What Have You Done to Your Cougar Today?
- Thread starter Axximilli
- Start date
Just renewed the insurance. Was on multi car with Admiral, 2nd year with them. Moved to LV, still multi car, saved £60 across two cars and reduced the excess on both. The renewal from admiral set the excess far higher than I would have accepted a few years ago when I set up the policy. Interestingly the Cougar was slightly more expensive than my DS5, they are both fairly unusual, higher permitted miles on the DS.
Today, KRM aka 'Dominatrix' went in for a spring tonic. More precisely to have her lowering springs replaced with stock Ford ones courtesy of Al. As many of you will have heard me say, the missus will not travel in her ( or KGV ) and something needed to be done. Whilst I could live with it, there isn't enough opportunity to drive it that fast these days, so comfort is welcome.
She was due at the garage at 9am, but just as I am loading springs into the boot, I get a call from the garage. Their MOT computer had died and they wanted me to take a look at it, so would I bring my toolkit !
So whilst KRM gets less highly sprung, I'm up to my neck in workshop grime. This is a Sun system and has a very small form factor PC hidden inside. The hard drive was failing and Windows' Startup Repair software itself had become corrupted. This needed an external DVD drive and Win 7 disk.
As a result, my quoted price for 4 hours to change all the springs over and anticipated £160 bill was cut in half - Result !
Oh, and a lot of MOTs finally got done much to everyone's relief.
So how did the test drive go ? Well she doesn't look so different IMHO. It's more noticeable at the front than the rear, but I'm happy with that. Driving, well immediately its a much nicer ride. Still a little firm, probably due to the 18" wheels, but similar now to my wife's Vectra 1.9CDTi which is quite nippy in its own way. When something triggered my primitive side and I booted it, it actually felt faster if that's possible. Probably just smoother which I think can give that impression. It certainly doesn't seem to have spoilt the roadholding.
Next I need to get the front tyres replaced and TPMS sensors fitted inside the wheels as there is a bit of imbalance there and not enough tread to justify this otherwise...
She was due at the garage at 9am, but just as I am loading springs into the boot, I get a call from the garage. Their MOT computer had died and they wanted me to take a look at it, so would I bring my toolkit !
So whilst KRM gets less highly sprung, I'm up to my neck in workshop grime. This is a Sun system and has a very small form factor PC hidden inside. The hard drive was failing and Windows' Startup Repair software itself had become corrupted. This needed an external DVD drive and Win 7 disk.
As a result, my quoted price for 4 hours to change all the springs over and anticipated £160 bill was cut in half - Result !
Oh, and a lot of MOTs finally got done much to everyone's relief.
So how did the test drive go ? Well she doesn't look so different IMHO. It's more noticeable at the front than the rear, but I'm happy with that. Driving, well immediately its a much nicer ride. Still a little firm, probably due to the 18" wheels, but similar now to my wife's Vectra 1.9CDTi which is quite nippy in its own way. When something triggered my primitive side and I booted it, it actually felt faster if that's possible. Probably just smoother which I think can give that impression. It certainly doesn't seem to have spoilt the roadholding.
Next I need to get the front tyres replaced and TPMS sensors fitted inside the wheels as there is a bit of imbalance there and not enough tread to justify this otherwise...
Following on with tweaks to Dominatrix ( KRM ) as per my previous post. Today she went to the tyre place to have the fronts looked at. No surprises here, Steve did make sure I was fully aware that they were getting low when I bought her. In fact they have done me well to get this far. The ContiSports were not in stock at £92, nor the Pirellis at £87, followed by Michelins at £106 and despite recommendations on Nexens at £62 I went for the Avons at £75. They may not be top rated, but I have at least heard of them and driven on them in the past !
Now, this was also going to be my first opportunity to get the Tyre Pressure Monitoring System ( TPMS ) that I stole off KGV updated. Cross references to those threads here :-
https://forums.ukcougar.club/threads/32261-TPMS
https://forums.ukcougar.club/threads/32388-Unbranded-Tyre-Pressure-Monitoring-System-(-TPMS-)
Essentially I needed to get the internal sensors fitted to replace the 'power bulge' dust caps, whilst the tyres were being changed. This has been done, although the fitter seemed to make a bit of a meal of it. Perhaps I am being unfair and he was just being meticulous. It was easier that I thought to 'delete' the old Left Front and Right Front sensors from the list and search for and pair up the new ones. All working like a charm.
First impressions are that I like the new tyres better ! Believe it or not they are less heavy on the steering and quieter. However, the vibration that both Steve and I had attributed to the right front tyre, mysteriously seems to remain. I will give the car a good thrashing on the dual carriageway first, and then get the balance rechecked before panicking. However, when the springs were done, they had strict instructions to ensure that the shocks were in good order and to confirm the make / model. So the next most likely contender has already been eliminated. What else could it be ?
Now, this was also going to be my first opportunity to get the Tyre Pressure Monitoring System ( TPMS ) that I stole off KGV updated. Cross references to those threads here :-
https://forums.ukcougar.club/threads/32261-TPMS
https://forums.ukcougar.club/threads/32388-Unbranded-Tyre-Pressure-Monitoring-System-(-TPMS-)
Essentially I needed to get the internal sensors fitted to replace the 'power bulge' dust caps, whilst the tyres were being changed. This has been done, although the fitter seemed to make a bit of a meal of it. Perhaps I am being unfair and he was just being meticulous. It was easier that I thought to 'delete' the old Left Front and Right Front sensors from the list and search for and pair up the new ones. All working like a charm.
First impressions are that I like the new tyres better ! Believe it or not they are less heavy on the steering and quieter. However, the vibration that both Steve and I had attributed to the right front tyre, mysteriously seems to remain. I will give the car a good thrashing on the dual carriageway first, and then get the balance rechecked before panicking. However, when the springs were done, they had strict instructions to ensure that the shocks were in good order and to confirm the make / model. So the next most likely contender has already been eliminated. What else could it be ?
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Wow that was a good price to replace all four springs at a garage, I agree a more comfortable ride and you still get the performance from the low profile tyres anyway and the 18's fill the arches nicely.
Thanks Rich, would they perform differently to the motorcraft ones or would you say they are just a different manufacture ?
I went for Sachs as I was reliably informed by Mark Naylor, aka 'The Oracle' and formerly of the Bolton Mafia that they and Motorcraft are one and the same, with Motorcraft simply being rebadged Sachs items. The rears are Motorcraft units which happened to surface, new and unused, on eBay at the right time. All four shocks were replaced at the same time.
Performance is a little hard to gauge; even with the Eibach -25mm lowering springs, the car rode like a magic carpet, but the shocks were brand new and had replaced ones with over 100k miles on them. All drop links, ARB bushes, top mounts and track rod ends were replaced along with them though, giving the car as complete a suspension overhaul as was possible.
https://forums.ukcougar.club/threads/29008-Rich-s-suspension-MFSM-19-20-March-2016
Performance is a little hard to gauge; even with the Eibach -25mm lowering springs, the car rode like a magic carpet, but the shocks were brand new and had replaced ones with over 100k miles on them. All drop links, ARB bushes, top mounts and track rod ends were replaced along with them though, giving the car as complete a suspension overhaul as was possible.
https://forums.ukcougar.club/threads/29008-Rich-s-suspension-MFSM-19-20-March-2016
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Fantastic information Rich, thank you. We had a single shock fail on my wife's vectra recently and I know how dramatically that affected its handling, so I can imagine with all that work there would have been a distinct and very positive change. As always I am forever thankful to you and Steve for all the care and attention you have lavished on this car - there are signs of this wherever I look.
I think if I lived more centrally in the UK and was better connected to the road system, like Al commented some time ago, as soon as you get on the main roads, the ride and handling is like floating along. Unfortunately here in Norfolk, where 1/2 mile to the east and we get our feet wet, highways seem to have forgotten about our roads. In fact when 'Autoroute' was the only route planner, several miles of our main route to Norwich just didn't exist on that software and the software is all that has changed since then !
Its not just the potholes, but mainly the road margins are dreadful. It took me ages to realise that due to 'independent suspension' a driver doesn't notice this as much as a front seat passenger, or those in the back - we ride over different ground and they have no steering wheel to hold on to. I literally drive down the crown of the road now when possible, until a car comes the other way. Somehow the terrible minor roads, reduce our expectation of the better roads which I think are also below par. So I think this is the main problem we have and it takes its toll on the suspension too.
I'm keeping all the bits incase either we, or the car moves on at some point, not that I have any plans to part with it, but it looks like we are finding a setup more suited to our local environment. When we hit patches, and I mean brief patches of that smooth asphalt that are so few and far between, its like somebody has switched the sound off and we have left the ground for a moment, but that's only 1% of the time ! ( Perhaps I should get out more / travel to more events ! )
Cheers - Noel
I think if I lived more centrally in the UK and was better connected to the road system, like Al commented some time ago, as soon as you get on the main roads, the ride and handling is like floating along. Unfortunately here in Norfolk, where 1/2 mile to the east and we get our feet wet, highways seem to have forgotten about our roads. In fact when 'Autoroute' was the only route planner, several miles of our main route to Norwich just didn't exist on that software and the software is all that has changed since then !
Its not just the potholes, but mainly the road margins are dreadful. It took me ages to realise that due to 'independent suspension' a driver doesn't notice this as much as a front seat passenger, or those in the back - we ride over different ground and they have no steering wheel to hold on to. I literally drive down the crown of the road now when possible, until a car comes the other way. Somehow the terrible minor roads, reduce our expectation of the better roads which I think are also below par. So I think this is the main problem we have and it takes its toll on the suspension too.
I'm keeping all the bits incase either we, or the car moves on at some point, not that I have any plans to part with it, but it looks like we are finding a setup more suited to our local environment. When we hit patches, and I mean brief patches of that smooth asphalt that are so few and far between, its like somebody has switched the sound off and we have left the ground for a moment, but that's only 1% of the time ! ( Perhaps I should get out more / travel to more events ! )
Cheers - Noel
I agree Noel, the roads down south are just as terrible, for the amount the Government gets in road tax each year we should be driving that 1%, 99% of the time. I guess its a nationwide condition as we get about a lot in our campervan, but yes the one thing that really gets me especially at night is the lack of white lines that are so beyond painting they have disappeared!
Good point about the white lines ( and cats eyes ) Joe. They have been remarking huge chunks of the A11 and at quite a pace too. For some reason they do this in stretches of a few miles, themselves a few miles apart. So initially you get nice new, bright markings for about half a mile and then nothing. The only slight problem is that as they progress and catch up with their tail so to speak, you tend to put your foot down and then suddenly meet a patch where they just do not exist !
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Thought about polishing her, then looked like rain, so kept her in the garage. Total cost so far. £5049. Garage is freeAnd a very tidy garage too, just the way mine isn’t. On, or maybe in my Cougar today, I established that even with my numerous ST200 upgrades (including those cams) I still can’t keep up with a 4.2 litre XJ8 when the one in front of me floored it this morning. I was already on the gas as I could tell he would go for it at as the road opened up, as expected he was def quicker but to be fair I have paid less for my lesser performance. And I wasn’t that far behind him!
Upvote for you Mabo because of the messy garage. I try to keep mine at least organised, but T hasn't built her shed yet so I'm sharing space with haphazardly-stored gardening equipment.
And lord help me if I try to organise that stuff in any sensible way because she won't find it. She's more like a cat, in that she has amazing spacial memory, but is absolutely hopeless when if comes to pattern recoginition:
T: Where the hell are the orange-handled secateurs?
Me [plucking them from the shelf in front of her]: Um... Here?
Lastly - and sorry for the long post - I know that Wildcat and Tiger are really quick for their age, but that T's Octavia VRS would absolutuely annihilate them both and I'm okay with that. We (the Cougars and I) have joyfully played with modern cars in the past, sure in the knowledge that they could disappear in the distance if they wanted to.
But Wildcat and Tiger are products of their time, are really fun, and I honestly don't have anything to prove to myself or anyone else anymore. For me, I'd be happy to see a beautiful and powerful car disappearing toward the horizon...
...if only because I know I'd probably kill my damn-fool self in it!
And lord help me if I try to organise that stuff in any sensible way because she won't find it. She's more like a cat, in that she has amazing spacial memory, but is absolutely hopeless when if comes to pattern recoginition:
T: Where the hell are the orange-handled secateurs?
Me [plucking them from the shelf in front of her]: Um... Here?
Lastly - and sorry for the long post - I know that Wildcat and Tiger are really quick for their age, but that T's Octavia VRS would absolutuely annihilate them both and I'm okay with that. We (the Cougars and I) have joyfully played with modern cars in the past, sure in the knowledge that they could disappear in the distance if they wanted to.
But Wildcat and Tiger are products of their time, are really fun, and I honestly don't have anything to prove to myself or anyone else anymore. For me, I'd be happy to see a beautiful and powerful car disappearing toward the horizon...
...if only because I know I'd probably kill my damn-fool self in it!
