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Aww 😦 what's your email address Sean? I'll see what i can do🎅

Was thinking of this for next year. Cat proof Christmas tree

In the interest of this discussion not getting out of hand I will be locking the thread. I feel this site already has too many forum categories and I think they should be reduced rather than added to if anything. However, as with all potential new sections, please start a thread where you can discuss everything related to disabled driving and motability, then if it is a success and growing too big for a single thread we can discuss if it is worth creating a new section.

update..... all up and running £185.00 later... new battery and + (positive terminal) fitted and runs like a dream.... the mechanic recons that the connection on the battery was causing sh*t loads of problems.... Cheers for the advice guys :)

Scary what people can find out about you on the net these days

What phone do you have lol? Im using my phone and can see he has a 2008 Focus 1.6 TDCi, is from Worcestershire and does 15001-20000 miles per year and confusingly his name is David and not Albert as you would think!

Haha Ghana, your message about the water company brought back suppressed memories of a particular time at uni....I had a 9 start 4 out of 5 days a week. The one lie in day was a 10 start -_-.. so students being students we went out drinking far too much, the next morning I struggled out of bed - still intoxicated I'd imagine... I had the mother of all hangovers and an interesting stomach too.... I staggered into the bathroom in my room, had a wee, flushed the loo, clambered into the shower only to find there was no water...whole building was turned off for maintenance.... I must have smelled like a blooming brewery when I was in class - and probably looked like I'd slept on the streets too! Had to exit the class on a number of occasions to check out the uni plumbing... Come to think of it, I think that hangover lasted a good couple of days... Something I've done my best to try not to repeat!

None of my previous cats have felt the need to strip the tinsel off. However, when it comes to baubles and also the plastic robin decorations, that's a different matter. Molly, like all her predecessors, think baubles must be sparred with, knocked off the tree, and chased round and round the house, until they get wedged under sofas, the washing machine or trapped in the hole in the outer part of the U-bend in the loos. Whereas, she leaps and pounces on the robins. Sometimes the tree is knocked over: sometimes not. My brother's pugs joined in last year, pulling off and decapitating the robins There were all these headless bodies scattered in the lounge, after the pugs got shut in there whilst we ate Oddly, apart from the pigeons, outside Molly isn't the slightest bit interested in real birds. Brandy is indifferent to Xmas trees, or their decorations My tinsel, like Jamie's, is of the older thinner variety and doesn't overwhelm the tree

Tbh I was thinking more remapping than just diagnostics... Give it a bit more torque, faster spin, more economical on electricity and water... Wonder if I can Bluefin my Aquarius machine, I mean they both sound compatible...

A modern NA petrol really doesn't need 6k changes tbh, you could save yourself a fair bit of money there! I don't like ordering a book back at the beginning of December as an Xmas gift...not stocked but could be printed...16 days later it's still not done - how long can it take to print some pages and stick them together!? What's worse is that no-one can tell me when it'll be ready, the seller doesn't know, and the printer hasn't bothered replying. Now I'm not sure whether to hope it arrives tomorrow or see if I can find an alternative today and cancel the original.

Sounds like the coolant fell out and you were coincidentally low on oil as well. Have you checked the coolant level since? Gurgling/sloshing water on start-up indicates an air lock in the cooling system.

Just thought I'd update this discussion with what I have discovered. I let my mechanic mate listen to the sound and he said straight away that it sounded like the auxiliary drive belt tensioner was failing. I put a new one on a couple of days ago and I have not had the rattling sound happen again on cold start up. S it seems like this was the issue and I'm well happy that the fix was a £30 part and 20 minutes of my time, wish all car problems were that cheap and easy to fix!!

At least the puke is warm? Never even received anything...not even an email saying merry Christmas. If I was away, I'd receive a small care package - sponsored by BFBS of I remember rightly

I'll just quote what Clarkson would say "Powerrrrrrrr"

Is the pump outlet filter blocked? Just fixed my parents 2010 Focus this morning as theirs wasnt working. Wheel off, arch liner off, drop the bottle, remove pump motor and then pull out the rubber grommet which has a built in filter. It was caked in slime stopping the water getting through. A quick rinse and was good as new.

Well it has taken what seems to be an age but the RS has finally arrived. And god it's awesome. Here's the back story of order to delivery which I decided to keep pretty much to myself as I knew the wait would be hard enough without sharing the pain with you guys. February 2016 - Never thinking I could ever afford an RS and that the Fiesta ST MP215 would be the pinnacle of my Ford ownership I saw an advert on a Ford dealer website offering repayments of almost exactly what I was paying for the ST. But wait what about the insurance I here you ask? OK that's what I was asking anyway. So I did a quote and found that the premium was actually a few pounds less than for the ST. Oh god that makes it feasible. So off I trotted to my local Stoneacre dealer to see my friendly salesman Steve. We sat down and placed the order. RS mk3 in Nitrous blue, standard seats with blue bolsters, lux pack, 19" forged alloy wheels, sync2 nav system and door edge protectors. Fantastic everything I want and expected build date to be October 2016. £1000 deposit paid. Only problem is that RS orders can only be placed at Ford Stores and my local isn't one. So the order is placed via the Doncaster branch, he can't see anything on his system so will have to ring Doncaster for everything. Two days later Steve rang me. "Good news and bad news" he says. "Good news is we have a cancellation with a build date of May 2016, bad news no door edge protectors" let me think...I'll have it!!!! March 2016 - Then the horror stories start to come out of the forums and Ford themselves. Oil leaks on the production line no cars being released and many a potential owner getting ***** off. Then I get the dreaded call. "Your build date is being put back to June but you can have the door edge protectors" Well that's OK one month extra but everything I wanted, I can live with that. April 2016 - bad news continues. Build date back to July. June 2016 - Build date back to October. News on the RS forum that the winter pack, (heated seats and steering wheel) not previously available in UK but was in Spain, I don't understand either, is now available in UK. Get me that I tell Steve but only if it doesn't delay the order any further. He gets it on the build schedule, happy days. I also find out that one of the reasons for the delay is that Ford have run out of Nitrous Blue paint. Seriously? Sack the guy responsible for that. August 2016 - Ford Fair is quite painful as all I can see are RS's at ever turn. October 2016 - Sent an email to the RS team at Ford UK. Can you confirm my build date please? Reply states it might be December but two week shut down over Christmas means it might be the New Year. Enough is enough now. I'm very unhappy and seriously considering cancelling my order. So I march off to the dealers. Steve checks and is told that they have a build date of 10th November. Another email to Ford UK later that day to be told, "actually yes build date is 10 November and here's your VIN number. Whooop. Straight onto ETIS and there it is and they started building on the 8th two days early. November 2016 - Over the next few weeks I watch the car being built including an upgrade to Sync 3. Then I remember we've never actually sat down and worked out the finance in detail. Better get that done then. Off to see Steve, he's nowhere to be seen. Off sick I'm told he's had an operation and not due back till the New Year. *****. Anyway Paul says don't worry we'll sort it. What did Steve arrange for you. So I told him. "Seriously? That's a cracking deal." says Paul. I'll see what I can do. December 2016 - 5th - Paul rings. Car has landed at the dealers. If we can sort the finance you can pick it up on the 10th. God I'm nearly wetting myself now. Problem is they can't find any of Steve's paperwork, great. We discuss the finance and of course the screw tightens, your ST is now 9 months older and has 10k more miles on it so its only worth......f*** all. Jeez what now? A bit of hard talking and I get another £2k out of him. That's better. But I still need to find a bit more cash and the payments are £50 more per month than the ST. Just before Xmas, not good timing. So I juggle some finances around cancel the wife's Xmas presents, joking, and no problem I'll come in tomorrow to sign the papers. 6th- Where's Paul? His day off! Ahmed will sort it, he's the sales manager. We sit down and he gets the finance details up on screen. Your payments ill be £330 a month! No they f***ing won't be, says I. He's only quoted me on the current increased list prices not the cost when I ordered back in February. So panic over. Finance signed, Collection agreed for 11am 10th December. Saturday 10th December- The BIG day - Drove the ST, on fumes, to Doncaster, it needs 4 new tyres, current ones are like slicks, and the 3rd year service which I never got done and saved myself over £500 in total, so if you buy it make sure these have been sorted. I'll miss that car it has brought me 3 years of driving pleasure and many great memories. I arrive at the dealers to see the car in the showroom covered with a Ford car cover but the profile is unmistakable. I sign what seems to be every page of the bible hand over the ST keys and V5. OK sir if you'd like to take the cover off your new car? ***** hell not half I'd like to; Right that's all the buttons explained, phone paired let's get this show on the road. Hope I like it? Like it, it's chuffing amazing. What a car, like brown stuff off a shovel, more comfortable than the ST and sport mode transforms it into something else. I'm never going to tire of this. Here's a couple of photo's on the way home. And it's first wash That's all for now guys. I'll try update this thread over the coming weeks and months but it's hard when you never get out of the driving seat.

Hello & welcome, I've already made a project thread on here listing a Fiesta 1.0 Ecoboost for those of you wanting to see my previous work & modifications :) However, that project has now come to an end. I've recently traded that Fiesta in for something with a little more kick. After going to Ford Fair 2016, seeing and hearing the mk2 Focus STs give it some on the track I knew that would be my next direction. It's a pretty drastic change going from a 1.0 litre 3 cyclinder Fiesta... to a 2.5 litre 5 cyclinder Focus! And I've loved every minute of ownership so far. Personally I loved the Panther Black on the Fiesta and it was no different with the new project car, so I hunted for one. I wanted a PB Focus that was completely standard, giving me a good basis to work on modifications, and also to know it had been driven sensibley. The example I found, had 10 years worth of Ford Service History and only 48k on the clock (for a 10 year old car thats pretty good going..). It was also an ST3 so comes with bi-xenon HID headlights, full recaro leather bucket type seats, upgraded sony sound system etc. So with all that out the way, here are some photos of the car as it was, completely standard :) The absolute first thing I wanted to do once I had acquired the car, was to give it a long overdue all day cleaning session in which I got the following done! - Snowfoam Pre-Wash - Shampoo - Glaze - Polish - Wax - Quick Detailer, and the car came up a treat, so happy with it! The first modification that I was to make, I had purchased before even getting the car as I found a good deal on one of the forum pages :D This came in the form of two zunsport front grills, for the top and bottom - comes in gloss black which is so much smarter than that crappy matte grey/black Ford likes to do things.. Take a look for yourself With the zunsports on (still need to spray the top original grill gloss black as zunsport goes over the top)... Have done loads more bits and pieces, will upload those when I get some more free time! Thanks for looking, I'll update very very soon!

so....having splashed the cash on some 18" rims & tyres (up from 16's) my only concern now is.......what if I get a puncture heaven forbid......I got a can of tyreweld stuff in the boot but....... what do you guys do/use ??????

Evening all just introducing my self, I'm Steve and I have a white Ford Focus 1.6tdci estate 👌🏻 Just need some advice and here for the banter also 😜 Feels like a ***** AA meeting lol saying all that lol

I do like treating myself to a quality drink!! OK, maybe not exactly "quality", but it is the best (and only...) Canadian whisky you can get in the supermarket!

Hi Rcatt. Nice to see you want to get into a bit of detailing. I've been a professional detailer for 12years now and can help you with some advice. One that has been touched on by jack1997 is the microfibres all I'll add to that is different colours for different jobs makes it easier. Plus proper care of micro fibres and they'll last you and serve you well. Wash separately no higher than 60c with mild detergent and never use fabric softener as this will destroy the fibres. Then let them dry naturally or if using a tumble dryer use a delicates program. If it's inexpensive detailing products your after that give great results you can't go far wrong with autoglym (some will slate me for this) but for price and finish they are one of the best in that bracket and easy to buy pretty much anywhere. Then if you want to advance you can start to try the more expensive products. A good PH neutral fallout remover is a must before you clay bar the car ready for polish and wax. As for snowfoam you can now buy foaming hand pressure sprayers although not as good as a lance it will tie you over till you get your own pressure washer and lance and there not to expensive. If you have any questions or would just like any advice let me know.

aux belt is easy to do on a 1.6tdci. there is a special tool to turn tensioner, but an open ended spanner , think 14mm or15mm, and a 5mm dowel is required. turn tensioner with spanner and insert dowl to keep it locked in place . but as stef says, just get the garage to do it for you if your getting timing belt done.

Hi Chris, Sorry to hear about the problems you've been experiencing, hope you manage to get it sorted soon! Just for reference - your Focus most likely has a Mazda/Ford auto transmission (Ford 4F27E), rather than ZF, assuming yours is a UK market model. It is technically a 3-speed unit, the fourth gear is an over-drive ratio. Rather than pretend to be an auto trans specialist, I'll link below a useful article I found. Page 13 mentions the most common cause of a slipping fourth gear: http://www.atraonline.com/gears/2006/2006-01/2006-01_08.pdf Also, googling issues with this particular unit yields this forum post: http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/general-technical-chat/307628-no-4th-gear.html Good luck, let us know how you get on!

Block paving

It will be the cost of the belt only, there is no extra labour as it has to be removed anyway.

I had it done 3 years ago and intend to get it changed again in 6 months as it will have been 60k since it was last changed. Haynes says 62500 as they reckon Ford interval is way out. Plus I do a lot of start stop driving. I'd love to do the timing belt myself but I'm not confident enough with my basic knowledge so will take it to the garage for that but the drive belt is more in my skill level and I want as much practice working on the car as I can get! On a slightly different note, I bought a new car book this week as thick as the 'understanding women manual' (Hillier's Fundamentals of vehicle tech) to boost my theory. Judging by the number of pages, If i manage to get through it all might I might rebrand myself as just "Einstein" and drop the Albert I think that's pretty optimistic though.

Pretty much lol. Everytime a new model of phone comes out that's how I feel lol

Be honest now, youre still on one of these beauties aren't you!

I could find the information if I really wanted to but it is easier if someone wants to post it up lol

Its only what you put on your profile!Anyway, hopefully someone will help you out shortly. If it has a tensioner then i would replace that along with the belt to be on the safe side.

I'm using my phone so cannot see what car/year or engine you have. I'll take a stab it's a focus since its in focus section though lol.

Scroll down, there are both versions available. Oval and square. Key words are intel cpu and 2gb memory. Hardware is pretty much the same no matter the brand.

It was only this summer that Brandy started to show signs of being an older dog. She was then diagnosed with osteoarthritis in September, a fortnight before her 16th birthday and now has Metacam every day with her breakfast tripe. She's at her stiffest and lacking in paw co-ordination as soon as she wakes up and goes downstairs for her morning ablutions. Once she's had her medicine, she loses her stiffness and gains control of her paws but she hasn't got the muscle mass she used to have. With stairs, getting into and out of the car, leaping on to chairs and sofas; she now needs help. However, she's outlived all my mates dogs who were roughly the same age as her and apart from her arthritis, she's always been a healthy dog The day Brandy went to the vets and had her hysterectomy, I changed the from a BMW 740 to a Peugeot 406 estate. So she was not only was disorientated from the anaesthetic wearing off; the car she went home in wasn't the one she came in, and she needed to sniff the Peugeot extensively before getting in it Curiously, that was tomorrow but 15 years ago!

I'm glad you're driving it as it should be driven! Good to see a dirty one!

Sweet Car, Love the colour :-) I have the same problem with mine (I live in a rural area) but your's comes up a treat when washed, that colour is dead vibrant!

Was that from lulu.com? They have a very relaxed attitude when it comes to processing orders. After a delay of 56 days: it was supposed to be 14! I cancelled the order I assist Brandy with the handle on her harness, to get in and out of the cars now. Without it, she too gets stuck. I did make her ramp, for the Mk2, where she has her crate, but she is very reluctant to use it. She prefers to have an assisted leap Does your Mum's dog have osteoarthritis? Brandy has it in her hips and knees, and has Metacam which makes quite a difference once she's had it,

Five is nothing, my parent's 12 yr old cat will still attack the tree if he is having a funny 5 mins, lol. It's the baubles he really loves though, he usually gets given a sacrificial one to bat around the floor. He used to pull the whole thing over (6ft tree, 1ft cat). Their other cat has decided he'd much rather sleep under it instead.

lol my two cats always totally destroy my tree every year even thought they are five years old .Something about the tree they think is fun to rush up and down it .Even so its a yes from me

Depends what sort of tree... If its a real one then little to none I'd say. But if it's cheap artificial one, copious amounts of tinsel can cover up how awful it is!

I think I may have solved this issue of the flapping sound when accelerating at low revs. I've been having an issue recently of a rattling sound coming from the engine bay on a cold start up. I thought it could be any number of things, all of them bad, so I let my mechanic mate listen to it and he said straight away that the auxiliary drive belt tensioner sounded like it was on its way out. I got a new tensioner a couple of days ago, fitted it straight away, and not only has it cured the rattling sound, but I'm pretty sure I'm not getting the flapping sound when accelerating at low revs. I need to do a bit more mileage to be 100% sure, but first impressions are looking good. I have to say that when putting the new tensioner on, the pulley definitely pushed down on the drive belt further than the old one did, and this made me wonder if the drive belt wasn't as securely fitted to all the pulleys as it should have been due to lack of tension and causing slipping, and therefore making the flapping sound. Obviously I'll keep an eye on it for the next week or so, and post back on this discussion if the flapping sound comes back, but if you don't hear from me again, then this issue has definitely been fixed. Fingers crossed!

Very true, I had a puncture for around 3 weeks and didn't know it just a small but id vibration. I had checked the tyre pressure three weeks prior and all was fine, Then when checking at the later date found tyre was 4Psi The 18" tyres have reinforced sidewall; the overall radious of the 16" is the same as your 18" so you can use a 16" wheel for a spare but it can only be used on the rear wheels meaning if you get a front puncture you will need to take a tyre off the back and put it on the front then put spare on the back. I don't carry a spare tyre atall, I have a foam kit and AA Membership

Hit the nail on the head there.

I thought they were marks on the bonnet! I said to Harvey and he said no no that'll buff right out what a monkey! Glad you're enjoying it mate, was good to be there to see you drive it away!

looking good fella

Thank you both so much for your time and valuable advice. 😊😊

Or maybe you need to just call a taxi! If I go out somewhere I make a decision before I get there, to either avoid all alcohol and drive, or have a drink and get a lift/taxi home. Even if you pass a breathalyser test, it doesn't mean you're not impaired.

Not really unless you describe the sound or post a video of the sound it's making.

18s probably use extra load tyres? You won't even notice the puncture lol... The rolling radius will be the same so you can still use your original spare wheel.

Im not being hard but i dont appreciate being called a muppet because in the OP's other thread i asked the question if the lights are on with the door open. Like i said above, start with the basic questions and then move on from there to hopefully a solution.