Author |
Topic: Grrrr (Read 1255 times) |
|
pete from Hull
Senior Member
Non Scorpio at the moment, but still interested...
 
Posts: 1365
|
I just spent about 45 mins typing a posting and clicked to review it, cos I hadn't filled the subject in it didn't work, I clicke the back button and low and behold the typing has gone.... anyone know if I can reteive it or do I have to re type it all again?
Pete
Well here goes
I bought my 1999 Scorpio Ultima2.3 back in June this year, I got it on e-bay for 1020 pounds and went to pick it up from Nuneaton I think it was, other than the picture in the description I hadn’t even seen the car so I was a little apprehensive on my way down there.
I needn’t have worried though ‘cos apart from only having enough petrol in for 1 mile (as shown on the fuel gauge) the car was exactly as it was described, I didn’t even start it up. I drove it to the petrol station and filled up. On the way home the car performed very well and I was very pleased.
One of the reasons for getting the 2.3 was because I tow a caravan and I had heard the engine was more powerful than the 2ltr auto, the first job was to swap the tow bar over, this was not too difficult, just meant dropping the diff a little in order to get the back bracket on, the wiring was just a case of copying off my other car as I took it off.
Next job was to get the car converted, I did my research and decided on having the Prinz system fitted by Autogas Yorkshire just round the corner from me, booking it in I was told they would want the car for one week so I took it in on the Monday to be picked up the following Tuesday, on the Thursday I needed some keys which were in the car so I went to the garage to pick them up, THEY HADN’T EAVEN STARTED WORK ON IT! I was quite disappointed because although they had lent me a Saab 99, it was like driving round in a mobile farmyard, I think they had been transporting pigs in it. I was assured that they would have the car ready for the Tuesday, I said it better had be as we were going on holiday.
On the Tuesday I got a call to say the car was ready, I arrived at the workshop to see the mechanic still beavering away in the engine bay, I liked what I saw of the conversion until I looked in the boot, I had ordered the biggest tank to be mounted in the boot, I saw no tank…. I said, “Where’s the tank?” he said “in the spare wheel well” “Oh No” I said, I ordered the boot tank you have fitted the doughnut type.
A very embarrassed mechanic looked ashen white, he said he would swap it for the correct tank but it would have to be tomorrow… Anyway eventually I got my car back, he had put me 20 litres of gas it as compensation, I wouldn’t mind but I PAID 2000 quid for the conversion to be done.
After a few short runs to test the gas out, we spent a couple of weeks down in Tavistock, the car towed the caravan beautifully, not a problem. During the course of the holiday it started to run a little lumpy, I didn’t worry as I had been told it had to be adjusted after 2000 miles. It felt good to be filling up for 22 quid a time, I was getting about 240 miles from a tankful. The gas tank is 90litres capacity although you only access about 70 litres the rest is left in the tank for safety reasons?
The engine runs more smoothly than with petrol and over the course of time I think it became more powerful and perky especially after the 2000-mile service.
We were in Bristol visiting our son in hospital when the clutch on the aircon pump started to smell, on returning home I swapped the pump for the one off the other car and paid 60quid for a re-gas. All was well again so the following weekend we set off again to visit the lad in Bristol. Cruising along at 70 on the M5 with a lovely blast of freezing cold air in my face when suddenly the engine started to die, I made my way over to the hard shoulder and ground to a halt. I couldn’t believe it! What do I do now, what is wrong? Panic struck as I realised that I had never been in that position before in more than 30 years of driving, I gathered my thoughts
as I pulled the bonnet catch, I opened the door and as I climbed out there was an almighty cloud of white steam emanating from the exhaust pipe…. Oh No, immediately, visions of split cylinder head gaskets passed before my eyes followed by more pound signs….
I wasn’t even a member of the RAC, never considered the need, always done my own repairs (I am now a fully paid up member of the RAC.) The bonnet opened and I peered in, the first thing I noticed was the remains of the auxiliary drive belt wrapped around the aircon pipes etc, I thought to myself, if the drive belt has broken there may not be as much damage as one would expect because the temperature gauge was reading normal and the engine cut out pretty quickly it shouldn’t have had time to overheat.
To Be Continued....
|
|
 IP Logged |
Bring back fair wages.........
|
|
|
scorpio_man
Administrator
Ford Kuga awd
Posts: 5654
|
 |
Re: Grrrr
« Reply #1 on: Dec 15th, 2006, 10:42am » |
 Quote  Modify
|
hi there
all gone, sorry. i've had it happen to me as well. if i'm typing a long reply, i always highlight it and right click COPY, before posting or previewing.
hth
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
Highlander
Moderator
Expert
13 Scorpios, XR4x4, Suzuki SJ413 for off road :)
Posts: 8244
|
|
Re: Grrrr
« Reply #2 on: Dec 15th, 2006, 10:54am » |
Quote Modify
|
45 mins! what was it! 
|
|
IP Logged |
on Oct 17th, 2011, 12:35pm, Simmo wrote:I give up !  Too much for an old boy!  |
|
|
|
|
pete from Hull
Senior Member
Non Scorpio at the moment, but still interested...
Posts: 1365
|
|
Re: Grrrr
« Reply #3 on: Dec 15th, 2006, 11:47am » |
Quote Modify
|
Ohwww ok then, I'll do it again when i've more time....
thanks for that... 
Part 2
Anyway after about half an hour and after visits from the motorway agency blokes the RAC man arrived, I explained what had happened and he agreed with my diagnosis renewing and strengthening my hope of just replacing the belt and continuing on my journey.
He hooked us up and towed us to a travelodge car park we left the car there with my wife and we went off into Tewkesbury to the local Hal fords store, alas they didn’t have the belt. We found a little autocar supplies shop in the main street and as a long shot we tried there. There wasn’t the belt we wanted but the chap said if we get the measurement around the pullies we may be able to find a match, off we went back to the car, when we got back to the shop with our bit of wire as a measure the chap in the shop checked sizes but couldn’t match it up, he was so helpful he even went on his bike to some other supplier to see if he had any, he came back and said he hadn’t been able to get one. As it was closing time I thought, well that’s it but the chap gave us 3 similar belt and said to take then and try them without the aircon compressor pulley to see if we could get a fit to get me home, he asked the RAC man to post the ones we didn’t need through the letterbox with the payment fro any we used. If that isn’t a helpful and trusting bloke I don’t know what is, one day I will go back to that shop to thank him.
The belts didn’t fit the car so the only alternative was to recover it to a garage. The RAC man towed the car to Stratford Bridge Garage near Tewkesbury arranged for it to be looked at and then drove us all the way to Worcester railway Station where we spent a very draughty night waiting for the train back to Hull at 09.15 the next day, it was about 19.00 on the Saturday night. The train cost us 112 quid to get us home….. What a night….
To be continued
03/01/2007
After about 2 weeks waiting, I was told that my cylinder head had gone along with no 2&3 piston heads..... I almost melted as I imagined all the cash I'd spent trickling away down the unendingly and unreachable bottomless pit, what should I do? Scrap it? Sell it as is? Recover it back home, this would cost me about 300 quid... I thought, rather than spending 300 on recovery I would have to find an engine from somewhere and put my trust in the garage 200 miles from my home.
I did a search on find a part and found one for 475 pounds, I was delighted, it was a place in Liverpool, they said it had only done 45 K it included delivery and was guaranteed for 6 months so I gave him my credit card details and made all the arrangements with the garage for delivery etc.
On the following Monday I had a e-mail from the scousers to say that my card had been rejected and could I ring them, however during the weekend I had found some disturbing reports about the company I had entrusted my details to, having done a search for them, UniversalSpares.com, in google there was a lot of people who had had problems with non delivery of goods, the company not answering calls or being abusive etc etc and it didn't look good, I rang my card issuers and told them. Apparently I had mistakenly given the wrong security number so that was why the transaction hadn't cleared; I was relieved to say the leased.
I kept getting e-mails and telephone calls from Universal spares for the next week, they were certainly eager to get my money.... (I have been bitten like this before...)
Anyway, it was time to find an alternative, I looked for a re-manufactured engine and found Ivor Searl in Soham, they answered my info request very quickly but couldn't supply a remanufactured unit, I had already had a good look round their website which I was very impressed by, I would recommend you take a look to see what I mean try ivorsearle.co.uk some very interesting information to be had….
They eventually found an engine within their customer base and although I thought it to be expensive at 715 pound plus vat and 100 quid exchnge deposit, I was told that the engine would be given rigorous tests to come up to their standard and would be delivered free to the garage complete with 6 months p/l Guarantee, anyway I thought, in for a penny in for a pound and went ahead with the order, I sat back in hopes of having no problems.
To be continued
|
|
IP Logged |
Bring back fair wages.........
|
|
|
Baz
Moderator
Senior Member
S Reg. 1998 24v Cosworth S2.9 COS (Deceased)
Posts: 4009
|
|
Re: Grrrr
« Reply #4 on: Dec 15th, 2006, 11:53am » |
Quote Modify
|
d**n, just spent 40 minutes writing a reply and the same happened to me!! Here's the shortened version...........
45 minutes is about the time it takes to list the faults with an average Scorpio isn't it?
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
Highlander
Moderator
Expert
13 Scorpios, XR4x4, Suzuki SJ413 for off road :)
Posts: 8244
|
|
Re: Grrrr
« Reply #5 on: Dec 15th, 2006, 12:02pm » |
Quote Modify
|
|
|
IP Logged |
on Oct 17th, 2011, 12:35pm, Simmo wrote:| I give up ! Too much for an old boy! |
|
|
|
|
TiberiuS
Senior Member
Ex. 1996 2.3 Ultima - RIP P789 KHJ
Posts: 2257
|
|
Re: Grrrr
« Reply #7 on: Dec 15th, 2006, 6:09pm » |
Quote Modify
|
on Dec 15th, 2006, 11:53am, Baz wrote:d**n, just spent 40 minutes writing a reply and the same happened to me!! Here's the shortened version...........
45 minutes is about the time it takes to list the faults with an average Scorpio isn't it? |
|
Blimey Baz, you must be a quick typist, it took me the best part of 2 years  
I ALWAYS copy anything I write before I post it, some of the forums I use are very bogged down and a blank screen or 'can't find server' error is nothing new...
Don't normally get any problems on here though.
Regards, Bruce.
|
|
IP Logged |
Bruce - '07 Jaguar XKR coupe, '95 Jaguar XJ Sport 4.0, '82 Ford Capri 2.0 Ghia, '15 Honda Civic (sloooooww..)
|
|
|
taliban aka Cheekyboy2
Senior Member
I'm a YaBB newbie!
Posts: 1552
|
|
Re: Grrrr
« Reply #8 on: Dec 15th, 2006, 6:57pm » |
Quote Modify
|
45 mins!!!!
must be the same as me, tying with one finger lol
|
|
IP Logged |
|
|
|
|
Home
Help
Search
Members
Login
Reply
Send Topic
Print
