Your Bangernomics successes

andygb

colino wrote: »

I think you have to revisit the bent conrod/valve diagnosis. If it did suffer that it would be rough at all speeds and shake itself to destruction in no time at all.

It certainly wouldn't just be the odd misfire. I had a bad misfire with the old Mondeo a few years ago, it was shortly after I cleaned the engine bay;). Unknown to me, I had managed to get water down in the plastic rocker cover which then leads to the spark plugs. I had a really terrible misfire, until a garage kindly used a suction pump to remove the water, and then I had to buy a new set of plugs because all the misfiring had destroyed the old ones.
Now 40K miles later the engine is still running lovely and smooth, so no permanent damage.
I would always suspect electrical/intake manifold/maybe a CAT breaking up for a rough running car.

mattyprice4004

colino wrote: »

I think you have to revisit the bent conrod/valve diagnosis. If it did suffer that it would be rough at all speeds and shake itself to destruction in no time at all.

We've checked everything, compression is down on one cylinder by 30psi. Holds pressure fine too, so not rings.

Either that or a chunk is missing from a piston, but that'd do valve damage on the way out.

Oil in the bore didn't help the readings either.

It's common on these engines, as the rods aren't brittle and tend to kink ever so slightly when water logged. You never hear of one breaking a rod when sucking up water, just running crap after.
I know of a couple of others with the same result.

The last one was the same symptoms, tried literally everything so swapped the engine. When they whipped the head off to keep as a spare, one piston was sat about 1.5mm lower than the others.

catoutthebag

Farzackerly wrote: »

Used to be the Poles painstakingly polishing or the Latvians lavishing leathercloths, now it's Romanians religiously rubbing, or Bulgarians bullishly brightening.

or indians instrinsically irrigating?

catoutthebag

I would like to ask the professors of bangernomics for an objective opinion

Car got written off & I've saved a few hundred on top of the payout for another. There are couple 3dr I'm interested in but they don't come up too much (looking for petrol 1.6 for social & commuting - so please no 2009 diesel mondeo or estate suggestions :rotfl: )

Anyway, I've been looking for couple weeks and no success so far. I'm also picky so the 7/9 year car I'm after must be in good cond - old doesn't need to mean tatty

I'm now tempted to get an old zetec focus £700~ banger and shove the other 2.5k in a bank for 6-12 months or more til the banger gets scrapped or written off & hopefully save a little more.

Or save a little more now for a few months and use OH car for now so I can more easily open up my budget ?

Ps I would like the banger to be in excellent physical condition - possible ?

richard734

my personal fave car in this price range - 1.8 Astra Convertible. Running one myself now, good 53/03 plate running between £1800 and £3k
2.2 is not worth the extra mpg, and the 2.0 Turbo is a nutters car!
I get 35-36mpg all day long on a 12mile commute and 42-44 on a long motorway cruise.

Easy to work on, and no issues other than normal wear and tear (Tyres, brake pads etc)

AND......

The roof comes off for teh 3 weeks a year it is worth having a ragtop!

sabretoothtigger

If you know how to fix the car that is the main cost for an older car. That and actually seeing a suitable model is the deciding factors, the rest of it dont matter so much

worried_jim

richard734 wrote: »

my personal fave car in this price range - 1.8 Astra Convertible. Running one myself now, good 53/03 plate running between £1800 and £3k
2.2 is not worth the extra mpg, and the 2.0 Turbo is a nutters car!
I get 35-36mpg all day long on a 12mile commute and 42-44 on a long motorway cruise.

Easy to work on, and no issues other than normal wear and tear (Tyres, brake pads etc)

AND......

The roof comes off for teh 3 weeks a year it is worth having a ragtop!

I have got through £88.99 worth of petrol in 25 days in just 250 miles! Here is my Fuelly pasting-

Fuel-up Added!
Details
MPG: 17.1
L/100km: 16.5
km/L: 6.1
Miles: 250.0
Litres: 66.460
Price: £1.340/Litre
Total: £89.056
Double-Check.

Double-Check? About double shat meself when I had to pay! Admittingly I have been giving it the boot and spoiling the turbo but 17mpg! There is a guy in the U.S. who has just posted his fill up for a Ford Crown Vic 5.4 V8 and he got 18.6 mpg. Always got 27mpg in the Rover. It's a good job that I am saving £20 per month in cheaper insurance, that's going straight in the tank. I am going for a lie down now.

z3phyr04

Just found this thread. I decided to keep my cheap runaround and save rather than replace for anything else. I purchased a 2000 (X) Rover 25 1.6 with 55k back in August 2011 for the princely sum of £650 (sticker price was £1050 so a good haggle!).

I remember being warned harshly against it at the time because it was 'going to blow gaskets constantly' of which it has subsequently blown none. It hasn't caused me any major headaches at MOT time - rear brake pipes and a CV boot that was split replaced. I put 4 new tyres on it as the Kumhos that it had on never felt very grippy so the Hankooks have been the main expense (insurance and fuel aside).

Bad points on it: rear washer needs fixing (think it's a split in the cable), it drinks a bit more fuel than I would like (still managed to be strict with myself and keep to an average of 37.9 MPG) and tax is at the higher of the two older rates.

Not quite the disaster I was warned of.

Paradigm

worried_jim wrote: »

I have got through £88.99 worth of petrol in 25 days in just 250 miles! Here is my Fuelly pasting-

Fuel-up Added!
Details
MPG: 17.1
L/100km: 16.5
km/L: 6.1
Miles: 250.0
Litres: 66.460
Price: £1.340/Litre
Total: £89.056
Double-Check.

Double-Check? About double shat meself when I had to pay! Admittingly I have been giving it the boot and spoiling the turbo but 17mpg! There is a guy in the U.S. who has just posted his fill up for a Ford Crown Vic 5.4 V8 and he got 18.6 mpg. Always got 27mpg in the Rover. It's a good job that I am saving £20 per month in cheaper insurance, that's going straight in the tank. I am going for a lie down now.

just seen this :rotfl:

I probably should have warned you that they're not the most economical, especially if you give them some welly.

To be fair though you're getting around 180 bhp (when new) from an oldish design 2 litre engine (unless it's the HOT version= 220bhp)....and it's auto!
The smile on your face when you press the go pedal has to be paid for somewhere.

I can't get much more than 24mpg from mine around town even being gentle with it. 70mph on a m/way & I can get it up to around 34mpg... if I'm lucky If I thrash it 15mpg is easy

Mine is modded/mapped though so probably not a fair comparison.

worried_jim

Paradigm wrote: »

just seen this :rotfl:

I probably should have warned you that they're not the most economical, especially if you give them some welly.

To be fair though you're getting around 180 bhp (when new) from an oldish design 2 litre engine (unless it's the HOT version= 220bhp)....and it's auto!
The smile on your face when you press the go pedal has to be paid for somewhere.

I can't get much more than 24mpg from mine around town even being gentle with it. 70mph on a m/way & I can get it up to around 34mpg... if I'm lucky If I thrash it 15mpg is easy

Mine is modded/mapped though so probably not a fair comparison.

To be fair I was giving it a bootful at every opportunity and have calmed down on this tank, in fact I am driving miss daisy at present. I expect the mpg to be in the 20's next time I work it out. Still loving it though and I love overtaking other cars- just a nudge on the loud pedal and whoosh you are past them.