Chugging Powerless Car

mrsherself

I'm having a massive amount of problems with my car and I'm hoping for some suggestions.

Last November, I drove to Galway from Wicklow for a weekend. There were no problems. When I tried to start my car to go home, there was zilch power. Nothing. Called breakdown. He tried to restart it, but there was nothing so it had to be towed away.

I got the bus home and was in contact with the garage in Galway. He said the timing belt had gone and ruined the whole engine. He had to replace the engine. 1000euro. I was gutted.

Collected the car a couple of weeks later. Engine light came on after I'd driven no more than 5 minutes away, and it cut out at a traffic light. I drove it home, hoping it was ok.

Ended up sending it back to him because of the problems. He 'fixed' it after several more weeks, and I got it back again. The car was driving fine, but every now and again would jerk, or make a chugging sound.

This sound increased and increased to the point where my car was chugging constantly and struggled to get up any type of incline at all. It was at this point, after paying a grand, and sending it to him twice across the other side of the country, that we went to my local mechanic. He thought it was a coil problem. Nope. Then he thought it was an injector problem. Nope.

Now he's sent it on to two other mechanics who think it's an ECU problem. All in all, I can't describe the amount of stress I feel. I paid a thousand euro for absolutely NOTHING and I still have no car. Anyone think they know what the problem is????

JohnBoy26

After that long story you have failed to mention what make/model of car you are driving? :-) Without this vital piece of information nobody will be able to offer you any advice ;-)

BMJD

mrsherself wrote: »

He had to replace the engine. 1000euro.

€1k for a replacement engine + labour sounds fishy to me for starters...

George Dalton

BMJD wrote: »

€1k for a replacement engine + labour sounds fishy to me for starters...

It's amazing how you can make a statement like that when you don't even know what kind of car it is.

mrsherself

Ford Fiesta Ghia, 2003. No other problems at all previously. One other owner, clutch had been replaced before I bought it. Timing belt wasn't due to be replaced (although always a possibility the car was clocked)

mrsherself

and the engine was a reconstituted engine, not new

ba_barabus

mrsherself wrote: »

Ford Fiesta Ghia, 2003.

What engine exactly?

I assume it's the 1.25

mrsherself

Ah Jaysus, I just about know the colour of my car, haha! I actually don't know. That's bad, isn't it? I actually think it's a 1.4 though

dgt

Look at the tax disc it'll give the exact engine size

mrsherself

I would do just that, if my car wasn't sitting in the mechanics the last three weeks But I'm pretty sure it's 1.4

mrsherself

I'm guessing no-one's ever had this specific problem before so, no?

BMJD

George Dalton wrote: »

It's amazing how you can make a statement like that when you don't even know what kind of car it is.

It was an opinion :rolleyes:

and the fact that the car is still sitting up weeks later would indicate that something isn't right

knucklehead6

Only for the fact that the car has been with a guy for a while I'd say it sounds like a coil pack. It's a known problem with fords. I'm on my fourth ford and I've replaced coil packs on 3 of them. One twice!

George Dalton

BMJD wrote: »

It was an opinion :rolleyes:

Yes I understand that but my point was that without knowing what kind of car it is there is no way of judging the price paid for an engine change. Costs of both the secondhand engine itself and the labour for fitting can vary massively depending on the make and model in question.

What did you think was fishy about the €1000 price anyway? Too cheap or too expensive?

mrsherself

knucklehead6 wrote: »

Only for the fact that the car has been with a guy for a while I'd say it sounds like a coil pack. It's a known problem with fords. I'm on my fourth ford and I've replaced coil packs on 3 of them. One twice!

He thought it was the coil but it wasn't, and then he thought it was the injector, but it wasn't.

It's the unsolvable problem.