Hi, I bought a 20v Turbo last year for £700 from a friend. R reg. Its got 164k on the clock. It just failed its MOT on 16 things and I really cannot a fford to get it fixed. It needs a new downpipe on the exhaust, new brake pipes and it failed on all counts for emissions. Could be the catalytic converter, but may also be a bigger job. Its burning oil either way. The turbo whistles quite a lot all the time.

The body work is brilliant great apart from the back bumper which has melted a smidge due to the downpipe. The tan interiors also spotless aside from one slight scuff on the drivers seat where my mate used to have his keys in his jeans pocket all the time and it rubbed the seat.

I LOVE this car. I don't really want to get rid of it at all but its painful to see it just sitting about looking swanky in the drive. If I had all the money in the world I'd fix it but I don't. And I had no idea how much money you need to keep them in tip top condition. Maybe that makes me a silly girl, but I loved th car from teh second my friend bought it and when he said I could have it for whatever I could afford, I took it. I will buy another one one day when I can afford it.

Can someone advise me on the best thing to do with it? And where best to sell it with no blinkin MOT or tax. I'm done with ebay. Last time I sold a car on there the buyer was a fake and when I re-listed it made it look like it was unsellable.

I thought is anyone reliable could give me advice it would be on here! Thanks.

Second hand parts from here... slowly build it back to it former glory... AA (new parts) for those bit you want new and not second hand.

Maybe list all the fail points and someone might come along with a helping hand for alot of them...

You'll get £50-100 scrap or I'll give you £200

Did you warm the car up before taking it for the MOT ?

Apart from that if you cant afford then countrycruising on here would be interested in it.

Otherwise find a boyfriend that is good at car mechanics

Sorry to hear your troubles scrabbles, that I'm afraid is the trouble with buying cheap coupes, its a real shame that you didn't join the forum earlier and take along an experienced owner who knows these cars, he/she could of looked it over and given you a straight "buy it its a bargain" or "walk/run away".

Any how the best thing to do is pm me the list of faults that it failed on and I'll tell you within five minutes a rough price for the parts and whether it's worth all the effort or not, its high mileage but if its been looked after and serviced regular then its worth saving another from coupe heaven.

Joe.

Well I am really disappointed with the forum.

Its been over an hour and a female has only been offered the services of one forum member..

You lot should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves

THe rest of us offered our 'services' in PM

Yeah I warmed it up. I may be agirl but not totally stupid :-)

And I have a couple of car mechanics as mates. And it'll still cost me more than I can afford.

Thanks for the advice.

You guys are hilarious. I new I could rely on a bunch of petrol heads to help me out. I feel like living on beans and fixing it just to prove that you don't need to be a boy to love Coupes.

What is PM????

When I get home tonight I'll put a full list up on here of all its ailments. Then you can fight amogst yourselves to aid the damsel in distress ;-)

Thanks for your help

Defintely not scrapping it. I have debated breaking it myself (well, getting my mechanic friend to do it) and selling all the decent parts individually. Would rather sell it to someone who will nurse it back to health.

What do your mechanic mates say?

If the down pipe is blowing badly they should not have done a emisions test as it can mess up the readings

Just post up of a picture of yourself drapped across the bonnet and then ask the question again. If its a good one I can almost guarantee the vultures helpful forum members will offer their assistance

Before the MOT I was told it would need a new Catalytic converter and new brake pipes by my mechanic mate. To be honest though he had the car for 6 weeks and didn't get around to fixing it and I lost the original buyer due to his slackness, so I gave up on using my mates.

Am guessing PM is personal message? Well here is the list of MOT failures as tested at Kwik Fit (yes I know that was asking for trouble but I told them up front it would fail and that they would not be the ones fixing it. They were nearest, and its got no Tax or MOT).

1. Nearside & Offside anti roll bar rubber brush bonding deteriorated resulting in excessive movement.

2. near and offside windscreen wipers not effective.

3. Centre rear (tailpipe) exhaust system has a pert missing

4. exhaust emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle excessive.

5. exhaust emissions hydrocarbon content after 2nd fast idle excessive.

6. exhause emits clearly visible black smoke during acceleration.

7. needs new rear brake discs

8. parking brake efficency below requirements

9. front wheels brakes imbalanced.

10. rear nearside, offside and parking brakes recording little or no effort.

I have the last 4 years service history (since my mate bought it) and the red key. My mate had a full AA inspection done on it 4 years and I have that too.

163k on the clock, cambelt and clutch last changed at 138k. There is a comment on one of the services that the smoking is probably due to cat, possibly a leaking turbo, and there is a crack in the manifold.

When I look back at that lot I'm tempted to cry.

that ain't too bad at all !

These are quite minor failures and worth saving IMO even with that mileage, I reckon £500ish to sort this, but that's if you've got so mates to help with the labour.

The smoke is only black, there's no blue/white smoke on overrun?

I thought that smoke coming from the eshaust was only checked on Diesels. As long as it passes the emissions test it doesnt matter what is coming out the back?

PS.

Looks like 3 areas basically:

Exhuast
Rear Brakes (inc handbrake)
Silly bits (windscreen wipers etc)

Kwik Fit failed one of my cars before on a pre mot, so i took it somewhere else n it passed.

OK cool. I haev never seen blue smoke but it was mentioned by the second mechanic mate of mine who looked at it. He said that he needed to get it to a workshop to look proeprly as it could be the cat, it could be the rings and if its the rings it'll be expensive.

The turbo is ancient, it will need changing at some point in the not to distant future.

I don't have a mate who can help with labour. He stopped working as a mechanic a while ago and although he still has a workshop, he's working full time in another job.

I don't have £500 :-(

Thanks for all your help!

Who wants it???

I see your £200, and raise you £50.

I'm hearing £250 from the man called Truffle. Will I get £300 if I post a picture of myself on the bonnet?

I'm in Cambridge so if anyone does want it, they'll need to come and collect it from there.

Err... maybe depends on picture quality

Plus I have your details now

If only I knew how to post a picture...

Bugger. I didn't think that through did I?! I'm going to upload some photos and ppst a link to them in the for sale forum within the next 24 hours. Keep your eyes peeled.

Photos of you are welcome but what about photos of the car?

Ha Ha Ha Yawn.

I'll be sure to include them as well.

Here you go guys: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=45513&l=7d344&id=515085975

Loadsa lovely photos. Of the car. I've got some great photos of me, but draped on the car today I'd be in wellies and they don't go with my showgirl outfit. Pray for sunshine.