Living with faults

[grogee]

  On 13/06/2023 at 09:15, grogee said:

It's weird, I was about to write that I am completely intolerant of things that don't work on any of my cars, but I realise this isn't true at all.

I dote on my Puma, but it still has the following faults:

- Driver's electric window frame is partly broken. It works, but if you drop the window all the way down then try to raise it, it rises crooked and gets jammed in the frame. It's very easy to just grab the front upper edge of the window and move it up/back to straighten it, after which it's fine. I don't know why I haven't fixed this yet, it wouldn't be that hard I don't think.

- Indicators don't self-cancel. TADTS. I've already replaced the stalk assembly once, and I have another (new/pattern) part to go on, but it's buried in with loads of Maestro spares and I'm not sure where it is. About 20 minutes to replace.

- Parcel shelf keeps unhooking from tailgate barbs. Again, TADTS, but I've bodged it in such a way that it works 25% of the time but 75% of the time it just falls off again. Weirdly this is the one thing that pisses me off more than anything, and again could probably be fixed in 20 mins.

- Rear washer inop. 60 seconds of poking around with a needle or piece of wire. It's never dirty enough to matter.

Most of the barges I own also get doted on, lavished with new parts and then are sold for someone else to enjoy the benefits. God knows why, maybe I like the misery? The Saab 9-5 I had, I spent ages fixing the HVAC, fixed the cupholder, fixed the ignition cassette, new everything for servicing, fixed the AC compressor, changed the autobox fluid, NOOBtune, etc etc etc then sold it. When I'd finished with it, it was really tidy, including treating the rust area by the inner rear wheelarches. I really should have kept it.

I also had a Honda Legend. Did cambelt, autobox fluid, loads of rustproofing, servicing, audio upgrades etc. Then Mrs Grogee took it to Tesco and some c__t smashed the rear bumper. I spent a week repairing and respraying the bumper, after which it was pretty good if you didn't look too hard... Then sold it almost immediately afterwards.

Same with the Volvo V70 before that.

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I was so ridden with guilt about these embarrassing faults on my Puma that straight after writing this post I cable tied the parcel shelf onto the hooks. 

Then I hoovered it and properly mounted the hands free kit to the dash with an intricate series of Heath Robinson brackets. 

I did try to fix the rear washer but shoving a bit of wire in hasn't fixed it. Now it's lunchtime so I've downed tools.

[Jazoli]

  On 13/06/2023 at 10:47, Kiltox said:

I’m bad for fixing the stupid things people don’t normally care about - parking sensors and headlight washers on my A8 for example - I don’t like it nagging me that something is broken 

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Me too, the TPMS isn't working on my Volt, I'm probably going to spend £300 on new sensors and fitting, there isn't even an error llight.

[Stinkwheel]

  On 12/06/2023 at 18:39, Stanky said:

 

On a 15+ year old car there's going to be broken things. There are going to be broken things that are dangerous, and they get fixed. There are broken things which, if left, will break more things. They get fixed too. Then there are broken things which don't actually prevent a car being a means to get from A to B. They sometimes get fixed,

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Exactly my mentality as well, safety or FTP issues get fixed, everything else can be optional (on my dailys anyway) I apply other criteria to my 'fun' cars - which also somnetimes get daily'ed , but i cant tell you exactly what they are as they are vague and only ever in the back of my head 

[Supernaut]

The BMW:

- disconnected air con, done long before I bought it.

- sloppy gear linkage bushings

- a strange creak from the front right that I can't pinpoint, has been ongoing for over a year, has gone through an MOT and hasn't got worse

 

The Clio:

- still won't fucking idle properly, but it's otherwise amazing. Even has working air conditioning!

 

Not too bad, really.

[RoverFolkUs]

  On 13/06/2023 at 11:31, grogee said:

I was so ridden with guilt about these embarrassing faults on my Puma that straight after writing this post I cable tied the parcel shelf onto the hooks. 

Then I hoovered it and properly mounted the hands free kit to the dash with an intricate series of Heath Robinson brackets. 

I did try to fix the rear washer but shoving a bit of wire in hasn't fixed it. Now it's lunchtime so I've downed tools.

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You know what, I'm the same. Having written out my earlier posts, on reflection I've decided I'd be stupid not to do the cambelt for £80 and I'll stump up the £60 for the thermostat housing and do that at the same time. I'm happy to eat the cost of the brakes as well. A £250-300 bill to keep what is an excellent car sorted for a bit longer. 

I had a look on Gumtree afterwards and there are only about 10 cars within 15 miles under £1000, none of which are roadworthy. That was enough of a wake up call! 

Now just to find a weekend to do it all 

[GregZX]

I’ve got a 2020 Skoda Octavia with 83k that I drive as a private hire taxi. 
 

10 hours a day driving it and I hate the thing, “faults” begin to really grate after driving for that length of time every fecking day. I honestly believe I’ve got some sort of PTSD with extra paranoia built in.  Every noise, whine, scrape is scrutinised and worried about. Especially since I paid £900 for a new turbo back in January. Mechanics just don’t hear or experience what I’m telling them as they don’t drive it for 250 miles a day, I’ve been told to close my ears to noises as it’s a taxi - but I can’t. 
 

- power steering is annoyingly grindy and noisy on close to full lock (it’s been that way since 9k)

- clutch has occasional slight judder in 1st when pulling away quickly - been that way since 9k miles. Never got any worse. But very fucking annoying when it happens  

- raspy engine noise under load on the pickup between 2nd and 3rd. Goes away (I think) when you give it some welly. I’m catastrophising about that quite a lot although it’s not really got any worse over the last 40k miles. Is the exhaust? Is it a vacuum leak? Is it the camshaft, clutch or gearbox? Nobody knows. 

- crunches going into reverse unless you’re ultra careful. 

- front N/S shock clicks since being replaced. Never been an MOT issue so that’s been left but is horrible.

- engine sounds noisier than I’d like although I’ve been assured that’s what they sound like but I’m not convinced. 

- brakes are now squeaking. I can actually do something about that.

- creak from front going over speedbumps. 
 

I’m going to VT it in September before it sends me to the looney bin. 

[somewhatfoolish]

The parents have lived with the driver's door window motor fritzed for over two years; my resistance cracked and I bought the cheapest motor off a popular internet auction site and installed it yesterday afternoon. I feel at least a stone lighter so clearly this was annoying me far more than I realised, not least because being unable to lower the window in the current weather is absolute murder when combined with AC that 'just needs regassed M7'.

[New POD]

Years ago, I went on a reliability course.

There's mission critical reliability, and degraded performance. 

I'd also add that there's legal compliance. 

The mission is getting to work safely. 

So rear number plate light bulbs? They can wait for the next MOT.   

Leak into the boot ? Meh 

Coolant leaking ? Depends. It will be fixed ASAP.

Coolant fan switch broken. Ignore if its winter. 

Tyres near the wear indicator.  Yes. 

Hand brake a bit dodgy.  I drive an auto and live somewhere flat. Meh

Different people might define these Points differently. 

The only issue I know of, currently relates to a rear spring with a missing bit. It's not stopping the car.  But it will get fixed soon enough. I only know, because I had the wheels off, for new tyres. 

 

[catsinthewelder]

My Focus had a chuffing injector when I got it 4.5 years ago.  I got it fixed within a month by a really trustworthy garage who found 3 were chuffing so I got all 4 done.  It started chuffing again within 6 months and still is.

[sierraman]

  On 13/06/2023 at 12:37, RoverFolkUs said:

You know what, I'm the same. Having written out my earlier posts, on reflection I've decided I'd be stupid not to do the cambelt for £80 and I'll stump up the £60 for the thermostat housing and do that at the same time. I'm happy to eat the cost of the brakes as well. A £250-300 bill to keep what is an excellent car sorted for a bit longer. 

I had a look on Gumtree afterwards and there are only about 10 cars within 15 miles under £1000, none of which are roadworthy. That was enough of a wake up call! 

Now just to find a weekend to do it all 

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A thousand quid gets absolute rubbish these days, don’t get me wrong there’s exceptions as we’ve seen, but on the whole batting starts at £2,000 for something half a chance of seeing a year or two out. 

[Imhotep]

Saab has a noisy PAS pump if you try going lock to lock when not moving. Only have to do that once a day turning around in the garage block that’s only 6ft wider than the car is long. Not an issue any other time so won’t really bother with that.

 

Main problem with my AX GT is that it exists. Poor thing wants to die and I just won’t let it.

[sierraman]

My in laws have to put a pint of oil in every few weeks, I could live with that on a £1000 car but it’s an easy £8-10k car. No easy way out either as it’s the piston rings so a good few thousand to rectify. 

[Dobloseven]

  On 15/06/2023 at 07:14, sierraman said:

My in laws have to put a pint of oil in every few weeks, I could live with that on a £1000 car but it’s an easy £8-10k car. No easy way out either as it’s the piston rings so a good few thousand to rectify. 

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Read the handbook for a modern car and it'll quote an acceptable oil consumption figure. It'll be in litres per 1000km or somesuch. Convert it to old money and it works out at about 650 miles per pint. That's for a brand new car!

[sierraman]

  On 15/06/2023 at 07:37, Dobloseven said:

Read the handbook for a modern car and it'll quote an acceptable oil consumption figure. It'll be in litres per 1000km or somesuch. Convert it to old money and it works out at about 650 miles per pint. That's for a brand new car!

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It’s a Volvo D4, it’s a known problem with them. It’s also not doing anywhere near 325 miles a week

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 15/06/2023 at 04:19, New POD said:

The only issue I know of, currently relates to a rear spring with a missing bit. It's not stopping the car.  But it will get fixed soon enough. I only know, because I had the wheels off, for new tyres. 

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Kudos for that - my MoT guy usually spots mine for me  

My thoughts tend to follow your three levels of Zen Happiness in the World of Autoshite e.g. 
Brakes/tyres - sort it.
Minor leaks - as and when, meantime topup.
Cosmetics? Pah.
The ONE thing that I run around like an eejit trying to cure is clonks and creaks from underneath. I get paranoid visions of wheels flying off and wiping out babies in prams, suspension parts fracturing, towbar dropping off etc etc. 
Took me about a week to find it was a loose heat shield on the Ovlov and the bloody Bini took ages until Mrs . EWS said 'is it the anti-roll bar bushes, darling?' Wowsers - about £3 each and ten minutes a side. Bliss. Utterly impressed with her mechanical prowess.
Then she told me that she'd read the MoT advisories when she bought it.

[Dobloseven]

  On 15/06/2023 at 07:55, sierraman said:

It’s a Volvo D4, it’s a known problem with them. It’s also not doing anywhere near 325 miles a week

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Ideal WBAC material then!

[New POD]

  On 15/06/2023 at 06:53, Imhotep said:

Saab has a noisy PAS pump if you try going lock to lock when not moving. Only have to do that once a day turning around in the garage block that’s only 6ft wider than the car is long. Not an issue any other time so won’t really bother with that.

 

Main problem with my AX GT is that it exists. Poor thing wants to die and I just won’t let it.

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If you are getting hydraulic noise at full lock that's just relief valve instability at the crack off pressure.   I've spent far too long previously looking at similar issues. Just ignore it. It won't cause a problem. It's just the poppet opening and then closing very quickly, and then opening again and closing  instead of opening nicely, and staying open. 

[MikeR]

When your van site does a vid of the quality site .... And .

[Asimo]

My priority with the van is fixing the water-ingress. I hate wet in a motor! Means that it isn’t even useful as shelter / storage.

I have lived with the slightly slipping clutch for at least 5 years, if it slips, just change down.

There is a crack right across the windscreen, just above the dash. If mot man can’t be bothered to see it (4 times so far) then neither can I.

Cam cover oil leaks. Have tried and failed to fix this. It does get hot-oil smelly but the oil isn’t on my hands so meh.

No reversing lights. Use hazards instead.

A tyre needs inflating weekly.  Oh well.w

[captain_70s]

All my cars have a myriad of faults.

Non-functional blower motors, deflating tyres, partially dismantled interiors, loose/missing trim. It's fucking endless.

I'm usually found fixing brakes/suspension/engines/exhausts, so the non-essential stuff ends up down the priority list.

A good example is the 740's heater blower motor. The resistor packed in, and was NLA, then the fan seized, also NLA. So a 850 resistor was bought to modify and a second hand 940 fan for similar reasons. 

Since then I've rebuilt the front brakes and fuel injection system, rewired the radio twice. Now it urgently needs drop links, a prop carrier and an exhaust...

One day maybe I'll get to the blower motor, and the rear door that won't open properly, and the sunroof headlining being in tatters, and the rear wash wipe not working, and the non-functional heated seats... etc.

[juular]

I can tolerate most things being broken or a bit temperamental, but I really need the steering and suspension to be right. It's like a phobia of something snapping off and me ending up in a ditch. I think having a wheel break loose due to a corroded suspension part has really spooked me.

I also just really like driving a car that steers dead straight, corners properly and doesn't have clunks or bangs. I get irrationally pissed off by a car that clunks and I spend the entire time listening out for it, which ruins the fun.

[horriblemercedes]

I will overlook most faults and not really care. I usually buy cars that are cheap for the model in question so I can just shrug when there is a fault that doesn't affect safety or reliability.

 

At the moment my 3-Series has the airbag light on (passenger seat occupancy sensor has failed). As I know this is the fault, I don't see it as a problem as it just means the passenger airbag will default to trigger in an accident. There very rarely is a passenger anyway.

It's going for MOT next week and my friend thinks it's mad that I'm sending it although I'm pretty confident it'll fail (control arm bushes are worn). It's because if it fails on something I haven't seen (rust that I haven't spotted, for example) I'll be scrapping it, so I don't want to replace control arms just to scrap the car a week later. Waste of money and (more importantly to me) time.

 

 

[Rust Collector]

  On 15/06/2023 at 14:06, horriblemercedes said:

Waste of money and (more importantly to me) time.

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I'll send things in for a ticket with bits I suspect/know will cause it to fail - my logic being similar, I have little time so if I'm going to spend a day or two fixing the car it's better to do it once the tester has had a prod just in case they flag up something I wasn't aware of.

If I proactively spent a weekend preparing the car and then it failed on something else, I'd end up losing two weekends.

[Bren]

Watching some of the traders on youtube it would appear the modern customers expects perfection even on something 10+ years old.

Christ, when I think of some of the stuff I have bought - my first SD1, drivers door and wing caved in, beige carpets gone black with the water that was coming into the car via the windscreen. But it had a full mot. And we p/x a cortina that had lost most of the boot floor.

Our royale - one working window. A knackered carb. Rust and a rear quarter that looked like it had been dragged down armco.

A bargain at £595.

A rover 600 that we paid £2.5 k for and was worth £400 a few years later because the rear arches had suicided.

I remember going with my dad to look at a car for him - cannot remember what it was.

I told him we should look elsewhere. He replied " BUT IT'S GOT GOOD TYRES...."

[sierraman]

I’m all for setting your sights at a decent level but there’s a reason a 2009 car is £2,000. It’s done 100,000 miles, components are worn, you can expect to have to spend a couple of hundred on remedial jobs immediately to avoid future breakdowns so a timing belt, a few catch up jobs etc. If it was pure, out of the box, perfection it wouldn’t be £2,000. 

If that’s your budget you have to accept that you will need to spend money to keep it going. But you see so many quibbling about scratches on a 10 year old car or whether the wireless has Bluetooth connectivity it would suggest that basic maintenance is not a priority so they plead ignorance when it goes wrong. Which shouldn’t wash really as all the information is out there so you know when a particular job is due it just boils down to them not being able to accept any sort of responsibility. 

[beko1987]

I like seeing that things are on their 3/4th replacement too, especially at my end of the market. 

I'd rather hear "I did the brakes and shocks 10k ago and it's still fine now" than someone being proud it was on the original rear pads or similar. 

There's a few blobs of rust coming through on the Xsara and I'm leaning more towards the ugly but functional way of fixing it than getting colour matched paint etc... Its just not worth it even though I'd like to have it looking nice. I'd rather it keeps passing mot's quite cleanly for now though 🤣🤞

[Spiny Norman]

My Saab has the fewest broken things of any car I've had in years and the few that are present are in the 'It's old enough to vote, it's entitled to a few minor issues' category, everything important works.
This has been Glasgow's Hot Week for the year so the 'Just needs a regas M8' aircon's flow of tepid air is noticeable but since I rarely have a car with working AC I DGAF and just drive with the windows down. The parking sensors give up the ghost when I'm backing up to something expensive but work fine approaching  builder's Tranny vans and walls, and the driver's door window rattles a bit but works fine.
 

[stuboy]

drivers door handle needs a firm yank (TADTS apparently)

boot lock kept unlocking ( cured by disconecting electriks to boot switch )

Exhaust is still banging.

[groovyboovy]

Partners C3, liveable faults,

clutch bite very high,

1 rear door not opening from exterior handle,

glow plug circuit not working, it starts eventually

slow puncture on one tyre

occasional engine light

possibly small fuel leak around injectors

can live with it

 

[stuboy]

the ford galaxy.. 5 years on.......

remote central locking never worked

rear wash wipe never washed...