service @6k/fancy diesel/new this/that-is it needed?

[FarmerPug]

it gives me a couple of hours out the house tinkering with the car

a few hours is great, i enjoy a bit of tinkering with the car.

[Bailes1992]

Time to tinker again

[highlander]

Did you get that sensor, Sam? To replace the one that is causing your Focus to burn too much fuel?

[Bailes1992]

Did you get that sensor, Sam? To replace the one that is causing your Focus to burn too much fuel?

Ford wanted £139 for it. Turned out it's just a universal O2 sensor made my Bosch with fords plug on the end. I've ordered one through bosch for £40, going to snip the plug off the old one and solder it to the new O2 sensor. Going to have to get a mechcanic to get the old sensor out as it's welded in rather tightly

[highlander]

Eeep. Pricey stuff, sensors, and Ford aren't helping you any by setting themselves a huge markup... Hell, I bet it only cost Bosch pennies to make. You're right to get it fixed though.

And to the original poster - the whole "while I was fixing xxx, I broke yyy" issue is how you learn about cars, and how other people learn about cars. If you don't want to break your car while you're fixing something, then that's what mechanics and garages are for. Also, you're not exactly going to post about all the things you didn't break while you were fixing your car, now are you? And most people who find this forum aren't going to join it and say "I've got a 1996 Peugeot 406 that has done a million miles and has never gone wrong", they're going to join it and say "I've got a 1996 Peugeot 406 that has done a million miles and is a bit smokey", or "the electric window has stopped working", that kind of thing.

As for my to-do list:

I need to get my fuel filler cap sensor sorted on the Coupe, as that started to piss me off on Boxing Day (the car beeps three times on start-up, the MFD says "Fuel Cap Open" and the fuel cap warning light comes up on the dash).

AND I need to get the cigarette lighter socket fixed too - blows its fuse every time you plug anything in

AND the drivers' seat heater doesn't work (passenger one is fine).

AND I still have the cambelt/water pump change due.

AND the old Saloon is still sat outside my flat waiting for some TLC. Merry f*cking Christmas, anonymous hit-and-run White Van Man, hope you die in a freak grand-piano-falling-from-a-tall-building accident.

Oops, I've just depressed myself not to worry, both cars still actually work and can be driven (touches wood)

Anyway, hope you get your Focus running the way you want it to.

[Gary406]

is that carlube oil any good ? i always thought that was the cheap stuff

[FarmerPug]

On the topic of things that need doing/i want to do, ill start from the back:

- new boot badge.
- respray boot, rear bumper, and possibly rear left door, and remove dents in passenger door and rear left door and wherever old granny in her hyundai has swung the door wide.
- reconnect the first aid box light as i fogot to do it.
- take off the rear grab handles, and spray with plastispray to get back their original texture, and put back on and somehow find a plastic welder.
- polish all the seats, and sort out a scuff on the drivers one.
- get the footwell lights working
- rear right wheel bearing
- new but still original gear knob needed
- get a clarion cd player that works with the jbl amp
- solid flywheel conversion
- remove a few stone chips on the bonnet which ideally would mean a respray, which makes me want to buy some old mechanically or electrically knackered car in the same colour but just pull off all its good panels
- Put on the nicer alloys that i forget the name of.
- paint the disks.
- a service will be due again soon

im enjoying my ownership experience with my pug, i could have easilly bought something fresher and just had a machine that went from a to b, i can still do that in my car, its just that when its stopped i can do a bit of tinkering. As highlander said its a learning experience, if you dont give it a go you will never know how to fix a car. There is very few people who join here and brag about their car going perfectly.

[rwb]

Merry f*cking Christmas, anonymous hit-and-run White Van Man, hope you die in a freak grand-piano-falling-from-a-tall-building accident.

I'll drink to that, although you seem to have toned it down a bit.

Back to the original question: from experience, air filters definitely need changing more often than 70k/5years. I get engine oil & filter changed at 6k to 10k depending on how hard its been worked. I've just had the cambelt etc done, and I have a list of things that ought to be done before they break proper. If you're happy to run it till it busts then fine, but I'm not because reliability is very important to me.

There are a few posts on fancy diesel and additives. So you can judge for yourself whether you want to try them, and if you do then you have somebody else with whom to compare results. How cool is that?

Similarly, the mods: the consensus appears to be that uprated air filters are useless, some people advocate stainless steel exhausts, there are some impressive de-cat & de-fap cases. The strut brace also springs to mind; I'm sure there are lots more mods described in detail on here, so again for each you can read up and benefit from others' hindsight in deciding whether you want to try.

[FarmerPug]

in my opinion big air filters are a waste of time, drive any car for 5 mins with the filter assembly off and it wont make a single difference, so how is some big waste of material ever going to help. The strut brace is really the only thing that i can say will work with a noticeable effect.

[highlander]

Stainless steel exhausts do give a noticeable boost, I'll vouch for that. I got my Powerflow exhaust on the 1.8 and it definitely shifts better. It would be even better if I'd asked them to produce a performance exhaust.

For a diesel, a remap is the big one.

For any car, changing of filters, oil, spark plugs, brake pads and brake discs is considered essential maintenance, in much the same way that a tank of fuel isn't expected to last the lifetime of the car.

[Bailes1992]

is that carlube oil any good ? i always thought that was the cheap stuff

They might be seen like that but at the end of the day oil has to meet minimum specifications by law. It's also got ford recommendations on it.
Oil is oil, as long as it's the right grade and the right viscosity, if your changing it regular it shouldn't matter.
Theres people who have run XUD's into 5-6 hundred thoursand miles running cheap 15w-40 miniral oil and just changing it every 3-4k.
Engines love good fresh oil.

[FarmerPug]

a remap seems to be the biggest advantage to diesels these days, id love to test drive a 136 remapped 406 just to see how much better it is, would driving a 2.2 have the same effect, if you have a remapped 110 and a standard 2.2 hdi what one will win in a race, or what would handle better?