Failed MOT E46, fix or sell
Discussion
I recently finished refurbishing my wife's 25 year old SLK she has had for 21 years and is emotionally attached to. Welding, paint, brakes and fuel pipes, a lot but not all suspension, new clamps and brackets on the exhaust and it didn't need tyres, brakes or anything on the interior- £8,000. That's eight thousand pounds spent on a three grand car. If you do the absolute minimum you'll finish up with a safe but untidy car.
Unless you love it, don't do it, would be my advice. Don't break it either, you'll find you haven't got enough room - dismantled cars consume a lot of space. There's good advice above, sell as Spares or Repair and get it gone.
Best of luck.
Unless you love it, don't do it, would be my advice. Don't break it either, you'll find you haven't got enough room - dismantled cars consume a lot of space. There's good advice above, sell as Spares or Repair and get it gone.
Best of luck.
As long as the general underside rust is still at the "clean it up and reprotect it" stage, I'd fix it - but I do have the space/skills/kit to do all the work, and it's all bread and butter stuff to me.
I think the best thing to do if you really can't do any of it yourself is get a quote to fix the failure points so it at least has a fresh MOT, and consider what it would cost to get a replacement car (including what may need fixing on that!)
If you want to sell it, I think the difference between MOT failure and MOT'd value is likely enough to justify the work, and buys you some time to make a decision.
I think the best thing to do if you really can't do any of it yourself is get a quote to fix the failure points so it at least has a fresh MOT, and consider what it would cost to get a replacement car (including what may need fixing on that!)
If you want to sell it, I think the difference between MOT failure and MOT'd value is likely enough to justify the work, and buys you some time to make a decision.
You could get that through on the cheap if you put in a little work.
Ball joint is cheap enough. Second hand struts off eBay, blow the washer jets through with an airline, new drop link and hopefully new bulb for the the fog.
It's only really the brake lines but a flaring kit is cheap and it doesn't have to look pretty.
You could diy this over a weekend or two for a few hundred quid in parts and tools if you can't borrow.
Definitely worth a go before weighing in for scrap.
Ball joint is cheap enough. Second hand struts off eBay, blow the washer jets through with an airline, new drop link and hopefully new bulb for the the fog.
It's only really the brake lines but a flaring kit is cheap and it doesn't have to look pretty.
You could diy this over a weekend or two for a few hundred quid in parts and tools if you can't borrow.
Definitely worth a go before weighing in for scrap.
V8covin said:
Ignore the advisories,just do the fails,leas than a days work for any competent mechanic,then sell it with 12 months test
Trouble is, unless its priced accordingly, anyone can look up the MOT history and it would still show a list of advisories that could put many buyers off. Gigamoons said:
If not able to do some of the work yourself or have an emotional attachment to the car, I’d sell it.
It’s a popular model though, so selling it as spares & repairs will net you a bit more than scrapping it.
I would sell it for spares. Some of the major defects are labour intensive, such as the brake pipe corroded. That will need a lot of parts taken off and a hand-made, and hand-bent brake tube. It’s a popular model though, so selling it as spares & repairs will net you a bit more than scrapping it.
Th 80k engine should make it worth something in spares.
Sounds like a car that's stood for a long time with little use. None of the jobs are massive in themselves, but could be pricey to have done by a garage.
What's the rest of the car like? If the car is clean and tidy with a decent spec and solid arches I'd be tempted to fix it - generally tatty base spec with frilly arches, not so much...
What's the rest of the car like? If the car is clean and tidy with a decent spec and solid arches I'd be tempted to fix it - generally tatty base spec with frilly arches, not so much...
Not a horrendous list - suspension arm must have been pretty bad if that’s accurate and the mot tester isn’t being dramatic. Only one that might be an arse is the fuel lines if they run over the tank. Someone with a mechanical mind wouldn’t have much bother doing that lot in a day/afternoon, but as you/he don’t it might be time to move it on….
DickyC said:
I recently finished refurbishing my wife's 25 year old SLK she has had for 21 years and is emotionally attached to. Welding, paint, brakes and fuel pipes, a lot but not all suspension, new clamps and brackets on the exhaust and it didn't need tyres, brakes or anything on the interior- £8,000. That's eight thousand pounds spent on a three grand car. If you do the absolute minimum you'll finish up with a safe but untidy car.
Unless you love it, don't do it, would be my advice. Don't break it either, you'll find you haven't got enough room - dismantled cars consume a lot of space. There's good advice above, sell as Spares or Repair and get it gone.
Best of luck.
Wow, something I cannot get my head around! If it was me I would have binned the SLK and got something else!Unless you love it, don't do it, would be my advice. Don't break it either, you'll find you haven't got enough room - dismantled cars consume a lot of space. There's good advice above, sell as Spares or Repair and get it gone.
Best of luck.
Did it sit in a field for a while?
Unfortunately I think that's a spares car, even if it was free it would cost more to fix up than it's worth. They're not rare or desirable enough for anyone to take on fixing the rust, and it's always worse than it looks, so if it looks as bad as the MOT suggests, what you can't see is probably terminal.
Unfortunately I think that's a spares car, even if it was free it would cost more to fix up than it's worth. They're not rare or desirable enough for anyone to take on fixing the rust, and it's always worse than it looks, so if it looks as bad as the MOT suggests, what you can't see is probably terminal.
I'd fix the major items and get another year out of it.
Screenwashers on BMWs usually stop working when there is a build-up of algae on the filter on the pump inside the reservoir. Pull it all apart, clean the filter, flush the reservoir and refill it with fresh fluid. I did it in an hour or so on my E46, and even quicker next time on an E86 Z4.
Rear fog-light might not need much - could be as simple as a bulb or a fuse.
Find a good Indy to fit new shocks and replace the corroded rear brake pipes in Kunifer - it's much cheaper than getting pipes from BMW that will require the fuel tank to be dropped to fit them.
And it should be ULEZ compliant - my 2002 325ti Compact was.
Screenwashers on BMWs usually stop working when there is a build-up of algae on the filter on the pump inside the reservoir. Pull it all apart, clean the filter, flush the reservoir and refill it with fresh fluid. I did it in an hour or so on my E46, and even quicker next time on an E86 Z4.
Rear fog-light might not need much - could be as simple as a bulb or a fuse.
Find a good Indy to fit new shocks and replace the corroded rear brake pipes in Kunifer - it's much cheaper than getting pipes from BMW that will require the fuel tank to be dropped to fit them.
And it should be ULEZ compliant - my 2002 325ti Compact was.
NRG1976 said:
Wow, something I cannot get my head around! If it was me I would have binned the SLK and got something else!
The point I forgot to make, aside from getting emotionally attached to machinery, is how costs can escalate. The OP has said neither he nor his mate are good with spannering, so they're stuck with paying others. On the other hand, my wife still has the car she loves to bits. You pays yer money etc etc
Alphabet said:
The previous MOT was a clean pass as are most of the prior ones. I was under no impression that it’d be rust free. But it is weird there’s no mention of it on any tests. Infact bar front disc, nothing it failed on has been on prior ones. Maybe the prev owner had a good relationship with a garage.
In my experience garages vary wildly on the extent to which they note rust on the MOT. 2 years ago garage A failed my car and flagged up a load of welding and replacement parts. Last year garage B passed it with no advisories. This year garage C did a pre-test assessment and estimated it needs £500 of rust-related work.Edited by Alphabet on Saturday 29th July 17:00
Grumps. said:
V8covin said:
Ignore the advisories,just do the fails,leas than a days work for any competent mechanic,then sell it with 12 months test
Trouble is, unless its priced accordingly, anyone can look up the MOT history and it would still show a list of advisories that could put many buyers off. Forums | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff