Urgent Advice Needed: Depressed About My Car [PROMISING DEVELOPMENTS!]

[mookie]

Geddin! My car really was a bad idea after all. 

Had another checkup at the garage, and it needs the following:

- Snapped front springs, and problems with rear shocks. Whole new set recommended.
- Universal joints in the steering have gone kapput. They need replacing with additional misc bits to go with them.

Just the parts (with a new lowering kit supplied by me) run to about £500. Estimated 6 - 7 hours labour involved aswell. VW garage estimate including all parts and labour £900  Even if I take it elsewhere, looking at the parts needed, I'm not going to get it done for much under £750 I reckon.

This come off the back of having only just lashed down £625 two days ago on new front brakes and what not.

I am gutted. And I don't think I will get it done.

I'm going to have to have a think about this. At the moment I'm not confident to drive the car, and without the above jobs been done it's not going to get used. So, either I now try and sell it on under the notion that it needs work done and lose £1000 in the process. Or, I keep it the drive and hope I have the time and expertise in the future to attempt the work myself. Either way, I am now going to have to go looking for a replacement car as I am supposed to be moving to York in a couple of weeks and I am now minus transport  :embarassed:

[fugazi33]

Gutted for you, looks a real nice car,  what's that saying "never judge a book by it's cover" though, I payed a lot of money for an E30 325 sport a few years back, meant to be "like new" well it was 6 months and £1200 later, and that was doing the work myself, try and tackle some of the jobs yourself, it's only nuts & bolts at the end of the day! Was the guy you got it from wearing a hat and spurs?

[Veedubgt18v]

yeah shocks arent hard to do, if i was u i would get a haynes manual or such like and give it a go! shocks will only take a couple of hours not sure about the other bits but theya are in the same general area so u can do them together!
 u are mainly paying for labour by the sounds of it, get parts from ebay, gsf etc n u will save a few bob! stick with it dude now u know wats up u can sort n hav a decent car!

welcome to the wonderful world of dubbing lol

[mookie]

Well after much thought and heavy night on the beer last night to drown my sorrows  I've decided to do exactly what is suggested above. I'm gonna get a hold of everything I need from GSF, breakers and eBay, and try as much of it as I can. A dude does all the cars in my family, ex-AA mechanic and sound as a pound - I'll ask him how much for the harder jobs but the suspension is something I can defo do myself. Seems mad not to as aside from the above stuff the rest of the car is worth saving. I've spent two grand already, seems stupid to now write that off and get something else - in for a penny, in for a thousand pounds  I'm a teacher with six lovely weeks off school coming up. Perfect for this sort of thing.

Apart from anything I can get my myself my own project thread now to demonstrate my cackhanded mechanical skills 

[TwistedAspect]

Shouldn't be a problem mate....pm JV and ask for a project page, in the meantime, check out my own project page....had serious issues on my old one with the rear suspension and decuded to break down the process of stripping it and rebuilding on my project page.

It really isn't too major a job provided you remember that patience helps every time 

[Neaty]

good to hear you gonna grab the bull by the horns and get it sorted. You'll love it when its all sorted and you just know that on that day when you have got everything done, its a fine day the sun is shining, not  cloud in the sky and the birds are singing and you take it for a blast on your favourite B road, you will think to yourself......THANK FUNK I DECIDED TO KEEP IT

good man 

[mookie]

The saga continues... 

Basically the battle has been take to three fronts since I last updated this thread. The first front has yielded some success too - basically the VW garage that originally tried to fix the problem have admitted getting it wrong with two successive diagnosis of the problem I was having, and after a thorough re-examination by their quality control chaps, they've offered to fix the car so it's safe and roadworthy for free if I pay for the parts. Estimated at £145 for me then, with 8-10hrs labour for free    The final opinion of the garage is basically that the previous owner has tried to lower the car by chopping the springs, and then not getting it tracked etc. So the steering geometry is totally wrong, and the car therefore reacts incorrectly as the front wheels are at a height the steering is not adjusted to control properly. So they're going to replace the springs and return the car to it's correct out-the-factory ride height. In addition they're going to replace wishbone and rear axle bushes and anything else that has perished or breaks when they take it apart. Keep in mind they were asking me to get the whole suspension system, plus the steering UJ replaced just a couple of days ago 

So that's good I suppose - provided the car is cool after that of course. I'll still have spent almost £800 in garage bills in two weeks, but atleast it's looking like it might be fixed soonish.

I was away for the weekend, and whilst I was away my mam (who has been really traumatised by my bad luck here  ) went on the rampage. She rang the lad I bought the car off and gave him a right bollocking, demanding money back or else. Seemingly he sounded like he'd shat his kecks and said he'd speak to his dad as he'd spent the money already  Lo and behold, his old man rings up in a proper radge, but didn't reckon on dealing with my mam (think Robocop in a really bad mood). Turns out some of what his son had told me was balls, namely that he'd been using it daily up until recently - it had indeed been off road for a while as he'd been unable to get insured for it (a quick flick in the FSH I have and I found a summons to the local police station for him). Basically me mam implied he must have got his driving licence from the same place as Stevie Wonder if he didn't noticed the car's horrific handling qualities. Anyway, the dad rang off claiming we didn't have a leg to stand on etc and we wouldn't see any money back at all.

There's one more trick up my mam's sleeve, I won't mention it here just in case. I'll talk about once it's happened. But it could be good 

Anyway, fingers crossed that the head honcho of Scotswood service is correct, then I should have a car I can FINALLY enjoy this weekend.

[Hypermonkey]

Well done for your efforts. Even with spending the £800 you will have a car with many new parts that will last you fpr a good few years to come.

 

[Neaty]

ah well there is some light at the end of the tunnel!

[mookie]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Feckers! 

I was supposed to be picking the car up on Saturday from the garage, but it wasn't ready in time. Rang up just now, and the chap says it's had the parts fitted and been tracked etc. But, although after an initial test drive the car handles 100% better than it did, the quality control fella in charge reckons the steering still feels like it's got too much play in it.

So I'm back to square one. Now I need to wait for a call to tell me whether it needs any more parts to sort the problem, leading to me to think they might have been right in the first place about replacing the steering column bearings and the UJ.

Goddamnit. I've had the car for about two and half weeks and it's spent more time in the garage than it has on my drive at home