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another car dilemma


Saint Keith
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got an old discovery 94 plate. 2.5 diesel. bought it last summer for £1500, just use it as a van mainly, or if im parking at the train station, taking the kids and their mates to thorpe park etc

 

just had its mot, and it failed on 3 pages of welding:( , plus a shock has gone

 

bloke at the garage reckons its about £1500 worth of work, another guy in the trade reckons i could get it for around £1k

 

dont really want to spend that kind of money, but i do need the 2nd car

 

the thing is, mechanically it is rock solid, really sound. i could flog it or scrap it, get another old banger and find that breaks down every 5 minutes

 

ive declared it off the road for now as the tax was due, and im not going to be using it much through the summer as im working away, but need to decide what to do with it at some point

 

its a bit of a hobsons choice as whatever i do is going to cost me money, i just cant get my head around what is the least worse thing to do

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Sell it as an MOT failure on eBay and be honest about the welding stuff. You'll be surprised what you get for it as people like them as donors for off-roaders. Then get yourself another motor. If you particularly want a cheap, reliable 4x4 I can thoroughly recommend a Nissan Terrano and you can pick a good solid one up for notalot of dough.

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Sell it and buy something like this. Surprising how many low mileage cars less than 10 years old you can get for under £1,000 if you dont mind boring or unfashionable.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201007352470842/sort/priceasc/price-to/1000/maximum-mileage/up_to_40000_miles/radius/1500/page/2/postcode/bn68qb/advert-type/featured-listing/dealer/280201/usedcars?logcode=flp

Edited by buctootim
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Sell it and buy something like this. Surprising how many low mileage cars less than 10 years old you can get for under £1,000 if you dont mind boring or unfashionable.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201007352470842/sort/priceasc/price-to/1000/maximum-mileage/up_to_40000_miles/radius/1500/page/2/postcode/bn68qb/advert-type/featured-listing/dealer/280201/usedcars?logcode=flp

 

An old Rover...what could possibly go wrong?

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An old Rover...what could possibly go wrong?

 

Not a lot to be honest.

 

I ran diesel Rovers throughout the 90's as company cars and I got through a few as I was doing hyper mileage (Between 50k and 100k every year). All of them did over 100k, in fact one 200 SDi I had did just under 200k, and I had no major problems with any of them.

 

They have Perkins diesel engines which are totally bomb-proof and the rest of the mechanicals were fine. I'd recommend one at the drop of a hat and despite popular myth parts are readily available and cheap.

 

You do need to watch the petrol ones though as they have a habit of munching head gaskets!

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got an old discovery 94 plate. 2.5 diesel. bought it last summer for £1500, just use it as a van mainly, or if im parking at the train station, taking the kids and their mates to thorpe park etc

 

just had its mot, and it failed on 3 pages of welding:( , plus a shock has gone

 

bloke at the garage reckons its about £1500 worth of work, another guy in the trade reckons i could get it for around £1k

 

dont really want to spend that kind of money, but i do need the 2nd car

 

the thing is, mechanically it is rock solid, really sound. i could flog it or scrap it, get another old banger and find that breaks down every 5 minutes

 

ive declared it off the road for now as the tax was due, and im not going to be using it much through the summer as im working away, but need to decide what to do with it at some point

 

its a bit of a hobsons choice as whatever i do is going to cost me money, i just cant get my head around what is the least worse thing to do

 

Unfortunately they are prone for rusting away (and falling apart generally!)

 

My suggestion would be to get rid as a vehicle of that age will only get worse and at the end of the day its not exactly the most fuel efficient of things!

 

Better off with a people carrier, Pug 806, Sharan, something like that for about 1k, can get the kids in and then take the seats out to use as a van.

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Not a lot to be honest.

 

I ran diesel Rovers throughout the 90's as company cars and I got through a few as I was doing hyper mileage (Between 50k and 100k every year). All of them did over 100k, in fact one 200 SDi I had did just under 200k, and I had no major problems with any of them.

 

They have Perkins diesel engines which are totally bomb-proof and the rest of the mechanicals were fine. I'd recommend one at the drop of a hat and despite popular myth parts are readily available and cheap.

 

You do need to watch the petrol ones though as they have a habit of munching head gaskets!

 

Spot on. I had one that did just that.

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sorry to put this on your topic but i cant make them myself.

About two weeks ago as I was driving, the engine diagnostics light came on in my car. This hasnt happened to me before cause ive not been driving long so I pulled over and got the AA out. They sorted the problem and said if it was still driveable just take it to a garage if it happens again and to show the paper as to what they had done when next in for a service. This morning it went on again and I seemed to have lost power but still driveable so took it into Citroen. They cant look at it until wednesday and I was basically just wondering if it is safe to drive until then or if it could just cause more problems? Ill be using it to drive to pompy for uni which is why im a bit concerned at having to use the motorway.

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sorry to put this on your topic but i cant make them myself.

About two weeks ago as I was driving, the engine diagnostics light came on in my car. This hasnt happened to me before cause ive not been driving long so I pulled over and got the AA out. They sorted the problem and said if it was still driveable just take it to a garage if it happens again and to show the paper as to what they had done when next in for a service. This morning it went on again and I seemed to have lost power but still driveable so took it into Citroen. They cant look at it until wednesday and I was basically just wondering if it is safe to drive until then or if it could just cause more problems? Ill be using it to drive to pompy for uni which is why im a bit concerned at having to use the motorway.

 

That depends ENTIRELY on what the problem is. What car? What fault code was it logging? What component is failing? You say no power, but is drivable. Could be a number of things ... sometimes not always obvious from the fault code.

 

My Vectra was logging a code for the Lambda Sensor. Got it changed and still had poor acceleration. The garage's answer was to keep changing other sensors or the coil pack ... which is when things start getting pricey. Did some research myself, ordered a MAF off eBay for £25 on the basis I spotted someone else with the same symptoms. Changed MAF myself and bam ... sorted :-) Saved myself £100s.

 

The point I'm making is you need to start digging into the problem and research the solution. The info is out there. But no one here can help with the vague info provided so far.

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http://www.bba-reman.com/forums/Topic93282-1-1.aspx

 

The above link may be useful, seems to be a similar problem. Looks like one of the following: Throttle body, electrical/wiring problem or ECU fault.

 

You may need to consider getting the throttle body actually changed rather than just cleaned and the wiring checked by an auto-electrician. Hope for your sake it isn't an ECU fault because they can be expensive (although ECU faults are actually quite rare).

 

I don't think you will do the car much harm doing the odd journey here and there as it is. However, be aware that it is probably not road worthy (i.e. it would fail an MOT) so if you were pulled you'd have to be ready explain yourself.

 

Sorry I can't be of more help - get it into a reputable/recommended local garage!

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