Picked the Accord up today - few minor niggles

[iaind]

I never said you haven't helped, and advice from anyone is appreciated (when its relevant) but these discussions achieve little more than derailing threads badly.

In terms of savings against outgoings on repairs, I fully expect to 'break even' in the first month or 2, that's no big deal and it was expected. Before I did what I wanted to do with the money from the Saab, I put a few hundred to one side to sort out any potential problems. Effectively it means I've spent the 2k I wanted to spend on a car with enough left over to get it up to scratch, so savings and outgoings are semantics at this point really

 

[iaind]

Iain had a £400 bill looming on his Saab anyway...

Good point

He bought it from a dealer with warranty though

Or do you mean those Triangle tyres, also known as a 'AVOID' sticker on premium cars

I did explain that those were put on by the dealer so didn't put me off and they didn't put puff my buyer so no harm done.

 

[Alibaba99]

I have a sinking feeling the kwik twit posse have a rubbish machine.

I had my Jag done a few weeks ago at KF, i suppose it is a bit colder but not freezing and it took an hour.


Which did seem a long time to me.

The time taken to replace the aircon has nothing to do with the person operating the machine but the kit itself. It is a timed operation, as once the system has been emptied it then has to hold a vacuum for a set period of time before the recharging can commence.

 

[stulid]

I still reckon you got a leak, get some dye added next time, and when it stops working again, you can identify the area at fault.

 

[iaind]

I still reckon you got a leak, get some dye added next time, and when it stops working again, you can identify the area at fault.

More than likely. There is dye in there and I'm taking it back next week so he can see if there's anything obvious

 

[LEK-89]

When I had an air con issue on my Focus when I first got it I thought that it just needed re-gassing, it would work for the first for 5 minutes and then it would stop blowing icy cold air. If I turned it off and turned it on again 20 minutes later it would work again but for only another 5 minutes. I took it into a local garage just down the road where they charged £35 at the time (I was going to take it to Kwik Fit but they wanted £60 inc. an air con clean out, anyway after reading about their crap equipment on here I'm glad I didn't bother )

Anyway at this garage it took around 20 minutes to drain the system, check for leaks and re-charge it. When it was done and the mechanic jumped in my car to check it, it wouldn't blow icy cold air at all. He then looked under the bonnet again and the condenser disc wasn't spinning at all. He said that it's quite common for these to stop working on cars when the air con does not get used for some time - highly likely because the air con had probably been out of gas for a while anyway. He gave the disc a few sprays of something simular to WD40 and a few knocks and tugs with a hammer and it started spinning and the air con started to work too. This was around 6 weeks ago and it's been working perfectly ever since. Iand, if your problem still persists then have a look at this disc?

Liam

 

[iaind]

Presume you mean the magnetic clutch on the compressor? It engages fine (you can hear a tick and the revs drop a bit) and when it's cold it stays cold

 

[LEK-89]

Yep that's the one

Liam

 

[Joshy]

It's because he's doing it wrong

This!

A/C broken? Open a window

 

[End Creditz]

I put a few hundred to one side to sort out any potential problems. Effectively it means I've spent the 2k I wanted to spend on a car with enough left over to get it up to scratch, so savings and outgoings are semantics at this point really

This is what you should've been pointing out from the start to keep any nitpickers happy

I had my ac filled at krapfit and it took about 25mins all in as I sat watching the display on their machine so I didn't miss anything the fitter might've neglected to mention if I'd been elsewhere. Good thing really as the machine ran out of gas and gawd knows how long it would've taken the fitter to notice if I'd not been keeping an eye

Fingers crossed yours will have the cheapest of possible fixes

 

[mrk]

Hmm phoned up the dealer about clutch fluid and it appears brake = clutch fluid (should have Googled first I guess as it appears to be a fairly simple thing to do as well if you're happy with DIYing it) and I'm due a brake fluid change anyway so this means 2 birds one stone can be killed \m/.

 

[iaind]

Well it's the same stuff - DOT4

 

[Buckster]

I'm suprised you never noticed the clutch thing on the test drive

Could be contaminated clutch surface, perhaps you have a fluid leak somewhere?

Either way welcome to the world of older cars, where random repair bills become part of your monthly outgoings..

depends on the car my Civic 1.8 VTI - is still going very strong, and only costs me in oil changes, petrol and the odd new exhaust section, and a one off cambelt change.

its up to 145k miles now on original clutch

not bad for a warm hatch

 

[Relentless81]

depends on the car my Civic 1.8 VTI - is still going very strong, and only costs me in oil changes, petrol and the odd new exhaust section, and a one off cambelt change.

its up to 145k miles now on original clutch

not bad for a warm hatch

They are quite literally bomb proof many more miles in it yet if you keep servicing it

 

[iaind]

Well I remained hopeful that the AC was just a kwik fit bodge, right up until sunday when the magical mist appeared from the vents and it stopped working.

So I went back to the air con place as there was UV dye in it so he could check it over. Compressor was fine, condensor was fine, evaporator was fine. It's almost certainly one of the O rings on the evaporator - which makes sense too. It gets down to a low enough temperature and high enough pressure, the sudden release of gas warmsit up again so it seals again.

I said I'd pick up the O rings from honda and remove the glovebox for him, he's then going to repalce the O rings and regas the system for £20. Parts shouldnt be more than a tenner so fingers crossed that'll sort it.

Also had a collosal win at the weekend - managed to wire up the bose kit in the boot, so the amplified sub and tweeters are now working and sound superb, cost a few metres of speaker cable!

 

[snowdog]

So now you've got your more economical car but as its 10 years old you are, as expected, beginning to find that you are replacing fuel spend (and potentially a portion of the depreciation spend) with repair bill spend.

This is more due to the fact he hasn't picked a good example or has been unlucky at buying the car. Bar 1 car, we have always had cars older than 10 years, they are nowhere near money pits, most of them only had money spent on consumables but far less than the ''intervals'' tell you to (service/replace stuff). We spent FAR less on the cars than you'd have to for standard servicing: for someone to keep his warranty. Old cars do not always mean lots of unexpected big bills, that is nonsense... Yes for some cars it does, if you pick your car wisely it won't.

In my experience, paying for a service once in a while + garage do all the scheduled work on a car including consumables like brake pads is FAR more expensive than just replacing parts that failed/worn and only when they fail or are about to.