What's the most expensive car repair bill you have ever had?

[Wacky Racer]

As per thread title.

I'm not talking about accident damage, but a huge bill to repair a fault on a car you owned where you paid it out of your own pocket....(or on credit card if you were financially embarrassed at the time).

[cerb4.5lee]

£11k was mine when the oil relief spring failed on my Cerbera, It ended up needing a new crank and cylinder head, a rebuild and the clutch/slave cylinder were done while they were at it, and a few other bits and bobs.

At the time it happened you could actually buy a Cerbera for £11k, which made me feel all the more worse.

[pixelatedJH]

£1200 for a gearbox rebuild and clutch, 4 weeks after I bought the car... That'll teach me to think 'that's just an old suspension clunk' on the test drive.

[alorotom]

Oil starvation on a 2.2 Astra coupe ... new crated engine from VX - £12k (and that’s with the discount from the knackered unit being returned to VX!)

Oil starvation on my 2nd RX8 ... rotary specialists for a new unit from them - £4.5k

[anonymous-user]

I must've done well, by the sound of things. £915 for a cam/aux belt/dephaser/water pump change, plus various bits and pulleys on my old Clio 182.

What about surprisingly expensive for what the part was?

I recently forked out £600 for a new electric water pump (environmental tosh) and thermostat on my 130i. Xenons on my old 182 cost me nearly £500 in three years: new bulbs and ballast, new washer pump (MOT loophole says pump needs to work on Xenon equipped cars). So glad I haven't got xenons on my present car.

[vacant-100]

£900 to sort a twisted chassis on an XR3i after I stacked it.
Spent another £150 on lights and a 90 spec bumper before selling it about three months later for £400.

[golfer19]

alorotom said:

Oil starvation on a 2.2 Astra coupe ... new crated engine from VX - £12k (and that’s with the discount from the knackered unit being returned to VX!)

Oil starvation on my 2nd RX8 ... rotary specialists for a new unit from them - £4.5k

You got it bad.

[deckster]

alorotom said:

Oil starvation on a 2.2 Astra coupe ... new crated engine from VX - £12k (and that’s with the discount from the knackered unit being returned to VX!)

Gotta be joking, surely. There is no universe in which it has ever been worth spending £12k on an Astra.

[alorotom]

deckster said:

alorotom said:

Oil starvation on a 2.2 Astra coupe ... new crated engine from VX - £12k (and that’s with the discount from the knackered unit being returned to VX!)

Gotta be joking, surely. There is no universe in which it has ever been worth spending £12k on an Astra.

Don’t join or look into what anyone spends modifying VXR’s then!

[Turkish91]

Engine on my Evo 6 fully shat itself 5 days into ownership. Waved goodbye to £12k when I collected it.

[PDP76]

Just shy of £900 on a blown turbo. That was for a recon and fitting. Brand new was nearer £1500 with fitting.

[spookly]

£950 for head gasket on a V8 Range Rover. Including removal of both heads, skimming and reassembly. That price also included a major service including gearbox. I was very unhappy when that particular back street garage burnt down :-(

[JakeT]

£500 for a timing belt on my Golf GTi after the water pump failed. Didn't take the belt with it thankfully. I was quoted £1600 from BMW for a steering rack though.

[2172cc]

£750 for an ECU that controls the suspension, £200 for a new master cylinder, £350 for a new water pump all on a 29,000 mile VW Scirocco. Sold it fairly quickly after before anything else went wrong with it.

[MJ85]

£2,450, L322 Range Rover. Off the top of my head, that includes:

Replacement front subframe, ABS sensor, anti roll bar and bushes, rear calliper, tracking, rear wishbone, rear brake shoes, headlight level sensor, drop link, track rod, suspension air bag, some other stuff I can’t remember.

[Jeenyus161]

A friend of mine has a 62 plate q3 and he's just had an £8k bill for a new gearbox/clutch etc.

Full extended manufacturer warranty and full service history with Audi. Audi politely declined to contribute to the costs...

[BerksBoy]

1,350 at the recent services on my Audi A6 TDI.... Service, 4x Tyres and best part of 400 notes to repair the damage from where a mouse had chewed (almost through) the fuel pipes. Not a good day in the Berksboy house.

[Dapster]

I misread the service schedule and had the gearbox oil service on my Audi A4 changed at 4 years, not 5, so 1 year early. A few thousand miles later the oil pipe from the oil cooler to the box blew out, spewing firstly all my gearbox oil, and then the contents of the gearbox all over the M23. Car was trailered to the Audi Centre who presented me with a quote for £4,500. Car was just out of warranty and with a full main dealer history. Audi AG told me to do one, as did Audi UK. However the dealer who had serviced the car from new, and had done the oil change offered a £1,700 discount and threw in a service and valet so I figured I'd lube up and fork out the £2,800 (£2.5k if you factor in the service).

[Prinny]

This year:

Just short of £1500 for a replacement logic 7 amp in the 7-series.

However, that’s probably going to be beaten by the misfire that I’m currently trying to get to the bottom of. (The ‘value’ BMW servicing for spark plugs alone comes to approx. £800 at a Main Dealer) no-one yet has been able to trace it. HPFP’s (there’s two) are around £2.5k each, but there’s apparently a cheap (as in £25 and half an hour) diaphragm replacement there, so I’m not worried for that directly. ATEOD, it was >£120k when new, can’t expect to run it on tuppence ha’penny.

All time: About £3k for a new head & associated bits after I blew the head gasket for the 3rd time & it couldn’t be skimmed any more (Toyota Supra 3l turbo, the pop-up headlight one), I loved & hated that car in equal measure!

[Ninja59]

6500 for my new long block in my mx5.

Nothing compared with the N57 block (short) from BMW which are 16000 with nothing else.