"Bork" legends that came true for you ?

[J4CKO]

A lot of cars have an achilles heel, usually that gets discussed at length on here.

Which ones came true for you ?

And how much did it cost/other outcome ?

For me,


Fiat Coupe Turbo : engine death : sold at a loss of 2k (the profit on my previous car)

Rover 200 BRM : Head Gasket Failure : Sold at a loss of £1500 to a guy who put a turbo engine in it.

Saab 9-3 : Cracked Springs : replaced myself for £200 with uprated springs.

Porsche 944 : Rust, fixed it, sold for modest increase in value but spent more on it so cant call it a profit.

[DottyMR2]

A couple recently, although that's 2/3 cars, so not a good record so far!

Saab 9-3: Cracked spring, replaced with uprated Eibachs for £300 ish quid. Cracked again! Eibach replaced pair at no cost. Odd since I'm super cautious over speed bumps etc.

Toyota MR2: Cracked block on cylinder 1. Classic rush of cold water when thermostat opens causing the cast iron block to crack. Cost so far, couple of hundred quid to squeeze the last life out of the engine, runs totally fine now the leak is fixed though. It will let go at some point though. Total cost to repiar? All depends how mental an MR2 I want to create when I put a new engine in. If only I could find a spare £2500 for a nice shiny rebuilt one rated to 420bhp.

Edited by DottyMR2 on Thursday 5th June 15:08

[J4CKO]

Sometimes I think cars "know" when you are worried about something and will fail in the anticipated manner, where non car people seem to just manage, a bit like Mr Magoo on a building site.

[99t]

Think I've dodged a few bullets where you might expect reliability to be an issue:

Lancia Integrale 16v - 5 years no major borkage, not even many minor issues
Mazda RX7 - owned a couple of years, engine still fine when sold
Alfa Alfetta - owned three years, only needed one ball joint in that time
Range Rover Mk1 - totally reliable in a couple of years ownership

However...

1970 Mustang, yank V8's go on for ever? Do they heck! £3k engine rebuild
Toyota Landcruiser - clutch disintegrated and a wheel fell off (road use only, nothing extreme)
BMW E34 M5, german reliability. No, had to be recovered three times in 12 months

[V8forweekends]

Audi A3 - chocolate EGR valve - loads on net about about these. Bought and fitted myself - £130 for part, plus £15 for a code reader to reset the CEL.

Jag XJ X350 TDVI -

Exhaust flexy issue (loads on Jag forums with a much cheaper fix I didn't know about then) - £700+ @ Dealer
Chocolate suspension bushes £300 a side (again loads on forums with a cheaper fix)

[hman]

E60 diesels - everything you read and more - seriously terrible car.

[Dog Star]

Volvo V70 "clock spring" - £600
Mercedes SL500 - front shocks leaking £1260 each plus fitting, PAS/ABC pump £850+vat + fitting, SBC pump £1600, leaking water onto relay £600. All classic "fails" on that car.

ETA: 2002 C class Merc coupe - great scabrous patches of rust breaking out all over it, arches crumbling to nothing. On a six year old, pampered, garaged car.

Edited by Dog Star on Thursday 5th June 15:31

[IanCress]

Last winter I had a small chip in the windscreen. Girlfriend had been listening to those adverts that play constantly on the radio in the winter, and was convinced that every chip turns in to a huge crack. We even had an argument about it, where she demanded I get the windscreen replaced. Of course, I told her it would be fine and it's nothing to worry about.

I don't even need to tell you what happened 3 days later.

[jamieduff1981]

Jag X-Type transfer box failure. £700 for a new one and 2 days spent inventing new swearwords.

I've had suspension bushes etc on most of my cars eventually but I consider those semi-consumable anyway so don't regard them as failures.

[mini1380cc]

206 = Rear axle seized.

MGTF = Head gasket failure.

Legacy GTB = Head gasket failure.

S Class = ABC pump.


I really want a Boxster but I know how that will end up.

[ChasW]

1966 Mg 1100 - rusted subframe. So what's new!
1980 Mk1 Golf - rust. There was a particularly bad batch where allegedly East German sourced steel was used.
1986 Fiat Uno - carburettor issue and rust. Otherwise an OK car.
2000 Voyager - handbrake issues. Known weakness.

[trickywoo]

Big end failure on an Impreza.

Rusted arches on a Puma.

[Fattyfat]

Saab engine oil sludge - caught in the nick of time on my old 9-5 but not soon enough to save the turbo.

MR2 Roadster Pre-cat failure - now monitoring oil usage very very carefully

That's about it really, I usually don't keep cars long enough to find out. The only car I've ever properly killed though was a Volvo.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Rover 214 k series hgf
Ford puma heater control valve (3x!)
Mx-5 cas o-ring

[BlackGT3]

Audi B7 RS4 - DRC failure at 1500 miles

[V8forweekends]

jamieduff1981 said:

I've had suspension bushes etc on most of my cars eventually but I consider those semi-consumable anyway so don't regard them as failures.

Agreed except in the case of Jag XJ, they fail at very low mileages and the Jag recommended fix is an entire new wishbone each side for £300+

[E24man]

BMW E34 M5 3.8 - the highly strung engine let go, and later happened to a good friends car too.
BMW E39 - the fabled chocolate coolant system gave up all over the place.
BMW E24 - rust, rust, rust, rust

Traditional borks that haven't come true .......... yet.

Early Alpina 4.6 headgaskets
BMW M88 timing chain
Audi S4 B6 timing chain
BMW E34 sills

[900T-R]

Citroën ZX (same platform as Pug 306) - appetite for handbrake cables
MG ZT-T CDTi - fuel pumps, and the need to wiggle the seat belt tensioner connectors under the passenger seat whenever the seat has been adjusted, to prevent the airbag warning light from coming up - (TADTS)

Otherwise I always seem to get non-typical faults costing me lots of money... heck I even managed to keep a classic Saab 900 gearbox in full working order with twice the original power and torque put through it, on semi-slicks (the same car had three engines and four turbos during its time with me)...

[petrolsniffer]

NiceCupOfTea said:

Rover 214 k series hgf
Ford puma heater control valve (3x!)
Mx-5 cas o-ring

x3? hcv's? were they all motorfactor specials or ford items iirc ford did revise the design later in the cars life.

[Krikkit]

Head gasket Subaru Legacy/Outback.
Rear axle bushes on a 106.
Crusty arches on a Puma.

IanCress said:

Last winter I had a small chip in the windscreen. Girlfriend had been listening to those adverts that play constantly on the radio in the winter, and was convinced that every chip turns in to a huge crack. We even had an argument about it, where she demanded I get the windscreen replaced. Of course, I told her it would be fine and it's nothing to worry about.

I don't even need to tell you what happened 3 days later.

Brilliant!