Biggest car repair bill you've ever had?

[Stinkwheel]

33 minutes ago, cbowditch said:

My mercedes was burning loads of oil. Engine was stripped down to discover this. Being a modern mercedes v12 engine, rebuilding it wasn't something you could DIY at home. Total cost of rebuild £26K 😬

 

Far cry from a Cortina engine then

[MorrisItalSLX]

I don’t have the figures or paperwork to hand, but I definitely had some hefty bills from the Jaguar specialist the did multiple jobs on my XJ. I’ll have to dig out the invoices from the folder in the boot.

[cbowditch]

44 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

Far cry from a Cortina engine then

lol, I rebuilt the cortina engine last year for a few hundred quid

[JakeT]

£1500. New rear brake lines, and flexi hoses on my daily and dropping the front subframe to change the sump gasket. Plus other odds and sods. I did feel it was a bit expensive, but I’ve still got the car 70,000 miles later so I can’t complain.

[IronStar]

Mini, with a combined total of about 7k€ over 3 visits. I’m lumping this together as I did 500km in between before the engine blew.

Yugo Cabrio’s welding and respray is quoted at 3.5k€, with parts totaling another 1000-1500€, and a new soft top at 800€.

Yugo Cabrio’s engine and suspension probably comes in third, and whilst I don’t have the exact figure as a bunch of parts were accumulated over time for another car, iffy memory napkin mat quotes this at around 1500€.

DMF + clutch + driveshaft + LSD install for 159 at around a grand. 

[Flat4]

Just spent nearly a grand between parts and labour to have the belts done on the Forester, along with an overdue big service which included genuine Subaru coil packs at £72 a piece! Thankfully it's cured the misfire but they did find one of the air con/power steering pulleys a bit shot (I can't remember which) so that had to be replaced as well.

It promptly rewarded me a few months later by requiring £400-worth of welding to the rear sills which I was NOT expecting. I only had the belts done because it's otherwise been such a solid car, compared to some of the horror stories I've seen regarding other 2.5 XTs/STIs.

Tbf this is the first time in 5 years it's had a major MOT fail and both the MOT garage and the bodyshop were complimentary about it's overall condition otherwise so I'll keep it going for another year and see if it can go back to behaving itself for the next MOT.

[RoadworkUK]

We paid the thick end of a grand replacing the rear axle on our 306, but that was several years ago and the car is still alive. I did the head gasket last april, and it's holding out thus far; we don't mind a big bill every now and again if we plan to keep the car for the long term. I suspect I'm going to need to clench pretty determinedly for work on my E39 540i on a semi-regular basis, but I'm hoping to keep it forever and ever. 

Basically, so long as a car that I love costs less to keep as a viable concern than something brand new that I'd hate would depreciate every month, I feel like I'm quids in.

[cpjitservices]

£1200 on a clutch kit (including DMF) and cambelt kit on the wifes Mondeo, then it decided to throw up a Turbo problem about a fortnight later (which I couldnt be arsed with it at this point). Sold it on here very cheap lol cant remember who to now..possibly @sierraman Black Mondeo 2litre Diesel... was a very good car wife had it about 5 years I think. 

[cpjitservices]

6 hours ago, RoadworkUK said:

We paid the thick end of a grand replacing the rear axle on our 306, but that was several years ago and the car is still alive. I did the head gasket last april, and it's holding out thus far; we don't mind a big bill every now and again if we plan to keep the car for the long term. I suspect I'm going to need to clench pretty determinedly for work on my E39 540i on a semi-regular basis, but I'm hoping to keep it forever and ever. 

Basically, so long as a car that I love costs less to keep as a viable concern than something brand new that I'd hate would depreciate every month, I feel like I'm quids in.

Same attitude I am going to take with my Allroad.. it's going to coast me a very lot of pennies... even just for maintenance. But I love the dam thing lol so spend I will lol..

Already looking at full cam belt kit on it, plus ancillaries belts and tensioners.

11 hours labour plus parts - its about 1600 quid already. Cambelt and tensioners plus injection pump pulleys belt etc, and god knows what else!

 

Still cheaper than a brand new Allroad!

[sierraman]

13 minutes ago, cpjitservices said:

£1200 on a clutch kit (including DMF) and cambelt kit on the wifes Mondeo, then it decided to throw up a Turbo problem about a fortnight later (which I couldnt be arsed with it at this point). Sold it on here very cheap lol cant remember who to now..possibly @sierraman Black Mondeo 2litre Diesel... was a very good car wife had it about 5 years I think. 

It was the actuator giving trouble I think off the back of the vanes coking up. Quite a common problem I think. 

[Markeh]

The largest individual bill would be on my old Megane II. Instead of finding somewhere near me, I decided to take advantage of staff rate MOTs at the Nissan dealer my mum worked at at the time, and they failed it on a broken steering lock. Which is electric, and requires coding to the car apparently. I am convinced the lock was always like that and had just never been spotted on any other MOTs, so serves me right for trying to save a few quid. £700 quote from a Renault specialists near me - I'd paid £800 for the car 3 years prior to that and had about 20k of use out of it. The car would've been scrapped had it not been two weeks before my masters dissertation hand in - I was far too busy to look for another car at the time, so it got repaired.

Of course it rewarded me a month later by seizing the alternator and throwing the aux belt (the source of my current profile pic), then two months later pulling almost the same stunt with the AC compressor, except this time not throwing the belt.

The total from those 3 is probably somewhat equal to the cost of repairing the current Qashqai after its minor smack into the back of a Fiat in that there London. That was spread across about 5 or 6 different transactions though!

[New POD]

On 06/01/2025 at 21:41, sierraman said:

It was the actuator giving trouble I think off the back of the vanes coking up. Quite a common problem I think. 

If you have a VNT from Garrett, you need to give it an Italian tune up with a twist. 

That is start at low revs and put your foot hard down. This should snap the vanes closed. 

Take it to the red line. This should take the vanes to fully open.  

Thus all debris had been cleared by vanes. 

Do this every day.  

If you only drive at medium throttle, the vanes never fully close or fully open. 

[Bren]

Bought a dog of an SD1 Vitesse in 1997. Spent £300 on panels and £850 on having them fitted and painted. 

It was on the road for a year before I sold it for spares so it was mega value.

[Dobloseven]

Had a couple of quotes to do the clutch on MrsDs Korando.Around 1800quid for full four part kit.11.6 hours labour according to one.4wd,so quite a lot more work involved.

[RoverFolkUs]

30 minutes ago, Dobloseven said:

Had a couple of quotes to do the clutch on MrsDs Korando.Around 1800quid for full four part kit.11.6 hours labour according to one.4wd,so quite a lot more work involved.

Didn't you think of reversing back up the hill to do a better job of it?

Sorry 😂

[maxxo]

if i recall

£1,500 or so to get my first XM through it's MOT at a "citroen specialist" the same one who obliterated the autobox on the red C5 which i'm still angry about

welding, steering rack gaiters, weld to the exhaust and unsieze the parking brake

what a scam i know

might be more but as i sold the car i don't have the history

£1,500 to get a very tatty 1993 XM with 180kish on the clock roadworth

however, that car is still on the road, it survives and without me stepping in when i did it would have been scrapped now

i have no regrets

 

or how about the approximately £4.5k i spent on red C5 making it mint in the space of a year before scrapping it when the gearbox shat itself

or the £3k i put into the picasso making it an extremely good car, which i sold for £200 and is still on the road doing sterling service for the new owner who's barely had a spot of both (the car i wish i kept)

[Dobloseven]

7 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Didn't you think of reversing back up the hill to do a better job of it?

Sorry 😂

Car is being written off by the insurers anyway,so not sure what's going on yet Just waiting for figures.Really want to keep it running if we can, because it ticks a lot of boxes for us.

[Zelandeth]

To date, the £800 I was charged to change the timing belt, tensioner pulley, water pump and alternator on the Partner.

Shortly to be eclipsed by the parts bill for the Trabant in the spring, which will be well north of £2500 by the time they're on my doorstep I reckon.  Plus I want to get a bit of welding done on it...

Realistically I should just buy another one and use this as a parts car, but that's far too logical!  Plus I'd rather honestly have a scruffy one that I know has been gone through right than a shiny one which is just as likely to break five minutes down the line anyway.

[comfortablynumb]

I rebuilt the V8 in my first RRC for less money than the dealer wanted for a 24K service 😁

[Zelandeth]

Not so much a repair bill, but this is *definitely* the largest bill for a bunch of parts I've ever had!

Car's probably worth half that...No I never said I was sane.

[Paul-l]

Hmm, I think I’d a bill around the £5 - £6000 mark for an engine rebuild on my van about 15 - 20 years ago. But then I’ve still got the van and have done another 100000 miles or so since then.

[Volksy]

Had a 1991 Saab 9000s that ran it's clutch release bearing whilst on a camping trip in Harlech. 

Ended up towed to a local Rover dealer who charged me £890 to replace it.

As I'd invested that much in it, I decided to hang on to it, so it got new tyres x4, discs/pads etc. 

Two weeks later whilst accelerating out of a busy junction, the gearbox decided it would try and select two gears at once, and detonated itself.  Scrapped a week after that.

[motorpunk]

My beloved Fiat. Seat retrim was about £400 or so. I’ve been very fortunate with bills over the years!

[iainrcz]

I think my RCZ cost me a few quid for the chain/tensioners etc but can't remember how much. 

I've had Toyotas since then, so my outlay on borkage has been zero.

[comfortablynumb]

2 hours ago, motorpunk said:

My beloved Fiat. Seat retrim was about £400 or so. I’ve been very fortunate with bills over the years!

My grandad had one of those in blue, used to drive it flat out everywhere, went faster after he fitted a carb from ( I think) a 600.

Most fun I've had driving a car, used to drive it about with my head out of the sunroof. Also the only car I've driven where you can clear the rear screen from the driver's seat .

wish I could afford one now

[motorpunk]

1 hour ago, comfortablynumb said:

My grandad had one of those in blue, used to drive it flat out everywhere, went faster after he fitted a carb from ( I think) a 600.

Most fun I've had driving a car, used to drive it about with my head out of the sunroof. Also the only car I've driven where you can clear the rear screen from the driver's seat .

wish I could afford one now

Thanks. This has an engine from a 126 (so 648cc or something), lowered, disc brakes, etc. It is THE most fun to drive. Was cheaper than a good Mini when I got it!