few mins smashing the mechanism off, pulled some more out with long nose pliers, put big flat screwdriver in and, hey presto, bonnet opened.
Switched out the battery and it started first turn!
She only wanted £100 for it in the end. Deal done there and then, logbook sorted online, easy-peasy.
1.8 tdci, focus estate, Titanium spec, in that very noticeable ford light blue metallic. 113k on clock.
It was full of dog, old dog bed in boot, very hairy. The centre console very crusty and dirty and the car had a good stink. Car full of random shizz.
So I left it there, came home, booked an MOT online with the local council depot. Handy service for getting in quick.
I knew it'd fail as the windscreen washers didn't work. Looked into fixing this and decided I could probably sort it, but the test was in the morning, so put it through and see what else it needed...
Fail list:
-washer not working
-suspension arm bush worn (x2)
- tyre has a large cut
- undertray not secure

Drove straight to a garage near my house, handed the dude the fail sheet and asked him to fix it please. He said he could make a.start that afternoon (no riot contact made), win!
So anyway, I picked it up Friday afternoon, after he's done the above, plus the aux belt tensioner, which was about to come off, as the bolt had snapped off.
£600 bill.
I've bought a 2nd hand grill, a new bonnet lock, 6L oil, air, cabin and oil filters and an odour bomb, to hopefully nail the dog smell.
So all-in, I'm at £885 including the mot.

A mate of mine has even been trickle charging the dead battery and it's holding 13.0v, so that's a win too.

So far I've spent a few hours with some stiff brushes and a hoover and the interior is coming up really well.

Retest is tomorrow, so it should pass. Wait til Thursday to tax it. Start diving it!

I'm really excited about it. It's weird as it's such an undesirable car, and especially since I've spent 7 or 8 years in a beautiful 5 series.

I think just the thriftiness of the whole situation, the satisfaction of getting it going, getting thru an MOT (even though I've not done any of the spannering), cleaning it up... It really appeals to me!
I'm hoping it's going to be a keeper, the more time I spend in it (not much yet, admittedly), the more I like it.

So I need to drop the oil out of it and change all the filters. Replace the grill and the bonnet lock. Borrow my brother's wet hoover to complete the interior before I set off the smelly grenades inside....
Then I know it's good.

Anyway, if you've got this far, well done. Don't think I've ever written a post this long before. I just wanted to share this with whoever might read it.

Photo below is what my.mate sent me before any of us touched it
Screenshot_20220830-235027__01__01.jpg
 
Cracking job! My brother sells quite a few Focus' people seem to love them.
I think having the spec of the titanium probably helps your transition too.
Look forward to seeing the finished pictures!
 
My cousin had a Focus for ages, it was a great car. We even came close to buying one ourselves, the estate like yours has a huge boot for a medium-sized car. The one we test drove was an auto, it was a CVT and *horrible*. Then my wife saw something different that she preferred the colour of, so we got that instead. Women huh.

I definitely did the bonnet release on my cousin's Focus, I don't remember the exact detail, but I'm sure it didn't involve smashing anything !

I love bangernomics and being frugal. Currently driving a 2007 diesel MINI, it's done over 200k miles, we did a family trip to Germany last week, for 600 miles it averaged 74mpg :cool:
 
That's right in the era of the dry joint clocks, keep a couple of hundred quid aside to fix it. Clocks out, sent away, clock's fixed, back in = lots of weird faults cured

There is a part of the workshop we call 'focus corner' for this very reason
 
Nice. I have a 2005 MK1 Focus Cmax ghia 1.8 petrol which was the main family car for about 12 years until a couple of years ago. We have owned it for 14yrs and now with a big labradoodle dog, it is ideal for getting him around, plus kids. Wife has a 2013 focus 1.0 zetec which has more modern tech for her and for town driving and kids to school. The Cmax has 63k and I only cover around 3k a year in it. It is good mechanical order, body is good, some minor rust on bottom sill to sort, and usually passes Mot each year. It is not very expensive to keep or run for me and as much as I would love a more modern motor, it doesn't make financial sense for me. Focus cars are a decent drive and are relatively inexpensive to keep going providing they are not neglected, much the same with most mechanical machinery really!
 
Well, I wasn't sure after such a huge rambling post that anyone would be bothered to read it haha.

It passed its MOT today. No advisories!

I even downloaded the couch to 5k app and planned my route to pick the car up this evening from the test centre. Hope my legs are ok in the morning!
IMG_20220831_194635.jpg
Screenshot_20220831-214058__01.jpg

Stopped in to see my brother in law on the way back and I think he was even more excited about it than I am!
I watched a few videos on detailing an interior today and I think I'll really get into it and get it spotless. It does seem bizarre to me on such a seemingly crappy car, but.... Why not eh?
I might even polish a car for the first time in my life 😂

Here's a video I took to show some of my mates the state of the boot after I took the dog bed out last week.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YWfi2Tzw5h7VPog6A
Then this is how it's looking after I've brushed and hoovered it out.
IMG_20220830_083315.jpg

I'll complete sorting the interior, then I'll get the exterior done. Not sure when I'll get chance... Might do a bit at work before I start, early doors tomorrow.

It seems to have a decent stereo. A Sony/Ford unit. Since it'd had no power, it needed a code, but a quick Google took me to an eBay product and for 99p I'd got the code I needed after reading the sellers instructions on how to get the radio to tell me the serial number without removing it from the dash. When I'd entered the code, the first track that played on the radio was Bob Marley - 3 little birds... I was very happy.

So I've found a few CDs in the shed that I'll chuck in. My old Bluetooth receiver / FM transmitter from the beemer, died at the start of this year, but I think I'll use it as an excuse to dig out my cd collection, rather than just plug Spotify in.
 
How can you get so excited about a focus esp after a E39!!!

I had one sliver 1.8tdci

Needed a clutch after pulling an overweight 1.3t + caravan to Cornwall but apart from that it was reliable but boring.

Eventually it started leaking diesel from the injectors so I sold it.
 
That's a bargain as when I was looking at similar age Titanium estates a while back you were looking at £3000 min.

I hate old cars now though having sold our lovely, big, comfy 3 year old car when prices were high and our miles were low then getting an 11 year old X1only for the clutch to pop in Paris which is costing between £1500 and £3000 depending how much we can claim back. That, on top of the £500 for tyres before we left (looked fine when viewed but tracking was out and were badly worn on the inside) means we have saved no money at all and had plenty of stress.
 

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