MOT Time *Gulp*

[mejinks]

Tomorrow night my baby goes in for her ticket on Wednesday. Expect me to start crying on Wednesday afternoon about paying £400 for shock absorbers and £150 for brake pads...

If she fails on lots I might end up going to the auctions and buying something cheaper... Like a V8 Landrover

I went to the auctions tonight actually and everything seemed so over priced it was mind blowing. All except the Mondeos which went the other end of the scale and were silly cheap.

[Zirax]

I hope those were uprated shocks for that kind of money!!!! :O

edit: Not surprised on the auctions front, really you want to go during the day when everyone is at work. Since the introduction of the "buy a motor at auction" type shows their popularity has gone through the roof :/

[mejinks]

Originally Posted by Zirax

I hope those were uprated shocks for that kind of money!!!! :O

Pattern parts from GSF comes to £229.90 for the replacements.

[kaiowas]

Originally Posted by mejinks

Pattern parts from GSF comes to £229.90 for the replacements.

Leon will sort you out with a whole fleet of cars for that kind of money.

[mejinks]

Originally Posted by kaiowas

Leon will sort you out with a whole fleet of cars for that kind of money.

Don't joke, I nearly bought a running Citroen xantia diesel for £100 tonight

EDIT: This guy paid £3200 for an X Reg audi with 198k miles on it. I would have bid maybe £1900, but when the bidding started at £1000 I wasn't so keen.

EDIT2: Also I have a secret weapon at this auction. My brother works there so I get all the low down on the cars. If there is something I like he makes sure he takes it out on a test drive first. I trust his judgement because you can ask him literally anything about modern cars and he knows the answer. Hes a walking geek when it comes to cars. He once told me that if I stripped down a Rover/Buik engne, the correct timing was 108 degrees, he then also told me that the timing on a Fiat Tempra should be 180 degrees out on a certain age of engine.

[mejinks]

Well, after a day of nervous appending doom, It failed!

Apparently the wheels rub, so the local indy I took it to said they will spray the rubbed area with underseal and stick it on some standard wheels and take it back for a retest when all the bits that need doing are done.

I also need:

Two front tyres (Mate in the trade can get these for a mere £120 each)
All round Brake pads (£35)
Front Shocks (rear are fine) (£150 ex)
Bushes front and rear (£11)
Control arm bushes
Rear suspension top mounts (£28)
Water pump (£35)
Viscous coupling
Lower steering column bearing (ive seen where this is and its a 4 hour job that requires a 4 poster)
Steering column bearing upper (£65)

Some of the above isn't an MOT failure, but needs doing sooner rather than later. The cost of it is the big downer. The prices are without labour which may add on another £400...

I now have to decide wether to set fire to it, scrap it or buy another car, but I really want to repair it..

Does anyone know if anyone buys body fat? I could afford it then

[Zirax]

Have you lowered it to get the wheels to rub? Oh, aftermarket wheels that are too big? Keep the standards on there until you can get it to a bodyshop to move out the arches.

In all honesty the list you have there is general wear and tear. Its a bugger that it all needs doing at once, but there is nothing overly surprising in that list. Only interesting one is the steering columm bearing, everything else is just parts getting old.

[leowyatt]

Do you really need new tyres? Can't you stick some part worn ones? That is what I have on mine at the minute, £10 a corner on the Polo and £20 on the larger car

[Zirax]

£10 a corner tyres On my old polo crummy avon's with side walls made of soft cheese used to scare me enough at £30 a corner

[mejinks]

lol, unfortunately, there are only two manufacturers that do 235/35/Z19 and Im sure I won't find part worns from them.

Its actually only rubbing on the inner wings and by rubbing I mean ever so slightly.

I had a chat to the indy and he said the bushes in the column are quite common, they only cost £20 to replace, but its a 4 hour job as the whole column has to come out.

Im confident that most of the work I could do myself and the water pump and brakes will be tackled this weekend. I've decided to keep the car because after driving a courtesy car, I couldn't go back to jumping up and down in a car willing the thing to go up a hill.

Lol, I used to have a golf and I could get the "premium" tyres for £20 back in the day.

One thing the indy said was that it would be just as cheap to do the fan delete mod, eliminating the viscous coupling all together and have an electrically driven fan as the viscous fan produces a parasitic lag of around 5 hp.