Any redress on a private car sale?

ontheroad1970

mrsyardbroom said:

My mechanic has been out and he says it's just the battery. The seller assured me that the battery was fine and he'd never had any problems. 

Just a word of caution, there are a lot of unscrupulous sellers out there. I sold my car to someone who posed as a lady wanting a car for her car boot business. I was careful to point out the many faults. I reckoned it would need a minimum of £500 in repairs. That included new tyres which the buyer could see would need replacing in a few months. I sold it at a cheap price because of this and a few days later they're selling it as a wonderful car in tip top condition and they want £1350 more than I sold it for. I only asked £900 for it! Due to the rise in car prices recently, everyone is coming out of the woodwork buying and selling cars to make a quick buck on the side.  I wonder if any are registering as a business or are they just selling cars on the side and pretending to be private sellers? They need to be careful. As an ex HMRC employee I'm duty bound to report anything I think is suspicious. I had considerable training in this so in my case it's not just buyer beware but seller beware as well. 

He hasn't lied to you as far as mechanical condition is concerned.  The battery is not part of the mechanical of the vehicle.  

maxmycardagain

Us "elderly drivers" have changed engines/clutches/gearboxes on Cortinas and Cavaliers before diagnostics were even thought of, and sat watching dad strip out a Guy warrior truck

caprikid1

changed clutches on Cortinas and Cavaliers 

Anyone who has changed a clutch on a MK2 Cavalier will know its harder to change the rear pads on modern car with Auto Handbrake than a cavalier clutch ! Happy days !

Ditzy_Mitzy

caprikid1 said:

changed clutches on Cortinas and Cavaliers 

Anyone who has changed a clutch on a MK2 Cavalier will know its harder to change the rear pads on modern car with Auto Handbrake than a cavalier clutch ! Happy days !

Wasn't the Mk2 Cavalier setup in such a way that the clutch could be extracted with the gearbox in place?  We had one in the family many moons ago; the Mk3 that replaced it was nowhere near as good and neither were a patch on the Mondeo that followed.

facade

caprikid1 said:

changed clutches on Cortinas and Cavaliers 

Anyone who has changed a clutch on a MK2 Cavalier will know its harder to change the rear pads on modern car with Auto Handbrake than a cavalier clutch ! Happy days !

Those were the days, when Vauxhall wanted the fleet market, so they actually made a car that was easy & quick to service & repair.

Yes, I've done them, the clutch came with clamps holding it compressed, you undid the bell housing inspection plate, whipped the bolts out of the clutch, then took the end cover off the gearbox, removed a circlip and pulled the input shaft out and the clutch dropped out.

I can't remember if you needed a spare set of clips to hold the original clutch compressed or if it came out  anyway, it has been about 30 years......

Mgman1965

shiraz99 said:

Flight3287462 said:

Lockdown has hammered many car batteries over the last couple of years.  Mine was feeling jaded a year ago but I have nursed it along for the past year.  But today I bit the bullet and have ordered a replacement (had a meeting this morning and it flashed up it needed charged, I just managed to get it to catch, can't afford to risk it again).

£120 for a Varta (Bosch) AGM battery from the Battery Group which I thought wasn't too bad (2.0TDi Superb)

And have the battery registered/coded to your car?

Just had to have a new battery fitted to my 2015 Focus ST2 by my trusted garage when they found this on its service.

£171 for the battery (AGM stop start) and £35 to code to the car.

dipsomaniac

Wowww my focus battery costs £42 from gmf.  Do you use stop/start?

Grumpy_chap

Mgman1965 said:

Just had to have a new battery fitted to my 2015 Focus ST2 by my trusted garage when they found this on its service.

£171 for the battery (AGM stop start) and £35 to code to the car.

What does "code the car" mean?

I had a new battery in my Focus (2007) and ever since then the display in the dashboard that gives stuff like mileage, trip data, average fuel consumption etc has been blank.  I thought it was just the LCD display that was faulty, but perhaps not?  
Is it something I need to be bothered about?

cymruchris

Grumpy_chap said:

Mgman1965 said:

Just had to have a new battery fitted to my 2015 Focus ST2 by my trusted garage when they found this on its 

What does "code the car" mean?

When the car is new - it puts a certain voltage into battery charging circuit - over time as the battery gets older, it's programmed to increase the voltage to compensate for your now slowly failing battery. If when you put a new battery on, you don't tell the car, it continues to charge at this higher rate, potentially damaging the new battery. So coding it to the car pretty much means telling the car to reduce the charging voltage again, and begin the cycle of increasing it over time once more. It won't be linked to your LCD displays not showing data - that'll be another fault. 

Grumpy_chap

Thanks you - is "coding the car" simple?  Really, the new battery was fitted by RAC, so they should have done the "coding the car" when they fitted the battery.  Are they likely to have?