M8TT J

I am after a Sierra 4X4 Cosworth. I have found one I like with the Leather, FSH and below 70,000 miles.

It is ideal but before I turn up fall in love and part with my money, is there anything I should really look out for on these cars.

I will HPI the car and check for accident damage, plus all the usual stuff like check the oil and also the rad for water and oil mixture, oil leaks, diff leaks etc....but anything else

Cheers Matt

jameswrx

iTrader: (4)

Take it for a good run and make sure it doen't run too hot and/or overheat at any point and make sure fans kick in.

Make sure it has a 4wd engine, should be 200 block (might have been changed)

Make sure it's cold when you first hear it start up

Check the exhaust pipe before the backbox as they allways ground out there (might have been bodged up to stop blowing)

what would scooby do

Check every body panel seem (especially in the boot), they should match side for side. look where the rear wing gets folded into the boot etc

dazc2

It will be difficult to tell if it has a 200 block over the 205 block without getting underneath the car, one thing you can check though is the that the head doesn't have any mounting lugs on the left hand side of the head for the turbo damper which was only fitted to the 2wds'.

Make sure the car is symetrical bodywork wise, check for rot underneath, light scaleing will clean off but serious rot will need attention.

Listen for any odd noises from the gearbox, they tend to have a very slight chatter when moving at low rpm and speeds. 3rd gear being the weak link in the box. Make sure it drives straight with no clunking noises from the front (O/S drive shafts can give problems sometimes).

Most of it is just logical stuff then. If its modified above a stage 1 then make sure it has a Group A 3 port breather on it otherwise it will have a tendency to cough a little plume of blue smoke out when you apply the throttle after over run.

Make sure the ABS works etc etc.

If you do buy it and it is modified, make a trip to a GOOD reputable tuner and check that it is running spot on for its stage of tune. Too many people like to have a play round with things to try and make them go faster with these cars which is where the reliability suffers!

M8TT J

Going to look at it next week....is ******* miles away but looking at the pics it looks like it is worth the trip.

The car is stage one tuned by a decent tuner...forgotten the name....also has a stainless steel magnex full system.

I will check the above...but the guy is a RSOC member and apprantely according to the board looked at over 18 cars before he bought.

Should be fun if I get it....would get another scooby but house comes first so cosworth for year or so.

mike16v

Interesting topic this one... I am selling my Golf to fund a flat and was thinking of buying a Scoob or something before the sensible shoes went on and decided to get the flat 1st

How much can a nice clean, good running Cosworth be picked up for? £4k? Just thinking that I will still need a car, and it is just something to fill a year until I sort out the flat...

astraboy

remove the coolant bottle cap, start engine. if you see a spurt of water come out of the expansion tank then its a fooked head gasket, walk away.

remove one of the HT leads from out of the cam cover, if its covered in oil its a bust rocker cover gasket, 35 fookin quid for a genuine ford item

Make sure the ABS works, the dash lights should come on, then go out when you start up. If they dont then he's probably just removed the dash and unplugged the lights.

make sure all the sensors work when you open and close the doors/boot/bonnet etc.

M8TT J

Thanks for all the info...I will check all the above and fingers crossed will bag myself a nice motor.

Also 4k will get you an ok one....this one is 6k...but they go upto about 8-9k for a low mileage 4 door with FFSH....

MarkCSC

have a look at this http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/threa...ThreadID=51953
Mainly 2WD based info rather than 4x4 but might be some help

dazc2

Like Matt says...4k will get an ok one that could quite possibly need work. It would get quite a decent 2wd though.

M8TT J

Thanks for all the info...going to look at this one next week fingers crossed.

Will post up pictures if I get it. Got some pictures of it through and it looks completely stock...apart from the Magnex. Still has the original ford stereo and CD player in it.

TIFF-C20WTH

Is it from someone from the RSOC BB??