Wow, it's been a while but thought I'd do a quick update. Nothing special has really happened but with the 240 back in Melb I'm getting back into doing some mechanical stuff myself again.
Got jack of having no heat so I swapped out the heater box. Turns out the PO decided to cheap out and bypass the heater box altogether. Had to buy new coolant hoses and we almost burned the car to the ground when we couldn't get the AC pipes off. Below is mid extraction, the major metal beam and the box is still to be removed.
Then after experiencing oh so glorious heat with the working heater, I went to a place across the border to get the aircon re-gassed. Of course with Fred being the fucker he is, I was dreading the worst – and it happened. The professionals rang back explaining that the PO had run into something and damaged the condenser. So new condenser, evaporator and lines were bought (ouch) and installed (reasonable). Funnily enough, they had the apprentices working on the car it it took 2 days longer than expected but they had done a check, done a partial service and fixed the front bumper. That's a win.
The cooling system then sprung a leak out the drainage plug (expensive for what they are) but it was expected so replacement and pressure test was then done. Even after all of this, I was still ahead of the original Ford quote (for just the heater box and panel) by around $900. Shudder to think how much the aircon work would've cost me through the dealer.
Thankfully I had the Aurion during all this:
So then with time for Christmas and pet sitting, I got new plugs and filters for the car but derped out and just did an oil service in the garage. Not being particularly mechanical I got that great rush of accomplishment when the car kept working afterwards!
So next thing is to actually swap the plugs over and replace the foam in the air filter box as it's disintegrating due to oil as I type. I can't find any replacements online so I'm going to have to find some suitable foam and cut to size. I also need to properly align the doors as they're not quite right yet and there's the hole in the exhaust to do as well. Car runs great but it's slowly gassing me...
Fun!
