1st five weeks....and I need help
Discussion
Well, that's my first five weeks of ownership over with. Unfortunately, for three of those weeks the Cerb's been in the garage having a multitude of minor electrical gremlins sorted, luckily all under warranty. Had the plugs and leads changed, a circuit board behind the dash replaced, (the MIL and brake warning lights weren't working), the A/C fixed, an air filter installed, etc etc. So now that it's back, it's time for a few miles. Or not. Now the battery's flat and I can't get in. :( What's the secret please? Could someone e-mail me on my profile? And give me some encouragement as well, please, or it'll be up in the classifieds next week and I'll buy a nice reliable Nissan Micra :vomit:
YHM, I find the car constantly has niggles, most of which I normally wait till the next service to get sorted.
It's currently in for a service along with, noisy tappets, knackered front discs, two oil leaks again, various bushes, external door buttons that work when they're in the right mood, air con that kills the idle speed, duff handbrake again, a speedo that never goes below 40 even when standing still, leaking rear shocks... I could go on.
Reliable cars, they're not, good chance you'll need a clutch at some time, while your having that done you'll probably get the seals replaced, then once you've had that fixed the master or slave cylinder themselves will fail, and you'll pay for it all again.
After a bit, like me, any repairs under a £1000, you just laugh off.
Great when it's running though.
Keep the faith
It's currently in for a service along with, noisy tappets, knackered front discs, two oil leaks again, various bushes, external door buttons that work when they're in the right mood, air con that kills the idle speed, duff handbrake again, a speedo that never goes below 40 even when standing still, leaking rear shocks... I could go on.
Reliable cars, they're not, good chance you'll need a clutch at some time, while your having that done you'll probably get the seals replaced, then once you've had that fixed the master or slave cylinder themselves will fail, and you'll pay for it all again.
After a bit, like me, any repairs under a £1000, you just laugh off.
Great when it's running though.
Keep the faith
they do have their niggles, but once they get sorted you have months and months of pure motoring pleasure. But i do honestly think they are not as bad as reputation may suggest - just look after em, treat with resepct and keep those services up, and use her as much as possible, and thinks should be OK (you will need a new clutch at some point though i am afraid to say!) Just sounds like you had a bit of bad luck in your first few weeks - i am sure reliability will be much better now
Great looking motor by the way - lovely colour
Great looking motor by the way - lovely colour
Thanks for the optomistic words, gbird. Not biased about the colour, are we?
Any consensus on the likely life of a clutch in normal use? My car's done £22k, and is a '98 4.5. I believe, from reading the forums, that there are two types of clutch, one of which is no longer available, so am I likely to still be on the original, and would I possibly need to change the flywheel and the bellhousing come the day?
All my other cars have easily done 60,000+ before the clutch has needed to be changed. I am aware, though, that the Cerb isn't like 'other' cars, so I'm well prepared
Any consensus on the likely life of a clutch in normal use? My car's done £22k, and is a '98 4.5. I believe, from reading the forums, that there are two types of clutch, one of which is no longer available, so am I likely to still be on the original, and would I possibly need to change the flywheel and the bellhousing come the day?
All my other cars have easily done 60,000+ before the clutch has needed to be changed. I am aware, though, that the Cerb isn't like 'other' cars, so I'm well prepared
Have a look at the 'most paid' thread - youre not alone. I have a '98 cerb and its seems that after 6 or seven years from new most things will need replacing. Its just one of those cerb things. Don't let it get you down, just realise that you may need some spare cash put aside near each service from now on.
Forget all about this though and just go outside and look at it - then you'll know why you bought it and you'll feel that knowing rise in optimism - you are never the only one looking at your cerb.
Regards MB
Forget all about this though and just go outside and look at it - then you'll know why you bought it and you'll feel that knowing rise in optimism - you are never the only one looking at your cerb.
Regards MB
Adetuono said:
Thanks for the optomistic words, gbird. Not biased about the colour, are we?
Any consensus on the likely life of a clutch in normal use? My car's done £22k, and is a '98 4.5. I believe, from reading the forums, that there are two types of clutch, one of which is no longer available, so am I likely to still be on the original, and would I possibly need to change the flywheel and the bellhousing come the day?
All my other cars have easily done 60,000+ before the clutch has needed to be changed. I am aware, though, that the Cerb isn't like 'other' cars, so I'm well prepared
Would you believe that apart from an exemplary taste in colour (me biased? never
) , our Cerbs are both 98's and mine had just 3k more miles on the clock than yours when i bought it. I think i remember reading that 98 was the year clutches changes to the new type, and it depends if it was built the beginning of 98 or the latter. Anyhow, i guess after 22k miles it will already have had a new clutch, so if it did have the old one then perhaps it has already been changed -check the service book/repairs history if you have them. I have done approx 11k in my Cerb, and in that time have had 3 problems with the clutch - x2 new slaves and x1 new flywheel & whole kaboodle (kindly donated to me by a very generous PHer
) Don't think this is normal though - i'm either unlucky or simply cannot drive properly!)Gassing Station | Cerbera | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff