[Closed] Bangernomics Question

how much is the car worth? I spent £1500 on a 2006 signum 4 years ago, I would have thought that sort of era/size car is worth under a grand (fully working)?

Are you sure the turbo has 'gone'? whistling normally just implies an air leak (often in a connecting pipe) which would be a really cheap fix - or depending on how often it goes into limp home (which isn't that frequently a sign of a turbo failing, hence my question), just keep driving it till it annoys you enough to flog it

whistling and limp mode would be more indicative of pipework issues than a turbo its self failing.

Was this diagnosed by a garage or did you just ask for a quote for a new turbo ?

I got a turbo from turbo technics with updated bearings for £450. Then £200 for labour and your car will be good to go for a while yet.

Is the car in good condition? If so, a new turbo will be a less risky gamble than replacing with a banger of unknown provenance.

https://www.turbotechnics.com

As above, check/replace hoses first before assuming the turbo is fubar.  They do degrade due to heat/oil.  It can be difficult to spot some leaks/holes so you have to inspect them closely.

Diagnosed by a local mechanic- I will quiz him on the leaks thing.

Cost is not only the turbo, but a whole raft of stuff that happens to be needing done at the same time. Cambelt and Major Service- it all adds up.

Quote for  Recon Turbo (including fitting) is 625 + vat so not far adrift the Turbo Technics price.

I am thinking repair rather than new vehicle...

I am thinking repair rather than new vehicle…

That's what I'd do, It's not a question of "is the repair worth more than the car" it's "is the repair more than the cost of an equivalent replacement car", i.e. one a good few years newer and with a known history, and the answer is probably not.

Also the usual advice when it comes to replacing turbos is to bin the car as it'll never be right again IF THE TURBO HAS COMPLETELY DESTROYED ITSELF AND FILLED THE ENGINE WITH BITS OF METAL. If you catch it before it reaches that stage then it's just like another major service item.

 a necessary major service

Doesn't exist in Bangernomics....and even a cambelt is stretching it in real bangernomics.

there is bangernomics and there is abuse.

and sure if you dont rely on your car treating it like shit and not looking after it is fine

my view is thaat servicing and brakes etc should not be neglected.

sure i wont fix a broken window regulator or broken locks etc but ill keep it serviced for 40 quids worth of oil and filters.

if ive had the car for a while and i dont know its been done ill do a cambelt due to the fact that for a couple hundred quid it can save alot of heart ache for not alot of cash.

That’s what I’d do, It’s not a question of “is the repair worth more than the car” it’s “is the repair more than the cost of an equivalent replacement car”, i.e. one a good few years newer and with a known history, and the answer is probably not.

This.

I just changed, as total bills looming were well north of £4.5k on a 169,000 mile Galaxy with some rust and many niggles.

That £4.5k+£1.3k trade in went towards a new car.

Depends how much you like the car, I guess. And whether you think it's going to behave once repaired. It sounds like those repairs may well exceed the value of the car itself. I hate to see cars go to the little carpark in the sky, but realistically hunting around for something new is no gamble really. And you'll probably get something for yours spares or repair.

If you were able to do the work yourself it would be far more economical. Turbos are still not cheap unfortunately.

I think it just comes down to whether you'd pay the cost of the repairs to buy a similar one. And whether you still want that model.

As someone said, better the devil you know.

The whirring noise and the the limp mode are the signs of the blades sticking on a variable vane turbo as used on the VAG engines. I had the exact same thing on a 140/170BHP VW PD engine.

You could try sticking some turbo cleaner through it, there are variable reports on whether this actually works or not.

Me, I just sold the car to a local garage before it got too bad.

Does it do lots of short trips? When mine was replaced I was told this can cause excessive build up on the turbine which then causes balance issues and wear on the compressor. I assume an older worn engine leaks more oil past seals when cold and this is baked onto the turbine.

mine started to make a siren sound but no limp mode issues. They also said they had seen far worse. I like the car and d3cided to get it done as I intend to keep for a while yet. That new turbo has now done 30k.

Old turbos are asking for trouble.
Embrace bangernomics in the proper fashion with a petrol V8 barge. Think 740 BMW.

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Doesn’t exist in Bangernomics….and even a cambelt is stretching it in real bangernomics.

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<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">there is bangernomics and there is abuse.</span>

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I think the first is true, "Bangernomics" is buying a car for £500 and running it until it fails an MOT then scrapping it for as much as possible and buying another.

"Economical motoring in an older car" is what the OP's doing and involves a bit more £££ and is about trying to get a reliable car for a low budget.

i guess some people like walking/taxis

i guess some people like walking/taxis

I guess it depends on how much you value your time, and ability to do any spannering yourself.

I'm quite happy doing anything short of cambelt/clutch on my car,  mechanically I could probably do those, but they take more than a morning. It's 12 years old and still worth about £900, so still worth keeping  as actually everything still works, so IMO a newer car would just have a bigger number on the reg plate.

My OH's car is probably a truer case of bangernomics, it's a 14yr old Fiesta and would struggle to fetch £500 with a full tank of petrol. The heater switch doesn't work, the passenger electric window doesn't work, the rear middle seat belt was cut out to get it through its MOT, and various ancillary bits of engine are held on with good will and zip ties where plastic brackets have failed. But it's never left her stranded with anything more than a flat battery because I'm reasonably competent at spotting faults before they become big issues. So far I've made sure everything's done on it service wise and it's had quite a few garage bills that were almost as much as it was worth, but it's reached the point where at some point we'll have to just get rid of it and buy something newer because we just don't want to drive a 15 year old fiesta with a dent in every panel, 4 missmatched tyres and a long list of nearly-faults.

Agree that its minefield and you just have to weigh up what makes you feel at ease.

Pistonheads recently upped the limit from £1k to £1500 for their Shed of the week feature. I embraced that limit and bought a Citroen C5 estate. The thing here is to totally buy on condition and history. Its easy to pick up all the essential issues that might affect a particular car including past MOT history etc and real value from tinternet these days. I got my car from a gentleman (and he really was an old school gentleman)on the south coast. Four new tyres, 12 month MOT, new cam belt 18 months ago, 650 miles last year (70k on the clock a 13 year old car) meticulous service history, 2 owners with the last for 10 years. Only selling because he was getting too old and illness was making caravanning to hard. £1400 to you sir with loads of tea and cakes thrown in.

I'll get two years and possibly more motoring with little additional cost for the equivalent of what one of my neighbours will get for three months lease payments.

I guess ignorance is bliss

My knowledge and OCD won't let me ignore an issue. Often cheaper to fix small issues before they develop and take out pricier bits with them

My knowledge and OCD won’t let me ignore an issue. Often cheaper to fix small issues before they develop and take out pricier bits with them

Bangernomics is buying the best car you can for the least above it's scrap value you can. That way as soon as it needs more spending on it, you sell it for scrap and the only cost is what you paid for it minus the scrap value.

Done properly having to fill the tank with petrol should be almost a write off expense! It's not necessary to drive a crap car for it, you just drive a cheap car with very strict criteria as to what would constitute a write off. No point paying £150 for a set of pads and disks to get through an MOT if you can sell the car for £300 to a scrappy, and buy another for £450 and have another years motoring.

I think what we've learnt here is that people to bangenomics differetly to each other. I'm in the trailrat camp.

Timing belts and springs etc are consumable.

I could scrap a car and replace it with an instant timing failure.

Until rot chasing begins then is bye bye.

the only reason id get rid of a car is rust, I do my own spannering though and replace stuff at the first sign of trouble no matter how small the issue is using genuine/Oem parts.

Hence having a 14 year old 170k Volvo that regularly takes us to Southern France in confidence.

I spend between £500- £1000 a year on it consumables/parts wise.

True Bangernomics is my mate who bought a £500 vectra and never changed the oil in 4years, it died on a motorway and was replaced with a £300 Kia Magentis till the style police told him to buy a newish Audi.

Embrace bangernomics in the proper fashion with a petrol V8 barge. Think 740 BMW.

Or go the whole hog sbob and go for the v12 750 with bike laid on back seats, feel free to say hi if you spot me around UK trails.