Buyers guide?

funwoody

funwoody

Well-known user
Feb 24, 2015
246
60
Darlington
Hi.
Been to see a V6 with 120k tonight. Looks and drives great. Anything I should know before parting remainder of cash tomorrow. Am sure you wonderful people will have a buyers, what to look for guide here somewhere. Please point me in the right direction.
 
Rust is the biggie, have a damn good look underneath and rap the sills all the way along with your knuckles, listening for particles jumping up and down inside.

take a look at the rear subframe (crossmember) and again be very wary of rusting, there are some new ones around (there's one for sale on this forum right now)

The V6 is known for chewing it's alternator, and it's a pig of a job, rev the engine up to 5000revs and check for the battery light coming on

Make sure the oil is well topped up, regular servicing is what you want here, listen for the bottom end knocking especially under load

Wishbones are very expensive (~£250 for parts alone) so check the previous MOT for advisories....

Auto or Manual?

Welcome to the forum.
Steve
 
Parted with cash this evening. Battled the seller down by another £250 as he had taken it to Halfords today for a check over and vehicle report showed lambda sensor needs replacing along with offside rear abs ring broken. Wonderful thing is, report also gives prices to fix to the tune of £235. Advisories for slight corrosion on brake pipes and exhaust. Different sized front to rear tyres too. MOT has picked up corrosion to underside on advisories also.
Now the way I see it, the underside needs some sort of sealant asap to prevent further corrosion. Recommendations?
As the interior and bodywork is spotless, the engine running great and all the toys work, I'm figuring once I spend a little money sorting the niggles, then at £450 for purchase, this could be a nice little car for the price.
Probably a lot less trouble than my other car, a 17 year old Land Rover.
 
Good luck with it. (y)

Assuming it's on the standard alloys you wouldn't be the first to have differing size tyres front to back.
The standard fit is 215/50 16 which is an uncommon/expensive size so when the time comes to replace a couple most people go up to 225/50 16(better option) or down to 205/50 16(not so good) which are more readily available. There is a chance the differing size will cause the traction control to play-up but this is not always the case.
 
funwoody said:
Different sized front to rear tyres too.
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205 on front and 225 on rear? That's what mine came with. The proper 215s were hard to get hold of at one time, but Kumho at least do them, and probably others.

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Quicksilver said:
Good luck with it. (y)

Assuming it's on the standard alloys you wouldn't be the first to have differing size tyres front to back.
The standard fit is 215/50 16 which is an uncommon/expensive size so when the time comes to replace a couple most people go up to 225/50 16(better option) or down to 205/50 16(not so good) which are more readily available. There is a chance the differing size will cause the traction control to play-up but this is not always the case.
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Foiled again!:LOL:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
funwoody said:
Advisories for slight corrosion on brake pipes...
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Meh. Lightly glasspaper them and then coat in grease.

funwoody said:
and exhaust.
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Unless it's blowing, don't worry about it. Unless someone else knows better, we've never actually heard of a standard Cougar exhaust rotting through. Heaven knows what Ford made them from.

funwoody said:
Different sized front to rear tyres too.
Click to expand...

Not a fail, as long as they're the same size on a given axle. Change them if it bothers you or the difference is huge, otherwise leave it until they wear out. Unless its affecting the handling it wouldn't bother me much.

funwoody said:
MOT has picked up corrosion to underside on advisories also.
Click to expand...

Outer sills, especially the front. As Steve rightly said, give them a whack. Don't be savage about it, but don't tickle them either. Be honest with yourself.

funwoody said:
Now the way I see it, the underside needs some sort of sealant asap to prevent further corrosion. Recommendations?
Click to expand...

Assuming it's just surface rust and not penetrating, you want a can of Bilt-Hamber Dynax with a lance to inject the sill voids, and a can of Dynax self-healing paint-on underseal.


funwoody said:
I'm figuring once I spend a little money sorting the niggles, then at £450 for purchase, this could be a nice little car for the price.
Click to expand...

Oh, definitely! It's an awesome amount of car for the price. Best of luck!
 
funwoody said:
Parted with cash this evening. Battled the seller down by another £250 as he had taken it to Halfords today for a check over and vehicle report showed lambda sensor needs replacing along with offside rear abs ring broken. Wonderful thing is, report also gives prices to fix to the tune of £235. Advisories for slight corrosion on brake pipes and exhaust. Different sized front to rear tyres too. MOT has picked up corrosion to underside on advisories also.
Now the way I see it, the underside needs some sort of sealant asap to prevent further corrosion. Recommendations?
As the interior and bodywork is spotless, the engine running great and all the toys work, I'm figuring once I spend a little money sorting the niggles, then at £450 for purchase, this could be a nice little car for the price.
Probably a lot less trouble than my other car, a 17 year old Land Rover.
Click to expand...

does it say front or rear?

front is easy-ish with a proper lambda socket...don't be coerced into spending loads on the sensor either, any generic four wire sensor from eBay will do just fine, such as THIS ONE for just £15 ;)
 
Bank 1 sensor 2
P1000 obd 11 cycle not completed
P0136 02 sensor circuit malfunction bank 1 sensor 2
P0141 02 sensor circuit bank 1 sensor 2
Fault code cleared and light stayed off for now

Report details above are word for word.
Make sense? Not to me.

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Disappointed no Haynes manual.

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And a big thank you everybody. Am pleased for all the feedback.
 
media
 
Beautiful for a C2* - well done. Correct colour too!


*This is just a thing we do here. Don't take it personally!
 
Moderated post approved


....come on guys ;)

Very nice black Cougar 2 you have there....always wanted one myself but ended up with a greenie.

A steal at that price :)
 
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