What have you done to your car today?

[Akagi]

Well he hasn't physically looked (if he had got to that point he may as well have fixed it! ), but he did say that it sounded like a bearing. As a mechanic he would have heard that noise many a time before I imagine.

It will break somewhen sure, but it isn't imminent. I went and looked at another Polo before I bought this one, and that one had completely shot bearings. You could hear them rattling away even in neutral. The same mechanic said that even that gearbox would have lasted a good few miles yet, but it has got to the point at which it would need a full gearbox refurb, and he advised that I walk away, so I did.

The noise I'm hearing now is just the start of the gearbox wearing out.

 

[shauncr91]

So he gave an imminent timescale on that?

Come on

Like Acme just said he hasn't dismantled the gearbox so how is he supposed to know a time frame?

He could always just disclose the fault and say that it's there and what it is, it could be good for 100 miles or 50,000 miles and at least the buyer knows what they are getting themselves in for.

 

[Akagi]

It won't be 100 miles. i'm confident that it will last a long time yet, but the issue is definitely beginning to emerge.

 

[rodenal]

Meh

 

[Fuzz]

Yes but you could also buy a car for less than £1k and it be fine, I had a £600 Clio for 2yrs and all that went wrong was the handbrake cable snapped.

I'm talking about the moral issues of selling a car with known potential for a catastrophic failure and not disclosing it to the seller for nothing other than wanting to make more money than you should be doing on that sale.

If that Ferrari was priced accordingly for the fault then it wouldn't be quite the same but to price it as if the car is fine and intentionally not disclose the fault just because the buyer doesn't ask is another story.

THIS...

I abhor people that sell broken cars or attempt to cover up the faults by way of removing bulbs and such like, simply to make a quick quid.
You are effectively robbing someone and I find it disgusting..

 

[Akagi]

I would probably have told them in the real life situation anyway. I'm not one for lying. I feel too guilty.

Honestly though, I think I might trade it in for convenience rather than selling privately. What do you recon a dealer would give me for a car with a market value of around £900~ if I present it to them clean and tidy? Half?

 

[Clarkey]

Finished up fitting the geomasters just now, been on it since 10.30 this morning, mission.

Still.

Before.

After (car is actually about 15mm lower now, need to raise it more)

Unfortunately it took 'kin ages and I couldn't make it to the alignment shop so had to string it, don't think it's the best job I ever did. Only drove it up the road and back to check for horrendous noises, seems good, will test it a bit further in a short while.

 

[AndyCr15]

I know nothing of cars, but when selling my last one I suspected there might be a fault developing with the clutch/gear box. The first person interested, I explained I had this feeling as they were a friend. I was selling it relatively cheap though (I felt) to take in to account something might go wrong in the next 12 months.

They passed, I put it on Gumtree. The next person that came was a trader, he knew cars, he tested a variety of things and said he thought the clutch was a bit high, it might need replacing, so he dropped £500 from the price for his offer.

I thought to myself, the next guy probably wouldn't test it as vigorously as this guy did and would likely offer me a better price, but I took the offer as I felt better the guy knew the issues.

I'm sure we're all tempted at times to take the money and let someone else have the problem. When it comes to the crunch, it's not that easily done if you have some morals.

 

[MatteH Oxford]

Gave the Mk7 Tranny a full service & a health check with my new Snap-on toy.

I looked at the injector codes, fuel pressure, various other parameters and did a pump learn & injector pilot learn to keep everything in optimum tune.

 

[Mirage]

2.5 hours cleaning her friday, 5 hours and 200 miles getting her even dirtier yesterday...

 

[p1RATE]

Yesterday i got a phone call from a friend telling me that he has put a deposit down on a car and i was to turn up today with the cash to buy it. We are due to go on a charity banger rally later this year and i was told he had found the car and but wouldn't tell me what it was, only that i would like it .

Turn up this morning to find its a jaguar X-Type 3.0 manual. I had an XJ before so i guess he thought it was up my street. Anyway it turned out to be in good condition and it has grown on my a lot throughout the day. I plan to insure it and give it a bit of a run for a month or two. I don't know much about them and i haven't had the urge to own one but im looking forward to mucking about with it.

 

[iaind]

Attempt #2 at de-crapifying the stereo in the skoda. Not as slick looking as an OE unit buy a huge amount better functionality wise



Apple CarPlay is awesome so I can get podcasts, spotify and Internet radio that way. There's a 120gb iPod in the top storage cubby along with an aux cable

Also fitted the storage box armrest, complete with USB port (for above CarPlay) in place of the lighter socket



So much better having an armrest!

 

[Dempsey22]

Took the car up to the garage to fit new headlight, intercooler, pre decat pipe and 2nd decat pipe. Removed the headlight from the package it came in and turns out to be the passenger side headlight as opposed to the drivers side. Annoyed me so much that I didn't bother with the rest. Wanted to do them all together as the front bumped needs to come off for the headlight alone. One of those days

 

[SlyReaper]

Refilled the oil, for the first time in my life. Noticed the engine making scraping noises around the 2500 rpm range. It didn't go away after a couple of days. Checked the oil and noticed it was waaaaay below minimum. Took the bus to Halfords to buy oil, because I didn't dare drive the car there.

I almost had to empty the 2 litre bottle before the oil level got close to the "max" marker on the dipstick.

 

[Akagi]

£800 to refurbish the box (about what the car is worth lol), £350 to fit a second hand box, £100 and some experience building to fit a second hand box myself, or I could just run it into the ground by which time I'll have plenty enough for a new car.

 

[rodenal]

"Fixed" the fiesta which was overfuelling on cold start today.

Lambdas looked to be switching fine and leads/coil fine so I took a punt on coolant sensor which seems to have done the job.

Spent longer fishing the spring locker for it back out from the top of the gearbox than I did changing the thing.

It's an amusingly ancient engine for a 2011 car, surprised if it's significantly different to the late 90's 1.4

 

[Akagi]

Drove to Basingstoke, the first journey where I babied the gearbox. I'll keep doing this from now on... It's relaxing but boring.

 

[Clearcut]

Acme, I agree with shauncr91 but I have to smile at how calm and relaxed you are under fire. It's a shame everyone doesn't handle online confrontation like that.

 

[Akagi]

I'm used to saying stupid things and coming under fire, instead of learning not to do it, I've learned to handle it instead. It's the Acme way!

But no, when I found out about the gearbox, my initial reaction was "quick, get rid of it before its noticeable!" but then Shauncr91 made me put myself in the shoes of the prospective buyer, and I don't think I could do that to someone. Even if they wouldn't know that I was aware of the issue.

 

[norm]

Refilled the oil, for the first time in my life. Noticed the engine making scraping noises around the 2500 rpm range. It didn't go away after a couple of days. Checked the oil and noticed it was waaaaay below minimum. Took the bus to Halfords to buy oil, because I didn't dare drive the car there.

I almost had to empty the 2 litre bottle before the oil level got close to the "max" marker on the dipstick.

You realise the engine is now damaged if the piston has been scraping against the cylinder? Loss of compression resulting in loss of power/higher fuel consumption.