The Joy of Running an Old Shed

[Philvrs]

Don't worry I'm not getting rid of my car for £50, I will advertise it for more, hopefully at no cost to me, apart from the time/time wasters comical value. It will get sorn'd today, and put out of the way, the van is due for arrival next week, I fortunately have the use of another vehicle in the meantime ( shed rule 12.4 I believe)

[greenarrow]

V6todayEVmanana said:

In this month Car Mechanics magazine there is an article on "A car from the price of 1 months PCP", the writer brought a Ford Mondeo 1.8 for around £270. Was happy with it for the journeys he has done so far. Was like reading this thread Sheds may be all bought up soon ;-p

I think some sheds are selling very quickly due to lack of a supply. I was scanning Autotrader a few days ago. A 2004 Ford Focus Mk1 popped up down the road from me, fairly tidy and only 100K miles, but £995, which seemed a little steep to me for a car that didn't have an unblemished MOT record. It was marked up as sold within 48 hours. Pre-Covid I am sure that Focus would have hung around for a few weeks before selling. The days of the £270 Mondeo may be limited!

[Joey Deacon]

Bonefish Blues said:

Philvrs said:

The most annoying thing about my £50 valuation is the 3/4 full tank of petrol worth about £40 in it

By the time they've chipped the customary£350 off the price you'll owe them £300, by my reckoning.

Just did a quick check using my car details and WeBuyAnyCar have also valued it at £50. Interestingly enough, RemoveMyCar give a scrap valuation of £138.

Not that I am going to be getting rid of it anytime soon.

[M4cruiser]

Just done the worst part of owning a shed - the Road Tax!!!!!!
This year it comes in at £305.
So tempting so get something with annual tax at £30 or less .... but then I look at the depreciation again, payback period is still 5 to 7 years, ..
so I stick with my current shed until it really won't go any more.
?

[PrinceRupert]

I got myself a Rover 75 with only 55k on the clock for a measly £650 delivered last week. Not so much to be run as a shed but it was cheap and interested me. Its in reasonably good nick. It has a suspension knock which appears to be drop links and should be an easy DIY fix. However, it has no service history, and so is probably well overdue a cambelt change - which is outside my DIY ability and quite expensive on these at around £550.

What is the PH shed consensus on cambelts? Play roulette? Pay for peace of mind? Cannot really decide...

[Jimmy Recard]

PrinceRupert said:

I got myself a Rover 75 with only 55k on the clock for a measly £650 delivered. Not so much to be run as a shed but it was cheap and interested me. It has a suspension knock which appears to be drop links and should be an easy DIY fix. However, it has no service history, and so is probably well overdue a cambelt change - which is outside my DIY ability and quite expensive on these at around £550.

What is the PH shed consensus on cambelts? Play roulette? Pay for peace of mind? Cannot really decide...

I do belts. I always think it's a false economy to leave it to ruin the engine unless I know the car will be scrapped shortly

[Joey Deacon]

M4cruiser said:

Just done the worst part of owning a shed - the Road Tax!!!!!!
This year it comes in at £305.
So tempting so get something with annual tax at £30 or less .... but then I look at the depreciation again, payback period is still 5 to 7 years, ..
so I stick with my current shed until it really won't go any more.
?

Always stick with your current shed, it will always be cheaper in the long run unless it happens to do less than 20MPG and you drive a lot of miles.

Mine is £30 a year and I am just about to pay it for the 4th time I have owned the car. Compared to £305, this has saved me £1100 which is only £100 less than I paid for the car in the first place.

However, it has utterly ruined me for any other car now as I can't stand the thought of paying more for road tax. Before I owned this car it was only cars that were over £500 a year that would have put me off, now it is anything more than I am paying now.

Having just checked the bands again I cannot believe that L is £565 and M is £580 a year!

[carinaman]

PrinceRupert said:

What is the PH shed consensus on cambelts? Play roulette? Pay for peace of mind? Cannot really decide...

I don't know if We Buy Any Car would give you price for it at the moment. That may help you decide what to do.

[bearman68]

Joey Deacon said:

Always stick with your current shed, it will always be cheaper in the long run unless it happens to do less than 20MPG and you drive a lot of miles.

Mine is £30 a year and I am just about to pay it for the 4th time I have owned the car. Compared to £305, this has saved me £1100 which is only £100 less than I paid for the car in the first place.

However, it has utterly ruined me for any other car now as I can't stand the thought of paying more for road tax. Before I owned this car it was only cars that were over £500 a year that would have put me off, now it is anything more than I am paying now.

Having just checked the bands again I cannot believe that L is £565 and M is £580 a year!

£30 (or less) a year tax is the first rule of sheds. (Obv)

[Jimmy Recard]

bearman68 said:

£30 (or less) a year tax is the first rule of sheds. (Obv)

Mine is £330

I struggle to think of a reliable, large 4x4 that can tow 3500kg and has £30/year tax, so I see the value in it

[PrinceRupert]

carinaman said:

I don't know if We Buy Any Car would give you price for it at the moment. That may help you decide what to do.

£50

[MrGTI6]

Jimmy Recard said:

PrinceRupert said:

I got myself a Rover 75 with only 55k on the clock for a measly £650 delivered. Not so much to be run as a shed but it was cheap and interested me. It has a suspension knock which appears to be drop links and should be an easy DIY fix. However, it has no service history, and so is probably well overdue a cambelt change - which is outside my DIY ability and quite expensive on these at around £550.

What is the PH shed consensus on cambelts? Play roulette? Pay for peace of mind? Cannot really decide...

I do belts. I always think it's a false economy to leave it to ruin the engine unless I know the car will be scrapped shortly

Agreed. I replaced the timing belt on my car last week. It was well overdue and was constantly at the back of my mind whenever I drove it. Did the water pump at the same time. First time I've spent out on it (aside from tyres/discs/pads) in over three years but totally worthwhile getting it done.

[PrinceRupert]

MrGTI6 said:

Agreed. I replaced the timing belt on my car last week. It was well overdue and was constantly at the back of my mind whenever I drove it. Did the water pump at the same time. First time I've spent out on it (aside from tyres/discs/pads) in over three years but totally worthwhile getting it done.

If I was three years in and knew it was a keeper, it would be a no-brainer. A week after ownership on a car that I don't know is sound and don't know how long I'll keep ... different question I think. My main concern is avoiding getting stranded somewhere miles from home when I take it on a trip to North Wales or the Isle of Skye or whatever.

[MrGTI6]

PrinceRupert said:

MrGTI6 said:

Agreed. I replaced the timing belt on my car last week. It was well overdue and was constantly at the back of my mind whenever I drove it. Did the water pump at the same time. First time I've spent out on it (aside from tyres/discs/pads) in over three years but totally worthwhile getting it done.

If I was three years in and knew it was a keeper, it would be a no-brainer. A week after ownership on a car that I don't know is sound and don't know how long I'll keep ... different question I think. My main concern is avoiding getting stranded somewhere miles from home when I take it on a trip to North Wales or the Isle of Skye or whatever.

Fair enough, I can understand why you might be reluctant to get it done. Then again, another way to look at it is that the car will have set you back about a grand with a brand new cam-belt, which doesn't sound unreasonable given how much some 75s are being advertised for these days.

I assume your 75 is petrol? The reason I ask is because the diesels are chain-driven. You are probably aware of this, but thought I'd mention just in case.

[PrinceRupert]

MrGTI6 said:

Fair enough, I can understand why you might be reluctant to get it done. Then again, another way to look at it is that the car will have set you back about a grand with a brand new cam-belt, which doesn't sound unreasonable given how much some 75s are being advertised for these days.

I assume your Rover 75 is petrol? The reason I ask is because the diesels are chain-driven. You are probably aware of this, but thought I'd mention just in case.

Yes the 2.5l KV6. Apparently there are three belts and it is a bit of a pig of a job. And agreed, even purchase price + belt and ancillaries price still wouldn't be massively expensive.

[Pat H]

Just because a car has a timing chain doesn't necessarily get you off the hook.

The only timing drive failure that I have ever experienced was when a K11 Micra snapped its timing chain.

Whether to play timing belt roulette should be determined by the type of car.

I would happily ignore the 110k interval on a Ford (Peugeot) 2.0 TDCi. When I changed the belt and water pump on my Focus at almost 120k there was no slack in the pump, no discernible wear to the belt and the tensioners were like new. All the bits looked like they would do another 100k without complaint.

By way of contrast, the timing belt and tensioner on a TS Alfa has a (revised) 36k interval for the damn good reason that many Twin Sparks never managed to reach the original 72k interval without failing.

Some engines are surprising. The Lotus 900 series motors fitted to Eclats, Elites, Excels and Esprits never seem to fail and are fitted with an extremely butch timing belt. Which is a good job, as changing the belt on an Esprit is a significant undertaking.

Does anyone have experience of the VW 1.8T petrol engine? I recently bought a cheap Audi TT, which has covered 96k. The service history suggests that it had a timing belt at about 65k, but I am not sure that I believe it.

I have just given it a service and replaced what I am sure were the original
spark plugs and an utterly filthy cabin filter, so I have little faith that the timing belt was done, despite the impressive looking receipt.

[PrinceRupert]

There is a long and amusing battle on the Rover forum around timing belts, with one chap saying they should be changed every six years on the button and another saying they are nigh indestructible.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/showthread....

From inspecting the little bit of belt I can see in the engine bay, it looks okay, but I'm no expert and I can't see most of it.

[magpie215]

PrinceRupert said:

There is a long and amusing battle on the Rover forum around timing belts, with one chap saying they should be changed every six years on the button and another saying they are nigh indestructible.

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/showthread....

From inspecting the little bit of belt I can see in the engine bay, it looks okay, but I'm no expert and I can't see most of it.

Visual belt inspection tells you very little hence why there is no visual insp of the belt called up in service schedules.

Anyway belt failure is usually the result of another component failure waterpump tensioner idler pulleys.

[giblet]

M4cruiser said:

Just done the worst part of owning a shed - the Road Tax!!!!!!
This year it comes in at £305.
So tempting so get something with annual tax at £30 or less .... but then I look at the depreciation again, payback period is still 5 to 7 years, ..
so I stick with my current shed until it really won't go any more.
?

Biggest downside for me with my 9-3 Aero. Over £500 in tax on a £2k car is annoying to say the least.

I’ve thought about selling it and replacing it with the lower tax version but it seems like a lot of hassle

[Bonefish Blues]

£550 on the recently-purchased C70 T5 (£1999 'cos I found a quid). It's only going to run Easter - late Sept, so not fussed.