Its with a little sadness and a slightly dented bank account that I write this today.
A couple of weeks ago the engine management light came on and I cursed, went home from work, Bicester to Luton, in limp mode and the following morning when the car wouldn't start I phoned a man with a box of electrickery and some magick software who turned up at half past five, told me that #4 injector was very knackered and charged me considerably less than a usual member of the public as his boss is a friend of a friend.
A quick discussion ensued as to which local garage would be best to repair the beast. The following day I took the Porsche to work, slippery roads made for some rapid but occasionally sideways progress.
Phone calls to a few potential garages and I selected a suitable one.
Injectors at £150 each, a recoding fee, sensible hourly labour rate for the work. The first decision came after they'd properly tested the four injectors. #4 was definitely dead. #s 2&3 were very sick and #1 wasn't very good. Had a choice of just changing one and putting it through the ring hoping that the engine light would stay off but decided that the extra money on changing all four would be worth it. Only time will tell. I've had the car back a week, its running as well as ever and is preferable to drive on potholed icy roads.
Apart from that I've recently put four brand new michelin pilot premacys on it. That has improved the grip and handling, it breaks away at a higher speed now and also breaks away more progressively. I think if it was still awaiting fresh rubber I'd have decided to auction it instead. I guess the potential replacement, probably an Octavia but who knows, will have to wait. With a bit of luck the Porsche will get replaced with an Ariel Atom before the Mondeo goes to the great scrapyard in the sky.
A quick glance at the trip counter shows I've done 197 miles on the first quarter of a tank (indicated) so consumption is back to its best.
Edited by spikeyhead {p} on 09/12/2008 at 23:18
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Keep it, your car is not worth a lot, so just keep it for yourself and get as many miles as you can out of it, treat as a game, see if you can get 500k out of the thing :D
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I agree with rattle, now that you have had the work done, keep it, and see how many more thousand (s)miles you can put on it. Two of my early cars were a Hillman Imp, and a 1300cc Spitfire. Both of these needed new exhaust valves after 50K-ish miles, and at the time, i did not feel cheated. Back then 160,000 trouble free miles belonged to the likes of Mercedes and Volvo, so it just shows how far car reliability has come, even if we do always want more ! With a modicum of luck rattle's 500k will happily come true for you.
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For what it's worth Spikeyhead, a friend has an 02 one with 237k on it. Very unreliable like all these TDCis, it has needed two dipped beam bulbs and a back box on the exhaust already........scandalous !
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Humph, I had to change an exhaust mount to get it through the last MOT and I've seen another fail on a different tdci, somethign that owners should check, saves them getting banged on speedbumps which really doesn't do them any good.
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I'm certainly not planning on keeping it another 10 or so years to get the mileage up to half a million.
It would have made sense to have got rid prior to changing the tyres a few weeks ago. I suspect it would fetch £1500 through the block, and saved me £1200 on tyres and injectors. Adding an extra £1000 to that would mean I could have an 05 Octavia with a pd engine in it which would have far more change of making it to the moon and back.
I'm concentrating more on lining up a decent length contract so I can think seriously about changing the Porsche for an Atom. They look unbelievable fun. Can't wait to have one for myself.
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