Ford Forum

Being my first post i feel i should say "Hi" I've searched around on this forum quite a few times now since having my Black KA for the last 4 years. Im usually over on Supermotojunkie.com with my bike which is more my first passion, but since doing a bit of damage to my Ka the other day, I've realised i'm fairly attached to it, as are many of my mates with whom i've shared a fair few memories (One that springs to mind was a 65 mph Rally jump in Surrey with four people in the car, 1 metres air up, 4 metres down the road, we all survived fine and drove home, but i later spent £800 fixing the cars knackered suspension!) with the Ka and some epic road trips.

So without boring everyone half to death, I managed to have a "fair old prang" in my Ka the other day (2 weeks ago today). Long story short, i glanced the rear of a peugeot that was hidden behind a van in traffic on a crazy roundabout (Rosehill A217, if you know it?) and though i only managed to dent the hell out of her bumper i managed to do a fair bit more damage to my Ka. It was drivable afterwards and nothing really fell off (which was good
So the damage list!:

Driver's side door - Large dent near hinge, still opens fine but will look for one from scrap yard!
Driver's side front wing - Also dented, will look in the scrap yards for this aswell!
Front Bumper - Broken off from wing, also fairly scuffed/needs replacing - scrap yard!
Passenger side front wheel - Badly dented where the car hit the curb doh! scrap yard aswell!
Driver's side light cluster - Broken mountings, possibly repairable if i can remember how to plastic weld well!

Engine - now not working!! - Main problem!

The engine does not fire now after leaving it on my drive for 2 weeks apart from when i took it for a valuation, the battery is almost completely dead, yet even with another battery connected to it, it won't start either. I'm gonna test using another key (immobiliser problems?) at the weekend when i get a chance to get some work done. I've bought a diagnostic lead with some software (£23 delivered off ebay!) to connect to the car to see what error codes it's spat up recently, the engine management light has been on enough for me to guess there's a few. I've already checked the usual spark plug connections problem, i'm guessing i may have done damge to the coil/cdi or ecu somehow by constantly trying to get it to fire up the other night. I am by no means a mechanical expert but am used to tinkiering and fixing small stuff on my bike so can turn a spanner no problems.

Any help would be much appreciated, i'm getting a mate of mine who's a Ford apprentice engineer to take a look at it hopefully soon and will write up whatever I find.

For your info the insurance worked out that they will give me the car (well it's still back at mine!) and £1340 to use to fix it. They were quoted £600 parts (brand new) and on top of that a lot of labour that would have pushed the amount they would have had to spend over the 1800 figure which is the rough value they are trying to give the car (I'd say more 2k!)

Cheers,

Cheers for the replies guys! but anyways an update to my poor Ka -

I managed to get the car started, (used another key! probably dead battery for the immobiliser, though i thought the light was going off the first time it wouldn't start). Then the car broke down again, AA turned up and managed to start it after clearing a fault code for the Crankshaft position sensor. Am probably going to replace it when i get a chance (it's slightly hidden behind the starter motor). I also had to get a new set of pads and discs for the front brakes £150 a Quik Fit! Could've got cheaper had it not been a Sunday and i was desperate!

Anyway the diagnostic cable showed up yesterday too, came with a nice Live data suite, so hooked it up to the Ka and drove about for a bit, apart from being pretty damn cool, the only things i really learnt were that the cars fueling goes to a Closed Loop (or maybe that's open loop?) when you spin a tyre, hence making it that bit quicker as the ECU isn't asking the lambda (oxygen) sensor in the exhaust constantly whether it's breaking the law emissions wise. The ECU said it was "due to driving conditions" and the car definately seemed to have more grunt to it for the little while that it stayed in this mode.

I have my bike set in the same mode constantly after buying a plug that deletes the oxygen sensor and it did a fair bit of difference to my bike too. Does anyone know how to do this too a Ka? may prove to be a nice little mod that's a cheap way to free up a pony or two.

Will keep the updates coming...