Is my Cougar over the hill?

Catamount

Catamount

Club Member
Jan 12, 2015
364
194
Shipston-on-Stour
I am new to the forum but have enjoyed exploring the various posts which have certainly inspired me to engage more with my own Cougar. I have always loved my Cougar, but do not know a great deal about cars; however I am extremely motivated to make some modifications. The trouble is, although my Cougar always flies through its MOT and I’ve rarely had any trouble with it, it has done 170,000k miles so is it worth investing time and money considering the mileage the car has done?
 
As long as the bodywork is sound, everything else is 'do-able'. The known weak spots of rear subframes and front wishbones can be changed over in a day and if you needed an entire engine a replacement can be sourced for a few hundred quid, fitting will cost you no more than a copious quantity of bacon sandwiches and floor space for several farting, snoring Cougarites to sleep on for one night.
 
They will do mega miles if correctly maintained Keep the oil upto max change every 12 months or 12,000 miles a good motorway miles car will perform better than an ill maintained low miler.
 
The most important thing is the body shell. As long as the sills aren't beginning to rot then everything else is doable by said farting Cougarites :LOL:
 
Well you guys have certainly instilled some confidence! I'm due a service shortly, so are there any particular areas I should ask my mechanic to check due to the age/milage of the car?
 
Relliott6879 said:
Sills, rear subframe and front wishbones - in that order.
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I agree with this 100%

And don't be timid about it. You want to find out about these problems now, not during the MOT.

The good news is;

Sills are whatever it costs you to get welding done
Rear subframes are available from Mk2 Mondeos
Front wishbones are cheap as chips these days.

F7oud and Procomm also make excellent points and I don't mean to solely pick up on RElliot's post, but the points he makes are the absolute killers.

As for the mileage? It's a V6. More of them have gone to the crusher because of a dead body, than have gone there because of a dead engine.

It's like, barely run in. But when in doubt? Change your oil.
 
If it's behaving why worry?

You could buy a new'un and have endless trouble with it. If it's proven to work, and there isn't anything that's indicating that all is about to change, chances are it'll be fine.

I won't blow smoke-up-your-bum and tell you 170k is 'nothing', but well maintained it could go on to cover that again!
 
I have driven mine for the last 15 months or so and have done virtually nothing to it. Serviced it when I got it, now needs another one and the sills welding for MOT. Just keeps rumbling on(y)
 
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