What to do? Scrap or run to ground?

[sierraman]

Can't make up my mind here. 51 plate Focus, has following faults...

 

Juddering clutch, does this most of the time, would suggest to me the clutch is on its way out. Probably £250 to fix

 

Knocking from steering rack, identified this problem after replacing the axial rod and the track rod end as there being play in the steering rack, probably say £100 for the rack exchange and then another £120 to fit.

 

It's MOTed until August. Cannot make my mind up whether to try and sell it now and get something at least for it or whether to run it until it drops. Financially it's not worth putting right. Thoughts?

[RoadworkUK]

Unsaleable as is, and scrap could be a bit less chronic by August.

 

Run 'er till she blows.

[SiC]

From my experience of selling a minor broken car, don't try selling it on eBay or Gumtree if you value having low stress levels!!

[Alexg]

Run until something throws the towel in

[mrbenn]

If you've made your mind up to get rid then I'd probably do it while it still has some MOT.

 

I have an 03 Focus and love it. The fact that it isn't worth much is irrelevant to me. If it needs something, it gets it. Yes, I won't see that money back but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a new car.

[strangeangel]

Not worth owt IMO, so drive it till it dies.

[egg]

Is it also due stuff like cambelt/water pump? If that's been done in living memory, then I might spend the extra. After all, not many get killed by rust?

[sierraman]

No, that's true, the body, whilst tatty is rock solid. Apart from a bit of surface on the rear arches it's solid. It has had a belt approx 18mths ago. 120,000 it's done. Looking at some of the shit that's on bumtree I'd be sooner putting the £500 into fixing it given its a known quantity.

[Liggle]

I normally get to this point and sell to a friend cheap who's willing to spend money on it lol

[hairnet]

fix the steering - run into the ground

[hauserplenty]

Fix it.

Keep it.

 

'Cause:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PWY32Nudp9Y

[twosmoke300]

Go til it blows - there is something very refreshing about a worthless car . Nice not to worry about Damage or maintainance .

[Cavcraft]

Use it until August (if it makes it that long) then weigh it in.

[eddyramrod]

It's not like it'll be hard to replace.  There's a Neon on here right now that would do the job; you might even get something back off one of us for the Focus (barely enough for a pint, I'd have thought!).  No more worrying.

[Bren]

If you know somebody who will do a focus clutch for £250 they are deffo worth knowing!

 

Sadly many cars get bridged because the clutch is a big job. My sister has an immaculate W plate fiesta that had never had any welding - bridged because the clutch went. Too expensive to fix.

 

If you can get the clutch done for £250 it would be worth doing - if you scrap it you may end up buying someone else's shite.

[rantingYoof]

Surprised that the clutch on a basic car like the Focus is that expensive (relatively speaking).

 

There's a 1.6 Focus in the family which is now well over 150k and every time it's gone wrong we've thrown it at the local friendly garage who has managed to get it working for well under a ton each time.

 

 

Run it into the ground! Someone I knew had a diesel Focus which he thought was on its last legs so he began purposefully trying to ruin it so he could get something a little nicer and more interesting. The Focus responded by continuing to live for another nine months.

[Lacquer Peel]

£250 including the clutch kit? That sounds ok.

[BorniteIdentity]

Here's the way I'd look at it.  If the MOT= almost certain curtains, and there's a chance it'd pass now, then why not MOT it now?

 

You've then gone from 5 months ticket to 12.

 

If it fails, who cares? You've still got a valid ticket. Yes you're £30 down, but at least you know exactly where you're at.

[twosmoke300]

Mk1 focus petrol clutches are easy I always thought . I'd charge 125 plus bits if one came into me .

[hairnet]

buy my civic

[scaryoldcortina]

Mk1 focus petrol clutches are easy I always thought . I'd charge 125 plus bits if one came into me .

 

Agreed. It's an easy one compared to lots of other stuff.

[sierraman]

It's not all bad news, it's got 4 new tyres on it and no rust in the chassis legs. For all we know the clutch could go on for years as it does few miles. I've come to conclusion of it costs me £500 in getting the two jobs done over a few years it's probably well spent. Then I've got a car with a known good clutch, no worries of the timing belt going. Otherwise I'm buying the unknown. Might be better, might not though.

[MarvinsMom]

^and that answers your own question, you can keep a known quantity going for not very many pounds of cash.

 

weigh it in, get something else, then the new one may be a total 'mare to own,

 

if it was me, i would be inclined to fix it and keep it a while more.

 

mechanical bits breaking wouldn't worry me where as tin worm would!

[twosmoke300]

I'd run it as is til mot time . Those can get seriously rusty in a few months . Be a shame to spend out on a new clutch and it need a dustpan and brush to collect after its mot test

[sierraman]

It's been waxoyled. When we bought it I pumped a good few litres all over the rear chassis legs and rear suspension mountings. I'd be very surprised if it failed on the rust.

[twosmoke300]

I wouldn't be , around the rear seat belt mountings is usually ripe on them - the full horror isn't revealed until you pull back the felt liners . Had one in last month that had a clean last mot and looked minty . I actually pulled the rear seat belt mounts out of the shell by hand ! By the time I had cut out the rust you could drop a rugby ball through the hole . Not the only one I've done like that either

[sierraman]

Worth a tug then on the seatbelt to make sure it doesn't come out! Is this the bit directly in front of the rear wheels? Usually covered by a sheet of plastic flappy thing at the back of the sills?

[twosmoke300]

Absorbent felt on focii

[mrbenn]

Funnily enough, I've spent some time messing around in the o/s wheel arches on my Focus this weekend (n/s next weekend).

 

Its definitely worth removing the felt liners on the rear as they hold water next to the metal of the arches, particularly at the base of the arch if mine is anything to go by. I did splash a bit of rust proofing around when I got the car 3.5 years ago but did a more thorough job this time - wire brush/kurust/paint/underseal.

 

I also removed the front liner but fortunately only found the beginnings of surface corrosion. Still worth checking as I saw a 53 plate in a scrappy not so long ago with quite a bit of rust on the seams there. Also worth looking carefully at the piece of trim that sits behind the front arch liner (see in first pic). Its a piece of spongy padding inside a membrane presumably to damp any noise from road spray etc. The membrane on mine had perished exposing the inner sponge material so the thing was holding a lot of water, I'm amazed the wing hadn't rusted. The car hadn't been driven in anything more than a brief drizzle for a while yet the trim was soaking.

 

The sills and seat belt anchor point are like new on mine so I've liberally splashed some waxoyl/underseal stuff on the whole area.