So as you may have guessed I LOVE my BKD skoda, she is just like my mum's old volvo bucket. My mum said for years she would drive the volvo until it fell apart or failed an MOT.....well when I was 21 it failed it's MOT for a lightbulb...so she got a Hyundai coupe (bad choice I know but she had to got from corners to bubbly).

 

My Skoda was bought for £1995, it had been left unloved on a Birmingham show courtyard for months (despite what the guy says its blatantly obvious from the pocket of water int he seat and the algae on the seals!

 

So most of my issues have been related to neglect SO I thought what a better way to introduce myself than to list all the work we've done to keep this old girl on the road;

1st hit was the MOT - 2 dangerously worn tyres and all the suspension joints £600

She's had a run in with a muntjack so she's had a new front bumper bracket £100

2 punctures (1 finding out that actually the spare is from a vw polo so not MINE arrggg defo not what you want to find out when you have just gone to pick up kido in the dark from beavers) £104

Spare tyre replacement £52

TURBO ---- this could have been make or break for this girl once the turbo's gone eek Luckily I'm marrying an aircraft engineer so he replaced this for me at a small cost £350

Caliper (had siezed during replacement of pad) and Brake pads for rear £150

Front brake disc's and pads (pitted due to sitting so long) - £110

Sensor (turned out un-needed) for the egr temp - £32

New front light bulb (fitted unnecessarily by the garage again) - £50

Windscreen wipers & oil, new filer etc full service (£50 ish)

4 glow plugs (yet to be installed on the first dry day we get) - £120

External offside mirror (clearly his right of way LOL) - £15

Anti-roll bar link (pair) - £60

 

She's still needing;

Replacement cigarette lighter socket for front

Aircon compressor

Door fix (as it's needing to be slammed hard to make sure it's not just partly shut)

A fix on the near side mirror not moving.

A screw for the drivers matt.

A few dents and bumps and scratches but she's a workhorse she's going to have a few historical learning to park/manouver inanimate objects and rear ending someone who decided to suddenly do an emergency brake for no good reason ......LOL 

 

But she's mine she's my first proper car and i love her to bits she's taken us to Ayre and across to Ballycastle and back again with no-aircon on the hottest day of the year and she only needs an anti-roll bar link!

You have already doubled the purchase price, dare I ask what year the vehicle is?

2005 though over 2 years you have to ask which is better to cut your losses and buy another car which will have as much likely wrong with it or continue to pay about 600 a year for maintenance of a car which is reliable and dependable that you can move home in and move trampolines, or wardrobes and yet still use it for your powered wheelchair and family shopping trips.

I sympathise with you, thats a serious amount of money to drop on a vehicle of that vintage and if you do sell you throw away what you have put into it, you need a crystal ball to know whether there will be future losses to cut.

 

I bought a minter 2006 Estate 18 months ago needing a repair for the MOT, what the seller was told by the garage (I saw the report later) would be a big job, "requires new engine block" but they misrepresented on the Ebay listing as "needs new engine mount", on inspection I knew it wasn't the mount & hoped that it would be a bracket and not the engine block, felt sick when I got home to see the report 😞

 

I had the final laugh because I had only paid £750 and the repair cost me £30 and 30 minutes, I have put some money into it since, less than a couple of hundred on things of my choosing that like springs, brake discs & pads but all of them would have continued to function reliably but not optimally.

 

In 18 months there have been no breakdowns or other expenditure so they can still be reliable at that age, it had 122K miles & I have done another 18K since.

 

Oh yes, I did replace the aircon compressor, £110ish.

 

Other than the bi-mass flywheel you have already done the big ticket mechanical items, if its reliable electronics wise and not throwing up warning lights at the drop of a hat (their weakness IMO) then I would say that you now have a good un.

The egr sensor was a wiring issue quickly resolved with a bit of wire tape around the one that was rubbing and short circuiting - was a shame to have to fix it tho as I concur with others you do get a much higher mpg with it being broken LOL

 

Other than that I think every now and then I have a bit of a ghost in my main headlight on the offside just suddenly stops working only done it twice but its a bit odd as that's the one the dodgy garage replaced with the £600 blackmail for being able to drive my car away from the mot. (I swear garages see a woman come and think she doesn't know any better lets rinse her).

 

But she's got 5 new tyres and tracking done and runs very nicely (touch wood she stays that way for a while longer) but I honestly couldn't be without her she's definately put most cars to shame at the traffic lights too LMAO!

 

My partners BMW head gasket went, then the replacement volvo just refused to work despite volvo telling us they replace the engine three times, and his bmw 3 series got rear ended and shortly after mot died as he went around a corner all the lights came up on the dash and the speedo stopped working, so he replaced it with a bmw 1 class soft top convetable and now shows it off in the local classic car rally. I however keep enjoying the fact that despite not buying the alloy upgrades yet my car still has as much oomph and bang for her buck and she's OLDER than his beamer! LOL This old bucket is still going good x 

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

Oh yes, I did replace the aircon compressor, £110ish.

 

 

Did you replace it yourself then?

Yes, Chinese one from Ebay.

 

plus the cost of a regas , I decided to invest and bought a manifold set, vacuum pump and a 13kg cylinder of R134a to become autonomous after being screwed around & lied too too many times by the aircon regas people here, cost a lot of money but less than having a new pump fitted by a garage pluse the regas and I am sorted now for the rest of my life.

 

Final straw was after fitting the new pump the local regas place told me it was knackered, leaking everywhere, not being French I have no problem challenging and asking someone to be specific, "where exactly is the leak" the reply was everywhere, inside, outside, primary circuit, secondary circuit, evaporator, bla bla bla...............................

 

= "I dont know and I'm not used to anyone challenging the rubbish that i spout" after testing it with my own kit (vacuum pump & guage set" you could clearly hear where the leak was, an O ring damaged by me on re-assembly, the so called knackered pump has worked perfectly for the last 18 months and the system still holds full pressure.

 

Unfortunately if you have to rely on garages there is a price to pay.

Edited 29 February, 20206 yr by J.R.

You know what I may just get a vacuum pump and gauge as the recon guy didn't charge me for the regas as it just came straight back out again and he said it honestly that he would charge just for the call out not the gas which was kind of him.