Advice, opinions, help needed!

Glitterari

Right guys - need your thoughts, opinions, advice on this!


Basically - I have a x reg corsa. Last night, I pulled over and turned off engine to make a phone call cos i was lost. Finish phone call car won't start.

Left it overnight, still not starting this morning. Call recovery people - they tow me to local garage, who have a look at it.

Turns out my timing chain has broken (I don't have a cam belt, have timing chain instead). Apparently this means that my valves have been damaged and so have some rods too - this means i need a new engine.

At this garage, which isn't a vauxhall garage, this will cost over £2k, for engine and fitting, etc.

Now, I'm a student...but i do have the money stashed in an isa from a career dev loan.

But the car is only worth about £2.5k according to aa. And only yesterday I paid out around £200 for a new exhaust cos my old one fell off!

So what should I do? Do I pay and get it fixed? or


do i see if i can sell it to someone who maybe fixes engines and sells cars on? how much could i get from this?


I'm loathe to just scrap it cos it's a decent car otherwise

This is likely to cost me either way - either getting it repaired or selling it - I live in Norwich and the car broke down in London on the way to my mum's in portsmouth. So it's likely to need to towing to norwich or portsmouth.

So - just give it to me straight and tell me what you'd do?

rizla01

no-one can state categoricaly that the valves & pushrods are damaged.

In all probability they aren't and you may be able to get away with new timiing chain.

Take it to a small garage and let them look at it. Phone around first and ask a couple of repair shops what would be the cost of replacement timing chain fitted.

Chances are the bill will be no more than £100.00 tops.

Even bent valves can be replaced. Total would be a bill for about £300.00 I would guess.

recon Engine would be a LOT cheaper.

If you have a freindly local garage ask their advice and don't listen to a garage that only want the job if they can make a bundle out of you!!

What were they, the local Merc dealer?

Glitterari

Thanks Rizla, I was considering getting it towed back down south to my usual mechanic, who's not around at the moment. I know it would cost a fair bit to get it towed but he wouldn't screw me over.

No, it wasn't the local merc dealer either - just a small independent one!!

Dave_Brooker

Glitterari wrote: »

Right guys - need your thoughts, opinions, advice on this!


Basically - I have a x reg corsa. Last night, I pulled over and turned off engine to make a phone call cos i was lost. Finish phone call car won't start.

Left it overnight, still not starting this morning. Call recovery people - they tow me to local garage, who have a look at it.

Turns out my timing chain has broken (I don't have a cam belt, have timing chain instead). Apparently this means that my valves have been damaged and so have some rods too - this means i need a new engine.

At this garage, which isn't a vauxhall garage, this will cost over £2k, for engine and fitting, etc.

That's lunacy, a few valves will be bent. Either get a good used engine from a reputable breaker who will warrenty it, of have the head rebuilt.

Either way it will cost nowhere near £2k to mend it.

Are you sure they're not trying to end up with your car on the cheap?

scheming_gypsy

i'm no mechanic but i know that if the timing chain goes when you're driving they knacker other bits of the engine. As you'd stopped and then the car wouldn't start it sounds like the chain went while you were stopped, so it just didn't take anything with it.
The garage are probably presuming you were driving and it'd have caused more damage to bump the price up to get more money out of you or for you to say it's not worth repairing due to the value of the car. The car isn't worth repairing, the car is at their garage and they make you an offer for the difference between repairs and value..

Glitterari

Well, I'm not sure. I did ask him if they bought cars and then sold them on like that but he said no, they didn't have the time.

But when I made it clear I wasn't willing to sign up for the repair right there and then he did get a bit snotty about it and going on about it not making a difference to him either way, which i thought was an odd response to what I had said.

But don't worry the car is not still at the garage, it's on the side of the road, as I got the mechanics to push it there. I decided to leave it there until i decided what to do with it.

Oh and I made it more than clear that I had stopped the engine, and when i turned it on again, it wouldn't start.

Usually, I panic when something happens to my car and I'm just like fix it! This time though, probably because they said it would cost soooo much, I didn't panic and decided to come here for advice. You lot do me proud every time!!

C

Glitterari

Just bumping to catch anyone else who might want to offer some advice or opinions!!

mattymoo

Had you had the car regularly serviced, including timing belt change?
Most Vauxhall engines specify 72,000 miles but they may also suggest a time period as well - say year 6 (average 12k a year).

If the timing belt was changed by a reputable dealer you may have some comeback on them.

What does the service history indicate?

Hermione54

Had you had the car regularly serviced, including timing belt change?

OP has made it clear that this car has a timing chain, not a belt. Chains are not normally changed during the life of an engine. Chains are far less likely to break than belts, but when it does happen the result can be equally catastrophic.

xycom1

Corsa timing belts (for the belt driven cam engines, older 1.4 and the 1.8) are 40000miles.

Corsa timing chains should last 100000miles. IMO, definitely get a second opinion, maybe from a Vauxhall garage if possible and if the car has done low mileage and the timing chain has snapped then lobby Vauxhall customer care to make a contribution to the costs.

You should be able to pick a second hand Corsa 1.0 or 1.2 engine up for about £400-500 for a decent one, and possibly the same again for fitting costs.

MSMikey

Google "vauxhall spares" and you'll find a few sites that'll give you a price for a secondhand engine - the best breakers will give you some sort of limited guarantee / undertaking that the engine is sound. Shouldn't be more than a couple of hundred quid for your Corsa. Then shop around and find a garage to fit it - may cost a few hundred quid - total cost still loads less than the two grand you were quoted.