The Joy of Running an Old Shed

[STIfree]

rider73 said:

ok so first shed fettle - after studying the rear parking ecu - black and red wires go in, parking sensor wires go in and black and red wires go out to rear lights, so i snipped both black and red wires and stripped and block connected the in/out together, bypassing the parking ecu.

went to replace the 5amp fuse only to find i dont have a spare - not even a 7.5amp fuse .... so trip to halfords for massive markup on a 5amp fuse this arvo... at least i know the car will start and i have not done anything catastrophic to it! (nervous laughter)

I forget, what age is your Skoda?

I'm wondering if this will be an issue for sheds in the future. With cars containing more electronics that can fail and require replacement instead of repair, this could write off a cheap car.

I was looking at an Audi or something similar in traffic the other day, one of the rear brake lights had a few of the LED's out. I imagine it's a whole unit that would need replacing to fix that. What happens in 10-15 years when these cars are sub 1k but a couple of light clusters are likely the same price?

[Jimmy Recard]

STIfree said:

I forget, what age is your Skoda?

I'm wondering if this will be an issue for sheds in the future. With cars containing more electronics that can fail and require replacement instead of repair, this could write off a cheap car.

I was looking at an Audi or something similar in traffic the other day, one of the rear brake lights had a few of the LED's out. I imagine it's a whole unit that would need replacing to fix that. What happens in 10-15 years when these cars are sub 1k but a couple of light clusters are likely the same price?

People have been asking that for as long as I can remember. They thought that ABS, airbags, electronic ignition and fuel injection would do that.

People just find cheaper ways to repair things

[Jimmy Recard]

Starjet99 said:

Agreed in principle, but early (and relatively basic) electronics are a different kettle of fish compared to much of the new connected tech on very modern cars. I genuinely believe some modern cars will be difficult to run as sheds. But I'd be very happy to be proved wrong in 15-20 years time!

I think that there will be some models that have common faults that are particularly expensive to fix and will be scrapped for that, but that was always the case

[Mr-B]

STIfree said:

I forget, what age is your Skoda?

I'm wondering if this will be an issue for sheds in the future. With cars containing more electronics that can fail and require replacement instead of repair, this could write off a cheap car.

I was looking at an Audi or something similar in traffic the other day, one of the rear brake lights had a few of the LED's out. I imagine it's a whole unit that would need replacing to fix that. What happens in 10-15 years when these cars are sub 1k but a couple of light clusters are likely the same price?

I have a BMW e46 with LED rears and there are some LEDs not working but it always passes the MOT. I did ask the tester (which I have used for many years so he may be being liberal with interpretations ) about it and he said that if "some" are working then it's OK. I can get a "new" unit for £80 but can't be arsed. I see some of these matrix LED headlights cost a fortune and do wonder once a car reaches shed status if it fails could it be a write off? Or will a replacement unit in 10 years time be a £100?

[STIfree]

My guess is that in future there will be more cars treat like the early 2000's Mercedes S class' now.

Lot of car for the money, great to waft about in but if something fails (air suspension) then it's a scrapper.

[rider73]

STIfree said:

My guess is that in future there will be more cars treat like the early 2000's Mercedes S class' now.

Lot of car for the money, great to waft about in but if something fails (air suspension) then it's a scrapper.

THIS

and if you think of hybrid / electric cars what happens to those when the battery technology moves on and it costs 1000's to get a new battery for you car that worth just a few K itself - although i suspect you'll get aftermarket conversion kits, but i can imagine these wont come cheap either.

[M4cruiser]

Mr-B said:

I have a BMW e46 with LED rears and there are some LEDs not working but it always passes the MOT. I did ask the tester (which I have used for many years so he may be being liberal with interpretations ) about it and he said that if "some" are working then it's OK. I can get a "new" unit for £80 but can't be arsed. I see some of these matrix LED headlights cost a fortune and do wonder once a car reaches shed status if it fails could it be a write off? Or will a replacement unit in 10 years time be a £100?

The MoT allows a 50% rule on multiple LED units.

I agree it's a future problem. I quick look on Ebay and a pair of LED Headlights for a mundane car like a 2017 Hyundai i30 cost £550 second hand. Not long before the whole car is worth about that much.

[Jimmy Recard]

M4cruiser said:

The MoT allows a 50% rule on multiple LED units.

I agree it's a future problem. I quick look on Ebay and a pair of LED Headlights for a mundane car like a 2017 Hyundai i30 cost £550 second hand. Not long before the whole car is worth about that much.

And more headlight units will be available used

[Demelitia]

Jimmy Recard said:

M4cruiser said:

The MoT allows a 50% rule on multiple LED units.

I agree it's a future problem. I quick look on Ebay and a pair of LED Headlights for a mundane car like a 2017 Hyundai i30 cost £550 second hand. Not long before the whole car is worth about that much.

And more headlight units will be available used

Exactly. There’s been a couple of comments saying that components on new cars are expensive and will be enough to write cars off due to their depreciation, not taking in to account the fact that the parts available will be doing their own depreciation.
This isn’t the best example, but xenon headlights were available as an option on the b5.5 Passat. I imagine they’d have been quite costly to replace way back when; now they’re available for £100 a pair on Facebook groups.

I’d be more worried about today’s cars today, than in 10 years time when people have had time to figure out cheap ways to fix/bodge things that break on them.

[magpie215]

There is definitely a sweetspot

Plenty of good used cars and plenty of the same model being broken up.

Unfortunately with my 24 year old model I'm now most definitely outside that sweet spot.

[grumpy52]

I finally did the plugs , leads and coil pack on the focus at the weekend. The rough running had gotten really bad so I hit ebay/ Eurocarparts . Less than £30 and the car is transformed!
All caused by the sparkplugs wells filling up with rainwater .
A Volvo top engine cover is next on the list , it's a direct fit and recommended upgrade as the engines are identical, and I also adjusted the handbrake while the tools were out.
The first car that I have had in years that has cheap parts .
Years of Volvo 850 , S70 and C70 T5s have kept the wallet slim.

[kcalculates]

I'm heading into shed land shortly. Sick of picking up parking dents and paying silly service costs to keep 'Full main dealer service history' and paying for warranties.

What's the general consensus of buying a shed with a towbar? I don't need one, but a huge amount of sheds have them fitted. I assume to stay clear as they could have been used to trailer tractors up farm tracks for the last 200,000 miles..

[Cads]

My Mazda shed has a tow bar, fitted during my stewardship. Its only ever towed a small camping trailer. So hardly stressed the car beyond normal driving.

Given the cost of fitting a tow bar, my next shed will almost definitely have a tow bar as pre-requisite.

I certainly wouldn't rule a shed out because it had a tow bar.

Happy shedding!!

[jagnet]

kcalculates said:

What's the general consensus of buying a shed with a towbar? I don't need one, but a huge amount of sheds have them fitted. I assume to stay clear as they could have been used to trailer tractors up farm tracks for the last 200,000 miles..

Imho, avoid in coastal locations or if there's a jet ski in the garage. More often there's a good chance it will have been used for little more than mounting a bike rack or occasionally towing a tiny trailer with a couple of bags of garden rubbish to the dump.

I ignored the coastal location clue once and the rust that formed on the rear half of the car was impressive, whereas the towbar on the Saab was barely used and still had most of its original paint on it. Now it does get used for towing trailers down farm tracks but it doesn't seem to be phasing it at all.

A tow bar can also be a useful rear defence against the less observant. Mine performed admirably on that front, fending off a white van driver that didn't believe in using mirrors whilst reversing.

[LukeyP_]

Dropped my shed off at the garage this morning for it's cambelt/water pump doing!

[Liamjrhodes]

Currently dirve a 2007 Corsa 1.7cdti I bought last year for £500

It failed its MOT on unbalanced front brakes and a rusty sub frame

I was shocked the sub frame had rusted enough to fail the MOT but apparently its a pretty common issue, Vauxhall have even replaced some under warranty!

Replacement sub frame from a 5 year newer Corsa was only £40 and replacement discs and pads for £75
Prior to the MOT i had a new exhaust flexi welded in as this was leaking

Sub frame and brakes to be fitted this weekend with the re-test on Tuesday!

All in its still less than £700 and should do me another years of motoring no problem

[watchnut]

For Tow Bars.....if it is an old civic or something like that....then your laughing cause an old bloke (like my dad) would have have hitched his little trailer to it to go to the dump with garden waste in it every couple of months (he gave me his trailer a couple of years ago) so little to no wear on the car

If it's a 4x4 V70 used by a caravan tugger....then it maybe has had a harder life.....having said that my V70 used to pull a caravan up to it's 1600KG weight limit for about 8 years, and really struggled up hills....and we are still on original clutch at 243k miles

Bloody good for reversing in car parks....well for when folk reverse into you was sat in car once when this happened....the corsa that reversed into it had a nice dent in her bumper.....my V70 was fine, just a small nick in the plastic ball cover.... I was generous to say "knock for knock" and would pay for a new one for myself But didn't, it might have cost more than a bar of cadburys fruit and nut.

We buy any old shed .com contacted me today and said there was demand for my V70.....(previously valued by them at £250) and now owing to demand dropped the price to £150 !!!! the bloody tyres and boot cover are worth about £400 alone the cheeky buggers

[Jaguar steve]

If the Shed with a tow bar has been used for boat launching and recovery in salt water, especially if the electrics have regularly been submerged then you're potentially looking at a whole world of pain. I've seen cars driven bumper deep on slipways several times and just waited for somebody inside to forget and inadvertently open a door...

IIIRC if a towbar is fitted the lighting supply must be working to pass a MOT - which it wont if it's corroded away to nothing.

[LukeyP_]

Cambelt and water pump replaced today.

Last known time was 2009 but looks like it was done in 2015/2016 as the pulley had a 2015 date stamp on it. Technically had only done 40,000miles but was 5 years nearly so nevermind. It's the risk you take...

[OllieJolly]

jagnet said:

A tow bar can also be a useful rear defence against the less observant. Mine performed admirably on that front, fending off a white van driver that didn't believe in using mirrors whilst reversing.

My only bump in the 6 years I've been driving was a guy reversing into my old £400 Focus in a car park while I was stopped. He reversed into my towbar. Not a mark on my car.

Quite how you reverse out of a parking space without a single look behind you or in your mirrors AND with parking sensors and manage to hit a stationary car behind you, I don't know...