Advice please! Car engine blown up!!!

Ems!

ArsenalFC wrote:

If its an oil leak then the engine is gone for sure.

The other poster suggest putting an ad on ebay with a reserve of £1000, not £2000. £1500 reserve is a good try because you are going by the lowest price guide on your car at £3000. Garage or a mechanic can get a recondition engine fix for cheaper than £1500.

Yeah, thought engine was definbately gone, just had a little bit of hope there though with wig saying it was the timing belt(whatever that is!)
Oh, I thought GG meant car value minus £1000 = £3k-£1k = £2k, but like i say , i thought that was optimistic! I might try it at reserve of £1300, but have just searched for non runners on ebay and the prices were v low so i don't think i have much hope! I think i will try to get a quote for getting it fixed too, just so i know.

Fran

Ems! wrote:

When i say car park, its not like a big car park in a town. Its a small piece of land with room for about 10 cars, where locals park, and I really don't think it would get vandalised if we left it there.

It will just get taken! I had a van that had a gearbox that needed replacing and was undriveable - the garage came & took it, parked it on the road next to the garage and it was stolen! I had the insurance co. pay me a visit because it obviously looked a bit suspicious that my broken van had gone. If your car does get taken/vandalised then surely your insurance would be invalid anyway so you would have lost it all? Get rid as suggested or replace the engine then sell.

vansboy

Do a Google search for used Focus engines - you'll register your details on sites like Find a Part, then you'll have dozens of breakers ringing you in minutes with offers of engines.

They'll be £4 - 700 ish - then your local garage should fit for MAXIMUM £500.

You'll only get 3month, maybe 6month warranty on the engine (won't cover fitting costs) so don't be over impressed with this part of the deal. Usually you'll not come unstuck.

This is your most cost effective route. Certainly DON'T go for a new/reconditioned engine, it's not worth it , especially if you're selling the car.

You'll need to maintain tax/insurance ANYWHERE other than on private land.

VB

Ems!

Thanks everyone (where is that damn thanks button!!)

tomstickland

An engine swap with one from a crashed car would probably be the cheapest way. Should take a day or so to swap the engines over, maybe costing £500-600 on the engine and similar on the swap. So £1500 isn't too bad. Then sell the car on.
Otherwise sell it to a breaker, but you're not going to get anything like as much money for it.

Wig

Have you phoned round the breakers to ask if they have an engine? If you find one shouldn't cost more than 600 quid, there will be little guarantee though but if you find one in a car you might be able to hear it running.

Then if you have a trailer and take the engine and car to a backstreet garage the engine swap should cost no more than 150 (at least that's what I am used to paying....actually I pay 100 so I put an extra 50 on for good measure)

Or you can get reconditioned engines in exchange & mart cost 1000 - 1,500 and they usually fit the engine within the price, so you tow your car to them. They will also give you a reasonable guarantee.

The piece of land........... if it is private land, you might get away with it at least for the short term.

Fran

Surely a five year old engine shouldn't blow up? Did you get it from new? I would go back to where you got it, you could go to the small claims court or follow it up with Trading Standards if you only bought it recently.

jackieb

It might depend if it was due a timing belt change or something.

Ems!

Fran wrote:

Surely a five year old engine shouldn't blow up? Did you get it from new? I would go back to where you got it, you could go to the small claims court or follow it up with Trading Standards if you only bought it recently.

We got it when it was about 2 years old, 3 years ago. What I thought is that we've been told its an oil leak that probably caused it, now we didn't know we had the leak, but as we had just done 150 motorway miles before it blew up, maybe it just started leaking then, thouugh why oil light didn't work i don't know - we even had oil with us in the car! I reckon we were just probably unlucky. I wouldn't think we could have any sort of claim against any1, 3 years after we bought it?

waterbaby

My dad was quoted £1600 for a new engine by the main dealer, £800 by the independent garage and £200 by the 'bloke with a garage down a back alley' (his words!). His was a 1.6, it wasn't a ford though.

I can't offer any personal knowledge though. Other than to reiterate that if you have no private land to park it on, you have to tax it not SORN it. And that means you have to insure it.