Real Road Test: 1982 Ford Escort 1.3L Mk3
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Yes, it's a Ford! But what is it like to drive? Is it as disappointing as the Mk6? This particular Escort is being featured in Classics magazine, particularly the August 2019 issue: shop.kelsey.co...
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#Ford #RoadTest #Oldcarsarethebest
Those dashboard dials take me back. In the 80s I worked for a company in west London, screen-printing Ford dials - by hand, four dials to a sheet. Originally they were printed onto sheet steel, later we switched to alloy. This was done because the scrap value was higher and the company could get more money when the rejects (there were lots - a whole skip full, outside the factory) were sold off for scrap.
Quality was very strict. The slightest speck of dust in the print meant the dial was a reject. One day I was screen printing the little red square on the fuel gauge, and I just couldn't get it to line up exactly with the white graphics next to it. I tried all sorts of fine adjustments, with the Quality Control manager breathing down my neck, but it always came out a bit wonky. Time was getting on, and the batch of dials had to go out. Eventually, grudgingly, the QC manager approved my least-wonky position, and I could go ahead and print the whole batch...even though the red square was still a bit off-kilter.
At the very end of the day, when I was packing up, I discovered what the problem was. I had put the screen on the printing bench upside down.
So if you've got an 80s Ford, and the red bit on the fuel gauge is a bit wonky - that was me. Sorry.
Brilliant story!
So it was your fault I ran out of petrol at the entrance to a petrol station and had to push it to the pump! 😁
Hahaha. 😄
You mean I might have had a signature car ? 😄
Lol, great story! Brought a smile to my face.
that's a great choice of colour. You'd never see the rust.
🤣🤣🤣🤣👍
😂
**Jeremy Clarkson voice**
"On this weeks Hubnut...
Ian closes a door
Ian gets some new sandals
And Ian farts in the back of an Escort
LOL
"It was the seat..." Oldest trick in the book.
And, don't forget, Ian breaks another of Kelsey Media's project cars...
@@stevek548 Yeah we all know he`s not a Ford fan, hope he didn't leave his calling card as well if you know what I mean.
😂
"Single Speaker Stereo", you can't get a more Hubnut accessory than that.
Also, how contradictory is that when you think about it?
Not to mention "AM-only Stereo" - Nice one :-)
@@skjerk Ah, but AM stereo exists!
I know. But it was a niche. Generally it’s mono. Techmoan has done videos about it!
@@rollingtroll Was that the whole point of mentioning it ?
My mate had an '82 1.3L 3 door, in '88. We used to unsuccessfully cruise for chicks in it. Resulting in double date disaster in Rhyl.
Par for the course in Rhyl I'd have thought.
@@neilthomas9244 Nobody spoke on the drive to Rhyl. We went our separate ways at the "fun" fair. Nobody spoke on the drive back from Rhyl. Worst date ever.
I had one in white every mot tons of welding
Rhyl urrrrrgggghhh
I'm 54 years old. One of lives reassurances has been that at any point you can buy a small £300 Ford that will run well for two years before crumpling to the tarmac. God bless Escorts Mk 1-4 and Fiestas Mk 1-5.
Owned two of them, a 5 door and a 3 door, both rust bucket piles of junk......I still loved them though, especially the 3 door basic model with xr3i wheels lol
Most things rusted back then.
Mine also rusty but I miss it. I put clear front indicator lenses and a orion grill on mine amongst other things
@@millomweb Not entirely true depending on the car and how it was looked after. My 1984 BMW has only two fingernail-sized rust spots over the entire car. Original paint that looks brand new as well. It's up to the owner(s).
@@chesswizard31 It's not really up to owners to get their brand new cars repainted with something that lasts. I seem to remember Datsuns & other Japanese cars turning to mush extremely quickly.
I did a similar thing with a MK2 Fiesta for my then wife, it was the popular plus 1.1 Spanish Auto Fiesta in the brilliant fiery red they used on Ford's back then, I sourced a complete XR2 kit and spent weeks getting it fettled to sit proper, had the better XR2i wheels from the MK3 Fiesta on and a serious sound system that nearly blew the ears out me stepson. Interior came with the exterior stuff and unless you listened to it running or looked under the bonnet it was an XR2 visually, I also put a cherry bomb on it and that took the tappety tap from the OHV out the noise equation, old bill hated the car :)
I would have that car as a daily even now, took me back to my mark 1 Fiesta 950 Pop Plus, basic but dependable and thorughly enjoyable to thrash a little.
If it was a little safer I’d give it a go. As long it’s mechanically sound and can get you from A to B without any hassle I don’t think you can ask for more from a car. 🤷🏼♂️
except this one cut out and needed hood up tinkering to get it going again, fuck that every time you want to pop out
@@mr8I7 Being brought up in the 70's and 80's safety was never really thought about, it has 4 doors to escape from, that's all you need 😁
@@OrdinaryJoe12 Cars from the 80's weren't that bad! You didn't have to lift the bonnet (hood) all the time and at least when you did you could fix it yourself, not like now where you need a computer to tell you whats wrong......great days.
9:20 If it's single speaker, it AIN'T stereo! It's "hole-in-the-wall" MONO!
@@EgoShredder GM only fitted radios in the car if the purchaser requested the feature. Here in Australia, General Motors/Holden fitted the "Air Chief" brand of radio at purchaser's request in models from 48-215 through to their 1969 models, I think it would've been the 1970 Toranas that had radios fitted as standard features(AM mono only, FM stereo was still 4 years away at the time and the first stations on air back then were extremely elitist, playing ONLY classical and jazz(yyyyyeeeeeuuuuuggggghhhhh!). Indeed, the 48-215 and FJ models had turn indicators as optional extras fitted as requested. It was the FE that had turn indicators as a standard feature.
Most people back then got a Sharp, Pioneer or similar radio cassette and pod speakers to the rear shelf along with the ubiquitous nodding dog which gave rise to Churchill.
@@EgoShredder No nodding dog or furry dice but admit to Traffic light air freshers,work steel cap boots taken off to drive and left in car made an interesting aroma in the summer especially.
@@EgoShredder Got a tilt sunroof aftermarket fitted to my later Mk2 Escort Ghia's vynal covered roof summer of 79 with fresh heatwave summer, made interesting and worrying thoughts watching them mark out and take an air nibbler to it.
EgoShredder mine too, i had a portable CD player and portable speakers in mine
7:55 The battery is accessible, even more so when it drops into the front passenger footwell doh! Ford actually manufactured a battery tray as a repair panel.
Only if the glovebox was missing, it would sit there held up till the MOT tester wiggled it to test for security / insecurity. Then as you say there was an
aftermarket repair panel for this, This was caused by rainwater leaking through the holes for plastic trim clips on the scuttle, leaking onto the battery and
overfilling it till it leaked acid onto the battery tray.
We repaired loads of them.
So true. Mine was new and I played pop with the Ford dealer when it came back from service with acid damage on the battery tray paint. They refinished it with thick black paint! A real bodge.
@@jbz2079 Me too,fitted quite a few.
My Escort mk3 needed the battery tray repaired.
Lovely Jubbly Mr HubNut, if cars were still so simple, they wouldn't be so expensive.
paul taylor cars are much cheaper now than then! Google inflation calculator! They were not cheap back then man
Well, they wouldn't be so expensive to fix if anything goes wrong.
Gavin Townsley I realise that. But comparatively a new car today is cheaper
Had one of these nearly new, loved it. Makes me realise how long ago the 80s were. Why aren't we all driving cars like the "Jetsons" by now?
To be fair, people do now own 'self-driving' electric cars with giant screens that they can make video calls on (I think?) which feels pretty futuristic.
@@valcian1 Yeh, but don't some of the self driving cars "crash", and they tell you to have your hands poised over the steering wheel just in case you need to take control? Sounds scary to me.
@@neilthomas9244 haha yep! I don't like them, or the idea of them, but the tech would definitely have been considered futuristic just a few years ago.
I remember when these first came out here in the US 🇺🇸 as a 1981 model, the Escort being a word car, being sold all over the world. It came with a 1.6 litre, which was very anaemic, made even worse by the gearing in the automatic. Our four speed had overdrive in fourth, which was somewhat common in vehicles sold here.
I remember someone who lived locally, her father worked at a Ford plant in Mahwah, NJ (long gone, demolished eons ago), she had to put in a new engine. The Escort of this era was disposable; if you didn't change the timing belt, you definitely would need a new engine, it was an interference engine. Completely redesigned for 1992 MY, being Mazda based. Mercury also had this as the Lynx. These early US Escorts, and especially the Lynx, are extremely rare, because they were disposable, not reliable, and people didn't perform the proper preventive maintenance.
The controls, and the dash, were different in th US models, as well as Ford moving the horn to the turn signal lever, very un-American. That changed for the 1985 or 1986 MY, where the horn was now in the middle of the steering wheel.
I like this version, it has stood up to the test of time. And I remember the rear wiper being an option starting on the L, GL & GLX, as well as the wagon (estate in the UK 🇬🇧).
The thing is the American version was almost totally different car. It was supposed to be a unified project but they apparently gave up not long in, probably due to how long it took to communicate between the european and American team. So the only shared parts is the engine and the roof.
@@kyle8952I agree. The rear wheel arches are different, as well as headlamps and taillamps. Bumbers and other equipment to bring it up to Federal safety standards at the time. This vehicle is different yet still familiar. I actually like this design more so than the one built here in the US 🇺🇸. It even sounds like the US 🇺🇸 Escort! Those door locks! They were used here in the US 🇺🇸. Surprising to hear they were still using leaded fuel in the UK 🇬🇧, our vehicles went unleaded for 1975 MY, and I believe by the end of the 80's leaded fuel was banned here in the US 🇺🇸. Even though this is an L, it seems better than the US model.
Starts like any old Ford..
.
.
.
I'll show myself out, thank you!
Yes any old Ford with an auto choke I changed my vv carb for a single choke webber on my Capri never had anymore issues.
not really, my 1.6 pinto is first time every time inc winter, was auto choke but converted now but faultless running
Yeah my capri used to start first time from cold but by the time I got out to close the garage door it used to cut out and when it was warm/hot it was hard to start you had to hold the accelerator half way down but if I didn't get it right it was a pig to get going.
@@zugbug1986 mines always fine, starts and stays running
@@hitachi2556 Maybe I just had a dodgy one it was a 4 year old car but already had 3 owners when I got it.
I love that era of Escort and the Fiesta Mk2
My favourite Mk3 Escort is the booted Orion with the smooth dished domed hubcaps with the wide plastic edge and little square holes.
My neighbour had an Escort that looked like Lady Di's escort had the beauty rings and stainless center caps and slotted steel wheels.thought it looked gorgious as a kid. it was a metallic minty silver.
there were so many old mk3 escorts even in the early 90s maths teacher had a yellow estate.
I miss 80s early 90s plastic hubcaps and narrow wheels.
you mention the smell oh the power of nostalgia and smell memory 😊
It's refused to start and got going with a tap. modern stuff try that 😀
Ditch the sandles Ian, nothing worse than the sight of men's feet. 😲 The escort looks good though.
Nothing wrong with sandals! If people don't like men's feet they should look elsewhere!
@@nkobtopenworld Yuck 😫 horrible great big plates of meat. 👣😒
10:38 I’m loving the mk1 Focus parked there. The long after successor of the car being driven there!
My mate's party piece was revving his cvh off the end of the rev counter lololol it must have gone to 7500 regularly was always amazed it didn't hand grenade itself !
Such a nicely styled car, still looks fresh, love the flared wheelarches.
Good review, many thanks HubNut.
I had a red, 5-door, 1980 version of the Mk3 Escort; a W-reg. It was a decent car overall but it had an overheating problem. I remember driving around Trafalgar Square in July 1990 and the engine overheated because the temperature gauge stopped working. Therefore the radiator fan wouldn't come on when the engine became hot. There was smoke pouring from the bonnet. I then tried to make my way home and when I got a few miles outside London the car just conked out due to oil spluttering out all over the engine. I had to use the SOS phone on the motorway to call for help. Got towed to the nearest garage in Maidenhead, They charged me £150 just to store the car for a week whilst I arranged to get it towed home. Ford cars . . . you've gotta love em!
I have a B REG cabriolet 1.6 in keep fit hub nut spec ...its not even an L !!! 👍🏻☮❤
😀 see you have brainwashed me I'm supposed to be the Ford's against hub nut brigade ..but not so ..keep on keeping on and watch out for speed cameras in Peterborough I got a ticket whilst lost a while back ...doh !! 👍🏻☮❤
Good vid, really takes me back. First car was a Mk3 1.3GL Escort & the auto-choke issue was there on my one way back in 1987 when the car was only 5 years old. Many a morning was spent chugging away trying to get it started. Also, finding first gear was a challenge in mine too - I developed a technique whereby I'd go to select 3rd, then slide the lever across at 45 degrees to surprise it into first!
Being a first car, i blew the single speaker almost straight away & I found the dash pocket below & to the right of the steering wheel was perfectly sized for a paperback copy of Stephen King's Christine. Crashed it twice & learned loads rebuilding it, discovered Hammerite as a brand (bumpers mainly) & the car ended up with a slatted rear screen to reduce the greenhouse effect in the back.
Overall I look back on it fondly, as I suspect most folks do on their first car. Swapped it for a 1.6HL Montego & from there a string of MGs & Rovers followed. Including my MGF, a car that also has a remote brake servo.
My dad replaced his 1981 fiat 131 in 1990 with a 1985 escort 1.3 L . It was reliable enough for 3 years of service. When I was 21 in 1996 I bought a a 1.1 3 door, in cream/beige. It had an unpainted black wing with a blue bonnet. It would regularly stop after driving over puddles, wd40 helped massively! TMS on medium wave radio stayed with me until 2018 when I bought a bland eurobox! Incidentally I drove a 1.8 petrol ford Sierra as a taxi, it was used to the occasional tap with a hammer!
My first car was a mk1 escort 1974 which i bought to pass my test in 1990 with 1 previous elderly owner and a reconditioned engine with 20,000 miles on it.
RFU 313M.
Passed my test in it sold that and got a chevette,then in 1991 i got a sunburst red 1.3GL 1983 looked great same colour as the xr3i.
First thing i noticed was the power very good off the line and cruising,but that CVH engine whine drove me nuts and that bad engine oil leak arrghh.
I remember me & my bro replaced the camshaft oil seal only to find out it must have been the crankshaft oil seal that was leaking instead lol.
Sold it to a local bloke and he parked it on the main road which was a relief and not on his drive haha.
Also the battery tray had to be welded and had bad rust but still decent cars they were,but not as good as the standard vauxhalls in my opinion.
I was relieved when i went back to the chevettes after the escort,it just seemed a lot better ride to me better quality and just better overall.
Then i switched to the mk2 cavalier and mk2 astra sri and now astra g 1999 2.0 sri which i have owned for 16 years.
A record for me.
Good video ian.(:-)
20,000 miles with a recon engine says it all. I worked for a VW dealer at the time & it was reckoned it took up to 40,000 miles to run in a transverse VW gearbox.
That is actually a nice looking car. My Dad had a C Reg which I loved, as it replaced a Chrysler Avenger.
I loved my Avenger estate, but Avengers stopped happening, and The Escort Kept Going.
I saw a lovely Avenger near Dunstable earlier today
The Hillman Avenger was available as a GLS with twin carbs and then there was the TIGER followed by the GT with a Team Hartwell conversation with a modified Head and better exhaust manifold was available and also available at the time - the standard GT AVENGER. The Mk 1 Ford ESCORT was the best of all ESCORTS that Ford manufactured ..That's my opinion anyway!
First car was a 73 GT Escort, replaced with 75Preg 1600 GLS Avenger built with a single 1.75 Stromburg carb instead of twin 1.5s because of the recent fuel crisis though I did aquire an inlet manifold with twin twin choke Dellortos similar to as used on the rally spec Sunbeams. Fuel consumption was high teens if I was lucky so only used to swap them on in the summer for two years as it made the wet driving quite interesting especially on oily roundabouts. Also well better trim with brushed nylon seats, fake wood trim, vynal roof and inertia reel seat belts beating the faffing about with static on most pre 74 cars.
In it's day this car was considered good looking and desirable even in it's lowly " L " trim . I remember them when they were new and they looked very good compared to the likes of the Austin Allegro etc etc ....how far things have come since then ........in some ways
Spit of my mum's old Escort. Many happy memories of WMX105Y!
Celtic bronze. What a colour.
Max Bresnahan I’ve just looked and it lasted on the road until 1998, not bad for a 16yr old Escort! 😄
@@johngreen6375 I remember the day it went to car heaven!
Would love to know what happened to my brother's mk1 fiesta xr2..First car with no licence in 1999..A466 JAH...Paid £200 And was virtually mint... (Apart from crap alternator!😂
OMG! I HAD ONE IN 1992 it was an 81 i think i loved it and would have had it for longer if i could have afforded to keep it on the road, But whats a bloke to do when you were on the dole...
The autochoke was an unreliable device (bi-metallic strip), but there was a manual conversion available. I took my driving test in an early 1.3GL and later owned a 1.6 Ghia. The Welsh CVH engines were rubbish, but the 4 & 5 speed gearboxes were good.
Conceptually, the auto choke wasn't a bad idea, its just that Ford's execution of it left a lot to be desired. I had a Cortina 2.0 Ghia with the Weber 32/36 with the bimetallic type auto choke, and it never let me done. Where I'm from, it was pretty much split down the middle in terms of people changing these woefully bad Ford VV carbs for Weber units with and without auto chokes.
I hired a MK3 in '84 but the dodgy hire company forgot to mention the auto choke. So muggins called out the RAC twice over the week's hire period as the damn car wouldn't start for me. And all due to the rubbish auto choke. The latter Escorts were much better, I bought a Mark 5 new in 93 and have fond memories of that one.
I remember replacing the autochoke with a manual conversion and I also rebuilt the head after the cam belt went. It was a three door estate in white, x registered and quite a step up from my previous mk1.
Can't help wonder if it was user error.
@@millomweb Manufacturing error. These things failed when they were new. There's nothing wrong with the principle, but Ford didn't make them to last more than a few years.
Ah yes, the dreaded Ford VV carburettor. Anyone who wasn't a masochist had them converted to manual choke.
I like the mk3 Escort - I thought it was a revelation when I first saw it in 1980
I don't know how many 100's of these I have driven or been a passenger in. In my late teens it seemed literally everyone one around me had one, the company I worked for had a fleet of them and a fleet of the van version too. Like you I did thousands of miles in the vans and drove friends cars in 1.3L through to Ghia and even the Orion! They were just good unremarkable cars.
I use. To have the mark 4 escort mine was a 1.4 a good car to drive
I use. Too.
Great vid - takes me back. You might try turning of the camera's autofocus - see if it cures the waviness from the driving shots
Good period of Ford design IMHO eg mk2 Granada, mkV Cortina, Cargo lorry, and the mk3 Escort van with the small extra side windows. Nice detailing.
Wayne Tetley I liked those wee side windows. Always wondered why no other manufacturer bothered.
The rattle when you close the door is not the mirror, it's the window being wound down, wind it all the way up and the rattle will stop.
I spent many hours in the MK3/4 in the 80's, my Uncle had a red 1.3L like this, my dad had an early MK3 estate and then a 1985 Laser 5 door, then he had a 1.6 diesel GL - lovely! They really were everywhere. Dire Straits brothers in arms on the stereo, if you had a tape player...
Sorry Mr. Hubnut X is 81-82. I remember seeing a massive procession of mk3s at the launch travelling from Bridgend from the engine factory. Headrest inserts were not standard L. That's posh. Metallic paint also.... mmmm....
Lovely, almost timeless design. These were sold in the USA as Ford Escorts but as far as I remember only in 2-door hatchback form. There was also a companion model, the Mercury Lynx. Most Ford cars in the US had both Ford and Mercury versions. The car you reviewed is a super colour.
The US Escort was a 3-door, a 5-door, a wagon, and the EXP/LN7 two seat coupe.
The US escort looked very similar but they actually only shared a few parts
Stop driving my old car versions ! I had an 1.3l 1983 in 1986… it felt so new and modern loved it for 2 years then hankered after an xr3 which i never got. The rock hard steering wheel got to me. It was peppy though and totally reliable and handled great.
Well done Mr Hubnut, glad to see you're reviewing classics again - it's been a while ;-) Miss 'Hubnut' on another channel is doing a grand job alongside you. Love you both!
Steph is great isn't she, a real breath of fresh air and yes, definitely the girl version of Ian (without the dodgy sandals fortunately!)
Great video dude. Nostalgia is off the charts. I would really appreciate if you would do an 80's MK2 Vauxhall Astra if you get a chance. My childhood growing up in the 90's was Escort, Astra, Mondeo.
My dads escort had dodgy electrics because Lucas were on strike and ford bunged electrical components from the continent in them that were near impossible to buy. But i do love the classic escort.
Here in the United States, the Ford Escort and Mercury Lynx were newly created for 1981. They were designed to replace the Ford Pinto after 1980. The major auto magazines always hated the horn button being at the end of the control stalks - so French 🤗. Between 1981-1986, Ford sold a ton of these cars. Their reliability was good but nothing compared to the imports. They came in base, L, GL and top of the line GLX. Eventually Ford introduced their sporty edition called the GT in 1987 when the car received a refresh. I haven't seen an Escort of this generation in over 15 years. They were all used and destroyed. Very few were saved.
I remember them as well! And the automatic was horrendous! Loud in first, lugging in second then third gears. Made the anemic engine even worse. I knew another who had the Lynx. These vehicles were disposable at the time; once the timing belt snapped, the engine was shot, I believe it was an interference engine. No one believed in preventive maintenance, still don't. And the Lynx was I believe base, L, GL and LS.
Oh, and the redesign for 1991 was Mazda based, the Lynx became the Tracer (that was a separate model for Mercury, and if my memory serves me correctly, a replacement for the Lynx, although I don't remember the year the Tracer was introduced).
Remember Ford touted the Escort as a world 🗺 car, with the world badge on the front fender (wing for those in the UK 🇬🇧).
@@frothe42 Yes, I had a neighbor who had the top of the line Lynx LS. It had all the bells and whistles for its time. Two tone paint, air conditioning(which at that time was still an expensive option for you younger folks, 😁), and a pop up sunroof. The Lynx was of course marketed as the more "luxurious" of the two but as you stated when either the engine or transmission failed most people didn't repair them at all. Now if you had a manual transmission and changed the timing belt regularly then they might last over 100,000 miles.
@@klwthe3rd Absolutely! I remember a local repair garage said that one did have the timing belt changed, I think it was $300+ at the time . Most didn't, because why bother if the vehicle's value was less than that?
It wasn't until the 1991 redesign that you could get power windows, electric moonroof, etc., and the Escort GT came with the Mazda 16V engine.
I believe the last Lynx was about 1986 or so, that is when they started importing the Tracer. All of this is jogging my memory, thanks to Ian, his wonderful review and the test drive of the classic Escort. Old Car Brochures on-line will give me a heads-up when models changed, at least I hope so.
We as a family were GM; had Ford, they were not as reliable as our GM, then again, our GM vehicles in the 70's & 80's weren't that much better. Looking at the column stalks reminded me that Ford used them worldwide, with the exception of the headlights, that was still a pull switch, HVAC controls and vents were different as well.
@@frothe42 I'm pretty sure the Mercury Lynx lasted longer than 1986. You are correct that the Tracer replaced it in the early 1990's though. I think the Mercury Lynx made it at least to 1988 or 1989. I remember seeing them after the refresh in 1987 with the new aerodynamic headlights.
What's the problem with 1. and revers side by side? It had been standard Ford replacement for years, and since you had to press down the girshifter to enter revers there should be no problem.
Ian singing "I drove a ford and I liked it!" To a certain Katie Perry song..
Haha, no cherry Chapstick required hopefully 🍒
Looks like it came straight off the set of "Ashes to Ashes"... which has actually put me in the mood to watch that again.
10cc on radio will give that escort a bit more grunt.should have left it on.
So even radio of the 80s ;)
Have to disagree this was better than the mk2 owned a mk1 3 mk2 and one mk3 the mk2 was by far the most fun to drive having rear wheel drive. The mk3 was terrible for rusting and the engines were total pants cams would rattle after no time and would smoke.
I was just going to comment, the most unreliable car Ford ever made and it conked out 🤣
When I was working as a delivery driver mk3 escort was my weapon of choice lol
some wheels,bucket seats and ripspeed stickers and your away,lol
I had one as a company car in 1982. In fact it did not have an OHC engine in the normal sense but a camshaft set in to the head in conjunction with hydraulic tappets. To that extent it was technically innovative.........but not much fun! My subsequent 1.3 Astra was light years ahead.
Just stumbled on your channel and love the reviews of these classic 80's cars.
This Escort still looks fresh
Why would you call the Mk6 disappointing though? I got myself a 1993 MK6 (or MK5FL as some call it) with 1.3 HCS engine for less than $100 in Polish money and I'm driving it since, without problems, enjoying the hell out of it. 3000km done already.
I remember a lot of bright orange ones being around.
Weren't these famous for the firewalls suddenly disappearing at the first sign of moisture?
Mate had the orion which did (oddly it took me years to realise that the orion was a cortina with an escort front end.... As another mate had the lights on his 2.5 ghia Tina 😊
Not sure which country you're in but the Orion in the UK and most of Europe was identical (mechanically and shell wise) up to the back and they differed in that the escort had a hatch and the Orion had a boot. Same car other than that.
I had a 1.6 Ghia in the same colour. I loved it and it kind of broke my heart when I had to sell it. KSN608X. Clang because window down.
That should be KSN808X. Duh. I also had a red 1.6 Ghia. Never had any problems with them.
I owned two and I wouldn't want another, under powered rough engine. Horrible to drive in traffic. Had a 1.6 Ghia that had nice Sundym smoked glass.
It's not just you with the auto choke; I've had two Mk3s; the 1.3 L I used to have to pop the bonnet every time I started it and actually hold the choke open and manually close it. The second was a 1.6 Ghia which was actually lovely and the previous owner had given up with the auto choke entirely and replaced it with a Heath Robinson manual one!
I used to drive these for work in the '90s as they were dirt cheap and almost disposable, and could blend into any street to be invisible. The 1.3 was hopelessly knackered and unreliable but the Laser and Ghia's I moved on to (3 over 2 years) were tough as old boots
My first car. I had a B reg motor Rosso Red, looked great! Apart from the rear arches which had gone, due to rust!!! Which was a Ford special.
Rosso red.. sounds sporty.
@@Perkelenaattori It was bright red. Very nice to look at.
Owned at least half a dozen Mk3 XR3's. Yes they rot but they were great to drive, very mechanical and the feedback through the wheel and seat of your pants was fantastic. Great driving position and easy mechanicals/servicing. Independent suspension should have given it a good ride but it didn't really and they were quite crashy on rough surfaces. Even more so on the early model you have there - suspension settings and angles were revised for 1983-84. Brakes were never a strong point either but they were *just up to the job in my opinion. The K Jet injection on the 3i's was reliable but difficult to set up without specialist tools which was always a pain. I had the RS Turbo as well - man that was a proper car and the limited slip diff transformed the handling mid and on the exit of turns. They had fanstastic heaters and can blow hot or cold to windscreen, feet or face or a combination of. Warm up time was hampered as the engines (CVH and OHV) were cast iron blocks with a lot of coolant to get warmed up as well. 1981-82 was a good time for generally not dissolving in the rain, 1986-87 was terrible though I remember. Something to do with with low quality steel but not confirmed as far as I know. The door is clanging as the glass is right down under the seal and flaps about a bit.
The rust was more down to where it was built, hence the ghia and xr's lasted as they were usually built in germany. The 86 87 rubbish was, as i heard, cheap russian metal. Wish i kept my sunbust red w reg 4 speed xr3... how ££ much now??? Lol
@@coogeeman hindsight eh!
@@steven-vn9ui i know....the second xr was my fave, 1981, white, 5 speed, sunroof, and i added the 9inch xr3i drums, spots and an elec aerial.... shame i lampposted in the wet but i think it may have lived on....;)
These were everywhere at one point, i remember being friends with an slightly older lady in 1991, she had a convertible C reg metallic blue escort, still unsure whether i fancied her because of her car or not! sometime in late 1991 we took the escort to an all night rave near thetford, 4 people in the back, freezing cold because the heaters stopped working a few days prior, the convertible roof was not at its best by then. she eventually got rid of the car and bought a fairly new astra gte!
The Mk2 escort was more fun to drive, i never owned one but many friends had them over the years, in fact one close friend has recently sold his mk2 after owning it for 20 years, so sad to see it go. He never babied his cars though, so it rotted a fair bit over the past 2 decades but my god, rear wheel drive is so much more fun!
By the way, if your heading to town, you need to turn right at that junction, you probably know that anyway.
Cheers for the nostalgia trip, and about bloody time too =)
SAP X doesn't have many brothers and sisters left now.
Cvh is(sorry was) a good engine-needs regular oil changes to prevent sludging/cam oil starvation-Best turbo charged-difficult to get extra power if normally asperated.
The trick is to use good quality oil. Esso/Shell/BP. Not Castrated Quackhams.
I had a Webber/manual choke conversion on my '83 1.6. The mechanic had a dustbin full of those VV carbs.
Not a very good mechanic then !
@@millomweb Ford dealers used to have Webers in stock , they knew the VV was shit and would happily sell you one when even their mechanics got pissed off with trying to tune em !!
Great review takes me back to my Orion. Happy memories.
An 80's Escort that has not rotted into the dirt! Its looks like a good survivor but your starting problem is exactly why those CVH engines were hated, they rattled and were rubbish at starting. However my dad had an Escort he tuned and although a terrible cold starter he got it running smooth and it was a quick fun motor... then it blew up and he got a Maestro!
To be fair, VWs of this era also had hopeless carburettors. So did many Peugeots/Citroens. I'm not sure entirely why the world forgot how to make a carburettor in the 1980s...
@@HubNut I find it funny how people say how bad Austin Rovers were in the 80's, my dad liked them because they started well (for him!), I believe most mass produced cars then had their particular quirks that make them terrible in some peoples eyes. Maybe in the 80's the manufacturers got production to cost down to a fine art so cars were not as over-engineered as they were in previous decades?
I served my time on the CVH engines in these . The CVH described the combustion chamber. Loved them, and the cork cam cover gasket that was always over tightened and leaked, badly.
In later years I ported and polished these heads, my best was a mint mk2 XR2, with fully worked head, twin 40 Dellorto carbs, magnex 4 branch manifold and 2.5 inch exhaust and piper cam, I had to make a plate to block the mechanical feul pump, as the carbs needed an electric pump. They made 96 bhp as standard and I got 115bhp for all that effort! Lol. Still loved it. Ahhh the good old days.
Nice trip down memory lane - thank you! I had a 1983 1.6GL 3-door from new. It was a good car in my experience, very nimble and chuckable, and in 3-door form the styling was perfect.
The 1.6 had a useful performance advantage over the 1.3, although some said the 1.3 was the “sweeter” engine of the two. However, two things were not good. The auto-choke was indeed a pain, and I therefore had a manual choke conversion done which was a revelation. Also, the low-level oil warning light sensor pick-up was on the end of the dipstick, and it cried wolf every cold-start morning as I parked my car on an incline. The light would then not go out unless you stopped the car on level ground, with engine off for several minutes before a restart. Disconnecting the sensor lead was not a cure, the light would just be on the whole time. My solution was to remove the dashboard warning light, and every time the car went in for service, I requested the garage not to replace it.
I had no mechanical issue with the ‘83, just routine maintenance kept it chipper, and I sold mine after 7 years/134,000 enjoyable miles, and then got a 1990 1.6GL to replace it. And that one did 150k miles before I replaced it with... another Escort!
I had one of those and had a manual choke retro fitted, the auto choke was crap.
Me too fitted Weber manual. Ok then. Auto choke was sheet
Had an A reg on of these in blue. It was past its prime (60k miles) and the heater stank of Curry!
Same here on my Coral Beige 1.6L. The smell was the wiring loom connector on the ignition switch melting. Common problem on them.
@@gpz550a2 Well that solved a mystery! Actually that might be two mysteries. I sold it to a neighbour after it died. He fixed it and said it was an electrical fault.
My dad had a 1984 in blue when I was 6. remember playing at the wheel and holiday trips across France. Oh, the memories.
I liked the Orion too
My parents bought a year-old 1981 1.3L Escort in Dove Grey. It didn't have front headrests, they were an extra-cost option, as was a passenger-side door mirror.
The automatic choke was legendarily unreliable, the radio was AM only with no cassette (in fact looks like the same model as in this one), and within only a few years it was suffering from enough rust to cause MOT failures.
It was passed on to me in 1988 and I fitted a stereo radio cassette (Alpine!), a manual choke, a passenger-side door mirror and a Mark 4 steering wheel - the latter two from the "odds and sods" second-hand parts pile at my local Ford parts shop.
"we used to listen to test match special on long wave" ... you wish ... you're not that much youger than me ... Test Match Special used to be broadcast on Radio 3 MW before it was migrated to Radio 4 LW ... 1215 kHz MW mate ... that's what you were listening to.
A family friend had one of these when I was a kid. I have memories of him trying to warm the cylinder head with a hairdryer on a snowy morning in an attempt to get it to start. Apparently it rarely started well.
Subsequent Escorts were mildly less terrible, but they sorted it with the Focus. Never been tempted to own one myself though.
I think these were made in Germany and Belgium, I had a 1983 Talbot Horizon 1442cc, when friends had these, so I had 5 speeds! The 1.3 Escort cost quite a bit more for the insurance compared to the Talbot tappety rotbox cheap to buy Talbot
First of all amazing video and Escort and I'm your new subscriber , second I had a Escort mk5 but here in Brazil was made till 96 and mine the bumpers were the same color as the car , here the engine was a ap 1.8 gasoline that had 85 hp , the engine was from vw but was a deal made by them back in the days ford would use some ap 1.8 and 2.0 engines and they would use the ford cht engines on a car called Gol here ,and I must say I loved that car ,I never drove That Escort that you show on this video and also the first Escort like that came here in 86 , but I only saw 4 doors in 95 ,the Escort came here after Ford made the Corcel 1 from the 70's till came the Corcel 2 from about 77 till mid 85 ,then came the Escort like this one from your video and in the 90's were called Escort Hobby , also came the Del Rey model those were the most expensive ones back than , but anyway , I'm sorry for the long comment got nostalgic watching your video . loved your video and channel . cheers
Nice video Ian, going to admit I was never a fan of the mark 3 escort at all aside from the RS and XR3. I Preferred the mark 4 maybe fact my dad had one a 1.1 Bonus aka special edition POV spec with wheel trims! But you are right ford made these cars including the mark 4,5 and 6 for bread and butter buyers who wanted a car to go from a-b and did not care about the spec. My dad and late grandfather both had mark 4's with one number different in the registration, both registered on the same day while we had the poverty spec bonus my grandad had the 1.3L only luxury iirc was a sunroof. Interesting to see a review on the mark 3.
Did some of my old dashcam videos 1987 To 1990, in one of these a 1981 1300L.
And the 1984 To 1986 ones in a 1976 Mk 2 Escort 1300L.
Lots of old Fords in these videos.
th-cam.com/video/UK05UmDgLzg/w-d-xo.html
these mk 3 escorts were prone to rust on rear arches, front slam panel corners, rear valance and battery tray. I know cos mine did !
Those door padded door cards look more luxurious and appealing than many of today's black plastic encased efforts. But apart from that, Ford always struck me as being very mean with the standard equipment and options. Even as late as 2010 they were turning out small and medium sized cars with only drum brakes on the rear, no cruise control and no rear electric windows. Comparable Vauxhall cars were giving all three, most as standard.
ahhh - the ''Goldilocks and the 3 bears of indicator noises''. The 1st (city rover 200) was reported to be too loud, and this Escort is too quiet. I await the porridge moment, when you discover one that's ''just right''. Lol.
Great video, brings back lots of memories. The first car I owned (in 1992) was a 1984 Ford Escort 1.3L bravo. It was metallic blue, had tinted glass, decorative striping on the sides and a small black spoiler on the tailgate. I didn't really like it, I must admit : it looked better than it drove. The car had previously run on LPG, but after removing the gas installation, there were problems with the carburettor tuning: as a result, the car had low power with quite high petrol consumption. With its top speed of about 130 and a cruising speed of 110 km/h, the car struggled to keep up on the German autobahn. There were wider tyres on the wheels so the car steered very heavily at parking speed. Longer journeys were tiring: the car was noisy and had stiff suspension. The driver’s seat was sagging, I did not have a good sitting position behind the wheel and after a few hours of driving I always had pain in my back and due to the thin steering wheel also cramps in my hands. The headlights gave poor light, so I had extra spotlights fitted. During a long night drive, once the light switch failed. Subsequently I had to keep the light signal stalk pulled incessantly to have any front lights at all. In my car the dashboard light was extremely dim and there was only a needle showing the petrol level. As fuel had to be filled up every 350 km, I once found myself almost with an empty tank on a long night drive on the motorway in Eastern Germany (where there were few filling stations at the time). Although the car had no warning light for low fuel level, there were funny small green, yellow, red lights on the dashboard indicating economical driving. The only thing in the car I really enjoyed was the sunroof. In 1994, my sister took over the Escort and I bought a used Citroen CX 25TRD. This car served my better on the long distances I often had to travel.
I agrree with you Ian, Ford got that model right ,was so fresh compared to Mk2 Escort which i could and still cant understand why so many people like, the Mk3 was very pleasant , sporty ride ,practical good looking ,it was after that that Ford started making a mess of things, wasnt until Mk1 Focus they got it right again, now though i am bored with Fords
To be fair that does look very tidy, fair play to the owner, however, they were junk to say the least!
They where great car's I remember seeing hundreds of them up here in the Highlands when I was growing up. Either you bought a Ford escort or a Vauxhall caviler. So they where rather popular lol.
You could pick the locks on one of these with the wooden picks you find in store bought ice cream..
Also this reminds me of my horrible Ford Orion.
The American's weren't spared this either, the MK3 Escort went to underpin the Fox body variants of Fords across the pond but they had turbo's and bigger engines even a 2.3 Lima Pinto engine combo went into one and they looked so much better. American's are fickle creatures too, they hated the Sierra and they stayed away in droves when our XR4i went over there as the XR4Ti, a big muscle car contender but sold very few because they didn't like the idea of a v6 or the lacking the footprint of a small liner. Same happened with the MK3 Granada too, they just didn't like 'em and the strangely shaped Scorpio fared better but Ford had enough yet the genesis for the Fox body's did surprisingly well. I had a few MK3's and a couple Orion's but I just didn't like the crappy engines, tin can build even on the Ghia's and the XR3i was super overrated imho, not a patch on a MK2 Mexico or 2000. I won a race against a XR3 (not i) in my Allegro Equipe back in 2000, doing a point to point from Hurn airport to Matchams raceway and my Equipe got there well quicker.
I have many fond memories of the Mk 3 Escort. My dad had an A-reg 1.3L 3 door estate in light blue that lugged a huge amount of electronic repair gear around (back seats down) for 110,000 miles in 4 years. I remember the first thing he did was to buy a passenger side mirror for it! I'm sure I remember it having the 1.3 OHV engine though. It seemed such a comedown after the Cortina 1.6 OHC! In reality though, it was a really decent engine, and had a manual choke! Talking of which, didn't these carbs have a rubber diaphragm in that perishes and leads to poor starting etc? I may be confusing it with a different engine. Always wanted a 3-door hatch in blue, they just seemed to have nice clean lines which the XR trim just spoiled. Extra brownie points for the fluted rear light cluster, always liked those.
I remember from the identification plate in the car the LHD Escort was built in Spain, and if I recall correctly, design and development was done in Germany. Compared to the German competition in the early 1980s the Mk3 Escort wasn't that bad. In a MkI VW Golf you didn't get much luxury or power and neither would an Opel Kadett give you a passenger rear view mirror standard. They were a lot more reliable and better built than the French competition, which were still rusting like there's no tomorrow and a dog to work on, until 1983 when the Peugeot 205 came to market.
Escort mk3/4's were notorious for rust on the slam panel and the especially the battery tray. On a side note the CVH engine isn't that tappety as the lifters are nice and quiet. They make themselves heard when they're worn.
Finally HubNut get some common sense and drive a descent car, namely a Ford Escort( damn....escort....hmmm, page 3 stuff in Hubnut🤣)
Yeah ...it was the seat🙄
I had a Blue 'A' reg GL one. Loved it at first, most modern car I'd owned at that time, however mine suffered with Mayonnaise Gloop in the top part of the engine and the hydraulic tappets kept rattling.
Going backwards and forwards to work just didn't get the engine very hot. Then my mate turned up in his 105,000 mile Cavalier CDI sounding sweet as a nut, silent considering it had gone past 100k. That was it for me, out went the tappety Escort and I bought a very high mileage Cavalier LX. No tappet noises again... :-)
That's interesting Hubnut. In Australia, Ford gave us the MkI and MkII but not the MkIII. Instead, in the early 80's Ford filled that market niche with the Mazda 323, rebadged as a Ford Laser. We also got the Mazda 626, rebadged as a Ford Telstar. In your southerly travels you may come across a Laser, and the comparison would be most interesting. One more thing to add to the blooper list - a single speaker AM radio is by definition not a stereo!
Nice, i drive a 1988 Mk4 XR3i Cabrio , as my daily!
105hp 1.6 CVH with Bosch K-Jetronic injection... i like it a lot, it's fun, good looking, gets good fuel economy and hasn't let me down a single time in 2 years.
My sister's first car 30 years ago was an orangey red 1.3 GL 5 door. Oddly that one did not have front sear head restraints like this L spec. I'm fairly sure that the mark 2 GLs had head restraints. Seems like Ford rectified that for the 1982 model year.
My second car was a 1986 mark 4 1.4 GL and I too didn't get in with the stubby stalks. I did break the indicator stalk one time.
This bring backs memories as we had a mk1 Orion in the 90's and just like old Fords it hated the cold but would run all day once warmed up. Ours was a 1.3 but it had a manual choke
The Escort is probably my favourite Ford. My little brother owns a 1989 mark 4 1.8. The ride is a bit rough, it has no mod cons (no electric windows, just keep fit windows, no electric mirrors either) but I love it. The automatic choke does take awhile to come off, feels like longer than five minutes, but I have been told it is common on CVH engines for the choke to take time to come off.
I'm daily driving a 1.6i mk4 for 3 years now and even though I should probably switch to something less ancient, I just can't. What better, equally reliable car could I get for the same price of around 500 pounds?