Maintenance & Repair: Well, if you can't laugh, what can you do . . . . .

AstraVanMan wrote: 

Well, its a Ford, and one with a very common lump, so I'd have been inclined
to at least have enquired at a trusted local independent before instructing
the Main Dealer to go ahead.

But as you say, at least you will have someone to shout at if it all goes
tits up, as they'll have no excuse, and will have used OE parts etc.
 

<SNIP>
 

Yes, much better than the 'Over 75k and original? Nah mate, too dodgy' that
some cockheaded pikey car lot gobshite spouted when trying to justify not
part ex'ing my 175k, still on the original, well serviced engine, and still
doing a daily 150 mile commute without any aggro, Orion 1.8D, many moons
ago.

And then I pointed out that the Astra GTE he was trying to sell me was
bereft of a VIN tag, amongst other things...
 
 

YKIMS, however disappointing that sense is....

--
JackH

> > Glad it's been good for you - they're good hardy old engines, them. 
that 
still 

Didn't buy it then? :-)

Well here was me thinking of selling the Carlton for about £800 or so, and
effectively 'upgrading' to the Omega for just a few hundred extra. If I
had, whoever ended up with the Carlton would be the one laughing from the
other side of the fence now! Would have been much easier to sell it
privately for that sort of money than hope for a part-ex price more than
about £300.
 

Yeah. Real shame, as it was a lovely car to drive. Ok, so crap on fuel,
but whether I'd be using the Carlton or the Omega for work, either is going
to use roughly double the amount of fuel as the Fiesta, so the difference
between the two really isn't all that great. The Omega averaged about 25mpg
the day I used it, and the Carlton did close on 28mpg. That's for 90% stop
start (well, mainly stop) London traffic, 5% moving city traffic, and 5%
motorway journey in and out of town. But for the few mpg less in the Omega,
I got a much smoother ride, an auto box (a real joy in town, and really
calmed my driving down), and a climate controlled cabin, rather than having
to pump out hot air at full blast to keep the engine at a reasonable
temperature.

And FWIW, when I had the hot air on full blast in the Carlton today the
temperature barely went above the half-way mark (it did get up to about 3/4
of the way up, but that was when I had cold air on), so I don't think
there's all that much wrong with the cooling system, relative to how not
particularly great they are anyway.

Peter

"AstraVanMan" <com> wrote in message
news:7klgb.8297$server.ntli.net...

[ big snip ]
 
the 
about 3/4 
not 

I don't know why you think the Carlton cooling system is not good.
I've had 2 Carltons and never had any problems with cooling. The
gauge never went above half-way,even in summer. I towed a caravan
once with no cooling problem. I towed a car-trailer with a Nissan Micra
on it and even when slogging up hills it never reached boiling.

If the car has a viscous fan then they eventually stop working properly.
Something to do with the oil leaking out of the coupling. To test
whether
or not the fan is functioning properly you need a carrott. Yes! A
carrott.
When the engine is hot and you're parked,keep it running and stick the
end
of the carrott into the fan's blades. If the fan stops rotating,the
viscous coupling
is knackered. If the fan demolishes the carrott then the coupling has
locked-up
as it's supoosed to do. Needles to say,mind your fingers.

If the fan functions properly,is the radiator gunged up?

I have a Carlton GSi 3000 and because the viscous fan wasn't working
properely,I removed it altogether. There is an auxiallry leccy fan on
this
car,but it only cut in twice and that was in crawling traffic at the
height
of summer.

Raymond