Evening all,
My 1.3 Fiesta finally decided that the clutch wasn't being all it could be (halfway up a hill in the Peak District, happily). I managed to coax it back home, but it was a struggle to get above 40 and pulling away took an age. Silver lining though - my better half's dad is a mechanic, and he's going to replace the clutch for the price of a crate of beer.
My question is based around some other things - when I was halfway up the hill, when the clutch finally gave up, the revs hammered up through the ceiling. Nasty smell, smoke from under bonnet etc. Stopped, and saw smoke coming from the gearbox area, and then my girlfriend ill-advisedly unscrewed the coolant reservoir, so boiling coolant had it's merry way around.
Handily, I had some coolant in the boot, but as I was topping up I noticed that the coolant had taken on a particularly brown tinge, and it made me wonder whether a full coolant drain and replacement is a sensible thing. Then I thought that if the coolant is like that, maybe the gear oil didn't particularly enjoy being boiled too? Would it be sensible to drain it whilst we're replacing the clutch?
Just as an aside, could anyone tell me the coolant capacity of a 2000 Fiesta 1.3?
Cheers
Richard
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 14/04/2009 at 00:56
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are you sure the headgasket is ok
about 7 litres --remebr to bleed the system
the gearbox oil on these is mineral and can take some stick,i wouldnt change it but it might need topping up once driveshafts are removed it thats who the clutch is going to be done with box dropped out (it can be pulled back but you wont be able to change the clutch slave cylinder so its a bit of a bodge but i can get the plate and cover for under $30 at the reconn place
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I'm hoping that the headgasket is ok - there isn't any smoke coming from the exhaust, and when I checked the engine oil it's still nice and black, so fingers crossed. Obviously if the clutch replacement doesn't sort it out, then I might have to take the car and surreptitiously drop it in the nearest canal :p Well, maybe not :)
To be honest changing a clutch is beyond me, but I was told by my g/fs dad that he'll change the slave cylinder at the same time, and he seemed reasonably confident. I'll just make the tea :p
Thanks for the help :)
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ask on here for the radio code when your ready as i have a calcultor for the ford stuff at work
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That's very decent of you, thanks, but I changed out the radio when I bought it. Does anyone remember the last time they saw a cassette tape? :)
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i found lots of westlife type tapes in a car the other day and i cant give them away so it looks like the cassette is dead
where im sat i can still see 500 of the things though :-(
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Get some glue and surely there's a modern art masterpiece right there. Put the Westlife at the top and call it Analogue Boyband Mountain or something :)
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The headgasket on these things seem very tough, when we first got my dads car it overheated badly, went right into the red, turned out the theromstat had failed and the water pump is iffy (water pump still not replaced after 20,000 miles of the original overheat!).
Even now it does run hot and it the car will easily set just before red in traffic, no signs at all of any damage to the HG though.
Some people hate these engines but they seem to miss the point. I really miss mine as it had so much low down torque you can drive it and be lazy where as my current 1.2 16v engine needs a lot of revs to get the most out of it, its a lot quicker though!
I got rid of mine because I cooked the clutch and it needed a lot of welding and brake pipes etc so there was just no point. With mine though I had a bit of warning it would sometimes jump out of gear and at lights it would sometimes rev and be slow to move, but once when pulling out of a petrol station it just did not move, 4000rpm and nothing, then follows the lovely clutch smell :(.
The clutches seem very tough of these too, my dads has now done almost 79k (mostly city stop start milleage) and I am always amazed when I drive it just how nice the clutch feels.
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I love mine - just selling it sadly. Before I got it (it was broken so a challenge) I was sure it would be cheap Ford and rubbish. Couldn't be further from the truth - its nippy, economical and fun to drive.
James
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