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Post by Hofmeister on Jul 4, 2016 21:34:45 GMT
Hmm, the 9 year old Lancer, with 135k miles on board is due a second cam belt change. WBAC reckons the car is worth about 350 quid so its firmly in bangernomics territory, Just got a quote to change the belt, and its 270 quid +VAT.
As the car is still mechanically and bodily sound, and 8 months to run to the next MOT I have taken the plunge to have the belt changed. I would need to invoke a very extreme and obscure branch of man maths to justify any other course of action.
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Post by Humph on Jul 5, 2016 18:37:50 GMT
Quite right too. Even if, and I can't think why this would happen, but even if the MOT in 8 months threw up something stupidly expensive to fix, 8 months more driving for £300 is pretty good value.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2016 20:45:53 GMT
It gets very difficult though when large expenses start popping up. I subscribe to the "better the devil you know" approach but I reckon I hang on to them too long quite often.
I have a need to fix.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2016 18:31:11 GMT
I agree. Is it really nine years old? I remember when you bought it! Good solid cars.
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Post by Hofmeister on Jul 8, 2016 18:49:40 GMT
Arghhhh. I could tell it was all going tits up when the garage hadn't phoned me by 16:00 to say it was ready. So I phoned them. I got the dreaded words " Ah yes - I'll talk to the boss" Turns out the bolt holding the idler/tensioner had sheared off in the block. Apparently its taken them all day to get it sorted, having to drill out the old bolt, stick in a steel sleeve and tap it. They have charged me an extra two hours labour bringing the total bill to 498 quid. Soon as I knew they were deep in the sheet with it, I rocked uo announced, and clearly they were telling the truth, keeping the place open an extra hour to finish the job and they all looked knackered.
I half heartedly argued abut the bill, but paid up as they had only billed an extra two hours for what was clearly loads more. Well thats the last cam belt, cam belts have been the only major servicing expense on this wagon, and this one is ok to the 200k miles mark, so I am not paying out for another one if Its still running by then.
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Post by Humph on Jul 8, 2016 18:54:05 GMT
I still feel very nervous about buying anything with a cam belt. Or big mirrors come to that...
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Post by Hofmeister on Jul 8, 2016 19:09:05 GMT
I still feel very nervous about buying anything with a cam belt. Or big mirrors come to that... I understand alloy wheels are not without issues, cant remember where I heard that tho. |
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Post by Humph on Jul 8, 2016 19:14:14 GMT
Obviously you haven't heard, we don't mention the dinged alloy any more. "She" hasn't noticed it yet, so I just need to engineer a way of getting her to drive the car this weekend so I can ruefully point out that she must have had a kerb incident while she had it...
It's all in hand 😈
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Post by Hofmeister on Jul 10, 2016 17:56:14 GMT
I think I was unfairly sniffy with the garage on Friday. I've put 300 miles on it since then and it feels as good as it ever was, think I'll pop round with a 6 pack for all their agro. This will be its last belt tho I think, it will have 200k miles on it when it due next and if still running (or I still have it) will be a 13 year old shed, so it will be run till it pings.
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Post by Humph on Jul 10, 2016 19:11:49 GMT
Saw a silver Lancer estate yesterday when I was out with the pooch. Looked really quite up to date and was in outwardly very good nick. I can see the attraction as a general hack about car.
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