Wife's car gone BANG !
 

So my wife's 2006 Vauxhall Zafira's engine went pop yesterday - quite out of the blue - fully serviced, only 60k miles. Pretty terminal - garage said needs a reconditioned engine and at least £3-4k to get it back on the road.
Car is only worth around £2.5k (looking at similar cars for sale) so no-brainer.

What's the best way to get rid of this car and make the most money ? Selling it for scrap will probably only get me a couple hundred quid, selling it for parts would be better but ideally would want someone to buy it off me rather than sell off the parts on eBay or whatever.
Do webuyanycar.com buy non-runners ?

Any thoughts / advice welcome.

Thanks

Ro.

Just a suggestion but couldn't you source a second hand replacement engine? surely you could get one for around £500-£800? or am i wrong?

Just had a quick look on eBay and the engines are really cheap, not sure what engine yours is but they are all around the £300-£600 mark?

I think you need to establish what exactly has gone pop

Fully serviced on 60k!

Garage said that (and they must have looked at it for literally 20 mins as I dropped it off at 8 and they called me 20 minutes later) the oil has mixed with the coolant and in the quantities showing (dipstick almost dry) this is terminal. They said in their opinion they can try to fix but likely to find the engine has cracked (!) when they get down to it so better option is a replacement engine.
Car still runs so I can pick it up but they would need to put oil in it to stop the engine seizing on drive home (2 miles)
They said they source their replacement engines from Vauxhall hence the high cost and then 2 days labour you looking at the think end of £5k
Can go out and buy another - same mileage, age etc for £2500 so unless I can source a replacement engine and get someone to fit it for less than 2000 it makes little sense to fix it.
Would a good local garage fit an engine I supplied (from eBay etc) ?

Ro.

Yes, of course they would but obviously they wouldn't warrant the engine as they haven't supplied it. Probably charge you a days labour. It's the best option by far, I've done it loads of times over the years - Renault 5 turbo's, MR2's, 205 GTI's etc.. and non have ever cost anything like what you've been quoted.

Personally I'd speak to a local garage and see if they are happy to fit for you, then just find an engine and have it shipped to them.

have you spoken to your insurance company, recently a old school mate got hers repaired under the insurance, I didnt know you could but still . .
Exact same car with full service history, I advised her to contact VX but she said her insurance was sorting it.

What engine is in it mate?

My brother's Mondeo suffered a cracked sump on the M6 due to debris on the carriageway. He only knew it'd happened when the big red stop light came on. Got it recovered to his local garage who said it was terminal. He bought one off a recon place and garage fitted it for £350. Engine cost less than a grand.

Just buy a reconditioned engine and get a local garage to fit it. A no brainer really.

I'd get the garage to give it a proper inspection personally. Like you say, all the garage has done is checked the oil/coolant. They've not actually diagnosed anything properly. You really need to either get the head/sump off and have a good look inside.

Its a 1.8 VVT Petrol engine.
I just drove it home and - the garage filled the oil up)

Will investigate insurance option and sourcing a replacement engine for a local garage to fit.

Buy an engine crane off ebay for £120 and DIY, it's really not difficult to change an engine, it's only nuts and bolts, I did my first one with a couple of mates when I was about 18 and none of us had ever done it before.

Loads of video's on utube all the information you need is now at the press of a button, which is way more than there was 32 yrs ago when I first did it, we were like the blind leading the blind :lol1: now you have step by step guides for everything.

Generally speaking you don't even need a lot of tools as you'll find you use like 4/5 spanners usually 10/12/13/17/19mm and a screwdriver + a bit of swearing.

Push the boat out and treat yourself to a decent socket set and a set of spanners, even if it takes you a week it's better than paying £3/5k.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2008-VAUXH...kAAOSwa-dWnmDr

Not sure if that is same code as yours but just to give you an idea, even comes with warranty

Thanks for all the advice guys - definitely going to buy a used engine off eBay and get it fitted locally - spoken to a couple of local garages who are happy to fit it.
DIY fitting is a stretch too far for me - seriously - I just tried to replace a tail light bulb on our other car and snapped the housing !? I will only end up in a mess and have to call someone !

Cheers again.

Ro.

You'll be fine, engines are held in with big bolts, you'd have to be really trying to break one. :lol1: Those poxy plastic clips though, even the most delicate of use break those.

As Ditchy said, it's a good excuse to buy a socket set and some spanners (and a can of WD40, I'm surprised he forgot that).

:lol1: Really funny that you mention WD40 as i pressed submit post I thought that but couldn't be arsed to edit :lol1:

As for the plastic clips, proper trim tool and at this time of year either a heated garage or stick the heaters on full bore for 20mins so they're not sub zero and brittle. ;)

Cracked? Huh? Worst I've heard of these is timing chains going or the thrust bearings falling out causing total loss of oil pressure (the latter does indeed = fecked).

What is exactly wrong? knocking? overheating?


If its neither, are they sure its not just the oil cooler? Very common on the Vauxhall petrol engine (A or Z16XE_ and A or Z18XE_ lumps ).These fail and oil goes into the coolant in a big way (mayonaise-tastic..header tank full of Hellman's ;) ). Personally, I'd have drained the sump, to see whats in there; Because the dipstick's dry, doesn't mean there is nothing in...dipstick only shows the upper 1.5 litres of a 4.5 litre capacity sump. A dry dipstick can still have 3 litres of oil in there.

You can't actually see the oil cooler on these engines as its hidden behind the exhaust manifold so the mechanic is familiar with these engines it will get overlooked and misdiagnosed as a head gasket failure.

Sorting that out after replacing the cooler involves alot of flushing and degreasing of the cooling system, and inevitably new coolant hoses thoughout as they often go all squidgy/manky and eventually burst (only replace hoses after a few months of use and flushes as residual oil will still attack the new hoses).

if you have no lights on and it's running take it to webuyanycar as it's running.....they will give it a quick drive so as long as it survives that it'll be ok lol

With regards to ebay engines there's always a risk. Not just the engine's history, but how its stored. I've fitted a few; customer supplied. Some ok, some not so good.

Some have been as bad as the engine that it replaced, some had been stored in the damp so the cams had rusted (visible through oil filler), and some have been fine.

Sounds good, but then you have contemplate the implications taking the whole thing out again and claiming your refund , after palleting it back whence it came lol

If you do decide to sell tue car as it is i could be interested.