3rd Cougar .... oh dear, what happened while I was away?

C

Cooog

New user
Jun 12, 2013
2
0
wales
Hi all, new to the forum. Not new to Cougars, we have had 2 previous Cougars when they were brand new (as company cars, we were never that rich :LOL: )

So I was looking around last year for a cheap stopgap car, but wanted something that I knew we would like, and thought 'I know, we always loved our Cougars, let's get an old one as they are now stupidly cheap'. So I acquired a beautiful Melina Blue 2.5L on a W plate, full black leather interior, 12 months MOT, FSH and only just over 70k on the clock. I thought I was robbing the guy, honestly, it was so cheap.

Brought her home and she was giving us a fantastic drive, like going back a decade in time and putting a real smile on my face! I've had a good, trouble free year with her, so I will say up front that she owes me nothing and I don't regret buying.

However, now the problems have started to kick in, and I find that Ford have stopped supporting these cars. Bugger.

I've been reading around the net, and it appears that I have the dreaded fuel pump problem (losing power when the tank is about 1/4 full, especially when going uphill. Fuel sender not reading correctly. ). She has also just started to spill about the last £5 worth on the forecourt when filling up, really embarassing :giggle: That is a real bind, as I have to keep her topped up as full as possible, but without overfilling and spilling. Call into every garage I pass and look like a cheapskate by putting in a tenner then!

I've just had a decent sized leak of power steering fluid fixed, luckily my local garage is very practical and worked out a way to bypass the cooler or it would have been curtains.

Also just had a back brake caliper, deep joy it was same as the Mondeo. Yaay! Parts off the shelf and no need for a 2nd mortgage.

So, how are other owners getting on with maintenance issues? I would love to know just how much is shared with the Mondeo. Also does anyone know if I can fit an alternative fuel pump and sender as they are just not available through my Ford dealer and Ford UK kind of snort in derision when you tell them how old the car is.

Or I might just start an online campaign 'Bring back the Cougar' :LOL:
 
Hello and welcome to the forum.
Most of them are starting to show there age now but there is a wealth of knowledge here that covers just about everything you could possible want to know about the Cougar including how a length of 10mm diameter copper pipe can be used to replace the PS oil cooler.
Most non-cosmetic parts are the same as the Mk2 Mondeo apart from front wishbones which are only shared by the ST200 Mondeo and, are hence, a tad expensive at between £250-300 a pair incl. bolts.
 
Welcome to the home of the Cougar!

I've had that reaction from Ford too 'it's listed as obsolete' say's the parts man, 'but luckily we have one on the shelf'
'ok' says I rubbing my hands in anticipation of a bargain........'90 quid' he says, like I should be grateful o_O

Regarding spares in general, a fair bit of the running gear is common to the mk2 mondeo, or ST24/200, but there are also plently of differences, for example the exhaust from cat back.
Pretty much all bodywork and fittings are unique to the Cougar.

By far the best source of spares we have at the moment is breakers as there are more and more going to car heaven every week, a few guys on this forum have cars being broken at the moment, and were it not for these I fear the good cars of this club would be nowhere near as nicely maintained.

meanwhile, get some piccies up of Cat the 3rd :)

Steve
 
Hello and welcome aboard. Pleased to hear you picked up a bargain, but as with all older cars they do require a little more maintenance than we'd sometime like. As Steve has said above, we have forum members who break Cougars and are ideal for getting parts from. Scunnycougar (Simon) is a good place to start. Also, we do have particular companies that we get 'club discount' with for genuine Ford parts - see the following links (you'll need to subscribe to this forum to gt the discount):

https://forums.ukcougar.club/forumdisplay.php?34-Member-Discounts-Schemes-(Subscribers-Forum

Anyway, in the meantime, get some piccies up, as we all love a bit of Cougar porn lol!!!
 
Welcome to Cougardom, Cooog (y)

Perhaps we need a forward thinking person to start reproducing hard to find parts and "perhaps" in another 10 years it could be a capri-esq revival for the old cat and what with so many getting broken for spares the remaining ones will be worth a mint in few years umm fingers crossed :)
 
I guess the question is whether you've bought it as a cheap runaround for a while, or whether you want to get properly into it.

If the latter, my suggestion would be to tear down the whole of the rear end underneath. If you can do the work yourself it's really not that expensive.
 
frosty2.0 said:
Welcome to Cougardom, Cooog (y)

Perhaps we need a forward thinking person to start reproducing hard to find parts and "perhaps" in another 10 years it could be a capri-esq revival for the old cat and what with so many getting broken for spares the remaining ones will be worth a mint in few years umm fingers crossed :)
Click to expand...

You mean something like THIS?
 
Hi everyone, thanks for the nice welcome! Procomm, we're up in northest westest Wales (near Porthmadog). Thanks very much for the kind offer but I wouldn't be able to remove it myself. I would happily pay you for it though :) Message me if you can help. I'm also after an offside front ABS sensor if you have one to sell?

I'm not sure we're in it for the long haul with this one, I got my local garage to put it over the pit and let me go down and have a look with them. Not very pretty. I was considering acquiring a spare car and just laying it up as a parts source, we have plenty of space, but when I saw underneath I had a bit of a wobble. Still absolutely love her though, that's the problem!!

Anyway, as I said, thanks for the welcome, and it's nice to be here.
 
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