Your Bangernomics successes

colino

While it is a heat shield, don't think about just taking it off. Depending on the age of the car you can either replace the fixings, or if it is a little older, a few self tappers with penny washers straight into the floorpan. Not pretty but cheap and effective.

Stoke

It's the heat shield, easiest way I've found of fixing, remove the nut and bolt. Buy two big chunky M6 penny washers. Spray them black if you've got time, or just lube them in lithium grease if you haven't, remove the nut and fit the washer over the now large hole remaining.

These would do the trick, get 40mm OD, M6:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A2-Stainless-steel-penny-repair-mudguard-washers-m4-m5-m6-m8-m10-m12-All-sizes-/251537795020?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item3a90d227cc

4 for £1.99. Bargain.

Paradigm

My boy has just traded in his 1st car, a 02 Corsa 1.2 that he paid £750 for 2 years ago.

During that time he put 15000 miles on it & it never let him down.

The only repair costs were for a broken rear spring, a front ball joint & replacing a leaking fuel filter.

It was a bit tatty when he bought it but was just the job for a new driver & getting £400 for it isn't bad IMO.

System

Just thought I'd share my on going experience with my trusty 2002 Focus 1.6 Zetec.

Bought for £330 just over 6 months ago from a local family who had owned it since new.

It had covered 123k when I bought it and has a FSH and new tyres and came with both Keys.

It had 6 months MOT and the rules had just changed regarding TAX so had to buy that.

Sadly they did not keep the invoices from over the years but at the price it was worth a punt.

It's in OK condition - the inside is good, rear seats as new and spare tyre and tools never used. The outside has a small area of damage and a bit of poor paintwork but nothing to worry about.

It was due a service so did that myself with genuine parts.

The MOT was coming due soon so went in person to the garage that maintained it over the years and booked it in and asked if they kept any of the service records on file and they kindly printed off the history for the car.

So after going through all the paperwork I now have records of the cam belt being changed, new clutch, gearbox strip down, basically it went to the same garage for the majority of it's life. Total spent in the past 5 years was just shy of £3500!

There are a few gaps but the servicing was done at our local Ford dealer so will pop down there at some point.

MOT was carried out on Saturday and passed with an advisory for poor washer jets so all is good for another year.

AGDCFF

matty_yorks

Morning all, I was wondering if you could help,

I'm an expat who in the not too distant future I'm looking to head back to the UK for a visit, which will include a round trip through Europe.

While on my travels I'm liking the idea of buying a banger rather than renting (esp cos of the intl portion). Ideally a German diesel saloon/estate. Economy and reliability etc.

I'll be treating the purchase of the car as a sunk cost. Sure, if my old man can sell it once I'm gone, joy to the world, but if it dies then so be it.

Over the years I've seen the prices of cars in the UK plummet, and of course shows like TopGear (with the mandatory pinch of salt) show you can pick up cars for a pound etc etc.

My question is this: If you had 500 quid to spend and were looking for a bargain, aside from Autotrader where would you look?

Do newspapers still have their "Cars for sale" section?

Thanks in advance,

Matty_yorks

BeenThroughItAll

matty_yorks wrote: »

Morning all, I was wondering if you could help,

I'm an expat who in the not too distant future I'm looking to head back to the UK for a visit, which will include a round trip through Europe.

While on my travels I'm liking the idea of buying a banger rather than renting (esp cos of the intl portion). Ideally a German diesel saloon/estate. Economy and reliability etc.

I'll be treating the purchase of the car as a sunk cost. Sure, if my old man can sell it once I'm gone, joy to the world, but if it dies then so be it.

Over the years I've seen the prices of cars in the UK plummet, and of course shows like TopGear (with the mandatory pinch of salt) show you can pick up cars for a pound etc etc.

My question is this: If you had 500 quid to spend and were looking for a bargain, aside from Autotrader where would you look?

Do newspapers still have their "Cars for sale" section?

Thanks in advance,

Matty_yorks

eBay, Gumtree, local small ads in supermarkets. I've not seen anything of interest in a local paper for years.

[Deleted User]

^ My local weekly free newspaper still has a few private car ads in but they are usually for stuff like a 14 year old poverty spec Ka for £995. Totally not worth it.

rev_henry

matty_yorks wrote: »

Morning all, I was wondering if you could help,

I'm an expat who in the not too distant future I'm looking to head back to the UK for a visit, which will include a round trip through Europe.

While on my travels I'm liking the idea of buying a banger rather than renting (esp cos of the intl portion). Ideally a German diesel saloon/estate. Economy and reliability etc.

I'll be treating the purchase of the car as a sunk cost. Sure, if my old man can sell it once I'm gone, joy to the world, but if it dies then so be it.

Over the years I've seen the prices of cars in the UK plummet, and of course shows like TopGear (with the mandatory pinch of salt) show you can pick up cars for a pound etc etc.

My question is this: If you had 500 quid to spend and were looking for a bargain, aside from Autotrader where would you look?

Do newspapers still have their "Cars for sale" section?

Thanks in advance,

Matty_yorks

Forget diesel, get an old 5 series or something.

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

eBay, Gumtree, local small ads in supermarkets. I've not seen anything of interest in a local paper for years.

Also local facebook buy and sell groups. Although this seems to work better in small towns than big cities.

worried_jim

Its taken me a while but I have gone from this -



to



I first bought the painted cover for about £25 only to find that the actual wing mirror was broken so the cap wouldn't fit, so I had to buy a new mirror unit. Had it sitting around for a few days but only took 10 mins to swap over this morning.

I have also bought and replaced the aftermarket stereo for an original unit but this included a cd as it left the factory with a tape deck (in 2002!).

All I have to do now is a few things under the bonnet and I am good to go- forever!

Currently running at 30mpg which is way up on the 18mpg in the Saab so this car will pay for itself before the year is out.

[Deleted User]

I've had the wheel bearing, engine mount, and rear brakes MOT failures sorted on the Megane. Car runs sweet as a nut now, no more droning noise from the bearing, and the gear stick no longer wobbles from the engine mount.

Re-test booked for 4pm today. Fingers crossed it passes now.

EDIT: Passed