Should I keep my old car or buy another one?

Herzlos

If the cam belt goes whilst your driving the engine will essentially disintegrate with a bang. You'll lose power (because the engine is scrap) but you should still have steering, brakes and electrics (indicators and brake lights) so you should be able to stop the car safely though may need fresh underwear and there may be bits of engine left on the road.

If it goes the car becomes scrap - you'd need a new/reconditioned engine but with labour that'll be in the thousands.

If you only do smallish slower journeys and don't really need the car and want to replace it at some point anyway then I'd be tempted to wait and see if it fails, but if you need it to get to work or are on motorways / dual carriageways a lot I'd just get it replaced to avoid needing to wait to be recovered home. I'm also not sure if a breakdown insurance company would cover you due to an overdue belt snapping, so whilst they'd recover the car and you home they'd bill you for it and that might not be much cheaper than getting the belt done.

Arunmor

On a car that age I would do the bare minimum eg change oil and filter.  I certainly wouldn't spend £750 on the cam belt.  Run it till it drops.

Oh and by the way £5K won't get you much try and save up a bit more

pseudodox

If it was my car I would regard a new cam belt as a wise move for peace of mind.  Otherwise you are going to constantly feel anxious about it.  2 years ago my exhaust back box had a hole.  So I had the whole system replaced as it would only be a matter of time before another section went.  Having got 20 years out of the original exhaust I regarded it as money well spent.

But whilst you have had a variety of views on here I would ultimately trust your regular garage to best advise you.  Nothing can really up the value of an older car.  It's value is to you.  You sound happy driving it & don't need the "status" of a newer car - it's just a means to get safely & reliably from A to B at optimal cost.

When my car had it's MOT & service this year the tester had to find a blank space in the log book for date & stamp for service details.  And then he found 3 more spaces & headed them 23rd Service, 24th Service & 25th Service - nuff said!

Goudy

Fords Zetec is an interference engine, this means the valves and the pistons share the same space but not at the same time.

If the belt does snap it will mean the pistons and the valves will be out of time and come together.

When this happens you'll lose power but shouldn't have problems stopping the car safely.

I've experienced a snapped belt twice and both have gone either at start up or soon after, when I was pulling away.

I presume this is a petrol engine Focus, if so they aren't noted for snapping belt, not unlike the diesel TDCi/DV6 or the later Ecoboost engines that have a belt in oil system that deteriorates. 

chrisw

Herzlos said:

If the cam belt goes whilst your driving the engine will essentially disintegrate with a bang. You'll lose power (because the engine is scrap) but you should still have steering, brakes and electrics (indicators and brake lights) so you should be able to stop the car safely though may need fresh underwear and there may be bits of engine left on the road.

Not necessarily a bang. Mine went with a gentle tinkling noise followed by all the warnings lights and then required a gentle drift over to the hard shoulder. Breakdown recovered it without question.

stu12345_2

the engine will go off, the ignition lights will come on, no power steering,
I had it to a Corsa I got it rebuilt for £800. at a non dealer garage 

thr car was worth £2500 before the failure and it made sense to fix rather than sell car for scrap 

I did consider a used engine swap

if I had a spare £10000 today I would buy a Capri or mk 2"Escort or even a morris minor.
I was at a car show the other day and when you look at the simplicity of those cars, you appreciate them

facade

stu12345_2 said:

<snip>
if I had a spare £10000 today I would buy a Capri or mk 2"Escort or even a morris minor.
I was at a car show the other day and when you look at the simplicity of those cars, you appreciate them

I drove them when they were current. They were rubbish!  Every weekend was spent fettling them enough to get them running well enough to get to work the next week.

And the rust!!!!!!!

I think the mid 80s to early 90s were the "best" cars, simple enough to be reliable, but had fuel injection, electronic ignition etc. for easy starting and low maintenance.   I loved my MG Montego, I'd drive it today if it hadn't rusted to nothing by 1994....

stu12345_2

my mark 2 escort or Capri ran fine and no rust, cortinas were the problems.
but you could fix them yourself dirt cheap.
1983 capris had German steel good, 1982 capris had Spanish steel bad.

my worst car was a Datsun cherry 

i had a montego, the door handles snapped off in an icy period, bakelite handles I believe 

prowla

I happily run an older car as a spare/tip vehicle and expect to pay maybe £300 or so a year on maintenance (plus tax and insurance).

However, the risk is that something major goes wrong.

I had this happen with my previous Renault Scenic, which I bought on ebay for £450 in 2016; it all went well until the cam belt broke in September 2023 and that was the end of it.

The worst scenario is if you've just spent the £750 on it and then something major happens, but that's the gamble.

Also, when buying used you never know if there's an issue there just waiting to surface.

J2637

Thank you everyone!

That very helpful to hear about the Ford cam belt and how it breaks, Goudy. Yes it's a petrol engine. I don't go on motorways a lot, but I do occasionally. But for peace of mind I might well end up getting the cam belt done, I will see what the garage says.

Herzlos what you say about insurance and towing is very helpful. I think if I don't replace the cam belt I should check my insurance. I am guessing I should read through the documents in detail to see what I am covered for, rather than asking them on the phone.

Overall it depends what they say, but I think I will probably end up keeping going with it for while.

Does anyone know a cheap way I can stop the boot door leaking? My garage said it's not something they would do as it's too expensive, but I can't help thinking there could be a way to do a bodge job on it. It's not a lot of water, just a tiny puddle in there each time it rains. I have plastic down on the boot floor.

So true prowla, there can be issues just waiting to surface when buying used, even if it has a perfect log book and low mileage - maybe it's perfect because nothing's worn out yet but is about to, and maybe the low mileage is due to lots of short trips that are not good for the car.