Great car, no engine - what next?

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So my 2 ltr 5-door Avensis (03) developed a leak in the water pump a few weeks ago and by the time it became apparent, the damage was done to the head gasket. It's been in the workshop for the past 10 days and after attempting to plane back the head, has ultimately been declared unsaveable.

I'm gutted It's a great car, only 77K on the clock. It also doesn't help that I bought two new front tyres two weeks before all this happened, and spent another €400 on a new water pump before the greater damage became apparent.

My options appear to be:

• Source a 2nd hand engine from somewhere; proving very difficult so far, since 2 ltr petrol Avensis models are few and far between over here
• Buy a replacement car

The second option looks like the best bet at the moment.

So what's the best way to turn the Avensis into cash? It's in great order other than the (admittedly significant) lack of an engine, so I presume it has some value to someone. Thoughts?

And what's a good replacement car? While I could look at another Avensis, it might be time for something a little different. VW Passat & Mazda 6 seem to be equivalents worth checking out - any recommendations? Maximum budget is about €10K.

Nissan doctor

Petrol or Diesel?

Did they say why the head was unusable? That would be pretty unusual unless there had been serious cooling problems over a long period of time.

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It's a 2 litre petrol Avensis (originally imported from the UK).

Apparently there was extensive damage between the second and third cylinder. Threads gone on the bolts also, upon removal. They made a number of attempts to use heli-coils to refasten, but weren't able to get sufficient torque, whatever way it was.

It overheated twice, once when the water pump originally went, and a second time two weeks later, after the pump had been replaced. After the first time, there were several days of pressure testing trying to identify the leak before the water pump was finally identified as the culprit (only happened after the engine had been running for a while at temperature), and at that point, the head gasket appeared to be intact. My local dealer had it for a day and a half and couldn't get it to fail; my main dealer had it for a further day and had almost given up when eventually the water pump started dripping. So, not an obvious fault. (It had probably been weeping coolant for weeks before it got low enough to cause problems.)

The second time, a new leak was identified from the engine itself. As soon as I saw the temperature needle moving up, I immediately pulled over but I expect the damage had been done previously.

jimbomalley

Tenshot wrote: »

So my 2 ltr 5-door Avensis (03) developed a leak in the water pump a few weeks ago and by the time it became apparent, the damage was done to the head gasket. It's been in the workshop for the past 10 days and after attempting to plane back the head, has ultimately been declared unsaveable.

I'm gutted It's a great car, only 77K on the clock. It also doesn't help that I bought two new front tyres two weeks before all this happened, and spent another €400 on a new water pump before the greater damage became apparent.

My options appear to be:

• Source a 2nd hand engine from somewhere; proving very difficult so far, since 2 ltr petrol Avensis models are few and far between over here
• Buy a replacement car

The second option looks like the best bet at the moment.

So what's the best way to turn the Avensis into cash? It's in great order other than the (admittedly significant) lack of an engine, so I presume it has some value to someone. Thoughts?

And what's a good replacement car? While I could look at another Avensis, it might be time for something a little different. VW Passat & Mazda 6 seem to be equivalents worth checking out - any recommendations? Maximum budget is about €10K.

Pretty much the same thing happened to my 1.6L petrol 02 vectra with 100000 miles on the clock. Water pump went when the fiancee was headin to a hen, got that fixed plus timing belt and new brakes at a garage in Kilkenny. For the next month Noticed it was using a lot of coolant so into the garage, same problem with head gasket as you had. More money gettin head planed and puttin it all right. Then though, bloody egr valve went a couple of weeks later, even more money getting a new one but to top it all off, noticed the car using a lot of oil so into the local mechanic who told me theres a leak somewhere around one of the pistons and that it was gona cost more than the car was worth to rectify, BALLS!! Gave up on fixin it, will just keep topin up the oil and use it as a second car til the engine goes. Bought a 06 2.0L TD A4 65000miles for €8500 a month ago, loving it. Great car to drive, nice bit of power and easier on the wallet too. Hopefully it stays good!!

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Just a quick update to report a happy outcome: after several months searching, my contact in Partfinders managed to source a replacement engine. Now fitted, it's been working perfectly for the past month and things are back to normal again.

(Finding a suitable replacement was very tricky, since the 2 ltr petrol engines are pretty rare over here, and the 2 ltr petrol engines for the automatic gearbox are even more rare; we looked at five separate engines before finally finding an exact match.)

Happy days.

pcardin

Congrats!