Corrosion and wear - please advise

[flatfour]

Hi Chaps,

I have looked at a Noble today and would love to buy for the right price. I have a couple of questions though.

1)Car is an '05, but there seems to be a lot of corrosion on the engine, drive shafts (brown with rust) and the exhaust system (especially where the exhaust runs left to right).

Is this normal?


2)The wheels on the car had laquer scrathes and corrosion (minor) also - is this normal?


3)Car smells of petrol, a bit - is this normal.




4)What is the typical cost of running one for 2-3 years servicing parts etc?




ta.


J

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

Yes, yes, yes and depends on mileage but £2000 if you're lucky > £10000 if you're not.

[saucyboy]

flatfour said:

Hi Chaps,

I have looked at a Noble today and would love to buy for the right price. I have a couple of questions though.

1)Car is an '05, but there seems to be a lot of corrosion on the engine, drive shafts (brown with rust) and the exhaust system (especially where the exhaust runs left to right).

Is this normal?


2)The wheels on the car had laquer scrathes and corrosion (minor) also - is this normal?


3)Car smells of petrol, a bit - is this normal.




4)What is the typical cost of running one for 2-3 years servicing parts etc?




ta.


J

The Noble is a great car but it does have a few niggles!!

The rear chassis bars can suffer from corrosion. This is normally just surface rust and occurs due to the heat from the exhuast and turbo. I re painted mine and covered them in heat shielding.

The standard exhaust can also suffer but most people change them for a more free flowing one, which releases a lot more horse's.

I can't comment on the '05 wheels as I had the gto-3 wheels which have been replaced with Compomotives.

I have only had mine for a year so can't say what 2-3 years servicng costs would be. However in that year I have had one service £480 (Plans Motorsport) and one set of front tyres. The only other things have been a fuse which blew when driving the car through a river (No joke!! It was the Monsoon Challenge,lol,on my first Noble meet) and a Lambda sensor.

I have covered about 7000 miles and they have all been great. I wouldn't give the car up for anything else at the mo.

Some people have experienced problems and I'm sure they will be along soon to comment.

James

[ajg31]

On the flip side i have owned for 4 months and my bills total over 7k I am quite confident over the next 3 years this would even out to about 4k a year but i have decided to sell.

[joust]

flatfour said:

1)Car is an '05, but there seems to be a lot of corrosion on the engine, drive shafts (brown with rust) and the exhaust system (especially where the exhaust runs left to right).
Is this normal?

Depends on the owner. Sounds like this car hasn't been kept in a garage, as after only 2 years you wouldn't expect a "lot" of corrosion.

flatfour said:

2)The wheels on the car had laquer scrathes and corrosion (minor) also - is this normal?

Not if people take care of the wheels. Mine are over 2 years old and whilst they have the odd dent in them, they certainly don't have any corrosion on them.

flatfour said:

3)Car smells of petrol, a bit - is this normal.

No. Some cars do smell of fuel, but this can be normally solved by either adjusting the petrol cap (the little nut underneath changes the washer tension) or clearing out the breather pipe and checking it is routed correctly.

flatfour said:

4)What is the typical cost of running one for 2-3 years servicing parts etc?

Mine's running in servicing cost at ~1000 per year. Tyres are ~£500 for the rears every 4-6k (I've an M400 running Corsas and they wear very quickly) and £500 for the fronts every 10-12k.

If you budget £2k a year you should be fine, but also if you have anything serious go wrong you can be in the £4-5k mark (e.g. a clutch is an engine out job), so make sure that you can cope with being unlucky before you take the plunge.

Go and see a few more and compare/contrast the points you noticed. That we you'll see for yourself first hand what is "normal".

J

[AMG Merc]

joust said:

flatfour said:

2)The wheels on the car had laquer scrathes and corrosion (minor) also - is this normal?

Not if people take care of the wheels. Mine are over 2 years old and whilst they have the odd dent in them, they certainly don't have any corrosion on them. J

I'm inclined to say "rubbish" Justin. It is well known that the standard 3R wheels are not the most impressively manufactured. Mine were corroded under the laquer from new - IN THE SHOWROOM! Many others here have posted similar.

[V6GTO]

You should have got the black ones then...they're pukka at not showing dirt too.

Martin.

[NobleGuy]

ajg31 said:

On the flip side i have owned for 4 months and my bills total over 7k I am quite confident over the next 3 years this would even out to about 4k a year but i have decided to sell.

Shit man, that's terrible luck. Shame it's put such a dampener on the whole experience.

As for me, some small pipes in the engine bay near the passenger side on mine are a bit rusty - rain can get in between the rear clam and cockpit, and can easily access the front between the clam and windscreen and also the front clam grill. Nothing very serious but it can lead to power connectors corroding a bit - just check them reasonably regularly, or don't drive/leave it in the rain.

Edited by NobleGuy on Monday 16th July 12:22

[joust]

AMG Merc said:

I'm inclined to say "rubbish" Justin. It is well known that the standard 3R wheels are not the most impressively manufactured. Mine were corroded under the laquer from new - IN THE SHOWROOM! Many others here have posted similar.

So why didn't you reject them then? I've two sets of 3R wheels if you recall Rob, and also another spare rear, and none have suffered.

[chippie]

Sounds like the car you were looking at was out in the elements for a period of time. When I was looking for my car a few years ago one I came across sounds like what you have described, just walked away.
My car is a 2002 and has hardly any corrosion on the driveshafts, engine, none on the chassis, but then it has been garaged and it doesn't get wet much. I also give the metal parts a misting with WD40 after washing.
The exhaust is mild steel so will have some corrosion.