I know the early zetecs suffered from sticky valves but draining the oil and usuing a different brand of petrol seemed to cure it. My dads never had any trouble. The Zetecs cam belts snap after around 80k, my dad got his replaced at 70k.

If a belt snaps on the 16 valve models and they snap thats a hec of a lot of valves to replace.

The door panal on the escort takes literly about 2 minutes to take off, I did really easy. The cable just attachs to the door and lock it seems quite simple for a mechanic as they are used to fidelly things. Also when they replaced the plugs they never bothered setting the gaps.

I think Mechanics are quite low paid, I am talking about proper mechanics here though the ones that know how the engine works inside out etc. They should be on at least £20k. However fitters is a different matter as in most cases its just manual work as they are not really doing any fault finding or very tricky stuff. It took my uncle 15 minutes to replace the full assembly exhaust yesterday on my grandads car and he is not a mechanic.

One of my university mates worked as a fitter for a year and he knows nothing about cars at all. He knows how to change plugs, break pads etc but ask him how an electronic ignition system worked he would have no idea.

I have the opposite problem I know how cars work and what all the bits are, but I have no idea how to actually changed the plugs or anything as I am usless at it. It took me 25 minutes just to change a wheel once!