Bangers chat

[Puddy_Tat]

Elpenor - thanks

i did a shop around last year and none of the quotes (for what i have now) were encouraging enough to make it worth changing.

i'm also a bit reluctant to shop around, as i have breakdown cover, and had a breakdown that involved recovery a few months ago, then a second recovery exercise the day after (it happened late evening at a weekend) to get car to the garage...

 

[Ax^]

anyone had an insurance renewal recently?

mine landed this week - 20% increase on last year

is that standard at the moment, or are they taking the piss?

would be more happy if I did not have to get rid of my diesel sure they walk it up 20% when I change cae

 

[plurker]

And with impeccable timing, the Saab is fubar.
Water pump leak went undetected for about an 8mile journey. Replaced the unit - pretty much plug and play.

Did a two-hour trip, and about 2km from the end saw a biiiiiig cloud of white exhaust trailing me.

Balls. Head gasket. This is going to cost

Coolant and dipstick currently:

 

[Riklet]

2004 Corolla passed its MOT first time. Tbf I knew the exhaust was blowing so got it patched up with some putty for a mere 10 quid with the local friendly garage on Monday. Advisories are for rusty coil springs (ehhh) and faded headlamps (will polish those). I'm quite chuffed!

So today I treated it to a new rocker valve cover gasket. Never done one before but I watched various Youtube guides. And it went ok though! Just need to torque the bolts properly tomorrow. It was leaking a bit of oil into the sparkplug sockets so seemed a good idea.

 

[nogojones]

The van passed it's MOT. Total £250. Which is quite a good result considering it's mostly rust.

 

[bellaozzydog]

My trusty bag of sand (3 years hassle free driving) Honda accord estate passed its mot today aafter about 750 quid of work

Friend of a friend taking it off my hands for 600 quid

I think I probably still owe it money rather than the other way around and feel somewhat guilty that I’ve upgraded my ride

Agreement is if it shits out and dies within 3 months (it absolutely won’t) I refund the buyer minus the scrappage fee… never gonna happen

 

[Ax^]

hmm so had a 2.2 2008 honda civic, low miles for a diesel less that 110 thousand

and spent 4 weekends looking for a euro 5 2014 plate honda civic around london and the south east

had about 7 grand to spent

the shite boxes I was looking at was unreal did not even wash the bloody yokes before I came to look at them

whilst looking at a purple 2013 plate civic wander around the back side of the lot to find a tidy 2009 petrol honda 1.8 petrol with a straight body on it

2700 later back on the road and with the ulez scrappage scheme spent 700 quid of my own money to buy the thing

not a bad little turn of events seeming as the diesel only cost me 1500 2 years ago


to top it off after buying it check parkers and it's also euro 5

 

[Chz]

With petrol engines, it's mainly about whether they bothered to certify the car as Euro 5 or not. The reason why they didn't decide to ban Euro 4 petrols as well is that there's no functional difference between 4 and 5 for petrol engines. And Euro 6, for that matter. They did introduce PM limits, but it only applies to direct injection engines, which were not really a thing during 4 days. I mean, yes they slightly tightened a few numbers at the edges, but realistically 95% of E4 petrol engines should also qualify for E5 and E6. (aside from direct injection motors, but I never saw the point in "let's make a petrol engine more like a diesel to pursue fuel economy while giving up petrol's greatest advantage")

 

[bellaozzydog]

Bought the Honda accord estate three years ago for 1200 quid. It’s been no bother till this MOT

Spent circa 700 quid getting it an MOT and just sold it for 600 quid

It’ll battle on, while I fret about the new 1500quid banger blowing up and fucking my overdraft with its MPG

 

[Riklet]

Bought the Honda accord estate three years ago for 1200 quid. It’s been no bother till this MOT

Spent circa 700 quid getting it an MOT and just sold it for 600 quid

It’ll battle on, while I fret about the new 1500quid banger blowing up and fucking my overdraft with its MPG

It sounds like the repairs were starting to stack up, will probs be good for another year or two. What did it fail on btw? Very generous of you to basically sell it at a loss, proper mates rates.

Overall you got a lot out of it for 1300 pound... and there'll be another reliable banger out there once you've had your fun with something less reliable

 

[bellaozzydog]

It sounds like the repairs were starting to stack up, will probs be good for another year or two. What did it fail on btw? Very generous of you to basically sell it at a loss, proper mates rates.

Overall you got a lot out of it for 1300 pound... and there'll be another reliable banger out there once you've had your fun with something less reliable

Need some welding to a sill and the suspension struts done.

If I need another banger it’ll definitely be a Honda

 

[sim667]

Last banger we bought was a learner car for my other half...... bought for £150, got through 2 mot's and when I took it in for its last one the garage owner told me not to bother, and then nudge the bottom of it with his toe and a load of rust fell out...... (we know him quite well)..... he got it collected from the garage for scrap and we got £325 for it.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

have had an injector fail (petrol engined 2008 citroen c3) - will only run in 'limp mode' (maximum about 20 mph) and it failed when i was about 60 miles from home, so had it brought home (eventually) by the RAC.

starting to wonder if it is time to part ways with it - would be a bit annoying, as i've had a replacement radiator, new springs all round, and full service including timing belt done this year.

part of me thinks it's probably worth doing (although usual garage, which is just round the corner, don't do injectors, so it's going to mean getting it towed / transported somewhere else)

part of me is thinking about sunk cost fallacy, along with wondering what the heck else is going to go wrong with it next.

paid £ 1750 for it 6 years ago - was a bit of a rushed choice when previous car got stole and written off (on the basis i didn't have much time to shop around, and was limited to places i could get to by bus)

i only need to go to the office, or have days out and about for work, once, maybe sometimes twice a month, but i don't want to get stuck out in the arse end of nowhere if i'm out and about for work. likewise travel to mum-tat's a few times a year if i'm staying there (it's generally less hassle to go on the train if i'm only going for the day) and it's 50 miles or so in the opposite direction.

blargh.

 

[Ax^]

sadly with bangers today its a hard call as to replace the motor if it not high milages


jjust like fro like would cost you around 1500

second cars prices are shite these days

does sound like very french car running cost mind

 

[Riklet]

A fuel injector or two wont cost that much at some decent local garage. I'd get it done and see how it is after a month. Easier to get rid when it's running fine and no error codes anyway.

Tbh it doesnt sound like the worst option just sticking with it. I know they're ugly ducklings but theyre not the worst car ever, it will soldier on.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Tbh it doesnt sound like the worst option just sticking with it. I know they're ugly ducklings but theyre not the worst car ever, it will soldier on.

the other good thing about it is that it's higher off the ground than average, so mum-tat can get in and out of it with a minimum of swearing...

 

[Riklet]

Are you totally sure it's the inectors btw? Did they use a scan tool and find a code from the engine warning light? The whole car breaking down from one bad injector soundw pretty crap.. it could be the whole electrical assembly gone bad. It looks like they dont require programming on petrol models so not a difficult fix. Unless there are other issues too. Amazing your local garage won't do it tbh but I'm sure someone else will.

I would urge you to get a cam belt replacement done too if you've never had one done (it's 15 years old now, and might not have been done in the first 9 years of ownership ho hum) and there's no service records of it. Would be shit to get the car running again and have that break ok you in the future.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Are you totally sure it's the inectors btw? The whole car breaking down from one bad injector soundw pretty crap..

not totally sure - RAC bloke plugged a box of tricks in to it, and he said it could be the injector, or the wiring to it.

it would only run on 'limp mode' - so maximum of about 20 mph

it could be the whole electrical assembly gone bad.

I would urge you to get a cam belt replacement done too if you've never had one done and there's no service records of it. Would be shit to get the car running again and have that break ok you in the future.

that's one of the things i got done earlier this year - i had it done along with a full service when i got it (6+ years ago) and decided it was worth doing again (on time rather than mileage grounds - i don't do much more than 3 - 4,000 miles a year)

 

[Ax^]

Puddy a new coil pack is about 23 quid and a few spack plus may 7 quid a piece .. labour an hour at most

trying that before thinking its an injector

if you never had anyone change the coil pack before

would cover all the issues your remarked

 

[Puddy_Tat]

if you never had anyone change the coil pack before

i'm not really sure what a coil pack is but will see what the garage says.

(i don't really like petrol engines...)

 

[Ax^]

ah its like a distributor on old petrol engines its like a set of boots over the spark plugs

the spark plus are linked by the coil pack .. nothing major

but if it goes can cause a few problems ..

get a second opinion at an independant garage

RAC and AA find expensive solutions to problems that don't always work

 

[Puddy_Tat]

get a second opinion at an independant garage

RAC and AA find expensive solutions to problems that don't always work

yes - although RAC don't really have any incentive for that now it's home.

i am inclined to trust my usual garage, it's a family owned independent place that's been here ages - i've been using them for must be 10 years or more. just have a feeling they won't want to handle this...

 

[Riklet]

yes - although RAC don't really have any incentive for that now it's home.

i am inclined to trust my usual garage, it's a family owned independent place that's been here ages - i've been using them for must be 10 years or more. just have a feeling they won't want to handle this...

It's literally a minor issue to resolve. They can scan it and work out the issue or issues. It'll be fixed for a couple of hundred quid max. You might not like petrols but theyre much more reliable (and less complex) than diesels usually...

 

[Puddy_Tat]

It's literally a minor issue to resolve. They can scan it and work out the issue or issues. It'll be fixed for a couple of hundred quid max. You might not like petrols but theyre much more reliable (and less complex) than diesels usually...

we'll see. local garage are thinking about it - they don't seem to be keen on doing injectors, and electrics are a bit out of their league. (although i'd sooner have a garage who admit that things are out of their league than the alternative)

and getting to anywhere further than local garage is going to mean getting it towed / trailered there.

blargh.

you're probably right about modern diesels at least - i had an early 1990s peugeot diesel for about 20 years, and while it had a few problems now and then, i don't remember any engine problems as such.

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

Hmmm peugeot 206 petrol has been overheating for a while, I suspect the slow speed cooling fan resistor has gone as if I turn the heater blower up to 3 the temperature then goes down but to get to this you need to take off the front bumper and not having a covered area to work in the current weather has put me off it, and the lack of a 2 day window of no car trip needed to do the dismantling, testing and fixing.

It runs hotter than it used to (just below the 110 mark instead of around the 90 mark) so within running temperatures but if on a motorway and going up to the speed limit it thens shoots up into the red, I have a longish trip to visit my mum in December in what will likely be shot weather and don't fancy driving with the heatiing turned up and the windows open.

Also the heater matrix is now leaking , again, as I replaced it in april.

MOT due within a month so possibly moe expense ahead.

 

[Riklet]

Id get that checked asap and have a headgasket test done on it with the reagent.. so you dont get left stranded or whatnot. If it's not that I'm sure it'll be fixable but get it looked at now not in a month or two.... extra heat puts a lot of extra wear on your engine and it might be an easy fix.

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

Id get that checked asap and have a headgasket test done on it with the reagent.. so you dont get left stranded or whatnot. If it's not that I'm sure it'll be fixable but get it looked at now not in a month or two.... extra heat puts a lot of extra wear on your engine and it might be an easy fix.

oh didn't know about that, I've just been looking for sign of oil in the coolant and "mayo" in the oil cap.
I'll get myself one of those tests, hopefully I won't have to change the head gasket though.
edit: it has been over a month already since it started.

 

[Dovydaitis]

So, I’ve had to upgrade the banger. Not because there is anything wrong with it (apart from the passenger window and sunroof not working) but I can’t fit both the dogs in the boot anymore. The neighbour is taking it off my hands for a cheap runaround and teach the kids how to drive.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Puddy a new coil pack is about 23 quid and a few spack plus may 7 quid a piece .. labour an hour at most

trying that before thinking its an injector

if you never had anyone change the coil pack before

would cover all the issues your remarked

garage have tried that and it didn't do any good, so injector it is.

meh.

going to get it done rather than give up now - gives a bit of time to think about replacing it before the next thing goes wrong...

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

Hmmm peugeot 206 petrol has been overheating for a while, I suspect the slow speed cooling fan resistor has gone as if I turn the heater blower up to 3 the temperature then goes down but to get to this you need to take off the front bumper and not having a covered area to work in the current weather has put me off it, and the lack of a 2 day window of no car trip needed to do the dismantling, testing and fixing.

It runs hotter than it used to (just below the 110 mark instead of around the 90 mark) so within running temperatures but if on a motorway and going up to the speed limit it thens shoots up into the red, I have a longish trip to visit my mum in December in what will likely be shot weather and don't fancy driving with the heatiing turned up and the windows open.

Also the heater matrix is now leaking , again, as I replaced it in april.

MOT due within a month so possibly moe expense ahead.

took it to the garage, if I wasn't so stupid could have saved a few hundreds (well about 3/4 of the bill for labour)
booked in for MOT next week as need it this weekend (fingers crossed)
they are really nice there and got it back to me just in time so I didn't need to hire a car to take a lot of stuff to work (public transport wouldn't have cut it without a days planning ahead at least)