How I left my car this evening.

ChrisM

Well-known user
Apr 12, 2007
198
0
Berkshire
Had a few problems today, this is how I left the car this even when I gave up:

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Im in the middle of re-doing my brakes, going for the ST170 300mm brake upgrade. Got I nice package from active last week:

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The setup is EDC turbo grove disc on the front and rear, 300mm on the front. Red stuff pads on the front and green stuff on the rear. Also got a set of black diamond braded hoses.

Started stripping the brakes off this morning, came across a few problems. The hand brake cable is snapped on one side and fraded on the other. Gonna need a new one, but it looks like the exhaust needs to come off, so remove the heat shield to get access to the bottom of the lever.

My other problem is the nearside rear calliper has its seals burst, and from looking at the discs I've only been braking with the front nearside side and rear offside disc. The front is alll scroched:

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Nothing left of the inside of the disc:
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Im going to have to go to a scrappy to get a new rear calliper, anyone know what other cars have the same calliper as the cougar?
 
The ones on ebay look a bit different, the way in which the hand brake cable attaches to it. The sierra cossy brakes looked more like the ones I just took off the cat. I saw there was brake seal kits on ebay but none said they were for the cougar. Plus I dont know how much a pain in the back side they would be to fit.

I appears to be leaking for a long time, and hand brake has never been right since I got it. It was MOTed 5000 miles ago, wonder what they did cause those brakes should never had passed.
 
Had another look on ebay, the pictures were for illustration only. From what Ive seen the rear brakes on the cougar are the same as mk2 mondeo, but there was a change in the brakes after 1999. dont know what is? Just one guy say the brake will fit upto 1999 models. So still confused.
 
Stupid me! 2000 was when the mk3 mondeo came out. I was thinking the mk3 came out after they stopped the cougar 2002. Forgeting the mondeos are older than the cats. So Im hoping the mk2 mondeo is the same as the cougar. Easier to find a mondeo than a cougar in a scrappy. But knowin my luck all the mondeos I find will have drums on the rear.
 
My dad had a 2000 1.8 mondeo zetec with drums. I think the it might be the 2 litre and the v6's that had discs. Will find out this afternoon when I go a hunting through the junk yards.
 
Thanks FlamencoAssassin, I'm thinking it may just be a guessing game with the mondeos. I'm hoping for a bit of luck that I might actully find a cougar thats getting broke up, then I could take some other bits, Doubt it thought. Wishing for one with cruise control so I can take the bit for my manual, But that'll be more money!

When I go to ford I'm gonna price a new caliper, just to see. Also going to price an new set of disc splash guards, cause theres no metal left on the one on the cat, just rust and flaking paint.

If money was no option and I was technically competent, and mental, I could of put the calipers from the front on the back since Ive not got 300mm calipers and then fit a hydraulic hand brake to work the piston. But thats just silly :LOL:
 
I got told that there was a cougar getting scrapped in a brakers yard not far from me, had doubt is it was still there. Went this afternoon and I was in luck was still there, well what was left of it. It was a V6 auto, all the toys, still got the leather seats in it.

Got a rear caliper for ?ú30, cant complain. Once I get my brakes all sorted Im going to go back and get the cruise control steering. No chance of getting under the bonnet its totally mangled. The wing is where the throtle body should be. Gonna need to get a speed control unit from another car. It the mondeo the same?
 
The speed control unit is the same as any Mk2 Mondeo that had cruise fitted (usually Ghias), so is the bracket for it.
You'll also need a V6 MTX cable to the TB (ATX ones are different), brake pedal position switch and clutch pedal switch.
Get three brand new nuts for the bracket, any 2nd hand ones will be rusty due to them being in the wheel arch. :wink:
 
I would have a peep behind the hanbrake lever boot for any leaks Chrism. I replaced both rear discs last week and both of mine looked very dusty and dry on the outside but when i cut the tie straps both leaked fluid :( I hope yours are ok :wink:
 
John wwfc said:
I would have a peep behind the hanbrake lever boot for any leaks Chrism. I replaced both rear discs last week and both of mine looked very dusty and dry on the outside but when i cut the tie straps both leaked fluid :( I hope yours are ok :wink:

What did you do with your calipers? Did you fix the seals? Mines were alright, apart from the one I got from the scrappy, the piston was ceased, managed to free it and covered in copper greeze.

I got all my brakes sorted today, there all on and working, will get some pictures up soon. They 300mm disc look great, I painted the calipers red so they stand out!

Cost me ?ú34 a side for the hand brake cable!!! Went to a motor factors and they said I could only get them from ford, so had to pay up. Got a new battery from that motor factor for ?ú29 its the exact same battery thats in halford that cost ?ú95!!!
 
What did you do with your calipers? Did you fix the seals?
I had to replace the o-rings which were scored but the bores were ok, the piston seals and pistons were serviceable. I could'nt track down a seal kit so i used two o-rings from a o-ring kit which are safe to use on brake systems.
managed to free it and covered in copper greeze
I would only use copper grease on external components, don't let it contact your seals, i used a silicon based brake grease for the bores and seals :wink:
 
John wwfc said:
What did you do with your calipers? Did you fix the seals?
I had to replace the o-rings which were scored but the bores were ok, the piston seals and pistons were serviceable. I could'nt track down a seal kit so i used two o-rings from a o-ring kit which are safe to use on brake systems.
managed to free it and covered in copper greeze
I would only use copper grease on external components, don't let it contact your seals, i used a silicon based brake grease for the bores and seals :wink:

I was just thinking the same thing :wink:
 
Chris, found this thread whilst looking at something else. Just out of interest, now it's been a while, how did you get on with those EBC discs? I went through two sets in quick succession on the front of my first Cat. The first set had a load of hairline cracks after a couple of months. I contacted EBC and ESP Design where I bought them, who between them wriggled out of any refund or replacement because I had fitted the discs myself and they hadn't been laser aligned by a garage, causing 'undue stress' on the disc. Oh please. The set I bought to replace them were fitted by a garage and again cracked after less than 8000 miles, the cracks this time were big enough to slot a 1p piece into! Again I got no joy from either EBC or ESP Design, being told I must have been braking too hard - utter tosh. I eventually gave up and fitted Unipart discs which were faultless until I sold the car. Have yours been OK and was I just drastically unlucky? I'd like to fit decent anchors to the new Cat but have been scared off EBC, I'll probably go for Black Diamonds.