2013 hyundai, failed mot for an excessive oil leak, do we bother trying to save it?

ceb1995

Took the car for an mot this morning and it failed for the following reason: Oil leaking excessively from engine rear crank seal (8.4.1 (a) (i).
Like everyone the costs of living are making things tight at the moment, so far a different garage has quoted it could be up to £1K to save a car that cost less than 3k 3 years ago, given it's age and the likelihood if anything else on the car goes wrong that we wont then be able to afford more major repairs, should we cut our losses and get a run around car for that amount of money instead? (DH is working, and I'm currently a stay at home parent and student until 2024 so we would be in a better position in 18 months hopefully for some context). 

Stubod

..problem is both finding another car and the costs involved as 2nd hand car prices are silly at the mo.

It doesn't sound like the car owes you any money, (based on £1k / year depreciation), but if you are basically happy with the car, and the cost is likely to be no more than £1k, then it may be worthwhile considering getting it repaired?

Even if it only lasts another year it will still be money well spent as it will probably never be worth less than £1k (assuming MOT), and it gives you time to look for an alternative?

L9XSS

My view, yes get it repaired. If you were happy with the car beforehand. 9 years isn’t old in the life of a car.

Grumpy_chap

2013 is not that old.  9
Which model Hyundai is it?
How many miles?
Is it otherwise reliable?
Had you experienced any symptoms of this serious oil leak?

Bigwheels1111

Get the engine & tray Steam cleaned.

Put through a new MOT.

Keep an eye on the oil level.

Job sorted.

ceb1995

Stubod said:

..problem is both finding another car and the costs involved as 2nd hand car prices are silly at the mo.

It doesn't sound like the car owes you any money, (based on £1k / year depreciation), but if you are basically happy with the car, and the cost is likely to be no more than £1k, then it may be worthwhile considering getting it repaired?

Even if it only lasts another year it will still be money well spent as it will probably never be worth less than £1k (assuming MOT), and it gives you time to look for an alternative?

Where the difficulty is, if we spend the 1k and anything else major goes wrong, we'd have to scrap it and can't have an alternative till 2024 but otherwise happy with it. 

ceb1995

Grumpy_chap said:

2013 is not that old.  9
Which model Hyundai is it?
How many miles?
Is it otherwise reliable?
Had you experienced any symptoms of this serious oil leak?

it's an i10 with 74k mileage, it's been very reliable in the 3 years we've had it, all we've done is replace the tyres and a head light. last year they mentioned a slight leak but we've never seen it leak ourselves and they weren't concerned at that time so whether it's just built up wear and tear, its been quite reliable otherwise.

Ectophile

You could buy a newer car.  If you paid £3k for that then that's three times the cost of fixing your current one.  And for all you know, the newer car could be one major fault away from being scrapped.

If the cost of fixing a car is less than the car is worth, then it's probably worth fixing it.

Ectophile

Bigwheels1111 said:

Get the engine & tray Steam cleaned.

Put through a new MOT.

Keep an eye on the oil level.

Job sorted.

If it's leaking badly enough to fail an MOT, then steam cleaning will only make it easier to see where the oil is leaking from.

Soot2006

ceb1995 said:

Stubod said:

..problem is both finding another car and the costs involved as 2nd hand car prices are silly at the mo.

It doesn't sound like the car owes you any money, (based on £1k / year depreciation), but if you are basically happy with the car, and the cost is likely to be no more than £1k, then it may be worthwhile considering getting it repaired?

Even if it only lasts another year it will still be money well spent as it will probably never be worth less than £1k (assuming MOT), and it gives you time to look for an alternative?

Where the difficulty is, if we spend the 1k and anything else major goes wrong, we'd have to scrap it and can't have an alternative till 2024 but otherwise happy with it. 

But this could easily happen with the runaround that you buy. Better the devil you know, sometimes. I am in a similar position but given the second hand car prices, have now essentially committed to repairs until further notice as I just can't actually afford a decent replacement that is less likely to give me trouble. With my own car, also a 2013, I know what's been repaired and replaced and maintained ...

ceb1995

Ectophile said:

You could buy a newer car.  If you paid £3k for that then that's three times the cost of fixing your current one.  And for all you know, the newer car could be one major fault away from being scrapped.

If the cost of fixing a car is less than the car is worth, then it's probably worth fixing it.

I get what you're saying, its the risk as all we can afford right now is a grand so if anything went wrong in either choice in the next few months then we have to scrap it anyway and have no car. 
the mot test centre couldn't do the repair anyway, so will have a second opinion on the issue before we decide.