Cockroach cars - A short story of an Astra H 1.8 16v Auto - He's dead Jim

[Dan302]

47 minutes ago, SiC said:

It's had a HG after @Alan_Green bought it with a HGF.

Oil cooler has been done before last year or so ago - always a possibility it's failed again with modern parts but possibly unlikely. There is a auto transmission oil cooler built in the radiator - they are known to fail and mix. If it's that (which is my guess) then an easy change but depends how much milkshake has gone through the transmission and potentially fecked it. 

She had the exhaust fall off it a month or two ago. Imo probably her fault (or her useless boyfriend) but either way, she sees it as something that keeps having money pumped into it. 

My partner had an astra H auto and the trans cooler let go. We had the box fluid changed and a new rad but it shit it's transmission a few weeks later.

Shame as it was a decent car in all other respects.

[bigfella2]

3 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

It will have an oil cooler.

1.8 belt engines not widely known for HGF. The smaller chain driven ones are.

Are you sure, I spent quite a bit of time looking at the arse end of the vauxhall market last year looking at insignia's/Astra's, absolutely loads of 1.6 and 1.8's with head gasket failure.

[tooSavvy]

1 hour ago, Dan302 said:

My partner had an astra H auto and the trans cooler let go. We had the box fluid changed and a new rad but it shit it's transmission a few weeks later.

Shame as it was a decent car in all other respects.

Yupp...... With AVAS, I chopped the rad out of my Auto box >> fitted an Astra J dry one ✔️. Copper 10mil c/h pipe looping it all across.... Sorted 🍻

🚙💨

[Dan302]

24 minutes ago, tooSavvy said:

Yupp...... With AVAS, I chopped the rad out of my Auto box >> fitted an Astra J dry one ✔️. Copper 10mil c/h pipe looping it all across.... Sorted 🍻

🚙💨

Yeah I wish we had done that as a precaution before it let go. 

I'm sure that what killed the box, was a lovely dependable car in all other respects.

[Brodders]

That's a shame, especially after all the work you put into it.

Bit of a journey from Bristol, but not sure if this automatic Alfa from here is still around. Might be a half decent replacement if it is 

 

[grogee]

8 hours ago, Brodders said:

That's a shame, especially after all the work you put into it.

Bit of a journey from Bristol, but not sure if this automatic Alfa from here is still around. Might be a half decent replacement if it is 

 

Yep still available 

[N Dentressangle]

That could be many things. I wouldn't be getting involved either.

Or with its replacement tbh. Sub £1500 cars are all going to have issues, and no way would I be providing a free unlimited warranty on one, which is kind of what some people expect when you help them out.

[delux]

My mate, Terry, had an Astra H 1.6 16v. It was given to him cos it burned oil. 

At the time, Terry was the parts guy at a Rolls Royce and Aston Martin dealer. He would get the mechanics to save the oil when they done an oil change for the Astra as it burned about 10 litres a week!

He just had to remember not to top it up past the minimum mark otherwise there would be no rear vision! 

It stumbled on for 9 months like this, when he got £60 from the scrapyard he was over the moon, it is the only car he ever sold for a profit!

Nowadays he runs a Suzuki swift, thats had a noisy gearbox for 3 years! 'Want me to check the oil in the gearbox, Tel?'

'Nah, it'll be fine!' 😆

[SiC]

19 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Honestly, with what an utter minefield the bottom end of the car market is, wouldn't fixing this make more sense?  A couple of grand at the moment seems just as likely to buy you a box full of someone else's problems rather than fixing the problem of a dead car.  Assuming this doesn't have any other mortal issues impending anyway.

This is basically an 80s engine so doing a head gasket change wouldn't be nearly as bad as on a lot of moderns.

Thinking more on it, it is likely one of the following:

 * HGF -  a possibility given it was cooked so much. But it's had a new one previously and it's done a few thousand miles since the last overheating incident above. If it's this then ~£500+ job + maybe new head if it's really badly warped.

* Oil cooler - known issues on these and it was replaced a year or so ago. Could be the gasket is leaking from crap parts. Problem is that it's a big alloy assembly with the oil filter on. Best case just the gasket ~£25 but then ~£150+ labour. However given the overheating that alloy assembly probably is a bit warped too - maybe even the block. So £200+ for that assembly. Plus oil+filter change + coolant change. ~£500 job and it might leak again.

* Radiator oil cooler - Transmission oil is cooled in the main coolant radiator. There is an internal leak which has made the two mix. I think this is the most likely probability the case. I advised a radiator replacement when I last looked at it. Kinda wish I did but CBA to do it and told her to get a garage to do it in a few months when she could afford to. Which didn't happen - however when you have bugger all money, spending £200+ on car maintenance for something that "might or might not happen" is quite rightly hard to justify. It could be changed now but if the oil+coolant have mixed into the transmission, it'll bugger the clutches. ~£500 job and possibly transmission replacement soon after.

Basically anyone of those options above is ~£500+ minimum and a good chance it'll have something else come up soon after from whatever caused this failure. Basically some other cheap junk is actually likely a better starting point now.

16 hours ago, Agila said:

I know you're a genuine nice guy but walk away from this cretin. I know she's your wife's mate but enough is enough now.

I literally don't get involved with friends/ relatives/neighbours/work mates or any other***** cars. Just mine and the Mrs, everyone and everything else just bites you on the arse.

TBF she's not asking for me to fix it, just giving advice on if it's bad or not. Better for me to tell her it's fucked for free than a garage potentially charge her an hour's labour + a week or more to tell her the same. 

[N Dentressangle]

Yep, that's a cartakeback etc job if ever there was one

[SiC]

16 hours ago, Dan302 said:

My partner had an astra H auto and the trans cooler let go. We had the box fluid changed and a new rad but it shit it's transmission a few weeks later.

Shame as it was a decent car in all other respects.

Coolant destroys transmission clutch materials. That strawberry milkshake doesn't do it any good. Given it's a worn and older gearbox, it's not likely it'll survive a bad case of contamination. Especially in this case she's been driving like it without realising until it puked it's coolant again. 

14 hours ago, Dan302 said:

Yeah I wish we had done that as a precaution before it let go. 

I'm sure that what killed the box, was a lovely dependable car in all other respects.

It's really hard to justify throwing parts at a cheap, older car just because it might fail. Especially on a GM product where a lot of stuff is questionable longevity.

I do wish I did it when I had it though. Just radiator replacement can be a world of broken bolts and snapped pipe flanges that I didn't want to get into.

12 hours ago, Brodders said:

That's a shame, especially after all the work you put into it.

Bit of a journey from Bristol, but not sure if this automatic Alfa from here is still around. Might be a half decent replacement if it is 

 

Thanks. I've sent it on. I suspect she'll moan about the distance. I CBA to drive her over and I suspect Mrs SiC wouldn't either. But if she really wants it then she'll have to travel.

Also sent this on which is relatively local here. I know the engines are tough on these but no idea about the gearboxes.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202606073081757

 

Pretty certain her first car was a similar aged Fiesta 1.6 auto with this box. Got written off after a truck on her right pulled into her lane without looking on the M4 in Wales.

This was her first car. 10 years ago and paid £2k for it. Pretty much the same price as now but 10 years younger!

[Zelandeth]

Fair enough.  I was figuring it was most likely just going to be HG failure given the recent overheating event.  However once you throw the significant likelihood of gearbox borkage into the mix, yeah.  Probably time to bail.

Just feels hard to recommend given how much worse it feels like each generation of car after this will put up with neglect, whereas those things are pretty dependable.