Fiat Bravo - gone!

[Dj_efk]

Oh that’s a shame.

FIX IT AGAIN TONY.

[SmokinWaffle]

I would fix it, but as I said in the for sale thread, best case scenario if the head isn't warped or damaged, I do the head gasket, and probably the thermostat and crank sensor, £100+ plus hours of time and at the end I have a £300 car that gets 26MPG urban. Best case.

[SmokinWaffle]

Might just whack some kseal in it for a laugh. Nothin to lose! 

[Jds1]

I was about to suggest kseal, nothing to loose, it's worked in our focus for a heater matrix and still ok after 2 months.

[SmokinWaffle]

Started it this morning, white smoke galore. Scrappy coming tuesday. At £257 I still make a little profit so cba with doing anymore to it. 250 and its yours. 

[Craig the Princess]

2 hours ago, SmokinWaffle said:

Started it this morning, white smoke galore. Scrappy coming tuesday. At £257 I still make a little profit so cba with doing anymore to it. 250 and its yours. 

How much!!! That's an impressive weigh in total.

[somewhatfoolish]

Blimey, maybe the economy isn't totally fucked if scrap is that high.

[Talbot]

6 hours ago, SmokinWaffle said:

£257

Scrap light iron / vehicles is at about £120/tonne at the moment.  Either that has some *very* valuable cats on it, or your scrap man is making a loss.

[Cord Fourteener]

5 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Blimey, maybe the economy isn't totally fucked if scrap is that high.

That's true,  I think think my mondeo is worth about £250 as a runner, seems easier and more lucrative to scrap it. Which I'm not going to do just yet. 

[SmokinWaffle]

5 hours ago, Craig the Princess said:

How much!!! That's an impressive weigh in total.

 

1 hour ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Blimey, maybe the economy isn't totally fucked if scrap is that high.

 

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

Scrap light iron / vehicles is at about £120/tonne at the moment.  Either that has some *very* valuable cats on it, or your scrap man is making a loss.

 

1 hour ago, Tim_E said:

That's true,  I think think my mondeo is worth about £250 as a runner, seems easier and more lucrative to scrap it. Which I'm not going to do just yet. 

Agreed on all points. I've been told if the cat is original it's the same as on a 20vt - and worth about £150 - so that plus £150 for the scrap itself I suppose they can make some money. Crazy though. Got offered £80 by a local chap and £150 from another comparison website. The highest offer was from a specific company I went direct to.

[JMotor]

It would be a shame to scrap it. 

But! 

I can understand why too. Plus you can side step any hassle with trying to sell it. You know its going and what you are getting from it. You're effectively walking away from it for very little cost and/or stress.

[SmokinWaffle]

On 2/27/2021 at 8:44 PM, JMotor said:

It would be a shame to scrap it. 

But! 

I can understand why too. Plus you can side step any hassle with trying to sell it. You know its going and what you are getting from it. You're effectively walking away from it for very little cost and/or stress.

That's the main thing - no cost. Just a shame it isn't a better engine or I would have considered doing it.

Might be going to Auction it seems - Redcorn are a motor trader apparently but also scrap cars ect. I imagine the high price was partly due to it having a years MOT. Margins must be thin though, even if you sell it for £350 at an auction which to me is unlikely - once they take out fee's ect it's barely worth it. Even as scrap, £150 for the car max, £150 for the cat max, unless you're gonna break it but there isn't a huge demand for them....not going to argue though.

Picked up this morning by:

Was smoking and stuttering like a good'un when he drove it up to the back of it. This thread ends here I'm afraid, folks - pains me to do this to a car but sometimes it's just best. Rare for a reason!

Appreciate all the help I got from you all - my first fuel filter was fun and I learnt about some fiat specific stuff and had fun doing it - it's all good experience and a nice way to spend my time. Learning is fun.

[Supernaut]

This thread has been a learning experience for me, too. I did always wonder why all the Bravos and Bravas seemingly vanished overnight. Now I know; head gaskets!

 

I still remember the parents buying a Brava 1.4 in 2000, it was a '97 model in a nice burgundy with the ace 7-spoke wheel trims. I learned to drive in 2005 and drove the Brava all of twice, as dad had already made a deal on a Xsara Picasso HDi when I started learning! The Brava did well, though. The parents both commuted a roughly 70-mile round trip 5 days week, so anything they used for the commute got something like 20k a year on it. They got their money's worth out of their cars! Both retired now, of course, so their mileage has gone way down.

[Datsuncog]

Sad to see the tale end like this - but all things considered, I don't think there's much else you could have done.

Oddly enough, the story of my final Phase 1 Laguna went along similar lines - one owner from new, retired aircraft engineer with an incredible workshop, very few miles in its last few years with him... I thought it was a great find: good spec, properly maintained and so a long-term prospect, but after a few weeks and a few reliability hiccups, a number of quite alarming bodges came to light (bonnet held on with string; sheared wheelbolts glued into place, bits of aquatic pipe and jubilee clips used for the EGR lines) and it plainly hadn't seen a service for years.

I still don't know exactly what occurred in the end, but there was a total loss of oil and coolant at motorway speed with much smoke and steam, so I'll guess the head gasket was also involved somehow...

Ah well - you tried! Onwards and upwards, dude.

[Talbot]

It would have taken a fairly large amount of effort to fix a car that still had terrible fuel economy and wasn't actually that "special".

I suspect you made the right choice there.

[Cord Fourteener]

I've done it too, as above,  it's idealism vs pragmatism. 

Fun, lessons etc. Onwards and upwards,  or at least to the next old choddy car. 

[SmokinWaffle]

Just for completion - looks like this soon went into the crusher:

It says date of issue on the 2nd but I think that's referring to when they got it - the actual cert is dated the 12th so that's probably when it was put to it's final resting place.

Onwards we go.