The Car Thread

[Hohum]

Righto, got off the phone to the garage and there were a number of problems surrounding this leak:

• Oil filter was leaking due to damaged rubber seal, so have been very slowly losing engine oil over time
• Water pump for the coolant has failed and now leaks, and due to the location it has been mixing with the oil leaking from the filter thus resulting in that clear oily fluid I was seeing underneath the car

Top this off with another two issues - cambelt badly needs changing (suspected this, but planned to get done on service two weeks from now), auxiliary belt at the same time (also knew about this as it has stretched and squeaks like hell when cold), plus new coolant and engine oil, and I'm looking at around ?350 to get resolved. Bollocks. Think I shall dump that on my credit card for time being, don't fancy paying that in one go.

The joys of car ownership!

[Alastair]

Righto, got off the phone to the garage and there were a number of problems surrounding this leak:

• Oil filter was leaking due to damaged rubber seal, so have been very slowly losing engine oil over time
• Water pump for the coolant has failed and now leaks, and due to the location it has been mixing with the oil leaking from the filter thus resulting in that clear oily fluid I was seeing underneath the car

Top this off with another two issues - cambelt badly needs changing (suspected this, but planned to get done on service two weeks from now), auxiliary belt at the same time (also knew about this as it has stretched and squeaks like hell when cold), plus new coolant and engine oil, and I'm looking at around ?350 to get resolved. Bollocks. Think I shall dump that on my credit card for time being, don't fancy paying that in one go.

The joys of car ownership!

?350 for that lot's nothing. My cambelt is getting done on Friday and along with an MOT I'm at ?340. My fingers are crossed that nothings wrong with it.

[vanpeebles]

£350 is a bargain for all that. I recently changed all that on my own car plus some other bits, and it cost me double that for the parts alone.

[Gareth C]

Not to try and 'one-up' everyone but I put my Mini Cooper S in for service today...$980 for the basic service plus extra work on top... I think they are still trying to find calculator big enough to show the total

Car ownership here in Oz is expensive, very expensive.

EDIT:

Make that $2500 so far

[Alastair]

Suck it up G. You get the benefit of living in Australia.

[charlesr]

I spent £4k on my car this time 3 years ago. Since then have spent £5k on just keeping it on the road (tyres, servicing, clutch) plus a few essential upgrades (antirollbar, mats, flaps) etc.

Thankfully things like lambda sensor and maf sensor can be changed myself.

I have a scary spreadsheet.

[merf]

is it compare silly servicing bills time ?

I've got a BMW 645, had to replace all 4 tyres in last month and you can only fit Bridgestone's who make the special runflat tyres for it, no other options, rears are £280 each and fronts were around the £260 mark. These prices are the local indie place as BM want about £100 per tyre more.

New wiper blades the other day, £50, didn't even include fitting !

Cost of big electrical computery stuff scares me so much I pay £600pa for a the insurance to cover all those items.

[CMcK]

I'm showing this thread to my good lady. She thinks spending £300 on a major service and new brakes and tyres every couple of years is too expensive for the upkeep of the Boxster!
Although being a fussy get and getting the car sprayed to remove chips and scratches is slightly less reasonable.

[charlesr]

Has anyone tried the cheap aeroblades from wiperblades.co.uk?
Have them on the Legacy and they perform great and look great. And cost £6 each.
The bosch ones subaru recommend aren't as good and cost £20 each.
I'm just about to order some of their new range which are £3 each!

http://www.wiperblades.co.uk/wiper-blades-wiper-blades/?ID=23&Ref=sup

[Alastair]

I've not used those ones but do have some that were about 9 quid from a local motor factor (they even fitted them) and like you think they are great. The ones on the top of the page you linked to Charles with the big mount thing look exactly like mine.

[randombs]

I've spent about £700 on my BMW so far in the last few months, just on repairs.

Granted the car itself was a hand-me-down (more like a palm-off, considering the work involved in getting it roadworthy). It's currently being looked at by a mechanic recommended to me by a good friend, who came round to look at it and spotted huge cracks in the large air hoses going to the engine. He then found that the petrol level indicator was showing the wrong amount - 1/4 full - when in actual fact there's "barely enough fuel in there to light a cigarette"



The inital novelty of owning a beast car as my first instead of a little Polo or something is beginning to wear off. I may have to cut my losses and just flog it off if any more major work is involved. As it stands, I'm wary of driving anyone around in case it buggers up again. I've got AA membership, but I wouldn't want for passengers to have to sit around with me at the side of the road!

[Hohum]

Got it back today, at least it seems to run smoother with new oil/cambelt fitted. Annoying that over time I seem to have spent more money on fixing the damn thing than on actually driving it, mind (and I've still got to put it through MOT and re-tax it in the next week or two).

[spinpug666]

Well this months spend for the civic r turbo:

£1044 +vat for new steering rack
£350 (£1000 new) for exedy single plate clutch. 200miles on it as it's from mates ctr that he's stripping back to standard before selling
£600 for new front shocks. Never buying Tein again, 2 sets of fronts in 3 years. Both died from the same problem.

So that's roughly 2grand this month...

[NW2013]

Playing forza 3 has made me want an Evo 8/9, Impreza WRX STi or a Skyline R34. Shame about the running costs

[Hohum]

Prefer the older R32 styling myself, not so keen on the newer models. Would love to own one, but I'd imagine it's very hard to find a decent example that hasn't had modifications done to it (never been a fan of modified cars).