The Joy of Running an Old Shed

[ghost83]

I’m loving my sheds


Just fixed my wife’s corsa,

The air con pump was noisy and the auxiliary belt was shredded I was quoted £200 all in with vat for parts and labour to replace the auxiliary belt

I got a shorter belt to cancel the air con pump out for £10 from Carl at autovaux

And it took me 10 minutes to fit

So I’m happy at that saving,

Going to sell it soon autotrader says it’s worth £850 so will see if you can live with a noisy air con pump it just needs a longer belt (air con was lovely and cold)

[martin mrt]

I have had a fair few sheds, fixer uppers over the past few months but as everything for me is back to normal with regards to work I decided I needed a shed to run over winter, ideally in the <£30 tax band

Round 1 happened last Wednesday when I seen this Polo TDI localish to me for under £400, bargain, it needed a few small jobs rectified that it failed its MOT on. Perfect


However, things took a turn for the worse for the Polo the following day when I seen this for £200 on Gumtree packing the same 1.4 TDI as the Polo. Couldn’t say no, however it had no 3rd 4th 5th Gear, what could possibly go wrong



Small issue, it was the best part of 220 miles away in Thurso, and only had 2 gears. Gave the seller an extra £50 and he drove it a few miles to where my work could load it on a truck we had up there the following day.



Got it home on the Friday, did some Googling on the fault and as I initially suspected it “may” be the shifter tower that’s had it, so £10 at the local scrap yard later and a tower from a 5speed O2J Golf was acquired and fitted. It now has 5 gears and reverse. Result, parked at work fixed


Wheels I am no fan of, but they will replace an even more terrible set that’s fitted to a Golf spares car I have

Picked these up and will fit them this week


So there we have my winter shed that has cost me under £500 including the wheels that I hope will help keep the miles off my C63 but more importantly allow it to remain off salty Scottish winter roads

Edited by martin mrt on Wednesday 21st October 16:02

[OMITN]

My ageing parents have been running a 2002 plate petrol L322 for years. It's literally just been PX'd for a 2014 L405.

As ruinous as the L322 was getting, I'm not convinced that a newer FFRR is exactly going down the path of frugal motoring..!

Still, fair play to them. I mean what's the worst than can happen?

(In shed news, my new rear wiper has arrived for the 307 - going to try to get to the bottom of why, using the correct parts, the blade goes above the top of the rear screen.)

[Jimmy Recard]

OMITN said:

My ageing parents have been running a 2002 plate petrol L322 for years. It's literally just been PX'd for a 2014 L405.

As ruinous as the L322 was getting, I'm not convinced that a newer FFRR is exactly going down the path of frugal motoring..!

Still, fair play to them. I mean what's the worst than can happen?

(In shed news, my new rear wiper has arrived for the 307 - going to try to get to the bottom of why, using the correct parts, the blade goes above the top of the rear screen.)

How far above? Assuming the blade definitely is the correct length, maybe a bend in the spindle?

[Digby]

Took the old barge down to the workshop at the weekend to fit a new temp sensor due to temp gauge fluctuations. It's in a really lovely position and so easy to change (sarcasm)

Did want to do the thermostat at the same time, but the wrong one turned up. Oh well.

Also changed the oil.



Make sure you have the correct oil filter housing removal tool. It's a really large, flash looking socket type thing. Or just do as I did...



Wow, what a neat looking engine....(bonnet piston arm thingy died, hence the wood)



Oh yeah, it's just a cover...



Some Merc wheels with Winter tyres ready to go on it if I don't use the Sedici...



I may or may not give the inside a clean. Turns out it's a "sport" model. Ooooh.



Also noticed the lower main drivers door speaker in the Swift wasn't working. On my Sedici (also a Suzuki with a Fiat badge) the main drivers door speaker wasn't working on that when I got it, either. There was no rust inside either door, but the terminals on the speakers were corroded to the point of turning to dust when you touched them. I guessed this would be the same and of course, it was. A bit of chopping and some solder and we were back in business..



Things that didn't go well...

I broke the Passat dipstick holder by breathing on it. Ordered two new ones to make sure I got the correct one. Now fitted.

The Passat came with one key and a broken fob, so I changed the fob but left the battery out for too long so now the key isn't coded to the car.

I can still use it to start it, but if I lock the car with the key, it sets the alarm and opening the door now sets off said alarm until the key enters the ignition.

And yes I tried all the various online methods to code the key, including taking out the door lock and fooling the lock into thinking I had two keys with a screwdriver etc. None of them worked and it would appear this B5.5 model has a different alarm on it, so it's not possible using the methods I tried. Will get some mobile guru to sort.

Broke the clip on the temp sensor....glued it.

Dropped a torch into the engine bay five seconds after opening the bonnet and couldn't even see it, even though it was on!! Undertray was coming off anyway, so no big deal, just annoying.

Dropped second bolt for thermostat housing into same engine bay. I couldn't even see where a yellow lit torch ended up, so there was no chance of finding a small black bolt. Never found it, so ordered another. Now has two bolts, but still have to change thermostat, so may drop another.

Thing that holds the bonnet up gave up. In fact it came down and crushed my "I can't find my funnel, so will make one from this Coke bottle" contraption. "Fixed" with piece of wood which I will now carry in boot...

Undertray has clearly been off a few times and scraped many times and didn't really want to go back on once removed. Say hello to Mr cable tie and Mrs self tapper..

[matchmaker]

martin mrt said:

I have had a fair few sheds, fixer uppers over the past few months but as everything for me is back to normal with regards to work I decided I needed a shed to run over winter, ideally in the <£30 tax band

Round 1 happened last Wednesday when I seen this Polo TDI localish to me for under £400, bargain, it needed a few small jobs rectified that it failed its MOT on. Perfect


However, things took a turn for the worse for the Polo the following day when I seen this for £200 on Gumtree packing the same 1.4 TDI as the Polo. Couldn’t say no, however it had no 3rd 4th 5th Gear, what could possibly go wrong



Small issue, it was the best part of 220 miles away in Thurso, and only had 2 gears. Gave the seller an extra £50 and he drove it a few miles to where my work could load it on a truck we had up there the following day.



Got it home on the Friday, did some Googling on the fault and as I initially suspected it “may” be the shifter tower that’s had it, so £10 at the local scrap yard later and a tower from a 5speed O2J Golf was acquired and fitted. It now has 5 gears and reverse. Result, parked at work fixed


Wheels I am no fan of, but they will replace an even more terrible set that’s fitted to a Golf spares car I have

Picked these up and will fit them this week


So there we have my winter shed that has cost me under £500 including the wheels that I hope will help keep the miles off my C63 but more importantly allow it to remain off salty Scottish winter roads

Edited by martin mrt on Wednesday 21st October 16:02

Nice find. No worries about it rusting!

[Majorslow]

martin mrt said:

I have had a fair few sheds, fixer uppers over the past few months but as everything for me is back to normal with regards to work I decided I needed a shed to run over winter, ideally in the <£30 tax band

Round 1 happened last Wednesday when I seen this Polo TDI localish to me for under £400, bargain, it needed a few small jobs rectified that it failed its MOT on. Perfect


However, things took a turn for the worse for the Polo the following day when I seen this for £200 on Gumtree packing the same 1.4 TDI as the Polo. Couldn’t say no, however it had no 3rd 4th 5th Gear, what could possibly go wrong



Small issue, it was the best part of 220 miles away in Thurso, and only had 2 gears. Gave the seller an extra £50 and he drove it a few miles to where my work could load it on a truck we had up there the following day.



Got it home on the Friday, did some Googling on the fault and as I initially suspected it “may” be the shifter tower that’s had it, so £10 at the local scrap yard later and a tower from a 5speed O2J Golf was acquired and fitted. It now has 5 gears and reverse. Result, parked at work fixed


Wheels I am no fan of, but they will replace an even more terrible set that’s fitted to a Golf spares car I have

Picked these up and will fit them this week


So there we have my winter shed that has cost me under £500 including the wheels that I hope will help keep the miles off my C63 but more importantly allow it to remain off salty Scottish winter roads

Edited by martin mrt on Wednesday 21st October 16:02

What a result I bow before thee shed master

[oilslick]

Majorslow said:

What a result I bow before thee shed master

Really is some top shedding isn't it

[martin mrt]

Majorslow said:

What a result I bow before thee shed master

Why thank you, I’m fitting the wheels tomorrow and take it from there, press it into proper service next week

[Starjet99]

Just ticked over the 12 month anniversary with my Grande Punto shed!

Annual costs/costs per mile:

[giblet]

Tax heavily skews and ruins my shed figures but aside from that it’s been spot on. Then again I’ve not really used it since March, only had 3 tanks of fuel in it since mid March!

[STIfree]

martin mrt said:

Why thank you, I’m fitting the wheels tomorrow and take it from there, press it into proper service next week

Keep us updated, love to know how you get on with it. I've a weird attraction to A2's recently. Looks like a brilliant buy.

[Jaguar steve]

vikingaero said:

v15ben said:

Just been reading the 'How much does your car cost you?' thread.
Another reason to find joy in an old shed.

Depreciation: £35/month (lost maybe £500 in 21K miles/15 months).
Tax: £17/month
Insurance: £25/month
Consumables/Repairs: £30/month
Petrol: £150/month @ 45MPG.

Total Cost: £107/month excluding fuel.

It's a very Britisher thing to obsess in that thread about costs. Sure you need an element of budgeting to ensure you can afford the mumflies and running costs but most people forget the benefits - that £30k, £60k or £100k job you use it for to earn money and rent or own a house, shopping, visiting friends and families, going out or maybe just enjoying a hoon....

Anyway, back to Sheds:
Purchase price: £495 in 2013.
Depreciation: Really? Let's assume £100 scrap value
Tax: £30 per annum
Insurance: £88 per annum
Consumable/repairs: Hard to gauge - MOT £50, one service this year for £60, not serviced last year as only covered 3k and my mechanic refused to do it saying it was pointless and he was right for a shed.
Total cost: Not a lot for the benefits of a worry free car that doubles as an off roader.

I've been dipping in and out of that thread too. It's astonishing how much some people willingly spend every month on running cars.

[mercedeslimos]

martin mrt said:

I have had a fair few sheds, fixer uppers over the past few months but as everything for me is back to normal with regards to work I decided I needed a shed to run over winter, ideally in the <£30 tax band

Round 1 happened last Wednesday when I seen this Polo TDI localish to me for under £400, bargain, it needed a few small jobs rectified that it failed its MOT on. Perfect


However, things took a turn for the worse for the Polo the following day when I seen this for £200 on Gumtree packing the same 1.4 TDI as the Polo. Couldn’t say no, however it had no 3rd 4th 5th Gear, what could possibly go wrong



Small issue, it was the best part of 220 miles away in Thurso, and only had 2 gears. Gave the seller an extra £50 and he drove it a few miles to where my work could load it on a truck we had up there the following day.



Got it home on the Friday, did some Googling on the fault and as I initially suspected it “may” be the shifter tower that’s had it, so £10 at the local scrap yard later and a tower from a 5speed O2J Golf was acquired and fitted. It now has 5 gears and reverse. Result, parked at work fixed


Wheels I am no fan of, but they will replace an even more terrible set that’s fitted to a Golf spares car I have

Picked these up and will fit them this week


So there we have my winter shed that has cost me under £500 including the wheels that I hope will help keep the miles off my C63 but more importantly allow it to remain off salty Scottish winter roads

Edited by martin mrt on Wednesday 21st October 16:02

Are those 1.4 PDs as good on juice as everyone makes out? Was looking at one today, the only downside here is because they are over 10 years old insurance is expensive and the tax is €410 per year as they are 1422cc so taxed as a 1.5 whereas a 1.4 would be €385 per year. In 2008 they changed the tax scheme and so they were now €180 per year, however, all the 2008+ ones are €3,000 where the 2007 and older are €2k. The fact that they wanted €1,400 to insure a 2007 Polo 75 BHP and I only paid €739 for a 140 BHP 2011 Mondeo 2.0 sort of negates any fuel savings it would make, at 46mpg lifetime and €280 a year to tax.

[martin mrt]

mercedeslimos said:

Are those 1.4 PDs as good on juice as everyone makes out? Was looking at one today, the only downside here is because they are over 10 years old insurance is expensive and the tax is €410 per year as they are 1422cc so taxed as a 1.5 whereas a 1.4 would be €385 per year. In 2008 they changed the tax scheme and so they were now €180 per year, however, all the 2008+ ones are €3,000 where the 2007 and older are €2k. The fact that they wanted €1,400 to insure a 2007 Polo 75 BHP and I only paid €739 for a 140 BHP 2011 Mondeo 2.0 sort of negates any fuel savings it would make, at 46mpg lifetime and €280 a year to tax.

I took the polo home 85 miles on less than £10 of diesel, I’m not sure what the exact MPG on that trip is. My experience if PD diesels is some are amazing on fuel, others less so.

One thing I do know, is it’s going to use much less than my C63 does

[martin mrt]

STIfree said:

Keep us updated, love to know how you get on with it. I've a weird attraction to A2's recently. Looks like a brilliant buy.

I will do. I am the same as you, attracted to such an oddball

I’m sure it will be fine, for the money I can’t lose

[Speedgelb]

mercedeslimos said:

Are those 1.4 PDs as good on juice as everyone makes out? Was looking at one today, the only downside here is because they are over 10 years old insurance is expensive and the tax is €410 per year as they are 1422cc so taxed as a 1.5 whereas a 1.4 would be €385 per year. In 2008 they changed the tax scheme and so they were now €180 per year, however, all the 2008+ ones are €3,000 where the 2007 and older are €2k. The fact that they wanted €1,400 to insure a 2007 Polo 75 BHP and I only paid €739 for a 140 BHP 2011 Mondeo 2.0 sort of negates any fuel savings it would make, at 46mpg lifetime and €280 a year to tax.

Have owned a PD75 Polo for the last 13 years, and have covered 120k miles in it, so feel qualified to answer this

https://www.fuelly.com/car/volkswagen/polo/2003/as...

Been logging mine since mid 2016, so 30k miles worth of data.

Bear in mind, they're quite short legged for a diesel - 70 MPH at circa 2700 RPM. Sitting at circa 65 MPH, you should see low to mid 50s all day long, but this will tail off at higher speeds.

My usage pattern changed towards the end of 2018, and it's predominantly doing a lot of shorter stop-start journeys these days. This is reflected in this graph:

https://www.fuelly.com/car/volkswagen/polo/2003/as...

Up until Q3 2018, usage pattern was a mix of Motorways, A roads, and flowing urban traffic on a 35 mile each way commute. Problem was, I booted it everywhere (cruise at an indicated 0.85 leptons on the motorway ), and combined with the gearing, it was out of it's efficiency range, but I was still getting circa 50 mpg out of it.

It would genuinely get high 50s to low 60s at a steady 70 MPH on a warm day - which for an 1100ish kilo car, with an engine designed in the last century isn't too bad. The A2 is lighter, and more aerodynamic, so is tangibly better.

I suspect the inlet manifold could do with a clean after 140k miles - genuinely feels it's about 10% down on fuel economy than at say 80k miles.

[Jimmy Recard]

mercedeslimos said:

Are those 1.4 PDs as good on juice as everyone makes out? Was looking at one today, the only downside here is because they are over 10 years old insurance is expensive and the tax is €410 per year as they are 1422cc so taxed as a 1.5 whereas a 1.4 would be €385 per year. In 2008 they changed the tax scheme and so they were now €180 per year, however, all the 2008+ ones are €3,000 where the 2007 and older are €2k. The fact that they wanted €1,400 to insure a 2007 Polo 75 BHP and I only paid €739 for a 140 BHP 2011 Mondeo 2.0 sort of negates any fuel savings it would make, at 46mpg lifetime and €280 a year to tax.

410-385 is only a 25 Euro difference though. It's pretty tiny (someone will point out the obvious that it would cost a fraction of that to tax in the UK although it's irrelevant)

[mercedeslimos]

Speedgelb said:

Have owned a PD75 Polo for the last 13 years, and have covered 120k miles in it, so feel qualified to answer this

https://www.fuelly.com/car/volkswagen/polo/2003/as...

Been logging mine since mid 2016, so 30k miles worth of data.

Bear in mind, they're quite short legged for a diesel - 70 MPH at circa 2700 RPM. Sitting at circa 65 MPH, you should see low to mid 50s all day long, but this will tail off at higher speeds.

My usage pattern changed towards the end of 2018, and it's predominantly doing a lot of shorter stop-start journeys these days. This is reflected in this graph:

https://www.fuelly.com/car/volkswagen/polo/2003/as...

Up until Q3 2018, usage pattern was a mix of Motorways, A roads, and flowing urban traffic on a 35 mile each way commute. Problem was, I booted it everywhere (cruise at an indicated 0.85 leptons on the motorway ), and combined with the gearing, it was out of it's efficiency range, but I was still getting circa 50 mpg out of it.

It would genuinely get high 50s to low 60s at a steady 70 MPH on a warm day - which for an 1100ish kilo car, with an engine designed in the last century isn't too bad. The A2 is lighter, and more aerodynamic, so is tangibly better.

I suspect the inlet manifold could do with a clean after 140k miles - genuinely feels it's about 10% down on fuel economy than at say 80k miles.

I always used to have 1.9TDIs, the Mrs still does. The PD75 is 3/4 of a 1.9. Our MK5 has never done less than 50mpg actual and that's on high mileage now. The reliability and economy offset the higher tax and insurance, but it also has a bit of poke, remapped to 155 bhp. I don't think I could go back to a smaller car for what is really only going to be a 10-15% extra economy. The cheap tax here is a real driver of values. Insurance is also OK if you stick with the same car (my parents' car is 2004 and their insurance is ~€500 as they have had it for 4 years now and keep renewing and don't change the car. If they were to buy another 2004 it may be over a grand to insure, and then to bring the cost of insurance down then need to move up to <10 years old, anything 2011 or newer is going to be a minimum €5k). I'd get far too bored keeping a car for a decade, this Mondeo is the first car I've kept for over a year since buying my B6 Passat back in 2011.

[mercedeslimos]

Just did a quick few calculations. Taking out repairs/servicing/depreciation etc (no such thing as a free lunch etc)

My fuel bill over 22500 miles at 46mpg is €2,510
Tax is €280
Insurance €740
=€3530pa.



Say the Polo would do 52mpg (being optimistic? I have a heavy foot and zero motorway in my commute, 100 miles of back road there and back), this would cost me €2,220 a year in juice.
Tax at €385 (I can't afford a 2008 one!)
Insurance €1,400
=€4,005.

I know this isn't the real world, doesn't take into account everything else, tyres, servicing, NCT tests, repairs and any upgrades or modifications I do to it (cars can never remain standard, even if it's only things like nicer wheels, winter tyres and modified lamps as I do a lot of driving in the dark, 6-month long winter)

http://www.backroads.ie/forums/showthread.php?1171...

here's a decent read, I was considering buying this one but it sold rather quickly.

I keep a track of everything if anyone is interested I'll grab the data from the app tomorrow. Fuel costs me about €0.123 per mile (everything is in miles, I'm English and the car is a UK import. I track everything from new wheels (I have summer 18s and winter 16" steelies both purchased in the last year) tyres, fuel additives, all modifications and fuel, tax, insurance and servicing. Including depreciation allowing myself about €1kpa, it comes in around €6k a year running a car for the ~22.5k I do. The joys of driving a shade under 50 miles each way to work.