Hows everyones Cougars going?

[Dshibi]

Hmmm... my HID's aren't doing anything for the condensation and I hadn't noticed a drain tube in the 01 Cougar headlights so not sure what it could be.

Looks like a weekend job for me pulling out the headlight and giving it a look over. I might try NECO's suggestion for opening the rear cover during the day though. They also threw around stuff like hair dryers and what not before actually pulling the headlight apart - something I'd really rather not do!

Dan

[thearrow]

Dan.....you got mail.

If you are going to pull the headlights apart you should spray the inside of the light black it will make your cat look completely different.....I think the instructions are on NECO.

[thearrow]

My wheels only come in grey or black if you need the details and want to know how to import them from the USA let me know. I got them from here and although they are not listed on their site they got them in for me and shipped by courier direct to my office.

http://www.tirerack.com/

[thearrow]

Cost me about A$850.00 delovered to my office + A$250.00 to be fitted

[Dshibi]

Originally Posted by thearrow

Dan.....you got mail.

If you are going to pull the headlights apart you should spray the inside of the light black it will make your cat look completely different.....I think the instructions are on NECO.

Thanks for the mail and the pic Dave

As for the headlight, I'm not really game to pull it apart - but I have considered the painting in the past. You're right, it would totally transform the outside appearance. Maybe... sometime down the track!

Dan

[REDDYZ]

Thanks for the info Dave, I will definitely take your advise when am ready for them. Am curious to know whats happening with your dash lights. Is that just dash or instrument cluster? Becuase, I cant see instrument cluster even with lights on when I wear sunnies. Thanks to the dark window tint. I started looking to change lights of instrument cluster and then found lot of panels on the internet that totally change colors and design of the instrument cluster. Not hard to fit them except dealing with dials. It has to be done by professionals. Realizing this I backed off and settled driving without sunnies. :(

[thearrow]

I had problems with my temp light and traction control light on ALL the time turned out I had a faulty ABS module cost me $750.00 to get fixed but at least the light is out now.

Got my sparky to bridge the temp light and that is out now as well so everything is back to normal now.

Changing the dashboard lights is a popular mod on NECO but it would seem a lot of trouble for little gain IMHO.

[Dshibi]

Okay, so while things have been good with the car, over the weekend it developed a problem - just in time for it's 135,000km service which was today.

As always, I hope for the best and expect the worst and that preparation kinda helped but the car developed a misfire in Cylinders 1 and 6 due to arcing ignition leads and a faulty (or just old) coil pack. Up for a hefty bill in fixing it up and it's unfortunate that at times like these my love for the car does die off a little.

I guess as long as it gets fixed and I'm on my way again I'll be happy. The car is almost at 130,000km's herself and getting near the 10 year mark - I guess these things have to be expected.

Some more positive things to update on later, but I'll save those for when the car's all good again. Hopefully this Thursday...

Dan

[REDDYZ]

When I bought my kitty, the air con wasn't working. I put gas it in and it lasted a day means there is a leak somewhere and never bothered to fix it for two reasons. One this is my everyday car and dont have a second car and couldn't spare time for it. Secondly I dont like driving cars with air con on for few reasons. You will notice a huge drop in pickup (esp for a 2.5L Engine), fuel economy and engine will be at high temperatures. Thanks to the pitch dark tint I never felt like switching on A/C. It was bad only when I park my car in sun and then a 2 min drive with windows open will cool down inside and then tint does its job. Six months before I re-gassed the system and put some die to trace the leak. Same thing, gas leaked out in 24hrs and couldn't find a trace of die anywhere in the system except a very thin layer on top of compressor. Thought it was compressor and got a second hand one from wreckers and re-gassed the system with second hand compressor fitted. Same story, gas leaked out. Didn't know what to do as we dont have proper air con repair equipment. And left it like that until now. Last week I came to know that one of my friend's mate has mobile air con repair and took my kitty to him. He injected nitrogen and found cracked hose. So ordered the hose and drier from rockauto ($250 incl shipping). I hope there wont be anymore surprises. If this doesn't fix the problem then its evaporator. I had to pull the whole dash. If I have to do that, I will do some mods to instrument cluster like changing the back lit from green to blue, change the background design etc.

[Dshibi]

Car's all good again - thankfully. New ignition leads, replaced coil pack too. Cleaned out excess carbon in the air intake system and the brakes had to be bled and redone but she's running smoothly again and that's the main thing!

Dan

[thearrow]

I have just received my sway bar link replacement kits from rockauto. What happens is that these links have a ball joint on the end of them that gradually wears and causes a knocking noise when you go over a speed hump or pothole (and there are plenty of them around my place).

My mechanic tells me it is a common problem so will get it fixed shortly now that I have the parts.

Yoga sounds like you have fixed the problem, aircon can be a real bugger to fix.

Good to hear yours is going well Dan, when are you getting an exhaust???

[REDDYZ]

Dave, let me guess, you have ordered Raybestos links right? fingers crossed that the knocking sound is from the links but am not positive though. And am still waiting for air con parts.

[thearrow]

Yoga.....you got it first time.....have you done yours???

[REDDYZ]

Yes, I got it first but I did a little goof up. Well actually big goof up. When I received the parcel I got only one link and then realised that I ordered only one. So, I ordered another one and its on the way. Once I get that I will first replace the air con hoses and replace the water pump too as I will be draining coolant because I have to remove one of the coolant hoses to replace air con hose. Once am done with this I will replace the links. I will keep you posted on this.

Dan, the excess carbon buildup was in the main throttle body or in the secondary throttles which are in the individual intake manifolds.?

[Dshibi]

Hehe Dave, stay tuned. Been a bit busy and not on the Net as often as I'd like to be at the moment :|

Yoga, umm... not entirely sure but I'm guessing in the main throttle body. Ford said they would apply a solvent to break down the excess carbon but that's about as much as I know/understood of the situation.

No hesitation in the throttle anymore which is good - something I've been having to get used to now as the driving experience is a lot different, but much better

Dan

[thearrow]

Yoga........you are not going to believe it but......I did the same thing and ordered only one link.........the problem was on the rockauto web site they are lsted as "one" kit so not unreasonable to ASSUME that you only need one kit per vehicle.

WRONG....you need two.

I am doing the rear links as well on the principle that if the fronts are gone might as well do all of them.

[REDDYZ]

Welcome to the party Dave, now it doest hurt me too much paying for shipping twice. Also it costed me $10 more second time for shipping. When I called them (I have free calling to USA & Canada) they said it is in different warehouse which is not true and even if it is true it shouldn't cost $10 more.

Dan, Its common to have lot of carbon build up on secondary throttle but not on the main throttle body. I have seen few cougars now clocked over 120000km and the main throttles were spotless. I was really impressed by that. When I checked my throttle body at 135000km while changing rocker cover gaskets it was surprisingly clean and didn't had to clean it. And am a bit heavy on throttle too. There should be some reason for that excess carbon buildup.

[REDDYZ]

Originally Posted by thearrow

Yoga.....you got it first time.....have you done yours???

Its been so long I got the sway bar links but couldn't find time to fit them. Thought thats enough and went into garage, pulled out wheels and replaced the sway bar links. Went for a quick spin and came back from a long drive. Because knock sound is GOOOOOONE. Hard to believe but... sway bar links did the trick.

[baz]

I think I might have jumped the gun, after reading the post about sway bar links. I decided to buy 2 for the back of my cougar from rockauto. The trouble is it only makes a knocking noise when i'm going slow not when i'm cruising down the highway, any ideas guys

[REDDYZ]

Originally Posted by baz

I think I might have jumped the gun, after reading the post about sway bar links. I decided to buy 2 for the back of my cougar from rockauto. The trouble is it only makes a knocking noise when i'm going slow not when i'm cruising down the highway, any ideas guys

No doubt it is because of sway bar links. Thats exactly what will happen if links are bad.

[baz]

I've just ordered 2 for the front from rockauto might as well do them all. Is this an easy job all will I need a mechanic ?. Thanks reddyz for all your info

[REDDYZ]

No not at all. Very easy. Do one at at time. Take the wheel off and you can see the control arm, sway bar with link. Take old link off and first insert the bush, then bolt the link to the lower control arm and if you have another jack lift up the wheel hub so that the link topend hole will line up with sway bar hole. You can pull down sway bar to reach the link. But dont do that, coz you dont want to fit the link on load. You know what I mean. When you lift up the car the hub will hang down because of weight and thats not its default position so, when you fit the link the hub should be in its default level/position. Front one is fairly simple. Nothing complicated. Just take the wheel off and you will know what to do. Let me know how you go. I did my rear ones and waiting for the front ones to be delivered. I ordered light weight alloy links.