Old car buying and servicing advise

[Colbaker]

Hi all,

I have 1000 pounds to get a car, not sure what it is yet but am aware for that price looking at high mileage, I was wondering if anyone firstly had any tips on when test driving/looking over an old car what set of things to look for. I.e would there be a certain feel to the gear changes that would indicate imminent gearbox failure?

Secondly when I do end up buying this car what are the most important things to get sorted on it? I.e should I get a full service? Maybe change cambelt?

What's you thoughts?

 

[GeX]

What kind of cars are you looking at?

As a generic thing.. I guess look out for knocking suspension, pulling to one side. Check the clutch biting point, if it's really high up then that can be a sign the clutch is at the end of it's adjustment on it's last legs.

 

[rodenal]

It's probably best to take somebody who knows at least a little about cars and has bought a few before with you, if you know someone that is.

Some basic checks to do are:

Touch the bonnet of the car and make sure it's not warm (unless the guy has just got home from work) - a cold start issue is easy to hide by taking the car out for ten minutes before hand

check the oil level before you start the car, if the owner claims it's been serviced a week ago and the oil is horrible and black he's lying

Check all other fluid levels - anybody selling a decent car will make sure they are all at the required level.

Undo the oil cap, check underneath for a thick white mayo type substance, a little may just be an indicator that the car has done short journeys, especially just coming out of winter time. A thick coating hints at head gasket failure.

Check the block itself, is it clean enough without dried in oil/coolant stains?

Check the coolant hoses for white or green stains too - this indicates a leak or previous leak

Open the expansion tank and look at the coolant, make sure it looks relatively clean i.e no oily deposits and it shouldn't look in any way brown / thick

Lean on each corner of the car individually, check the side just levels itself off properly - if it bounces up and down the shock is buggered.

Turn the front wheels, if you hear any sort of clunking/banging noise and have a look at the bottom of each spring, where it seats - you should be able to see the last coil and it'll have a clean finish, if it looks sheared it is. Springs are not expensive to sort, but you should do the front two or back two at a time

Start the car, let it idle for a few minutes and have a listen to it, a petrol motor shouldn't sound in any way rough - if it's a diesel you'll have a harder time listening for anything that doesn't sound right.

Take a drive, everythign should still be smooth, no excessively high biting point, no overly heavy clutch (depending on the car), gearchange may be a bit sticky when cold, should free up once you've been on the move for a bit. A slightly notchy gearchange isn't a worry and on most older cars can be adjusted, it shouldn't crunch into gears under any circumstances though


Park up on a slight incline, put the car into 4th and try to pull away, if the revs rise and you don't go anywhere the clutch is going - or if the car manages to pull away this is an early sign of clutch problems too. You can also stick the car into 4th at say 30mph and accelerate hard to 60/70, it should pull evenly, no revs rising without speed rising.

If the car knocks over bumps in the road it usually means suspension components, can be arb bushes, droplinks etc - not really expensive to sort in most cars. If coupled with this it feels a bit like you're going sailing when cornering it's most likely the arb bushes

Hesitation when accelerating can point to MAF/HT lead / Coilpack or other sensor issues. A bit of common sense coupled with most obd code readers can pinpoint these reasonably well.

Check the abs light flashes when the key is turned, and make sure it doesn't stay on - probably wont be an issue, usually just a wheel speed sensor but i'd be asking why the seller didn't sort this already given they're so cheap.

Again check the engine management light flashes at start up then stays off. If it's on throughout the drive you'll need a code reader to check what the issue is - normally either the cat or lambda sensors will cause the light to flash but no appreciable change in drive.

When the car is warm, check the heating works and make sure it varies between hot and cold when asked.

Make sure the various wearing bits of the car match up with its claimed mileage - if it says its on 50k but has a smooth steering wheel and worn through bolsters then it's lying. Not an issue for a car with 150k to have these, but I'd be happier knowing nothing was being hidden from me

Can't really think of much esle off the top of my head, hope this helps a bit.

 

[Steveocee]

Its all relevant to your view of the car.
I'm starting to look at a 2nd run about and I am finding some of what I consider gems.

For £1k you're not getting a new car, so you have to accept that for a start.
Then, it will be older so don't have any mad moments and buy anything exotic or extinct as parts will be a nightmare to get or very expensive.

I'm lucky i've had 3 of my particular choice before so am fairly adept at stripping them so can fix fairly easily.

 

[Scania]

check the oil level before you start the car, if the owner claims it's been serviced a week ago and the oil is horrible and black he's lying

Unless its a Diesel, the oil in these will go black very quickly, this is quite normal in this instance.

 

[Colbaker]

What kind of cars are you looking at?

As a generic thing.. I guess look out for knocking suspension, pulling to one side. Check the clutch biting point, if it's really high up then that can be a sign the clutch is at the end of it's adjustment on it's last legs.

I am looking at maybe an old fiesta, looking at both diesel and petrol, I'm not sure what to get engine wise, on a day to day basis I do small runs of up to 6 miles a time, maybe once a month I do a London run of 100 to 250 miles on motorway.

There seems to be many low milleage rovers for sale, what are your thoughts on rovers?

 

[rodenal]

Nobody wants them, so it has to be very, very cheap to even be worth considering - I'm talking £600 for a 2004 car type cheap.

There isn't really a lot wrong with the likes of a 45, it's an old fashioned design and looks its age inside but they drive pretty well and are comfortable to boot, i've never been a fan of the smaller one it's just rubbish to drive (imo) but the 75 is a nice enough big motor.

The head gasket is known to fail quite regularly (not every month, you're talking every couple of years) on any car with a K series engine. There was a redesigned gasket that seems to at least slow down the failure rate if not cure it completely. If you could get a car that's had the new gasket and been installed right then it's jsut a case of checking the coolant regularly as it's a poor design and doesn't hold much - hence cooking itself lots.

If you decide to buy one you'll pretty much need to resign yourself to never making any money back on the car, they are very, very hard to shift hence why there are (usually) hardly any for sale by trade.

With regards to the fiesta if you can pick up a 1.25 that'd be a good little car for the majority of your trips, don't expect to be blasting along the motorway but you'll know that anyway. The 1.3 is reasonable enough and is usually a good bit cheaper

 

[Colbaker]

Now looking at diesel focus's, I like the all important higher fuel economy. What are your guys thoughts on them?

 

[flat-6]

Now looking at diesel focus's, I like the all important higher fuel economy. What are your guys thoughts on them?

You'll struggle to buy a decent one for a grand. TDDI ones are rank, TDCIs better, but complex diesel = potential for big bills.

If you want a cheap-to-run car buy a 1.8 Petrol Mk3 Mondeo. The complexity of modern diesels combined with the price of fuel vs petrol means you have to be doing LOTS of miles in a modern diesel car to make it worthwhile.

 

[Imy]

Focus 1.6 petrol.

At a guess it should be nicer on motorways than a Fiesta and still good for town driving.

 

[Dogbreath]

The head gasket is known to fail quite regularly (not every month, you're talking every couple of years) on any car with a K series engine.

Rubbish. They are likely to fail at some point on the original elastomer gasket, and any repairs using the original elastomer gasket but a correctly repaired engine using the modified elastomer gasket or the metal shim gasket should be not failing every couple of years.

The car that suffer repeat failures usually do so because an ignorant monkey re-assembled the engine.

 

[rodenal]

Afraid not, most cars on the original gasket simply go again in the same kind of timeframe as the original. Usually through someone not noticing a coolant problem, but they're weak regardless. If you didn't selectively quote my post you would see what I wrote about it being repaired correctly in any case.

Regardless, you'd like to hope most cars have the new gasket by now

 

[Colbaker]

Thanks for all the help lads.

ended up getting a W reg vauxhall Zaffira 1.6 comfort, 55000 miles on the clock, 1 lady owner, full service history of which each service carried out yearly, 2 cam belt changes the last of which was 18000 miles ago, 1 years Mot of which only advisory was marked rear number plate, immaculate inside and out for £1700.

Ideal for school runs with my 2 children and also handy for long distances, I did all the checks you guys said and all was fine, slightly high biting point but seems to find gears comfortably, very clean engine with a new battery.

Thanks for the help I just hope this car is less repair costly than my stupid Peugeot 307 which I now have to get rid of.

 

[red eye]

I am looking at maybe an old fiesta, looking at both diesel and petrol, I'm not sure what to get engine wise, on a day to day basis I do small runs of up to 6 miles a time, maybe once a month I do a London run of 100 to 250 miles on motorway.

There seems to be many low milleage rovers for sale, what are your thoughts on rovers?

stay away form 8v endur engines unless you have a decent mechanic. they like to brake spark plugs