My Fiesta is playing up again. All year I have had brake light warning lights, each time my mechanic has found minor problems with the brakes and fixed them all including four new pads.
I had it served in October and all was fine, no problems with oil burning at all. In Feb after 3500 miles since the service I noticed it needed a top up, I asked my mechanic what oil he used and he said 10/40 full synth. Research on here suggests that is fine for the old push rod unit I have. About 500 miles later I noticed the engine started to sound old (had 65k at this point) like the tappets needed adjusting.
Had the front bushes done and the rear drums cleaned out in March and two weeks ago the brake light warning light came on again. I noticed the fluid level was low. I took it back to my mechanic who keep appoligisng for not topping it up, but I was there when he did this and know for the fact the fluid was topped up to maximum. He said he has done everything to brakes and knows for a fact they are not leaking but there is this other problem with a funny noise at low speeds. He then suggests the hydraulic clutch is most likely at fault and this would be a major job so keep the car it will breaks.
I checked the fluids last night (after 600 miles since I last checked it) and noticed the oil was below minimum but the pressure light is not coming on and the water was on min despite it being on max last time I checked (engine cold both times).
I have topped them both up now, but the car stalled 3 times today, is this likely to back up what my mechanic says about the clutch? There is also a low speed judder though the coil pack etc is original (from 97) so I assumed it was just that.
The oil is also a mystery as there is no signs of blue smoke or any oil leaks around the rocker gasket or sump.
Just want some advice to why my car is suddenly loosing all these fluids. MOT is in August and I would have been happy to spend £250 getting it through but now I am not sure.
Is there anything I can do to test these points mentioned?
The car has done 69,000 miles now.
Thanks
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have you checked your paranoia levels recently?
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My mate told me I was being paronoid but after 3 weeks I thought I best check oil the again, only to discover it was way below minimum but it was on max last time I checked.
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fair doo's , the reason i asked is i find it easy to get paranoid about cars ,bikes etc etc but i find it helps to invest in a haynes manual and read it from cover to cover over several cups of tea ...cheers
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I had a car which lost brake fluid but there was no visible leak. I persuaded the dealer to look in the servo and, lo and behold, it was full of brake fluid! The fluid was being lost from the pushrod end of the master cylinder into the servo.
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OK Thanks. With the oil I will just keep an eye on things, there is no obvious blue smoke yet so at least that is something. It occurred to me last night that maybe the top end is sounding so noisy because it is being starved of oil?
Either way i can't afford to have anything done to it till August now :(.
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Best advice I could give you Rattle, would be to buy a Haynes manual, Car mechanics every month and some tools. Then seriously get into learning how to do the work yourself.
I don`t know how anyone could survive running old bangers and putting all the work out to the trade.
Being a Fiesta the scrapyards will be full of spares and knowledge on how to do everything all pervasive, from the pub, to the many internet forums.
I thought you had dropped the rusty old Fords anyway, for a Galvanised Seicento?
regards ;)
Edited by oilrag on 23/04/2008 at 14:07
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Fill it up with 10w40 semi-syth (as a maximum specification). Fully synthetic is overkill and your mechanic should know this. It won't do any harm to your top end though.
These engines don't turn there oil light on even with NO oil on the dipstick!
Brakes are a worry, not a paranoia. Fill them back up for now and keep an eye on them. Chances are something will have bedded down and lost you a bit of fluid from the top.
I've got an original Ford DIS coil pack from 1989 at 90k and that's still fine, don't assume to blame it particularly if there's no mis-firing.
Look around for blue dried coolant around the pipe joints, and check for play in the water pump. You'll find your pump soon enough.
Edited by mfarrow on 23/04/2008 at 14:41
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You'll find your pump soon enough.
I meant leak.
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It is semi synth. Yep my old Fiesta was scrapped, this is a new onw which I bought in August and had not too many problems with it until now.
The idle control valve was cleaned out not so long ago, so I doubt it that. It hasn't staled today.
The odd thing is I had a fault last year with the engine running hot, but after fixing the over revving problem it is a lot better though I suspect the water pump is quite right as it is noisy.
There is a bit of solid stuff round the union clips going into the thermostat like dried anti freeze. but I have felt this for a good 5 minutes and there is no sign of any water leaking from there.
I am just going to leave it as it is, but check the fluids on a weekly basis then in August get the tappets done, the oil changed, the water pump checked and hopefully by then if there is a problem with the clutch it would show. At the moment there isn't really any symptoms of clutch failure at all other than loss of brake fluid.
I will need new brake pipes for the MOT anyway most likely.
Is there anything I can do for now to test the brakes and the clutch? What slack am I checking in the water pump? The belt?
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No, the spindle behind the pulley. I would run the engine up to operating temperature, when the cooling system is pressurised before looking for leaks. Then look very closely at the bottom of the waterpump area, engine running . If its not leaking i wouldn`t bother taking the belt off to check for play. Just keep it under observation.
Doing those tappets and oil change are dead easy with a Haynes manual, by the way, I bet the waterpump is too, but I`m not familiar with access in this engine.
Brakes are are safety issue, let the garage check it if you are not skilled in that area.
I feel like posting you a Haynes ;)
regards
Edited by oilrag on 23/04/2008 at 18:13
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Update, stalling problem has disappeared now the oil level is full again (strange?). There is some internal rusting on the brake servo so I am going to get that checked out, is it normal for servo's to start bubbeling?
There is a minor leak from the rocker gasket but no where else, not sure where the rest of the oil is going as the emissions seem clean, athlough the rear box tail is quite rusty.
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Was it your previous Fiesta , or this one, that attracted about 60 posts advising using a thicker oil, but you decided not to?
Or was it someone else?
Edited by oilrag on 25/04/2008 at 17:28
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It probably was me but I did use thicker oil 20/50 which did make the car run smooth and did hide the blue smoke problem. However three weeks later it would not start, as my mum kept banging on about the fact we needed a 5 door car I decided it was time to scrap it.
Actually I had already bought my new Fiesta before I scrapped my old one, I had intended to sell it for £250 needing repairs, but then it refused to start so I just cut my losses as I did not have time to investigated.
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ah..I thought this was your old car..
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You should be able to check for water pump play without taking the belt off if it's not been put on too tightly - simply a case of grabbing the pulley and wriggling it up and down.
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