Another ebay tale of woe

[carlo]

Or perhaps initially an appeal to the more mechanically minded than me.

 

Collected a Peugeot 405 2.0 automatic I'd just bought off Ebay on Friday night. The wholw thing was a farce really, was meant to meet the bloke at the station at a pre agreed time following a 200 mile train journey from Devon. Rang and texted him countless times and spent an hour stranded at the train station his end for an hour, unable to get through. Finally, totally fed up, spent another £30 crossing 50 miles through London to stay at my brother's. Well the geyser finally texts me at 10pm full of apologies saying he had a family emergency, which may or may not have been true, and says he'll drive the thing over to us that night and knock £50 off. Fair play I think, we'll go for that as he sounds genuine. Tell him I'm really buying the car on trust as I can't test it or even see it properly at midnight although a quick spin round the block didn't reveal anything nasty.

 

Well, first thing I notice is it always seems to start on two or three cylinders and emits a cloud of white steamy smoke from the exhaust. After that it seems to drive pretty well and got back to Devon quite nicely, even though the engine diagnostic light kept coming on. The starting problems became more noticeable every time I start it, it even displays the same characteristics when hot. I tried the pressure test after 15 minutes and water did shoot out of the rad so I'm guessing it's got head gasket problems or so a knowledgable friend of mine seems to think. I've left it at a local garage for them to have a look tomorrow but does this sound like a typical head gasket problem? God knows how much that would cost.

 

It looks like I've been shafted and it's all a bit of a pain in the arse - when you add everything up it sort of makes sense. Doubt I'll get anywhere complaining to the seller, in fact I feel a bit of a fool for buying the thing in that manner. Trouble is I love these cars and it's a case of the head ruling the heart!

[autofive]

i had a 405 that was the same symptoms - HG gone and boiling all the time

[maxpower]

couldn't you get a refund from ebay for item not as described...and not fit for the purpose that it was intended for?

explain to them what happened, i think this guy was buying for time knowing that after having a arse of a day that you would just take the motor and go.

but try ebay, there is no harm in trying

[carlo]

I might try paypal as I paid a deposit through that.

[Cavcraft]

Sadly that won't work as Paypal will not refund for motors. They will freeze his payment for a while though which will cause him some grief.

[Mr Lobster]

I wouldn't expect you'll get far with ebay on a 'not as described' thing either tbh. Sorry but I really don't think theres much you can do other than mark this one down to experience.

[Negative Creep]

I think this is one of those "sold as seen" scenarios so you won't get anywhere with trying to get a refund

[AnthonyG]

Unless he specifically stated that the car had no engine /cooling system faults, there's no false description issue, and even if he had you still wouldn't get anywhere. You could try for a partial refund, I doubt you'll get anywhere though. Added to that Ebay/Paypal don't give a shit anyway.

 

I would put it down to experience, buyer beware and all that. Fix it or weigh it in and move onwards and upwards!

 

You can't really expect a (at least) 15 year old car to come with any sort of warranty - IIRC 'not fit as described' is only legally useful if it was sold by a dealer or trader?

[carlo]

It's definately a head gasket, garage was surprised I even got it back.

 

You're no doubt right Anthony, I probably should have taken the initial collection cock up as an omen and walked away from it then.

[r.welfare]

I don't know if the head gasket is a big job on the 2.0 8-valve, as I don't have Autodata to hand - does the condition of the rest of the car (gearbox specifically!) warrant the investment, Carlo? Otherwise I guess it's a difficult decision to cut your losses and start the search again.

[carlo]

Well I've been quoted the usual £400 - £600 plus the usual warnings about cracked heads etc. The car actually drives rather well but the other issue that concerns me is that the keypad start code has been bypassed and the idiot doesn't know what the stored code is. I believe this means if the battery's ever disconnected you need to enter the original code again, so that could mean more big problems. It ain't looking too good at the moment I must confess.

[ashmicro]

As far as I know, those Pugrot keypads can be bypassed by getting the engine running, and then disconnecting them with the engine still running. In fact, this is possibly what's already been done with yours.

[bangers & mash]

Check your radiator. It might look ok, but it probably isn't. You get much the same symptoms as a head gasket on the 405 - boiling up etc. I changed my head gasket and mine was still the same. A new rad eventually sorted it.

[carlo]

Thing is it's not even boiling, just starting on less than 4 cylinders with the smoke every time. Garage said the immediate high pressure in the hoses signified gasket gone.