Losing money on a car in a short space of time

motorguy

arcon5 wrote: »

Glow plug light flashing doesn't mean it need glow plugs... could mean many things. Some more serious than others. Ford for example it flashes with fuel pressure issues so when injectors or pumps knackered for example; audis flash when timing issues.
Fiat could be many things still.

In fact a lot flag up the eml with glow plug open circuit.

Coil light only indicates glow plugs when turning ignition to ignition live before starting

I'm very surprised somebody claiming to work in industry has even said itll be a glow plug of two. Especially for a flashing coil light

I've ran two FIAT group cars with these engines and a friend has had one and any glow plug light flashing issue has been glow plugs. Typical to manifest itself at this time of the year too as it's colder now and the heater plugs are having to work a bit harder and also on an older car like this where they simply wear out.

Alfa Romeo Forum drawing the same conclusions for the same fault, but what would they know eh?

http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/alfa-147-156-andamp-gt/260656-glow-plug-light-flashes.html

Not hard to test anyway.

spiro

The other thing that can put buyers off is how short a time you have owned the car.

Thatsthespirit

motorguy wrote: »

Sadly this is what i was getting at with your last thread on the subject. I would say you're realistically looking at a £700 bath to get the phone to ring.

Some nice little car from a specialist dealer / mechanic at £1995 is probably only a £1295 car on the private market.

Your glow plug light means it needs one or more glow plugs. I dont think they're terribly expensive from memory (check ebay and look for a decent brand like bosch) and they're not time intensive to fit.

Any sort of belt noises are likely to be your fan belt rather than timing belt so might just need the belt tightened or replaced (a few £).

Old Fiats are treated with mistrust by used car buyers therefore they are a slow seller.

Dont think i'm "having a go" here BTW, just giving you my tuppenceworth as an ex motor trader.

Nor am i taking any moral high ground here - i once bought a BMW for £42,000 and sold it six months later for £33,000....

Really appreciate this - thank you.

I get this is a forum and people voice their opinions across but I found the same members (in other topics too) constantly making digs and getting hot headed instead of actually helping the OP out. Just find it needless.

I totally get, in my situation, I've !!!!!!ed up and I expect people to go 'haha, what did you expect?' but after a while, the same poster... it gets a little boring. Especially when they find the time to go through your post history and pull up links of what's been said previous.

Anyway, I'll leave that there. Gonna go cry into my auto trader listing now before it drops even more in value.

Norman_Castle

Try asking the garage you bought it from about the faults. Are they covered by a warranty?
Offer the car back to the garage.

takman

Thatsthespirit wrote: »

Was reduced from £2.5K ended up paying £1.995

So it was up for £2500 and you ended up paying less than £2 for it. Sounds like a bargain to me :rotfl:

Rotor

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Try asking the garage you bought it from about the faults. Are they covered by a warranty?
Offer the car back to the garage.

Well just to add to the OP's depression (sorry op) and to pose as a question rather than a statement, but are their actually any faults a warranty would pay out on?

The Cam chain/belt may be noisy and a sensible person would replace it but it hasn't broken down so a warranty wouldn't pay out for preventative work (?)

Likewise the dash light indicates their might be a problem coming somewhere but car still runs fine and , as the light goes out again, wouldn't fail a MOT (i think)

Thoughts?