G464NKL Ford Fiesta 1600S 1989

This was my 1989 Mk3 Ford Fiesta 1.6S/1600S registration G464NKL that I owned in 1993-94. The best fun car I'd owned at the time and still one I remember fondly.

G464NKL Ford Fiesta 1600S 1989

There are now very few examples of the Fiesta 1.6S Mk3 around, according to How Many Left website there are under 100 so I wish I'd been able to keep it! Sadly it was already starting to show some rust when I sold in 1994 as many Ford cars of the era did

G464NKL Ford Fiesta 1.6S 1989

Ford Fiesta 2008-2016 Owner's Review Buying Guide

This video review of my 2013 Ford Fiesta sums up how I found the car and the good and bad points with owning and driving it.

I originally owned Fiestas when I first started driving and had a whole series of them over around 5 or 6 years starting with a 950L that my mum owned and including these beauties!

1991 H160EPX Ford Fiesta 1.1LX owned in 1993

E652EGU Ford Fiesta 1.4Ghia 1986, owned in 1992

G464NKL Ford Fiesta 1.6S 1989

After these Fiestas I had many different cars including the Pumas on this blog but buying the Fiesta Zetec was my first drive of a Fiesta for almost 25 years so it was interesting to see how much they had changed.

How to find out if your car has been clocked - Free Car Mileage Check

This might be of interest if you're looking at cars to buy. Found mine had been clocked when I ran the reg through the Mot checker. If you want to test out and view the info in the video the registration to check is LT53ZCV

Ford Puma/Fiesta Front Seats removal

How to remove the front seats from a Ford Puma or Ford Fiesta

Ford Puma Pollen Filter Replacement

Replacing the cabin pollen filter on a Ford Puma or Fiesta is one of the easiest maintenance jobs to do. This video shows you how to change the pollen filter very easily.

Changing Ford Puma Fuel Filter - how to remove old fuel filter and replace

Changing the Fuel Filter on a Ford Puma is a very straightforward job, actually removing and fitting the new filter only takes a few minute. I found the bit that took longest was refixing the metal clip to hold the new fuel filter in place but a pair of molegrips did the job in the end.

Changing Ford Puma Fuel Filter 

 Photo of the (very) old fuel filter before being replaced, the rust shows how old it was! A video showing the location and how to remove is below

 

Ford Puma - Fitting Replacement Rear Bumper

The rear bumper on my Millennium edition Ford Puma had some scuff marks on one side so when a replacement bumper became available for a low price I decided it was worth swapping over. The rear bumper can be fairly easily removed. There are 4 bolts inside the boot of the car that need a deep 13mm socket to remove, there is a 7mm bolt on each side under the wheel arch and 2 Torx T25 screws that need to be removed first from the wheel arch liner to give access.

Ford Puma rear bumper removed

With the rear bumper off I was able to touch up a few areas of minor surface rust before getting the new bumper fitted back on. Plenty of waxoyl around to make sure that the rust doesn't return!

Silver Ford Puma Sold - Millennium restoration

My silver Ford Puma sold yesterday so I'm now down to one with the Puma Millennium. Very sad to see it go as it's been such a fantastic car for me and got me back into the love of Pumas again. My silver Puma was a low mileage example and all the controls felt incredibly tight and smooth so I hope the new owners have as much enjoyment from it as I have.

I'm now full steam ahead with the work on the Millennium Puma, I have a replacement rear bumper to fit as well as new gear linkage.

Free Ford Radio Codes Unlocking - Keycode from Serial Number 6000CD

After I'd swapped the radios between my Ford Pumas I found that the code supplied with the car didn't work with the radio and wouldn't unlock it. I'm guessing that at some point the previous owner had replaced the radio and the key code in the user manual was no longer correct.

Fortunately I found a site online that offers a radio code service to decode from the serial number. I was a bit surprised as it doesn't seem the most secure way to ensure a radio is prevented from being stolen and resold but it worked!

http://www.pumapeople.com/decode.php

Enter the serial number for the radio and the decoder will give the 4 digit radio code.

Free Ford Radio Codes Unlocking

Adding an Aux Input to Ford Car Stereo Radio CD6000/5000

If you want to add an Aux input for a Ford CD6000 radio then using a Connects2 box as per this video is a very easy way to do it. This took a matter of minutes to do in my Ford Puma.

Ford Puma Millennium Special Edition Review - Yellow with Recaro Sports Seats

The Ford Puma Millennium is a special edition model of the Puma range that is immediately identifiable by the bright yellow paintwork that they sport. It was launched in late 1999 as part of Ford's Millennium celebrations along with similar editions of the Ka and Focus with limited numbers of each produced. There were 1000 Ford Puma Millennium editions produced and as of early 2016 there are now around 300 left. Each one was individually numbered, I own number Puma Millennium 186.


Ford Puma Millennium Review

In addition to the yellow paintwork, the interior is also unique amongst Pumas in that the seats are all recaro leather sports seats. Although other Pumas such as the Thunder and Black editions have leather seats only the Millenium has Recaros meaning some cars get broken purely for the seats.

The Puma Millennium (or as the DVLA specify on the V5C document, the Puma Millenium) has exactly the same engine and mechanicals as the standard Puma so performance is no different. However the Millenium was only produced with the 1.7 16V engine so no genuine Millennium editions exist with the 1.4 or 1.6 engines.


Puma Millennium interior with leather recaro sports seats

As a driver's car the Ford Puma is one of the most exceptional bargains at the moment. The drive and handling are superb even after this time although you want to make sure that all suspension components are still in good condition to get the best driving experience.

The 1.7 16V Zetec engine has variable cam technology and from around 4000rpm the engine just flies. The VCT Zetec engine is very flexible and pulls well all across the rev range which makes it a very popular donor engine for Fiestas giving another source of Pumas being broken for parts.


Unfortunately the Millennium edition suffers from the same rusting rear arches as the rest of the Ford Puma family although many of the ones I've seen seem to have less significant rust than other Pumas - maybe they were treated differently by owners as a special edition?


As with my standard Puma the fuel economy on the Millennium edition is very good and achieves 40mpg on average mixed driving. The fuel tank isn't massive so although you won't be spending a fortune to fill up you also won't have a massive range. I've only just managed to get over 300 miles from a tank up to now.


It's often suggested that the rear seats of the Puma aren't suitable for passengers but I've actually found them far more useful than expected. I previously drove a Porsche 911 and the Puma is much more comfortable than that!

Adding Aux/Jack Input to Ford Radio CD Head Unit

If you have a Ford car with older radio designs then the chances are it doesn't come with the facility to play music via an AUX socket and 3.5mm jack lead.

There is a solution using a product from a company called Connects2 that utilises the CD changer socket to provide Aux input to the radio unit. I successfully used this aux input connection in my previous VW Golf so bought a unit for my Ford Puma with the Ford 6000CD head unit in it. The CD button on the front of the unit allows you to switch to the Connects2 unit and to control the playing of music.

Adding Aux input to Ford 6000CD radio head unit

The unit I bought from Connects2 was the Connects2 CTAFOUSB003 USB Interface for Ford which allows the use of USB sticks, SD cards as well as AUX input to the 6000CD radio unit. Unfortunately I've found that the unit is fairly intermittent in being detected but the support from Connects2 for resolving the issue has been fantastic so watch this space for more info.

Ford Puma Millennium Update

I managed to arrange some time to be able to collect the Puma Millenium edition (I wonder why Ford use the name Millenium rather than the correct spelling Millennium?) and it's now back home in the garage.

The car has 118,000 miles so it's interesting to compare to my existing silver Puma which has a very low mileage of 69,000. The Millenium does feel a lot looser than the silver, gear change and steering both feel less precise than in the low mileage car. I know there are a few jobs I need to sort out with the car but it's nice to be able to have it back and start checking through the service history to find out what has been done over the years.

One thing I did find out was that the history includes the original sales invoice and the first owner paid over £16500 for the car! It also showed me that the number plates front and rear are still original as is the tax disc holder.

Ford Puma - Severely Rusting Rear Wheel Arches

One unfortunate design fault on the Ford Puma is a severe lack of rust resistance especially on the rear arches which tend to rust on almost every car. The rust on a 5 to 10 year old Ford Puma is often worse than that on my 26 year old VW Golf MK2 which was very well galvanised.

Ford Puma Rusting Rear Arches

Unfortunately for a permanent repair the only solution is to cut out the rusting metal and weld in new parts that will not rust in future. Ford Puma rear panels are no longer available but fortunately Peugeot 206 front wings are a perfect match to the shape.




Ford Puma - serious Rust on Rear Arches

Ford Puma Millenium Edition Yellow

Having bought the non runner Y513CBV which a friend has now bought off me, I spotted a 1 owner, massive service history Puma for sale on one of the Puma forums. The Ford Puma Millenium was a limited edition version with only 1000 produced to celebrate Ford's award of Millenium design status. The car was only sold in bright yellow so is a very distinctive colour!

The Puma Millenium edition comes with recaro leather seats and 9 spoke alloy wheels. As with all Ford Pumas it also invariably comes with free added rust on the rear wheel arches.

Ford Puma Millenium Edition Recaro leather seats

The Ford Puma Millenium Edition Recaro leather seats are far more comfortable than the Puma standard seats and can be very sought after. In fact many Millenium Pumas get broken to remove the seats from them.



Ford Puma Y513CBV Cambelt Failed

Thanks to the Puma Owners group on Facebook I found out about a Ford Puma Y513CBV that had cambelt snapped and was a non runner but was in fair condition with decent wheels and radio/CD changer. I managed to get it for £50 by far the cheapest car I've ever bought in 25 years of motoring!



Ford Puma Y513CBV Cambelt Failed

Although we don't yet know how much damage the timing belt caused to the engine when it failed I've now managed to get hold of a replacement engine for the princely sum of £30. So other than some time in labour to fit it we should be able to get a running Ford Puma for under £100.


We've now managed to tow the Puma to a barn next to the car with the donor engine so will start the swapover early in 2016.

You Tube Review of a Ford Puma 1.7 VCT 16V

When searching online I found this review of the Ford Puma, the owner sounds very happy with their purchase and only paid £840 for it so they got a similar bargain to me. Nice to hear others enjoying the cars just as much!

Ford Puma TV Advert Steve McQueen

One of my memories when the Ford Puma originally came out was the TV advert featuring Steve McQueen that blended original 1960s footage with current footage of the Puma and was quite ground breaking at the time. My Puma is now safely stored in my new garage which unfortunately is a lot more cluttered than the one in the advert!




www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SlV5Eh2Sgk

Removing Rear Seats from Ford Puma - Fitting New Leather Interior

Having bought a complete leather interior for my Puma on eBay, the next stage was to remove the rear seats from the Puma so that I could fit the new leather seats and rear door cards.

The first stumbling block was finding the lever to put the rear seat back into the flat position - it was actually behind the rear light cluster not anywhere close to the catch mechanism as in other cars I've owned.

Ford Puma interior

Removing Ford Puma rear seats

What Size are the bolts holding the Ford Puma Rear seats?

What Size are the bolts holding the Ford Puma Rear seats?

The 4 bolts holding the Ford Puma rear seats in position are Torx T40 bolts on the bottom corner of each side. Once the seat back is flat then it's easy to be able to access and remove these bolts.

Once the 4 bolts have been removed then the seat can easily be taken out of the car and the seat base lifts up and unhooks. The base is clipped in place each side and can be lifted by pulling the seat up either side of the base.

Photo of Ford Puma with the rear seat back removed


Photo of Ford Puma with the rear seat back removed



 

Once the seats had been removed the new leather seats could be fitted.  This photo of my Ford Puma shows the new leather rear seats fitted





Photo of Ford Puma with the new leather rear seats fitted



Ford Puma Cleaning Molten Steering Wheel - Replacement Leather Steering wheel covers?

As well as rusting rear wheel arches one of the other common faults of the Ford Puma is the leather steering wheel appearing to have melted and gone lumpy. Originally I had intended replacing the leather cover on the steering wheel but the part that arrived wasn't suitable so I looked at other options.

Ford Puma Cleaning Molten Steering Wheel

It appears that the adhesive can come through the air holes in the leather over time which gives the molten look. It was suggested that this adhesive can be cleaned off using hot soapy water so I decided to give it a go.

After about 20 minutes of intensive cleaning using a scourer pad most of the adhesive had come off and the steering wheel was looking as it should with the small air holes now visible. In hindsight the scourer wasn't the best option to use - it did successfully clean the adhesive off the steering wheel but also scratched the leather so I'd recommend using a cloth so this abrasion doesn't happen.



Ford Puma replacement leather steering wheel cover

Having cleaned off the adhesive and let the steering wheel dry I decided that conditioning the leather would be a good idea so I used the AutoGlym leather care balm for this and the steering wheel is now looking great! If your Puma steering wheel has the melted leather look then I'd definitely recommend cleaning using hot soapy water as a first step before looking at replacement leather covers for it.


Cleaning Ford Puma leather steering wheel with AutoGlym