What to do with my car?? Help!!

bigjl

A bit harsh on the fords in the quote by the last poster, I have never heard of a camchain jumping, unless he is referring to the ford lump in the TX2 Blackcab, the dual mass flywheel issue is a problem in most modern diesels, remember that these vehicles tend to be used by compnaies and other high mileage situations.

As far as the OP situation goes, your car is a known quantity, you know how you have treated it, I would get the codes read by a main dealer, and go down the reconditioned route as mentioned above. Or you could try and get rid through the auction or Ebay. It comes down to how much money you have to spare, if you have the money then get it fixed and keep it for another year or so as an absolute minimum, as you need the to get a return on the money you have spent on the repairs.

You do above average miles so any car you have will lose money, they are depreciating assets anyway, the more miles you do the bigger the depreciation. Some may see spending money as throwing good money after bad, but if you replace it who knows if the new car will be any more reliable, if the car doesn't smoke or sound rough then try and trade it in, the trader might no notice the loss of performance, the trader will then have to fix it before resale or dispose throught he auction, where it is buyer beware anyway.

After reading the whole of the OPs post, you can't have much mechanical sympathy, you bought a car almost new and have subsequently destroyed it, how close a friend is the mechanic and was he a friend before he worked on your car? Is he a good mechanic or a bodger? These are all important things to remember. Also have you ever put petrol in by mistake, and just topped off with diesel instead of having it drained? Also what fuel do you use, a lot of problems are caused by crap diesel, for example I can tell the difference when my wife uses my Mondeo and puts in supermarket fuel, I always use BP or Esso. I have had very few problems with my own cars. Doing up to 80k miles a year with just oil and filter changes, including fuel and air filters. And everything else done as needed.

My post may seem harsh, but if you where to get a new car, where do you think it would be in 5 years time. My wife is pretty good at destroying cars aswell, she was hit in the side 2 weeks after buying her Clio, not her fault, but has since scuffed all the wheeltrims and then partially ripped off the rear bumper by not paying attention when reversing. She had three or four minor knocks in her old car aswell, but as it cost £450 at the auction I wasn't bothered, it lasted over three years anyway, and is now being used by a friends son to learn to drive in. Now she has a car worth £6000 every dint and scrape is painful to see.

A good idea for you might be to get a cheapy from the auction, run it into the ground then replace as needed, my wife had a Hyundai Accent 97P, ex motability, from the days when people looked after them, it was a horrible colour, burgandy, like so many other exmotability Accents of the time, but it ran and ran. And she did 50k miles in three years, the fuel consumption wasn't as good as your Fiesta but it didn't require any major work atall. And if it had needed any major work we would have scrapped it, to very little finacial cost.

tomstickland

It's Dieselbob's opinion, not mine.
Either way, I'd get new injectors for it and keep using it.

luluvmo

Thanks for all your replies, sounds like the reconditioned route might be the way, which was one of the options.

Yes, I have done a lot of miles in my car. When I got it it had 15K on the clock, but I used to work quite far away from home hence the high mileage. Luckily I have now changed jobs and now work 5 miles down the road. I was thinking about maybe putting on ebay, but after looking on there, people are selling very good examples of this car for very little money so I don't know if it would be worth it. Also, I'm not sure if there would be any come back, but I suppose as long as I accurately describe all the problems it would be ok.

Unfortunately, I have a lot of debts that I am trying to pay off and every penny is always accounted for hence having very little money to spare on these repairs. The mechanic I have been using is a friend of the OHs and has been very good in my opinion. He changed all the seals and the wiring and pipes that were damaged, air filter, oil filter, oil change. Then when I returned to the garage because of the sluggishness, he stripped out all the injectors, sent away to be tested (which cost £100 to the testing company) and put them back in for me when they came back. Total cost inc. testing was £450.

Thanks for the links I will check them out.

luluvmo

Bigjl I was thinking about maybe buying a cheapy car as you say. My OH has always done this. Bought them cheap run 'em till they die or won't pass MOT, then scrapped them. I didn't like this option before, as working quite far away and doing lots of motorway driving I wanted a car that was reliable. After the fiasco I had with my car before this (a fiat cinquequento!) which I spent a fortune on repairing because it had so many things wrong with and broke down at least once a week (no exaggeration!) I really just wanted a car that I could use to get to A-B without visiting the hard shoulder! But now I am working so close, a cheap little run around would be fine. At least if I did break down I could get a bus home! I have never put petrol in this car by mistake. And the scuffs on the front was the OHs driving not mine! The odd seats are because both the seat pulls (its 2 door) broke. The cable went in one which could not be reattached, and the handle snapped clean off in my hand on the other one. It wouldn't pass last years MOT because no one could get out of the back, so had to get new seats for the front, which subsequently don't match the back!

benham3160

luluvmo wrote: »

Bigjl I was thinking about maybe buying a cheapy car as you say. My OH has always done this. Bought them cheap run 'em till they die or won't pass MOT, then scrapped them. I didn't like this option before, as working quite far away and doing lots of motorway driving I wanted a car that was reliable. After the fiasco I had with my car before this (a fiat cinquequento!) which I spent a fortune on repairing because it had so many things wrong with and broke down at least once a week (no exaggeration!) I really just wanted a car that I could use to get to A-B without visiting the hard shoulder! But now I am working so close, a cheap little run around would be fine. At least if I did break down I could get a bus home! I have never put petrol in this car by mistake. And the scuffs on the front was the OHs driving not mine! The odd seats are because both the seat pulls (its 2 door) broke. The cable went in one which could not be reattached, and the handle snapped clean off in my hand on the other one. It wouldn't pass last years MOT because no one could get out of the back, so had to get new seats for the front, which subsequently don't match the back!

The seat handles snapping on these Fiestas is very common, however it's an easy and cheap fix, (cable is fairly well priced from Ford) so I think changing the seats was probably a little extreme.

Regards,
Andy

ENGINE_CENTRE

I have seen loads of fiestas with these problems, just buy a good set of used injectors chuck them in and off you go, you probably only have an issue with one injector, but its leaking so badly that it is affecting your fuel pressure, i.e. not enough pressure to make the injectors operate correctly at high speed. if one has gone it wont be long before another follows

regards peter

jd82

Ford engines are brilliant in general. My dads Fiesta is now on 88k, its needed work on bushes etc etc but engine wise in its 88k (mostly short city runs) the only work to the engine has been oil changes, filters and plugs. Even the fuel filter is the original and it still runs like new.

This Ford bashing is completly unfair. Btw I drive a FIAT .

vaio

luluvmo wrote: »

......The odd seats are because both the seat pulls (its 2 door) broke. The cable went in one which could not be reattached, and the handle snapped clean off in my hand on the other one. It wouldn't pass last years MOT because no one could get out of the back, so had to get new seats for the front, which subsequently don't match the back!

That's not an MOT fail, the only requirement is that the seat back locks in the upright position

http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_620.htm

benham3160

vaio wrote: »

That's not an MOT fail, the only requirement is that the seat back locks in the upright position

http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_620.htm

Explain how you'd inspect the seatbelts.......

Regards,
Andy

vaio

exactly the same way as you'd normally inspect them?