Is it worth fixing? £1000+ bill for 170,000 mile car

lumble

Hello All,

I am having a dilemma that I need some advice with. My lovely car that I use for commuting 110 miles a day is currently out of action. The engine (BMW) has sucked in the swirl flaps which are basically pieces of plasticin the air intake. This means it now requires a new air intake at a cost of around £1060, plus the garage have said it may not be fully fixed after this (some parts of the swirl flaps may still be hidden away in the engine).

This car has cost me ~£570 for a new turbo in December and before that it cost ~£600 to repair a faulty pulley that came loose in August. Also, the MOT is due the end of this month!

I need to travel 110 miles a day and I am currently lift sharing with some colleagues whilst it's in the garage, which is not perfect as they sometimes have holidays etc which means they can't take me. Ideally I need a new car to travel to work and to have independence but I am in debt (~£10K) and the repair or the new car would have to add to that.

Vehicle Details
- Registered in 2007
- ~169,000 miles on the clock
- 5+ owners
- Valuation if fixed and sold on autotrader ~£1800
- MOT due end of this month (31 March 2019)

Do you think I should have it repaired and sell it? Or scrap it and start from scratch? Or repair it and keep it? I am worried that it will cost even more in the long term...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Nobbie1967

If bits of metal have got into the cylinders then the engine will likely be toast. That seems quite a high risk to take when contemplating spending £1k on a£1.8k car. Does the car currently run?

ginashamz

Could easily source a refurbished engine and that that in. Still cheaper than buying another used car where you don't know the history

jk0

Take the head off, and check cylinder bores before ordering new parts?

Tokk

Risky... It's a 1k outlay on a fix that may not necessarily work.

Have to weigh up whether it's riskier to go for the repair or buy a £1k car with 11-12 months MOT and hope it passes the next one?

Iceweasel

Ask the guys on this BMW owners' forum what they would suggest.

https://www.bmwland.org.uk/index.php?forums/

Good luck.

stator

I wouldn't spend the £1k as it stands.


Either you need a garage who can find out if the repair will work or you need another option.


As above, asking BMW owners is a good idea, but remember those types of forums usually over value their own cars and all forums often under estimate the cost of repairs.

Herzlos

You can get it MOT'd now, so assuming it runs I'd get it MOT'd and see if any work there needs done. If it doesn't run, get the garage to give it a pre-MOT and see how you get on. No point getting it fixed if you find you need to spend another £800 getting it through the MOT.



If it's valued at £1800, and you're looking at spending £1060 to see if that fixes it, I'd be inclined to scrap it and look for something else. There's too high a risk of some other damage having occurred if you've fired plastic shards across the engine.

Jackmydad

Herzlos wrote: »

You can get it MOT'd now, so assuming it runs I'd get it MOT'd and see if any work there needs done. If it doesn't run, get the garage to give it a pre-MOT and see how you get on. No point getting it fixed if you find you need to spend another £800 getting it through the MOT.



If it's valued at £1800, and you're looking at spending £1060 to see if that fixes it, I'd be inclined to scrap it and look for something else. There's too high a risk of some other damage having occurred if you've fired plastic shards across the engine.

^ This.
As this is MSE, I'd have to say that if it was me, and I couldn't DIY, I'd be looking at something common, small and cheap to run, especially with the debt mentioned.

Having said that a mate bought a "not bad" biggish old BMW for 500 quid (I really don't know the model, but apparently it goes like the proverbial)
He bought it as a short term thing for fun. I think it's cost him front brakes and some bushes in two years. But he DIYs, so his costs are low.

stator

What good would an MOT do?
It wouldn't tell you if this car is going to be a lemon when repaired.

TheMoonandBack

At that age and mileage it’s always going to need something, whatever make it is, but then the BMW factor makes it even more expensive. Last year it cost you a grand, now a grand for this.
I would buy something more basic for £1000 with a years MOT.