[Closed] What to do with my car.....

Scrap

It'll be worth afew quid in parts as the Caddy boys love breaking these for parts/upgrades. So I'd imagine if you sold it on as a breaker/project someone will want it.

I’d be looking to replace that Maf sensor. Bathtub failure rate innit.

Get a scrap quote, then set up an honest Ebay classified ad for something between scrap value and the 2.5k 'working' sale price you came up with.

There will be someone out there who can probably sort it out and gets a cheap car, and you get rid without going to the scrapper.

If it doesn't sell, you are down 20 quid for your effort and can still scrap it.

 I will be replacing the cat asap, when a car strands me once it’s got to go.

It seems harsh to get rid of a beloved family pet every time you have a vehicle niggle.
I've just had a puncture in mine, I wouldn't take that out on Merlin🤷‍♂️

I’d be looking to replace that Maf

Already done that. It would make nice cheap vehicle who put up with the hassle of sorting it, that person is not me. I've had it from new and it doesn't owe me anything. Looking like scrapping is the route then. Any advice on how to scrap a car? Never had a non runner before.

Just find a local VW breaker yard and offer it as scrap, they'll likely give you a slightly better price than a general scrap yard because VW parts do sell pretty well at breakers. Make sure the correct documentation is completed. As it's a none runner you'll need to tow it there hopefully you have a friend who can help you do this as getting a garage to take it on a flatbed will cost a pretty penny.

If you definately want to scrap then you just go onto one of the various sites like scrapmycar.com or cartakeback.com and they will give you a price and offer collection.

Even on a 2013 car expect some really low prices - but they will collect - and trailer it away. If you are looking for the minium fuss/effort option this is it.

That said, if you chucked a classified ad up, and were willing to deal with buyers and barter a bit, they would also collect.

seriousrikk that's my thinking, the way I feel about it tonight if someone would take it for free I'd be happy. If i can get a few hundred quid chucked in that would be a bonus.

If you are getting rid either way put it on eBay with faults described and let it find its price. You might be surprised at value as someone will think they can fix it, and maybe they can. Make sure it's cash/bank transfer and a condition of sale is they take it away!

That's fair. I've sold older cars a couple of time over the past few years - one via scrap and one via classifieds.

Scrapping way by far the easiest way - last one I got rid of that way was a runner but old. Popped the details in online for a rough price - got a phonecall a day later to clarify a couple of things and collected two days after that. Money paid directly into my bank and the scrap dealer sorted the paperwork out. Only thing I chose to make sure of was that they were licenced (most using the online sites are).

My rule of thumb when a car breaks after recent maintenance is to blame the maintenance. Are you sure the replacement MAF is properly seated and the connector is solid, no obvious damage to the wiring to it?

What would WBAC (or others, like Motorway) offer for it as it is? You don't lose anything by asking and if they'll pick it up it's no more trouble for you than scrapping it.

Seriously. A car let you down once and its gotta go. Best you avoid anything vw. french, english, Italian or Chinese then
Wait till tomorrow and then think about what you want to do with it.
Then take it back to the garage who fitted the maf, get them to check the resistance to see if it's working correctly. If not then it might be scrap.

MAF fault might have only been a symptom, and not the fault.
Unplugging the MAF should at least get the vehicle running, but if it still doesn't run with it disconnected, something else has likely gone wrong.

Does it run in limp mode with the MAF disconnected?

If so at least its then mobile and more likely to be sensor/air leak etc than terminal.

I'll try disconnecting in the morning, it's right on top of the engine.

Demolition derby

eBay it so someone like me who enjoys tinkering with stuff can fix it, environmentally it's far better keeping an old car on the road than scrapping.

You also get more ebaying it and if you do an honest advert then no legal comeback.

if it runs without the maf sensor tomorrow, let me know what you want for it,i could do with a car like that, if youre not too far from northants!

Already spent £800 last week on it to sort this issue, a thermostat issue and some replacement suspension parts

I'd avoid that line of thinking. Suspension is wear and tear yoou could buy a brand new car and spend it again after a big pothole.

so it sounds like you didn't reall shell out alot for the sensor issue yet you seem to be equating it to a 800quid expense.

My mrs' car got towed to the scrappy for no extra charge.

alric, tried it with the sensor disconnected. Same issue, and I'm north of Manchester.

Josh I know what you're saying, it's the thought of putting more money in now, as it stands if running it's probably a 3k deposit (had intended to swap it in the next 12 months anyway), every bit of cost I spend erodes that. It's obviously not an obvious fix or it would have been sorted last week. I'm now weighing up the protracted hassle and expense of trying to get it sorted vs any residual value. Plus I could with a car that works, I can only push WFH so far.

I’m not sure why you’d make the decision to scrap it specifically - you either want to fix it or you want rid. What the next guy does with it really isn’t your business. EBay or FB marketplace with an honest description and a man who knows more about cars than you do will take it away. It’ll find its price, you’ll not have to look at it again and the new guy will make a profit.

did you get the issue diagnosed at a vw garage, and they cured it with the MAF sensor?
If so, they did it wrong, and should fix it for you, not just replace every sensor and charge you for all the work

MAF fitted the correct way round?

A car let you down once and its gotta go.

That doesn't make any sense. Cars aren't a single thing, they are a collection of parts. Any car component can fail at any time, but getting rid of a whole car's worth of components that could be fine for the sake of one inexpensive component makes no sense, especially as the next one could have any problem again. Don't expect motoring to be trouble-free. It's nice when it happens but it's not guaranteed at any point.

The MAF is probably on top of the engine and if it's like my Passat it can be changed with a screwdriver and some pipe grips to undo the clamp. But if they replaced the MAF and the fault is still there, why haven't you phoned them back?

I feel your pain. I sunk a bunch of money into ‘repairs’ on my Berlingo. In the end I sold it on Facebook with a listing that was totally honest about the unknown fault and failed repairs. Had people clamouring to buy it off me for way more than scrap value. I reckon it’s worth a punt sticking an ad up on marketplace and seeing if it goes. Someone with a bashed up one might well be prepared to do the swaps and make a new runner.

No it wasn't a VW garage, yes the MAF sensor has been changed, is the right way around, no I haven't gone back to the independent garage yet (it's Sunday and it broke on Saturday). However it's a 9 year old car I was intending to move on in the next 6 to 12 months anyway, it's only worth to me is it's PX value which at the moment is zero as it wont start. I just wanted some input to decide whether to try and get it running again so I have some trade in value or just call it a day.

I have decided to do the latter. I will however give some serious consideration as to how I dispose of it, for the right person it may well be a vehicle with a future, so thanks to those of you suggesting EBay etc. Hadn't considered that route.

I need a reliable car for work and have a generous car allowance (really just extra salary) so having no wheels for an extended period whilst I try and get it fixed isn't going to wash.

Thanks all.

I got double on Ebay what a scrapyard was offering for my rusted out Tranny that I couldn't be bothered fixing myself and the initial scrapyard offer was way higher than I was expecting.

Put in the eBay blurb that it's caddy van sized but CleanAir zone compliant.

Needs a proper diagnosis doing not just a code read and parts darts.

Can recommend someone in Bolton.
I have 20yrs on the trade n he's the only guy I ever recommend

Quick update, I've placed an order on a really nice Kia Sportage with all the whistles and bells. We're selling ours for a nominal £250 to a work colleague who buys cars like this and sorts them out. He'll make some money out of it (I'm more than happy with that), it'll have a new lease of life for somebody else, hopefully giving someone a decent car at an affordable price and I don't have any hassle (plus I get a nice new toy which was being planned anyway). Only person losing anything here is me and at best I'm probably £1k out of pocket which I'm ok with. Just got to wait at least 7 more weeks for the new one to arrive.

Good to see you've got the pain of this out of the way, i had similar with a ford fiesta, the problem now is that cars have so many sensors and systems, and fault codes can sometimes make you think the problem is in one area, when it's upstream and the issue is only picked up by the sensor further down.

I can see why warning code deletion is becoming a big thing with remappings!

Yes, particularly diesels although the one I'm buying is a petrol self charging hybrid, I wasn't that fussed about the self charging bit, can't quite work out how that saves energy but didn't have much option. It's a 7 year warranty on the car and I'm doing it on PCP (finally been convinced this is the way to go for now) so could swap it at 3 years anyway. Friends have an older Sportage and use the same dealer, they're really happy with theirs, the dealership and warranty, just a had couple things sorted no hassle.

can’t quite work out how that saves energy

The battery is there to capture energy that would be wasted, and the electric motor can use that captured energy. It just helps make the petrol engine more efficient.

Petrol engines slow themselves down by throttling the air intake (hence 'throttle pedal'), which is inefficient among other things. The slower you are driving the less efficient it is, so driving around town is the worst. With a hybrid, you can do the slow speed crawling on electricity only. When driving a bit faster, it will open the throttle a bit more and control speed by siphoning off energy into the battery. Also, you get energy back from braking because the electric motor becomes a generator, but this isn't as much as the engine thing.

Basically the self charging hybrid is just a petrol car that is probably 20-50% more efficient than a normal petrol, depending on where you're driving and what the system is.
You can also run a smaller petrol engine at higher load (consequently more efficient) and when you need more power to accelerate you can bring the electric motor in so your car isn't too slow.

can’t quite work out how that saves energy

A self-charging hybrid uses a less-powerful, but more-economical petrol engine, with a battery and electric motor to bring the total power back up to what it would have been with a normal petrol or diesel engine.

There is a bit more to it than that if you want to dig. The petrol engine is an Atkinson cycle. The electric motor is used to help the petrol engine run in the most economical load/rev range. Instead of using conventional brakes and wasting energy as heat during gentle braking, the car uses the electric motor to charge the traction battery. The traction battery adds to the weight of the car, so it is like lugging round an extra passenger or two all the time, but it seems to be worth it for the gains using a more efficient type of petrol engine.
Our Yaris also seems to use the petrol engine to just charge the traction battery sometimes, which ought to be less efficient than using it to drive the wheels (electric motor is less than 100% efficient as a motor, and as a generator, so we lose energy both times). Despite this, we seem to get lots of miles per gallon. This is the bit that seems like witchcraft to me.

I find our self-charging hybrid easy and relaxing to drive. Hope you enjoy yours.

Edit: molgrips. You explained whilst I was still typing: well done.
I will leave my attempt at explanation here too: sometimes writing similar things, works for different readers...

No worries Jingle. I find this stuff interesting!

Your Yaris has the same system as my Prius did. It can send energy from the engine, to or from the battery and to or from the wheels depending on the situation. I think I recognise what you describe from driving around West London where there are long stretches of uninterrupted 30mph. Under these conditions the engine would charge the battery and drive the wheels, and then cut out and the motor would drive the wheels until the battery level went down, then it started charging again. This is because driving at 30mpg on engine alone is outside the most efficient power band so it's more efficient overall to run it harder, charge the battery, then cut out.

The traction battery adds to the weight of the car, so it is like lugging round an extra passenger or two all the time,

Traction battery in my 2006 Prius was about 30kg. So not too bad. Whole car was quite light for its size.

OK that makes some sense about the petrol engine running more efficiently as well as recovering energy when braking. I was thinking the losses from inefficient energy convertion coupled with the extra weight would out weigh recovered energy as i drive fairly smootgly. Its a 1.6 petrol but is apparently 220bhp, the petrol only 1.6 is around 160 bhp I think. Not that I drive any car particularly hard, the days of excessive speed, braking and accelerating are behind me. Really looking forward to adaptive cruise control for motorway driving, usually sit at 70 or just below but seem to constantly be coming up behind someone doing 69, will be able to let the car do its thing and chill.

I was thinking the losses from inefficient energy convertion coupled with the extra weight would out weigh recovered energy as i drive fairly smootgly

Whilst braking in a hybrid recovers energy it only recovers some of it. Keeping it as kinetic energy is better. The best way to drive a Toyota hybrid is to buzz it up to speed fairly normally then keep it rolling with slight touches of throttle. IF you touch the pedal, the regeneration stops and you are rolling, which will continue for ages using no fuel. I think the Ford system is the same, but not sure.