Garage is telling me to look for a secondhand engine or scrap my van - what should I do?
I took my Fiat Doblo (86,000 miles) for a regular service and MoT to my normal garage, who I feel are trustworthy. On that morning, and afterwards at the garage, the car was found to be misfiring and smoking quite a lot intermittently - sometimes white, sometimes black. They did lots of diagnostics and sent injectors off for testing but found they were not the problem. They seemed quite puzzled about it but eventually concluded after three weeks with the car that there was a lack of compression in the engine due to degeneration of the engine and suggested I either look for a secondhand engine or scrap the car. Does this sound like a reasonable cause of this sort of problem and is there any way to fix this without replacing the engine?
Asked on 28 October 2019 by TomDoblo
Answered by
Dan Powell
I'd recommend getting a second opinion, as the lengthy diagnostics procedure suggests that the garage are not entirely sure what they are dealing with. You should be able to find one with our Good Garage Guide, here: good-garage-guide.honestjohn.co.uk/
There are a number of potential causes of compression loss and I'd expect the garage to pinpoint the cause, given the time they've had the van. If the engine is shot then it might be better to sell the van for spares online via eBay: vans.honestjohn.co.uk/buying-and-selling-a-van-on-.../
I wouldn't recommend buying a second-hand engine unless it is sold with a comprehensive stack of paperwork to prove its history. Many used engines are in a poor condition and you may end up back where you started with an engine that's in a similar condition to the one that's already in your van.
There are a number of potential causes of compression loss and I'd expect the garage to pinpoint the cause, given the time they've had the van. If the engine is shot then it might be better to sell the van for spares online via eBay: vans.honestjohn.co.uk/buying-and-selling-a-van-on-.../
I wouldn't recommend buying a second-hand engine unless it is sold with a comprehensive stack of paperwork to prove its history. Many used engines are in a poor condition and you may end up back where you started with an engine that's in a similar condition to the one that's already in your van.
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