To scrap or not to scrap?

[Bren]

Other half's fiesta is playing silly buggers - I fitted a new cable in the drivers door, however a spring had also broken and dropped out of the mechanism. Result is I can no longer open the door from inside or outside.

 

I am mindful that damage may be caused getting the door open now.

 

Mot is due on the 24th, tyres are legal but that's about it, thermostat housing is dripping again, and it is overdue for a cambelt (£200+).

 

With a ticket car is worth £500 tops, just thinking of bridging it now and putting the money towards another car - shame as car has only done 55k and is very tidy - not the usual rot box. I am mindful that the garage will refuse to test because of the door.

 

Should I listen to James Brown?

[messerschmitt owner]

advertise as spares or repair for £250 on scumtree and then scrap if it doesn't sell in a week.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Fix it?

[John F]

Can't you get the door card off to gain access to the mech? Or failing that, cut it to gain access & then either bodge it back together or fit a new door card from a breakers? It must be worth a go if the option is to bridge the car anyway.

 

It seems in conflict with the essence of this site to bridge a low-mileage car in good condition though, tbh.

[sierraman]

How much are you looking to spend? If its less than £7-800 you might be buying something equally bad. I bridged our fiesta due to to corrosion in the floors and sills. I'd be tempted to check the underside thoroughly, if the floors and the sills are going bin it.

 

I realise on this site the idea is to keep old cars going but when it becomes a waste of money its no joke if say a grand would get you something more viable long term

[Bren]

I need the door to be open to access the mech.

 

I am all for keeping stuff going, but sometimes even low mileage / good condition is not reason enough for chucking money at something.

 

A small garage would charge around £80 just to supply a new lock.

 

I accept that you would buy tyres for ANY car.

 

I am thinking of looking for something else that somebody has spent money on - I could soon be spending over £500 on a car that tops is worth £500.

[John F]

Can't you just wind the seat back and split the door card?

[cort16]

You should still be able to get the rear of the door card off enough to get a screw driver in and open it up. I'm not saying there won;t be a lot of swearing but I've seen the guys at the garage my lockup is at doing it a few times.

[sierraman]

Scrapyard, new door card, then get hole cutter on old card to release the door. The question I would be asking would be what else can you foresee going wrong with it in near future? You could just chuck it in for the Test, if it wants tyres chuck some cheap part worns on, stick some radweld in the cooling system or hope no one notices it. If you can get it through test for minimum spend say less than £100 then run it into the ground. Don't waste a penny on it. Then that's bought you 12 months to find something better, then if in 6 months you get a better car just stick it on Bumtree for £350

[bub2006]

A friend had a t plate fiesta 5 door that ended up with a huge dent in the back door and wouldn't open. We tried all sorts but seeing as the door needed to be replaced anyway but the door needed to be open to remove it,we got an angle grinder and cut a big square out the door,fiddled about a bit and opened it up. Door off,scrap yard door on and jobs a good un.

[vulgalour]

Remove windows with hammers, weld up doors, paint orange and put a confederate flag on the roof and a giant 01 on the side.  Sell for £££££ to Charity Banger Rallyists.

[EssDeeWon]

The main issue here is the door and how much time and energy you are prepared to spend getting it opened and the lock replaced.

 

The cambelt will probably be ok on a 55k car, I bet its already been replaced at least once? I doubt there is much else that could be a costly MOT failure on a MK4 Festa if its not rotten as you say. The Thermostat housing should be no biggy...

 

But its all hassel, and the thought of scrapping it and spending £500 on something tidy with a years ticket would be tempting I mustard mit.

[Bren]

Bit of an update.

 

I managed to get the door open - I was prepared to sacrifice the new cable in order to get it open.

 

A lot of heaving on the handle ( was waiting for it to snap ) and the bastard popped open.

 

Stripped the whole lot down again in order to locate where the missing spring lived.

 

 

After establishing from the pic where it lived I tried to revive the old spring but with no joy - it had snapped and altering the length affected the tension. I had a box of springs that I got from aldi, a similar one was found and tweaked to fit.

 

All this drove home to me how shit haynes manuals are - as the car has central locking the electronic box screws to the mechanism - if you look inside it there are slots where everything must locate. Everything was put back together.

 

Success! It appears to be working. Some tiger seal on the membrane and everything has gone back together. Normal service resumed, question is for how long.

 

I hope it passes its MOT....

[John F]

Ace

[DSdriver]

I am looking at that door mechanism and thinking that it could be a lot simpler than that. It looks like the design office weren't busy and the manager kept passing the drawings around the staff to see if they could add anything just to give them something to do.

[Noel Tidybeard]

so this pic is a bit premature then?

[Bren]

Ask me after 23rd feb........

[JohnK]

Fingers crossed for the MoT!

[Bren]

While I was licking my wounds I perused mongtree and ebay - quite a few cars for £500, however they seemed to be two extremes - presentable with MOT to pretty shagged and unlikely to get another.

 

I will just take off the thermostat housing again and reseal it with the black wynn's stuff.

 

Aldi is'nt totally shit - my £3.99 box of springs potentiall y saved me buying a new lock at £60+.

[xtriple]

I'm dreadful for NOT throwing stuff away if it's still okay and working fine. Example, I just got a new telly (it was free and modern and HUGE. The chap that gave it me replaces his stuff when the new whizz bang stuff come out and chucks the old away - he bought a 4K one, whatever that is?) and my old one is a CRT Panasonic 28" thing so even bloody bigger/heavier than the 'new' one.

 

My mate offered to take it to the tip for me, but I couldn't do it! It works well, better picture than this new thing and binning goes against my religion, so it's sat at the end of my bed taking up shitloads of space and being a pain in the arse!

 

Some one, some day will need one and be glad of it. Or, maybe it'll become a classic and be worth loads of dosh?

[tooSavvy]

Ha ha! My bonnet release latch spring 'bodge' out $hites that by a bit

Just been quote £475 487* for my front/CAT exhaust....

.... I remember jokes about doubling the value of a Skoda by filling the tank!

* just reread the quote

TS

[Uncle Jimmy]

My telly is a Philips circa 1995, got a plug for a scart lead so a DVD can be plugged in, what more do you need? The sound is better than on the modern crud too.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

"Brunel Breakers Ltd - Bridging since 1873"

[Cavcraft]

I'd be interested if it's really cheap.

[Split_Pin]

Doesn't the thermostat have a gasket?

[Bren]

Yes it does - a rubber o ring.

 

Then the housing fits over the whole shebang.

[mat_the_cat]

What's the engine? I had exactly the same issue on a Ford TDDi, and it seemed as if the O ring was not being compressed enough. Late night (the night before a 2000 mile road trip) cure was to shim out the O ring with a ring cut from the old thermostat.

[Bren]

1.25 zetec.

[CortinaDave]

Cam belt is 100k replace on the zetec afaik

[Bren]

Current belt could be 14 years old - no evidence of ever being replaced.

 

 

Been playing this for a while now.