The Joy of Running an Old Shed (Vol 2)

[7 5 7]

MisterWhippy said:

I've been offered a Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDi DSG 2012 on 120k for £2,500 from my elderly neighbour.

What's everyone's thoughts on the engine/gearbox from that era? Surely it can't be worse than my Renault. Which, by the way needs a new exhaust sensor for £85.

Fix the Renault for £85 instead, far too much bork potential on that Skoda, DSG makes me shudder in fear!!

[Ryyy]

EV VED coming in next year, certain cars is £10 for the first year then after that its £190, insignia doesnt seem so bad anymore

[p4cks]

I'm out of the shed game guys. The power steering fault with my Exeo was the final straw so it's on Gumtree as we speak

[BenS94]

p4cks said:

I'm out of the shed game guys. The power steering fault with my Exeo was the final straw so it's on Gumtree as we speak

I'm loving the "has a power steering leak*, but never bothered me"

Not having a go by the way... we've all descibed faults in interesting ways so they're mentioned and not hidden, but played down a bit... haven't we?... Guys?....

• I always thought these were electrically assisted...

Edited by BenS94 on Friday 24th May 10:59

[Challo]

Dan Singh said:

Challo said:

The Jazz is currently in the garage. On the way home from dropping my mum off, the car started making some clunking noises while driving. It wasn't happening over bumps, so not thinking its drop links or control arms.

Have a feeling it might be front axle or similar. Luckily enough the mechanic i used to use has changed locations and now only down the road.

Shame though that his garage is on a farm, and said farm looks like st hole. Top lad though, and is able to turn his hand to most stuff. Perfect for keeping sheds on the road.

My son has a Jazz Sport, knackered drop links make a shocking noise that makes you think the car is falling apart. The cheap Chinese ones last about 13 months, but take 10 minutes a side to replace..

Turns out its less car being an issue, than its owner. On Sat, I had loosened the wheel nuts as I was going to look at the washer bottle. My jack failed so I never took the wheel off. Turns out I never re-tightened the bolts.

Mechanic torqued them properly for me. He did give the suspension a check over and looks fine, and cleaned up some of the corrosion as it was a bit crusty.

Such an idiot.

[deadtom]

long term old shed driver, but new to the thread.

How much is reasonable to pay a garage to replace two CV joints, all 4 springs (and top mounts for the front springs) on a 2008 Octavia scout?

I've been quoted.... £1000

a fecking grand, for some springs and a couple of CV joints. I was expecting maybe half of that amount.

Is this just what is costs now to run a 16 year old normal car?

I know the answer ought to be fix it myself at home, but working on a gravel drive is a nightmare, I have very few tools and very little confidence these days (which is a shame because I used to have a go at pretty much anything car related)

even with the above done, it still needs both sills replacing, a mystery very noticeable vibration between 2000 and 2500 rpm, four new tyres, the AC doesn't work, there is a big oil leak from the engine, possibly a boost leak and the thing is generally rusty and scruffy all over.

Oh and the engine sounds fine (for a PD anyway) and pulls well without smoke, but the car has no history so the timing chain really ought to be replaced too

We don't have loads of money, (but thankfully also not on the breadline) and I've happily run a variety of sheds since passing my test nearly 20 years ago but now I am wondering if I should be sensible and buy something less than 10 years old that isn't a total heap and just live with the consistent few hundred per month for the privilege

Edited by deadtom on Friday 24th May 11:40

[QBee]

Challo said:

Dan Singh said:

Challo said:

The Jazz is currently in the garage. On the way home from dropping my mum off, the car started making some clunking noises while driving. It wasn't happening over bumps, so not thinking its drop links or control arms.

Have a feeling it might be front axle or similar. Luckily enough the mechanic i used to use has changed locations and now only down the road.

Shame though that his garage is on a farm, and said farm looks like st hole. Top lad though, and is able to turn his hand to most stuff. Perfect for keeping sheds on the road.

My son has a Jazz Sport, knackered drop links make a shocking noise that makes you think the car is falling apart. The cheap Chinese ones last about 13 months, but take 10 minutes a side to replace..

Turns out its less car being an issue, than its owner. On Sat, I had loosened the wheel nuts as I was going to look at the washer bottle. My jack failed so I never took the wheel off. Turns out I never re-tightened the bolts.

Mechanic torqued them properly for me. He did give the suspension a check over and looks fine, and cleaned up some of the corrosion as it was a bit crusty.

Such an idiot.

My excuse when that happened to me was that I was 17 at the time. I had been looking at the brakes on my 1967 mark 1 848cc Mini, and had done the same as you. I then put the chrome hub cap back on and thought no more about it.
A week later I heard a strange noise from the left front wheel on making a right turn at full beans, so investigated.
3 of my 4 wheel nuts were rolling arond loose in the hub cap, the fourth was still 2 turns from dropping off to join them.

Roll forwards 15 years and my wife's Peugeot 205 was at the Peugeot dealer for its first scheduled service.
We collected it and drove it home the 22 miles of undulating fast roads, mostly at 70 mph.
Next morning I took it shopping, parked at Sainsburys, looked back at it and thought the right front wheel looked odd.
Two nuts were competely missing, two were half undone.
Long story short, the dealer apologised and refunded the entire cost of the service.

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

After the hassle of changing a CV boot on my shed I would just buy a refurbished driveshaft in future.

I think £1K is about right, would you want to work on a 16 year old car? How many crusty bolts are going to snap, how hard is it going to be to remove the drive shafts? As you are going to lose some of the gearbox oil when you remove the drive shaft you might as well replace that as well.

With all the other problems you list I must admit I would be tempted to weigh it in and get something newer.

[wc98]

deadtom said:

long term old shed driver, but new to the thread.

How much is reasonable to pay a garage to replace two CV joints, all 4 springs (and top mounts for the front springs) on a 2008 Octavia scout?

I've been quoted.... £1000

a fecking grand, for some springs and a couple of CV joints. I was expecting maybe half of that amount.

Is this just what is costs now to run a 16 year old normal car?

I know the answer ought to be fix it myself at home, but working on a gravel drive is a nightmare, I have very few tools and very little confidence these days (which is a shame because I used to have a go at pretty much anything car related)

even with the above done, it still needs both sills replacing, a mystery very noticeable vibration between 2000 and 2500 rpm, four new tyres, the AC doesn't work, there is a big oil leak from the engine, possibly a boost leak and the thing is generally rusty and scruffy all over.

Oh and the engine sounds fine (for a PD anyway) and pulls well without smoke, but the car has no history so the timing chain really ought to be replaced too

We don't have loads of money, (but thankfully also not on the breadline) and I've happily run a variety of sheds since passing my test nearly 20 years ago but now I am wondering if I should be sensible and buy something less than 10 years old that isn't a total heap and just live with the consistent few hundred per month for the privilege

Edited by deadtom on Friday 24th May 11:40

Is that supplying the parts as well ? Fine if it is.

[Sugarlips76]

Probably stating the obvious but miles and condition are more important that being under 10 years old. I’d also be getting shot but looking for something suitable and cheap but with no rust and low miles.

[r3g]

deadtom said:

long term old shed driver, but new to the thread.

How much is reasonable to pay a garage to replace two CV joints, all 4 springs (and top mounts for the front springs) on a 2008 Octavia scout?

I've been quoted.... £1000

a fecking grand, for some springs and a couple of CV joints. I was expecting maybe half of that amount.

Is this just what is costs now to run a 16 year old normal car?

I know the answer ought to be fix it myself at home, but working on a gravel drive is a nightmare, I have very few tools and very little confidence these days (which is a shame because I used to have a go at pretty much anything car related)

even with the above done, it still needs both sills replacing, a mystery very noticeable vibration between 2000 and 2500 rpm, four new tyres, the AC doesn't work, there is a big oil leak from the engine, possibly a boost leak and the thing is generally rusty and scruffy all over.

Oh and the engine sounds fine (for a PD anyway) and pulls well without smoke, but the car has no history so the timing chain really ought to be replaced too

We don't have loads of money, (but thankfully also not on the breadline) and I've happily run a variety of sheds since passing my test nearly 20 years ago but now I am wondering if I should be sensible and buy something less than 10 years old that isn't a total heap and just live with the consistent few hundred per month for the privilege

Edited by deadtom on Friday 24th May 11:40

The price is in the right area if they are supplying all the bits. Most of it will be labour, and a couple of hours of that will be contigency for when they have to break out the induction heater for the seized nuts and bolts - which is quite likely on a 16 year car unless they've been off before and it's been done by a decent mechanic who greased them when putting it back together (unlikely... ).

Also, as the other guy above says, how much work is involved to get to the parts? The springs on some cars are fairly simple jobs, but a lot require a whole bunch of stuff removing first to get to them.

My decider on whether I'll throw money at a shed to keep it going is based on the following, in this order :

-a) overall condition of the underside for rust. Sills I'll do if rusted, so long as it's not where suspension bits are mounted. Anything more than that, or general chassis corrosion that's taken hold, then the car gets sold on. Too much time and money required.

- b) overall condition of how it drives. If it drives well, steers well, engine pulls well and everything works then if (a) is satisfied I'll spend the money replacing consumables, which of course includes suspension and steering bits when they wear out.

You've got to remember that the bloke whose car you're looking to buy as a replacement for yours is quite likely selling his for the same reason you are wanting rid of yours! ie. you are simply buying somebody else's problems. That's why at shed price point it's often a case of better the devil you know.

My armchair opinion on yours from what you've said .... "needs sills doing... generally rusty all over... big oil leak... boost issue... random vibration noises with unknown source.... " plus about £1500 in work and consumables needed on top of that, I wouldn't be spending a penny more on that and it would be going.

[QBee]

I now run sheds because my experience of running 5-6 year old cars was that I had paid all the money to buy the thing and it still required as much spending on it to keep it running as a shed did.

[Gordon Hill]

QBee said:

I now run sheds because my experience of running 5-6 year old cars was that I had paid all the money to buy the thing and it still required as much spending on it to keep it running as a shed did.

My experience too, I've noticed no discernable difference in the amount of work needing doing on a newer, more expensive car as opposed to a shed, providing of course that you buy well in the first place.

[7 5 7]

QBee said:

I now run sheds because my experience of running 5-6 year old cars was that I had paid all the money to buy the thing and it still required as much spending on it to keep it running as a shed did.

Yup and running a shed means you've got very little too lose if picked wisely, but so much to gain, as you can just...

...in the words of the song, from the Band "Orange Juice" - "Rip it up and start again"

[p4cks]

BenS94 said:

p4cks said:

I'm out of the shed game guys. The power steering fault with my Exeo was the final straw so it's on Gumtree as we speak

I'm loving the "has a power steering leak*, but never bothered me"

Not having a go by the way... we've all descibed faults in interesting ways so they're mentioned and not hidden, but played down a bit... haven't we?... Guys?....

• I always thought these were electrically assisted...

Well, it didn't that much. I've driven it for two months with no PS and done over 3K miles in that time

[santona1937]

r3g said:

deadtom said:

long term old shed driver, but new to the thread.

How much is reasonable to pay a garage to replace two CV joints, all 4 springs (and top mounts for the front springs) on a 2008 Octavia scout?

I've been quoted.... £1000

a fecking grand, for some springs and a couple of CV joints. I was expecting maybe half of that amount.

Is this just what is costs now to run a 16 year old normal car?

I know the answer ought to be fix it myself at home, but working on a gravel drive is a nightmare, I have very few tools and very little confidence these days (which is a shame because I used to have a go at pretty much anything car related)

even with the above done, it still needs both sills replacing, a mystery very noticeable vibration between 2000 and 2500 rpm, four new tyres, the AC doesn't work, there is a big oil leak from the engine, possibly a boost leak and the thing is generally rusty and scruffy all over.

Oh and the engine sounds fine (for a PD anyway) and pulls well without smoke, but the car has no history so the timing chain really ought to be replaced too

We don't have loads of money, (but thankfully also not on the breadline) and I've happily run a variety of sheds since passing my test nearly 20 years ago but now I am wondering if I should be sensible and buy something less than 10 years old that isn't a total heap and just live with the consistent few hundred per month for the privilege

Edited by deadtom on Friday 24th May 11:40

The price is in the right area if they are supplying all the bits. Most of it will be labour, and a couple of hours of that will be contigency for when they have to break out the induction heater for the seized nuts and bolts - which is quite likely on a 16 year car unless they've been off before and it's been done by a decent mechanic who greased them when putting it back together (unlikely... ).

Also, as the other guy above says, how much work is involved to get to the parts? The springs on some cars are fairly simple jobs, but a lot require a whole bunch of stuff removing first to get to them.

My decider on whether I'll throw money at a shed to keep it going is based on the following, in this order :

-a) overall condition of the underside for rust. Sills I'll do if rusted, so long as it's not where suspension bits are mounted. Anything more than that, or general chassis corrosion that's taken hold, then the car gets sold on. Too much time and money required.

- b) overall condition of how it drives. If it drives well, steers well, engine pulls well and everything works then if (a) is satisfied I'll spend the money replacing consumables, which of course includes suspension and steering bits when they wear out.

You've got to remember that the bloke whose car you're looking to buy as a replacement for yours is quite likely selling his for the same reason you are wanting rid of yours! ie. you are simply buying somebody else's problems. That's why at shed price point it's often a case of better the devil you know.

My armchair opinion on yours from what you've said .... "needs sills doing... generally rusty all over... big oil leak... boost issue... random vibration noises with unknown source.... " plus about £1500 in work and consumables needed on top of that, I wouldn't be spending a penny more on that and it would be going.

And how much is a newer car with nothing needed for say, two years, going to cost.? as noted above it is better the devil you know and the motor you have than buying someone elses issues

[ST565NP]

santona1937 said:

And how much is a newer car with nothing needed for say, two years, going to cost.? as noted above it is better the devil you know and the motor you have than buying someone elses issues

Yes, in general. But this car has too much stuff wrong, not sure it is worth it.

[Pit Pony]

Gordon Hill said:

My experience too, I've noticed no discernable difference in the amount of work needing doing on a newer, more expensive car as opposed to a shed, providing of course that you buy well in the first place.

I keep saying.

Look study and understand the bath tub curve.

Infant mortality is covered by warranty, end of life wear out depends on so many factors, and individual subassemblies/subsystems, may reach the end of life, before others. But until you get to the wearout phase, it's random failures. So unless you've reached the wearout phase, the likelihood of any part failing is constant.

[bearman68]

I'll rarely scrap a reliable car. If it runs well, a bit of welding, a few bits and bobs, and it will run well for the next year. But I confess, I can sometimes be a little bit too kind to my cars, and sometimes have lost money by doing this. You replace the clutch, and it fails on emmisions and a new cat next month, and you do that, and the col spring breaks, which you need to do the pair, which then seize, and require shocks, springs and mounts, and drop links and lower ball joints, and tyres, and tracking, and then you might as well do the steering joints because it's going to be tracked anyway, and then next week the ABS unit packs up, and the electric steering goes belly up, just before the alternator dies, and then the joy is in negative terms.
Anyway, this weeks joy is someone welding the adjustable camshaft sprocket onto the camshaft of my new Clio 1.5 dci. Wouldn't have been too bad if it was in the right place, but the small misalignment was resulting in white smoke and an engine management code. Humph. Still, it was £500, so not the end of the world. (And this is one with no DPF or DMF or Piezo injectors, so not all bad.

[Gordon Hill]

My sheds get an "allowance", these days it's £500 a year, a tenner a week. I've never needed to use it all.......yet.

Any more expense and it gets weighed in. Because I do all my own spanner work it would have to be a pretty expensive part to warrant scrapping it, I use second hand or reconditioned where possible.

My sheds tend to last at least 3 years even longer now as I do less miles. In the last 12 years I've had 3 cars, total purchase price of about 2 grand.