Transit Connect 90PS 2004 Nov, Turbo DIesel
Amazed this car has not let me down in the four years I have owned it - aside from putting diesel into it from an old cannister - it stopped on the motorway-and all the lights in the dashboard flashed on - was towed to a garage in France - they said I would need to get new fuel pump and perhaps other items - cost 4500€. It still drove so I left that garage thanking them for their kindness and paying 20€ for their great suggestions, driving ever so slowly over the miles and eventually increasing my speed. I managed to travel another 500 km. At the (very trusted and honest recommended by a serious scientist friend in Germany) garage in Germany they said the same thing - would cost maybe 5000€. So asked the neighbour upstairs who is designing a new electric bike - he said - check the diesel filter - what do you know - changed this and for 50€ I had the car working again - moral - consider who you ask and don't believe that garages always want to help you for the cheapest price possible. It just may be that they want to take a much money from you as they can without physically assaulting you.
To the present problem - the horn. It didn't work - so I pushed the "button" on the steering wheel - probably too hard - who can tell? Anyway, I took off all the plastic covering around the front left (European car) wheel - to find that I only needed to take off the small triangular plastic cover in front of that, in order to access the horn. OK changed the horns - the first was in fact dead and the second works - tested directly on a battery and it was very loud. Therefore I imagine as it is not the fuse (under the bonnet) it sadly may be in the steering column. Is there a way to localise the problem - it sounds as if the steering column switch is at fault, then I have to remove the air bag and to do that I first have to disconnect the battery, and then the radio may no longer work. So I have to make ten contributions to the forum so that I can get a secret number to get that working again. In addition if I do that exactly at noon then my clock may be reset to the correct time, since the little pencil buttons for setting the clock do not function, and taking the power supply away would be one way of getting the clock at least to be just 12 hours wrong, I could live with that.
So to fix the horn I have to take the car apart? Just leave the engine but take the rest off the chassis?
I have a camera and can take a picture. I also have a torch. So I can light up whatever my eyes can see and take a picture. Hence - someone else can do this. In fact perhaps someone else has done this. So instead of long poorly worded descriptions it would be great just to take a picture or ten and post the contents. A finger pointing here or there would also remove the need for using complicated graphic programmes to point to the part in question.
This horn has not been working for a few weeks, but I can live with that (since I just don't use the car!) but as my final aim is to be able to park the car in the driveway and watch the weeds grow up around it for only 350€ a year, instead of the present 1000€ a year, I need to export the car to France. In France they don't charge tax and the insurance is half of what is charged in Germany (proving that letting people drive around at 300kph may in fact cause more accidents and thus raise the cost to us all for insurance).
I am trying my best to be a European but after attempting this find that in fact "authorities" do NOT wish the citizens to be living in several places as this makes their life difficult. So I have to pretend to be "loving living in France" for as long as my nerves can hold out, as in order to be able to import the car, I need besides the 7 or 12 documents including water bill, tax bill and birth certificate etc, I also need a CoC. I have been happy with my Coc so far but now know that what the "technical inspector" in France wants to see is a document of certification of homolugation (claiming that the car is a car) CoC, certificate of certification. Yes, life is easy if we just let weeds grow around the car and walk to the shops but at some time I just feel the need to move on. Perhaps someone can help first of all with the horn - then I will be legal!
Thanks to all who answer, I will sit and wait patiently - I have been waiting for the Ford people for over a week to respond to me letting me know that they DO want the 150€ for the sheet of paper (CoC) which they could easily post to me so that all that is standing between me and saving 650-150€ a year is the horn
The Big Bank
2016 May 18 19:33 Central European Time.
