I didnt want to mention this but my car is chugging and screeching since lenghty

[Calumcco]

I didnt want to mention this but my car is chugging and on rare occasions screeching since lengthy repair bill last weekend.

Could the screeching be the new cambelt insufficiently oiled?
What about the chugging and intermittent shudder like a loss of power is about to happen? I have had spark plugs, cambelt, thermostat, water pump, etc changed. WHAT ELSE CAN POSSIBLY BE WRONG WITH A 35000 MILE CAR WHICH IS IN PRISTINE CONDITION???!!!!

I give up

 

[television]

Not cam belt, screeching is the fan belt more often than not, particularly if the battery is a bit low after all the standing. The work will be guaranteed, they should sort it all. Fan belts can be adjusted.

 

[Calumcco]

Not cam belt, screeching is the fan belt more often than not, particularly if the battery is a bit low after all the standing. The work will be guaranteed, they should sort it all. Fan belts can be adjusted.

Thank you so much Malcolm

 

[turbopete]

The work will be guaranteed, they should sort it all. Fan belts can be adjusted.

agreed. the chugging could also be low battery or the car hasnt been set-up correctly (timing, carburettor etc)

 

[Naraic]

I didnt want to mention this but my car is chugging and on rare occasions screeching since lengthy repair bill last weekend.

Could the screeching be the new cambelt insufficiently oiled?
What about the chugging and intermittent shudder like a loss of power is about to happen? I have had spark plugs, cambelt, thermostat, water pump, etc changed. WHAT ELSE CAN POSSIBLY BE WRONG WITH A 35000 MILE CAR WHICH IS IN PRISTINE CONDITION???!!!!

I give up

Calum, you were advised that a very old car with 35000 miles on it is not necessarily a good buy.

 

[Calumcco]

Calum, you were advised that a very old car with 35000 miles on it is not necessarily a good buy.

Agreed. But it's in pristine condition. So what else can be wrong? It's been serviced every 10000 miles, it's got an MOT with no advisories, it's had only one owner from new who hasn't driven it into the ground with 180000 motorway miles, no boy racer has been thrashing it into the ground, it has no rust, it has never been welded, it has passed 9 out of the last MOT'S without any failures or major advisories, it's been garaged and used sparingly so how can it be so bad since it switched hands into my possession?
I thought low mileage was a positive selling point and was the sign of a good car? If not then why do people always say "very low mileage" when selling cars on autotrader, etc?

 

[Naraic]

Agreed. But it's in pristine condition. So what else can be wrong? It's been serviced every 10000 miles, it's got an MOT with no advisories, it's had only one owner from new who hasn't driven it into the ground with 180000 motorway miles, no boy racer has been thrashing it into the ground, it has no rust, it has never been welded, it has passed 9 out of the last MOT'S without any failures or major advisories, it's been garaged and used sparingly so how can it be so bad since it switched hands into my possession?
I thought low mileage was a positive selling point and was the sign of a good car? If not then why do people always say "very low mileage" when selling cars on autotrader, etc?

They say that because...someone will always fall for it.;-)

 

[turbopete]

Calum, you were advised that a very old car with 35000 miles on it is not necessarily a good buy.

tthis is true. years ago dad bought a 1 owner morris marina 1700HLS estate. it had something silly like 16k miles on it at 4 years old.

everywhere he went outside of town he had to carry 5 litres of oil. it used so much oil at motorway and A road speeds that it was almost 2 stroke it used so much oil. the next owner after us, an elderly, 35mph max speed gent, never had any issues with oil useage.
we replaced that with a 3 year old 66k miles (which was ridiculously high at the time for ANY car) Ford cortina 1.6L estate. high miles was no issue. we ran it on high detergent diesel engine oil (we got it free) changed every 3k miles (again, as it was free) instead of 6k miles, and it never used a drop of oil, despite being driven harder and for longer (it carried a lot more heavy stuff) than the marina ever was.

the moral of that tale was, low miles can definitely be a bad thing

 

[turbopete]

Agreed. But it's in pristine condition. So what else can be wrong? It's been serviced every 10000 miles,

that could be part of the problem. service intervals were every 6k miles on these, not 10 (unless they changed on the later ones, my sister had an 87 model that was every 6k)

 

[turbopete]

They say that because...someone will always fall for it.;-)

and also people still have it drummed into them from the older generation about how engines were to de-coke around every 20k miles and the engines were totally shot at 60k miles. ive had fords with over 3 times that mileage and still going strong (and not huge 3.0 V6 jobs either)

 

[Calumcco]

They say that because...someone will always fall for it.;-)

So in theory is a ridiculously high mileage car likely to be a safer bet than a ridiculously low mileage car?

If I had bought a 2003 03-53 plate car with 225000 miles would I have avoided all this hassle? Generally speaking that is.

 

[Ken_R]

WHAT ELSE CAN POSSIBLY BE WRONG WITH A 35000 MILE CAR WHICH IS IN PRISTINE CONDITION???!!!!

Carb jets/gaskets? If a car is not driven 'enough' deposits can build up in the Carb that restricts the fuel flow.

Back in the 70's I had a mate with a VW Golf and when I drove it, I could always get a higher top speed than he could. Mainly because I was 'controlling' the accelerator, rather than 'foot to the floor'.

He always liked me to drive his car periodically as, after I'd been in it, he reckoned it then drove much better.:-D

 

[television]

We could all argue the pro's and con's of what ever one buys, there is no one answer to suit all. Be happy the car will be fine Calum

 

[Calumcco]

We could all argue the pro's and con's of what ever one buys, there is no one answer to suit all. Be happy the car will be fine Calum

I hope so. Let's just hope. There is no reason it can go wrong. It's hardly been used? What can go wrong with it?
I have a massive service history and portfolio to accompany the car it's 100% genuine.
I'd be shocked if I don't get another 100000 miles at least out of her.

 

[Naraic]

I hope so. Let's just hope. There is no reason it can go wrong. It's hardly been used? What can go wrong with it?
I have a massive service history and portfolio to accompany the car it's 100% genuine.
I'd be shocked if I don't get another 100000 miles at least out of her.

Calum...you'll not get 100,000 out of it. Cars of that era, of that type...rarely got to 100,000. I had Ford Sierra co. cars back in the day...we changed them at 40000...because they were done.

 

[Calumcco]

Calum...you'll not get 100,000 out of it. Cars of that era, of that type...rarely got to 100,000. I had Ford Sierra co. cars back in the day...we changed them at 40000...because they were done.

****** hell. Were that particular era of car badly produced then? Is that why you see so few Sierra's and other early 1990/91 cars around these days then?

 

[television]

I hope so. Let's just hope. There is no reason it can go wrong. It's hardly been used? What can go wrong with it?
I have a massive service history and portfolio to accompany the car it's 100% genuine.
I'd be shocked if I don't get another 100000 miles at least out of her.

It is a Mechanical device, and anything mechanical can go wrong, Please just relax it will all get sorted out. Yes upsetting I know, my early SL has cost me some £8k over the years, where as some others have cost next to nothing.

 

[Doug1234]

If you have had spark plugs fitted then I expect maybe one of the plug leads is either not back on properly or when it was removed it may have broken inside cap end /gone bad /awful carbon string wiring stuff.

Get it running at night and open bonnet and just watch the engine /plug leads while it runs, bad ones will obviously spark but if they have s greenish glow about them then they are old and tired.

It will be something simple along those lines

 

[turbopete]

So in theory is a ridiculously high mileage car likely to be a safer bet than a ridiculously low mileage car?

If I had bought a 2003 03-53 plate car with 225000 miles would I have avoided all this hassle? Generally speaking that is.

possibly not, but the likelihood of an 8 year old 100k mile ford focus (for example) having a head gasket repaired, then having running issues is much lower than it is on a 35k mile 25 year old car. how do i know? i served my time in the motor trade (as a mechanic) in the early 90s. this meant that i was working on mk1/2 Astras, mk2 Cavaliers, MK3/4 Escorts, mk1 sierras etc etc (that era of early-mid 80s cars onwards) all day every day. they had their issues back then, when they were a few years old. high mileage, low mileage, driven gently, driven hard, it didnt matter. they all had the issues that they had. and just because we have gone 25 years down the line, doesnt mean that the issues disappear. a point comes and no further development on a model/engine is done. so 5 years old or 55 years old, an astra, escort or whatever, will always be an astra/escort etc. and thats the point. these cars had issues that a newer car would never have had. newer cars are better designed/developed etc so fewer issues are 'designed' in them. and because theyre still well known cars (unlike the Astra etc where if theres no OBD socket, most mechanics havent a clue nowadays) theyre still easily fixed.

ive said before, someone go and find me something like a 1989 Ford Orion 1.6GL in the form of a bodyshell and a few boxes full of parts. id barely need to look up torque settings, never mind anything else! i could still tell you from memory how much to alter the timing on earlier ones to run unleaded fuel over the original factory tuning for leaded 4 star, i knew them THAT well (i think between us, as a family, we owned around a dozen escorts/orions from the 1981-1990 build era alone)

modern mechanics in garages just dont have that knowledge of this type of car. its all 'ive got a fault' 'ok ill get my code reader'

 

[turbopete]

Calum...you'll not get 100,000 out of it. Cars of that era, of that type...rarely got to 100,000. I had Ford Sierra co. cars back in the day...we changed them at 40000...because they were done.

no idea what we did right with them then. we had near 100k out of a Cortina. then well over 100k out of a few sierras when they fell into our price bracket! i think my last sierra had 185k on it, the mk3 granada had over 200k, even a mk3 escort with over 140k!