How do you know when to give up and just scrap the car?

[luke_a]

Car: Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI Estate (2005)

Mileage: 171,000 miles

I've owned the car for nearly 4 years now, I bought it for £3995 in 2008 and it had 116,000 miles on it. It's been reliable up until recently, but the past 6 months have been very expensive.

I had a full service and MOT in December. All was fine.

Then in February the Turbo failed (on the exhaust side). This resulted in having to hire a car for several days, and having to replace the turbo and catalytic converter, which set me back around £1400.

Then 2 weeks ago the "Control system for exhaust" light came on, though it did not go into limp home mode, and was seemingly fine, I took it to a garage. They diagnosed it as the seal had failed on the intercooler pipe from the intercooler to flap motor housing, but they couldn't get the part and told me to go to the main dealer. They said I could drive it home, but I barely got 1 mile down the road and the car was spluttering and kangeroo-ing all over the place, so I pulled over and called the breakdown recovery chaps.

A nice chap turned up, he said this happens all the time on VAG cars. Straight away he secured the pipe with lots of cable ties, and followed me home at 50mph. I then took it to the dealer the next day, and ended up with a bill for nearly £400.

Then yesterday the "Glow plug system" warning light started flashing, and I heard a bong, though again, no problem with the car, and no limp home mode. No problems starting when I went to drive home. Upon researching it, it could be an issue with the brake pedal switch, or with brake lights not working or staying on, but it isn't that, and I had the switch replaced about 18 months ago.

My car is due a full service and cambelt change at 180,000 miles, which is soon as I do 400-500 miles a week. So that'll cost me anywhere between £500 and £800.

What would you do? Keep spending money to keep it on the road, or give up?

I've been keeping my fingers crossed that the worst is behind me now, and it could well give me several more years without problems, but I'm starting to lose faith.

The problem is my car isn't worth anything... so it doesn't seem worth it. webuyanycar would give me ~£1000. I can't afford to buy another car, apart from a really cheap one out of the local paper, so it will be unreliable and cost me a fortune to run.

[mannyo]

if you cant afford to buy another reasonable car then its most likely a case of "better the devil you know". The glow plug light could be something dead simple, don't discount the brake light switch just because it was replaced 18 months ago. You have spent a lot of money replacing the parts I would expect to see failing at high mileage, get the glow plug sorted and the car should be fine for many more thousand miles.

1K will not buy you a lot of car, and chances are you will end up with even more trouble given the mileage you do.

First port of call, get the car scanned by VCDS to see why the glow plug light it is on, since the car is running it must be something simple.

[Davidsr20]

When u have spent so much on it I'd keep it going at this stage.

[Raf_]

Find out what's wrong and stop taking it to the main dealers, find out if there's a vag specialist near by and take it there

Sent from my GT-I9100. Not a Crapple!

[andyoctavia]

I had a cambelt/water pump change done for £325 a couple of months ago, and once done, it is years before you need one done again. You could do most of the servicing yourself to save money. I know it is frustrating, but in order to cut costs, people have to find mechanics/garages they trust and then just keep their fingers crossed.

[TsvRS]

In my case I decided it was time when I noticed my daughter was ducking her head down so her friends couldn't see her in the old banger.

[Stormchaser]

I would stick with it if I was you. It's doing well for 171K.

Obviously at this mileage certain things will show signs of wear and need replacing. Turbo has done well at that mileage. I would want my money's worth out of it now considering how much you have spent. Getting rid of it won't solve anything because a cheap car will give you a whole lot more trouble and bigger expense. I would get it scanned for the glow plug light and sort it out I'm sure you will get thousands more miles out of it as already stated.

Good luck. Stick with it.

[FriendlyFire]

As others have said, stop taking it to main dealers. I had an intercooler seal fail at the throtle body (over enthusiastic use of break cleaner when i had the pipe out to check the EGR valve - so my fault) and I replaced it for less than a fiver.

It strikes me you could change the oil yourself and forget about the cambelt change - that'll save you 500 -700 notes right there.

When the engine goes bang, buy a Freedom membership here and sell the bits (turbo, cat, alternator, Ac pump, electric window motors, etc, etc) and save even more. Wait till winter and sell the wheels for winter tyres.

Chances are the car will be fine, just don't invest any more in it - it'll thank you for it

[P&N]

This a problem with cars these days, so many bits last a lot longer so the bills get compressed in later life(mileage or age).

If these are the only costs in 4 years/55k, over regular maintanence you get will all cars, £500-£600py is cheap motoring, depreciation will be more on anything newer/lower mileage. never mind the risks of an unknown.

With 20k-25k a year any investment say £500 is 2p-2.5p/mile for the year recovery.

Agree get a cheaper place to get it mended and maybe even start to look at second hand bits for some repairs allthough the savings are minimal on some bits where the labour is the killer.

[cheezemonkhai]

Do the cambelt at a non dealer and do the water pump and coolant at the same time.

Do the oil changes and filters yourself and save a bomb.

Edited 28 May, 2012 by cheezemonkhai

[luke_a]

Took it to an independent VAG garage. Seem like a nice enough bunch. Wanted £45 for a diagnostic, which they don't charge you if you get them to fix the problem (if there is one).

The warning light turned off on the way to the garage, but I still thought I should get it checked out. It needs a new brake light switch, and 3 of the 4 glow plugs are knackered, so have been advised to replace all 4 at the same time.

£190 for 4 glow plugs and a brake light switch doesn't seem too bad.

It strikes me you could change the oil yourself and forget about the cambelt change - that'll save you 500 -700 notes right there.

I'd rather not risk it snapping and destroying the engine considering the money I have spent on it recently.

I'll get a quote from this indy garage for doing it, should hopefully be less than the £800 the dealer charged me when I last had it done with a full service.

[FUBAR]

at least you know there are a lot of new parts eventually it will be a brand new car if you keep going

[andyoctavia]

Took it to an independent VAG garage. Seem like a nice enough bunch. Wanted £45 for a diagnostic, which they don't charge you if you get them to fix the problem (if there is one).

The warning light turned off on the way to the garage, but I still thought I should get it checked out. It needs a new brake light switch, and 3 of the 4 glow plugs are knackered, so have been advised to replace all 4 at the same time.

£190 for 4 glow plugs and a brake light switch doesn't seem too bad.

I'd rather not risk it snapping and destroying the engine considering the money I have spent on it recently.

I'll get a quote from this indy garage for doing it, should hopefully be less than the £800 the dealer charged me when I last had it done with a full service.

As I said before, I have the 1.9 TDi PD engine, and the cambelt/water pump/new coolant cost £325 all in from an independent ex VAG mechanic.

[Naybothemighty]

£190 for 4 glow plugs and a brake light switch doesn't seem too bad.

=O That's how much they charged you for that?

I decided to grow some balls and do the glow plugs and brake light switch myself on my Mk.1 Fabia and it cost me £51 AND i'm a complete novice when it comes to working on cars!

£43 for a set of plugs, £8 for the brake light switch.

Sure it took me an hour and a half but, it saved a hell of a lot of money!

You should never be afraid to have a go and do it yourself with things like that, there's not a lot of damage you can do and you stand to save a hell of a lot of money!!

Edited 28 May, 2012 by Naybothemighty

[P&N]

http://www.amazon.co...S/dp/B005EGF3CA

ok might not be the exact ones but probably about the right price £40ish

how hard are they to fit?

[g_tee]

Cambelt change shouldnt be any more than £350. I paid that at a main dealer.

[luke_a]

All well and good telling me to have a go myself, but not a lot I can do without spending £300 on a VAG-COM surely.

God only knows if you can get hold of part lists and diagrams for the car, or where I would get parts from, or how long it would take. Christ if a garage couldn't even get the parts they needed to replace my intercooler pipe, after spending a day trying to figure out what the sodding part numbers were, I'll be buggered if I can.

I got a quote on cambelt replacement. Was ~£290, with water pump, iirc. He also said it doesn't need doing at 60,000 miles, its 80,000 miles.

Edited 28 May, 2012 by luke_a

[RainbowFire]

All well and good telling me to have a go myself, but not a lot I can do without spending £300 on a VAG-COM surely.

Am sure there's a friendly Briskodian not far from you that would do the job for some beer tokens. Or you can get an diagnostic unit fairly cheaply. VAG-COM/VCDS really comes into it's own if you want to change stuff on the car.

VCDS owners list: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/74720-list-of-vag-com-diagnostic-system-vcds-owners/

(my friendly does it for Guiness :) )

God only knows if you can get hold of part lists and diagrams for the car, or where I would get parts from, or how long it would take. Christ if a garage couldn't even get the parts they needed to replace my intercooler pipe, after spending a day trying to figure out what the sodding part numbers were, I'll be buggered if I can.

You're among friends.....just ask, and see what the community comes up with. There are some very knowledgeable people on here. Also the Haynes for the MK2 is available now....it's a start. (£20ish)

I got a quote on cambelt replacement. Was ~£290, with water pump, iirc. He also said it doesn't need doing at 60,000 miles, its 80,000 miles.

Good price. Local dealer wanted to charge £400 for mine, indy £310. If it's 80,0000, did it get a new belt at 160,000? If it was 60,000, did it get done at 120,000?

[luke_a]

Thanks for the reply.

Good price. Local dealer wanted to charge £400 for mine, indy £310. If it's 80,0000, did it get a new belt at 160,000? If it was 60,000, did it get done at 120,000?

The car used to be owned by a lease company, so I can only assume it was a company car given the high mileage. They bought it new, and sold it to a independent used car dealer after 3 years. (Not quite sure why they spent £20,000 on a new car with nearly all the options, to sell it for £3000/3500 3 years later?)

The lease company serviced it regularly, there wasn't a Skoda service log, instead there were invoices for all the servicing done, but none of them listed the cambelt.

I bought the car with 116,000 miles on it, no doubt with the original cambelt, so the first thing I did was get a full service done and get the cambelt and water pump replaced.

Edited 28 May, 2012 by luke_a

[Stormchaser]

£190 for 4 glow plugs and brake light switch obviously with fitting charge. That is very expensive and they are all an easy job to do for the DIY minded and as stated the parts are cheap.

[hertsnminds]

You just have to sit down and do the maths to see what works best for you. If you consider you could have a brand new car for about £2,300 deposit and monthly payments around £130 that will not need an MOT for 3 years. Probably be a lower tax band and more fuel efficient than your current car, and will have 3 years breakdown cover and warranty.

So total cost to own a new car over 3 years £2,300 + 36 x £130 = £6,980 / 36 = £193.88 / month

Your current car has cost £3.995 + £1,400 + £400 + £120 (4 * £30 MOT) = £5,915 / 48 = £123.23 / month

The above does not factor in costs to service both cars or difference in tax, insurance and fuel cost which you would assume to be lower for the new car.

[jrw]

I suggest you get a new indy garage. They are taking you for a ride.

For starters, the cat if it was filled with oil from the turbo could have simply been removed and a bypass pipe put in its place (diesels aren't MOT'd on emissions). Secondly if it is the intercooler pipe i am thinking about they could have simply cable tied it up until the new part arrived (around £60-£70) and fitted it in less than an hour (ie £100).

I know you are in warwickshire so might be worth a post to see if anyone can recommend somewhere nearby for you. I can only recommend Midland VW in Cannock, but i am sure there are some VAG specialists near to you.