Car Repair Dilemma - to fix or not?

plumtreebabe

Hi,
I have that age old problem: my car will cost around £750 to replace turbo and gasket (parts, labour and VAT); however, due to the 'massive' amounts of thick black smoke and copious quantities of oil everywhere, it is not possible to know whether it needs a new cat as well. Coupled with that there is the possibility (being followed up) that it will also have to have the 'intercooler' changed if the turbo is changed and you can probably add at least another £600 to the bill.

The car is an 02 1.9 Volvo V40 turbo diesel with 180,000 on the clock. I paid £2,400 for it in August last year.

What do I do? Do I ditch it and run or hang on in there?

I've lost all my Christmassy feeling now

rev_henry

I'd say ditch it. Worth £150 scrap, maybe a little more on ebay. How many miles did you buy it at?

plumtreebabe

I bought it at around 170,000 I think.

blue_haddock

i'd say you paid WELL over the odds for it initially which doesnt help your scenario.

Personally i'd say with a bill of potentially well over £1000 for a high mileage car that isnt actually worth that much then scrap it and buy something else.

vaio

You could probably replace it for between £1500 & £2k so a repair at £750 (assuming the rest of the car is ok) is worth doing.

I’d hope that both the cat & intercooler would be ok with a wash out, I’d be confident the intercooler will be ok because it’s just an aluminium radiator so oil & even lumps of turbine blade aren’t going to damage it.

I’d be less sure about the CAT (although still hopeful) because of the chemical bits but I don’t think diesel cats on cars that old are part of the MOT test so does it really matter if it doesn’t work?

If you do go for a repair make sure they fit new oil feed pipes

Weird_Nev

What else needs doing? Was it absolutely mint, or are things like brakes, clutch, suspension on their way out?
Your car is probably worth about £1,500 which makes a £700 repair right on the edge of sensible expenditure IMO. Especially if the repair may get more expensive when you're comitted.
Are you anywhere near this 120k mile example for £999? http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201148432884532

£700 can get you a whole, working car. I'd be tempted to look for one of those.

SailorSam

The problem is always when you buy another you're buying someone elses problems.
You always here people say if the body is sound it often makes more sense to do the mechanical repairs.
It's a horrible choice you've got, see what the parts may cost in a scrappy and if they'll give you any guarantee

scheming_gypsy

spend the money on another one but keep yours for now. You'll have a car full of spares if you need them

TrickyWicky

I've a soft spot for volvos as they're usually incredibly reliable compared to other old wrecks of a similar age. Sounds like you've got a bit unlucky to be honest.

I've never had a volvo turbo engine but I've heard of a few people having failures however volvo engineering is usually far better than a lot of other brands. If it were me, I'd keep the car and get it repaired. It's better the devil you know than the devil you don't. As someone else has said if you buy another car you're buying fresh problems. Alternatively grab a non turbo volvo. They have less to go wrong on them and turbos in general are a bit frail.

Why not just buy the parts and do a DIY repair?

rodenal

Buy a recon turbo and a manual for the car and change it yourself, alternatively find someone to do it as a homer (gumtree, owners forum etc). An intercooler is a very simple change and not expensive to find a decent used one, tbh a turbo isn't difficult wither if you're reasonably competent. You could easily halve that initial repair cosf

pendulum

I was also going to say do it yourself, but I think a lot of us forget that most people wouldn't know where to start, and let's face it a turbo change isn't the easiest of jobs for a beginner. If I were you I'd probably get the minimum required fixed, then sell it straight away before anything has a chance to go wrong. If you sell for £1700 and the repairs were £700 you've got a grand from it. Better than scrapping it for £150.