Shite mojo

[SiC]

Also these big engined, older cars are only viable to run if you're prepared to do most of the stuff yourself or know someone who can do it very cheaply. Part of being able to do it yourself is having the right tools - especially electronic diagnostics tools. They are as important to a modern car as a good, experienced mechanics ear is to an old carburetted engine.

[djimbob]

This has turned into a bit of a modern dizzlers r shit thread, helped along by me, so I'll add to it a bit more

 

I have recently had all four injectors on my kia Sedona 2004 plate 2.9crdi refurbished, and one of the diesel specialists* I called out said, and I quote, "I fucking hate diesels" - true to his word he turned up in a Clio 1.2 petrol (I think), and failed to diagnose the issue completely - although he did blank off my EGR valve, which did help I reckon

 

One of my fondest motoring memories was of my Chevvy G30 ex ambulance, Yank tank with 6.5 litre diesel engine, auto box - the torque was immense, and I reckon could easily pull the side of a house down, and I'd love to go bigger with an ex fire engine, some of them go up to 11 litres and more, and stripped down of excess weight would be a proper hoot I reckon, so not all diesels are baaad, just the newer ones IMHO

[Cavcraft]

even the local vx specialist told me if it was fuel related he would'nt be going near it.

 

Thanks God there's one local Vx specialist* who WILL be going near it, if....

 

 

[Bren]

If it stops pissing down Billy I will get some Mr Muscle and take zorst off turbo...

[5speedracer]

Spanner light on dash and reduced power as if no boost.

 

I feel guilty now getting rid of our focus - however it was nearly 15 years old and had to be welded for it's last MOT. I would have felt more guilty if I had ended up scrapping it due to a mechanical or electrical failure like my sister's.

 

My mistake was thinking you could get something half decent for £1.5-2k. You cant - everything is clapped out shite which is up for sale for that very reason.

At that age can you blank off the EGR without it throwing up fault codes?

Have you read the fault codes via OBD to see what it's showing?

 

Sent from my X17 using Tapatalk

[AMC Rebel]

I go through this every now and then, but what puts a stop to me going and signing up for something new is thinking about all the stories in Auto Express and What Car about people (pictured with suitably glum faces) with new cars that have blown up or have faults the dealer can't or won't fix, or the ones that have been off the road waiting for parts etc.  All of this happens with my chod, but the there are two important differences -

 

1.It's not as expensive

2.I don't feel as gutted when something goes wrong because of 1.

 

I do also get perverse enjoyment from rolling around in crappy old stuff, and even from fixing it (sometimes, others I hate the fixing).

 

If I had a lease car, I'd be raging/concerned every time some careless tool rammed it with their car/a supermarket trolley because it would cost extra when I gave it back.

[cort16]

I've got a new car for daily duties. I had enough of trying to re assemble something on Sunday night while it pissed down else I couldn't make it to wor in the morning .

I bought a 3500 quid five series after having new cars for years. the repair bills and time it was off the road had me signing up for a new car after about 6 weeks .

Working on cars is much more enjoyable when there's no pressure to fix them .

[mrbenn]

I don't earn enough money to drive (fix) a modern diesel.

 

In the event of suddenly having to do mega miles I think I'd get something like a petrol Fiat Panda/Hyundai i10 with a few toys to keep me happy.

[DodgyBastard]

I find when I lose my mojo for keeping my old cars on the road I either get rid of them or farm the work out to someone else.

It helps to have a couple of backup cars on hand but usually what happens with me is when one breaks I move onto another until that breaks and so on until I have one working car left. It has helped recent because then I am forced to either fix them or get rid. New cars aren't really my thing but if it works for you then go for it.

 

Sent from my F5321 using Tapatalk

[dome]

I've been away on holiday for a week which has helped as I'd been struggling for time and motivation. The Clio alternator had been a pain in the ass but is fixed now. Which is handy as my "modern" e46 needs a rear wheel bearing. I was all set to farm this out but with a very kind offer of a loan of tools and a bearing being cheap enough I'll give it a crack.

 

I also need to put some miles on the Clio to see if it will be reliable, especially as it will be for sale soon enough.

 

I have my Dads 2012 Fiesta at the moment if it all goes tits up, it's kinda like a Top Gear challenge car of shame though and reminds me why I like older, faster cars. 

 

I contemplated replacing the e46 with a more modern BMW but realistically I would potentially be letting myself in for more potential borkage.

 

The trick for me I think is not to have too many cars-4 is too many for me to keep on top of. 

[eddyramrod]

I agree, says the man with 4 cars.  Three is optimum, I'd say: one for daily use, one for fun and one for backup.  Of course practicality rears its ugly head, because I don't even have a driveway, let alone a garage, so some would say one car is plenty.  Well no, but two is doable.

 

But if we all only had what we need, I wouldn't have my vast collection of models, would I?  Your car, or fleet, has to please you.  What it absolutely doesn't need to be is stressful.  If that means signing up for a modern to give yourself a breathing space, ok.  It won't be long before you're idly browsing ebay again, and a 306 or Astra (or Cadillac) catches your eye, and you justify it by saying "well I can go to work in that, love, and you can use the Yaris for shopping."  Just avoid diesels...

[danthecapriman]

I think nowadays you need to either get a new car (purchase or lease etc), this way it's new and nobody else has had chance to abuse it. Ok they still arent guaranteed to be fault free even new but it's your best chance if you don't want hassle.

Or

If you want something old and interesting there are old cars that can be used like a modern. Cars like the Volvo 7/940, Saabs, old 80's or 90's Audis etc etc. They were good well built cars and they last well, they're also old enough to make maintenance and repair fairly easy and cheap.

 

Generally I find used/cheaper cars from the 2000's onwards are generally a problem waiting to happen. Long life service intervals, poor ownership and their technology (especially diesels!) just kills them by the time they end up on used car forecourts. That's not to say good cars of that age aren't out there but it's all a big gamble.

Then once you've spent your money and bought one if it goes bang what do you do? Scrap it and lose your money or fix it and risk investing more money in a car that might break again the following week.

 

Personally I'd get a quality old(er) simple car and run that but take care of it. I used to run an old Volvo 740 as a daily and it was an old car then. It was faultless and outlived a lot of other cars we had in the family at the time.

Fuel costs were higher, I won't lie but it cost me sod all to service myself once a year and very little on MOT's etc and I never got pissed off with it for breaking down and leaving me stranded because it never broke!

[Captain Furious]

I think you either need to go brand new lease/pcp and get shot before the warranty expires, if it goes wrong return for free fixoration and hire vehicle.  Or go for an old banger that's reasonably interesting but cheap enough that you can bridge/sell it for spares if it starts being a problem child.

 

That middle of the road £2-8k is the potential problem area, where you feel obliged to carry on with it regardless of what a total ungrateful bastard its being, because you're too heavily into it to just walk away.

 

Obviously thresholds for fixing/scrapping may vary according to financial situation.

[taxi paul]

Or buy from a main dealer and you normally get 12 months warranty on used and then you can buy extra years. Usually very good warranties including dreaded dpf. I recently looked at changing my jap bus for something more modern . Then today I backed nit into a post and smashed a rear light. Made a few calls and gave a parts chap my vin no and he can supply one. Went to pick up my mate and he was saying that I must be pissed off about it. Not really ,says I. It could of been a £14,000 xc 90 I nearly bought last week. I bet a light for one of them is dearer. I must admit having only one car now I need it to be reliable so if my jap one goes wobbly and is off for a bit it will be scouring eBay for a cheap runaround till I get it back on the road. Plus my new lady friend thinks my jap bus is lovely. So I am sort of stuck with it now.

[sierraman]

Spanner light on dash and reduced power as if no boost.

 

I feel guilty now getting rid of our focus - however it was nearly 15 years old and had to be welded for it's last MOT. I would have felt more guilty if I had ended up scrapping it due to a mechanical or electrical failure like my sister's.

 

My mistake was thinking you could get something half decent for £1.5-2k. You cant - everything is clapped out shite which is up for sale for that very reason.

Where you've gone wrong is buying a diesel for more than you can afford to lose. Thing is though you could spend £8-9000 and still end up in the shit.

 

I'd be inclined to punt it on locally or p/ex it. Say nothing about the boost problem. Then if it's still a diesel you want go and buy a serviceable Vectra diesel for £7-800. Give it a thorough test drive, then run it till it breaks. Throw it away then, don't get into paying 'specialists' who've no idea about cars or spending money on clutches turbos etc.

[I_am_Diesel]

My mojo took a severe kicking last year when I had to replace the rear cross member on my Land Rover along with a hundred other jobs for the test. It just took over my life for about 5 weekends, and even though it passed the MOT I just couldn't be bothered with it for a couple of months afterwards. I'm falling back in love with it again and hopefully this years MOT prep won't be as involved. I'd spent a lot of time at the beginning of last year having a weldathon on my Golf and that became soul destroying at times but it was worth it in the end. I have nowhere near as much to do to it this year so I'm happier about that.

 

I do have a modern daily which has a lot going for it like a heated front screen and DAB radio but it doesn't have the soul of an older car.

[egg]

One advantage of having a shite car or two around, is that they are great* for storage.

 

My garden shed is full of mice, and I've just bought my daughter a trampoline that I need to get round to putting together. All the bits that can be nibbled are safely stored in my on the road mobile storage unit (i.e. Mondeo)....

[EssDeeWon]

The problem I see from standing back here is that your Vectra is neither shite nor modern.  It falls into that category of newish but not terribly expensive to buy but could go wrong tomorrow and cost ££££ to repair.  Its that middle ground I tend to avoid, the £3k 10 year old bracket.

 

Either go brand new or go £400 Rover 214 Sprint like the lovely example available on here in low mileage and well kept condition. Cheap to buy, cheap to fix and will be largely reliable.

[omegod]

I took the plunge and got a brand spanker for the wife to use and do snaffle the keys every so often. It's a 1.0 litre pez with a turbo and goes really fuckin well despite it's size and is returning 50mpg on most runs. I think the MOT work on the roverwhore 220 sli killed my mojo