Some mixed news from this at the moment.
Went over to the site/workshop where I've been stashing the Corsa with a buddy last night to try and get it moved over to our main site so I can get it jacked up and start stripping the bugger apart, the 2 tyres that I pumped up at the tail end of last week were flat as pancakes again so I had to pump those up again which was a pig as the car's right in the corner of the workshop and we blew a fuse for the ciggy lighter in my mate's car trying to pump it up (had to borrow one out of a motorsport Cossie being stored there
).
Took over the battery to my Focus in the hope that it would just slot in there and it would fire up first time...................................well.........doesn't hurt to be optimistic
Not a chance of it happening though, managed to get the alarm working by connecting up the battery
which was promptly silenced with the use of some snips (I'm a lecky by trade so they'll be easy to properly splice back together once I get to that stage). Whatever we did we just couldn't get the thing to fire up though, turning the key to position 2 got the fuel pump working and some of the lights on the dash (I got a quarter tank of fuel included in the £70 purchase price - bargain
) but trying to actully crank the car brought absolutely nothing. We had a fiddle with the instaled immobiliser but couldn't work out what the seemingly random sequence of flashing red lights, solid red lights and momentary green lights meant regarding trying to fire it up!
So we pushed it out of the workshop and got it hookd up to the back of my mates car and began towing it, me driving the tow car and my mate in the Corsa (he didn't trust me in a car with little or no brakes which is fair enough I guess), started towing it and I was a bit shocked to look in the mirror to see lights flashing it me!!!
He'd fired it up!!!
And it sounded rough as a badgers arsehole and billowing huge plumes of blue smoke
He took it for a spin around the 'estate' and kept the revs up a bit, we were worried at first it sounded so rough that if he stopped it would stall so we agreed he'd drive it back and I'd drive his car back to camp (it's only a mile away).
Got the car back to camp with only a single cautionary stop (because it was peeing down with rain and the front wiper arms are in the boot with the scuttle panel
) and by the time we got back to camp it was beginning to sound alright (misfiring though) and the huge plumes of blue smoke had reduced to a hint of blue smoke which was a big bonus!
The car is currently stored outside of our station's motor club awaiting a space to become available for me to get the car in and up on axle stands at which point I will begin stripping the thing down for further inspection, that'll happen at the beginning of next week until I can get hold of a Haynes manual and then the real fun will begin! I had a cursory check of everything in the engine bay after I'd switched the car off and there don't appear to be any huge leaks coming from anywhere and the floor was bone dry underneath the car in the storage shed so I'm pretty chuffed with that, I also found out why it might be kicking out blue smoke - the previous owner said he'd done an oil change..............whoever did it needs slapping as the oil level was DOUBLE the maximum level on the dipstick (the cans in the car are also pants quality oil)
. I also had a go at trying to restart the car after I'd switched it off and I couldn't even get the starter motor to do anything (clicked but wouldn't turn) however given I have no idea how to use the immobiliser fitted on the car I'm not going to get too wound up about that at the mo - worst case scenario I'll pull the starter motor off and try it against a battery off the car to see if it does anything
So just gotta get the weekend out of the way with (taking the Focus to a motor show in Hull if anybody is up that way) and then I'll pinch the misses camera, get the car up and begin stripping and take loooooaaaads of photos to show what I'm dealing with.
Plans for next week
- Get it up on axle stands
- Strip wheels and (flat) tyres off
- Strip interior
- Strip any 'easy/obvious to remove' body parts (checking for rust)
- Start cleaning up the engine bay (and other minging filthy areas such as the suspension areas) to see if there's any obvious damage/leaks covered by dirst at the mo!
- Find out from the previous owner how the damned immobiliser works!
(anyone know anything about 'Scorpion' alarms and immobilisers???)
- GET A HAYNES MANUAL
- Take lots of photos
- Depending on how I get on with those I might drain ALL the fluids out of the car as well as I'll want to replace them as well.
Will update next week guys (with a few photos)
