I was in a similar situation last year when the almost new Tranny I bought had no spare tyre in the carrier when I brought it home (obviously nicked by some pikeys who nipped over the compound fence). I couldn't prove that I wasn't trying to pull a fast one when I phoned the dealer to tell him so, but he supplied me with a brand new wheel and tyre nonetheless. I'd have been happy enough with a slightly used one, so kudos to him.
LOL!
I think the word "D'oh" would be appropriate here!
Talking of which, I was umming and ah-ing about whether or not to sell it for spares or repair, or to keep it for a while and actually do the repairs myself, and I think I might have a go myself. The list of parts the Ford dealer said it needed came to about £800, but I could get that down a *lot*, and still use genuine parts where neccessary - for example - oil cooler (leaking due to oil/water sludge mixture bunging it up), rad and heater matrix altogether came to around £300 or so, but I'm fairly confident I could get at the very least the heater matrix and rad off another diesel (not neccessarily TD, as those bits are more than likely the same) fiesta (hopefully GW Bridges have got one). Then there was the fact that 4 coolant pipes alone came to around the £200 mark (I'm quite confident I could flush the old ones out anyway, or take them off another fiesta - if it's not too old and the head gasket hasn't gone on that then there shouldn't be too much of an issue).
And once I've got the cooling system done, it's just a straightforward head gasket and cambelt job (I'm going to buy or borrow the special tools for tensioning the cambelt, and I've got a torque wrench so in theory nothing's beyond my capabilities). I'm in no rush as I'm using the Audi now, so I'll do it as and when weather permits over the space of about a month, and then won't have lost too much!!
One thing that I was dreading was replacing the heater matrix - I expected it to be the case of dangling my head under the dashboard for bloody ages - but I looked in the Haynes manual last night and it comes out via the engine bay, so that should be nice and easy. The rad's going to be piss to replace, and the oil cooler can't be too hard - then just a case of doing the head gasket.
Though knowing my luck, by the time I finished it'll probably be worth less as a runner than it was at the beginning as a non-runner :-)
Peter
P.S. And please no "I told you so"s about taking it to a Ford dealer - I do feel like enough of a mug already :-(
Well you ought to be able to get the old one recored for less than that
Flushing the goo out can take a long time :-( But you always get there in the end
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