Invest or sell?

ldxo15wus6fpgm

It just so happens that a number of expenses on my car have come around at the same time.

I drive a '96 Peugeot 406 1.9 turbo diesel. It was a cheap car to buy, cheap enough to maintain and still pretty efficient on the motorway and extremely comfy too. I bought the car in September and have run up about 15,000 miles since then. I drive a lot around 700 miles most weeks, give or take. I'm not sure how long that will continue but for the foreseeable future I'm doing high mileage each week.

Obviously the car is old and just ran on to 180,000 miles.

It needs:

Timing belt / water pump - estimating the cost of that at about 350 inc parts.
Can get good parts for 150 quid and my new mechanic in dublin quoted me 150-200 for labour. I'd do it myself but don't have time and I'm not too sure about the actual engine timing part either. I have 3000 miles left before this HAS to be done, so tops 4 weeks.

4 tyres - probably looking at 250 quid for 4 new crap tyres fitted. It's no speed demon so high quality tyres aren't too important to me at the moment. These need changing very soon, again probably in the next 4 weeks.

A bit of work on the ABS - the light is on on the dash, hopefully a broken cable, possibly a faulty sensor. Reluctor rings look ok. New sensor prices up at about 60 euro.

Tax expired yesterday, NCT up in May and on an old car god knows what will be found. I did a bit of work on it after I bought it and got my mechanic to look over it and fix a few things but I've run up a fair few miles since then...

There's also a funny problem with the engine which I was told might be down to the wax stat. I have a funny rattle a few minutes after starting cold, which goes away after a minute or if I rev the engine up a good bit. Engine has a very tiny oil leak too on the back of the engine block, 2 mechanics have told me it's no major concern, and other than that the engine is sound.

There's a very weird electrical problem I have just found, that will need exploring, but I don't expect to need to buy anything more than a new relay.

It probably needs a few other bits too like gearbox oil/steering fluid and possibly some brake pads.

All in all I reckon there's probably about 800 quid to go into the car, plus my tax, but that doesn't really count I suppose!

I'd normally put the car in for the NCT to generate a 'shopping list' to get it passed but I am very hesitant to let them rev the nuts out of it when the timing belt needs doing.

Do ye think it would be worth keeping the car and putting the money into it or should I try and flog it and get a newer one?

quietsailor

What percentage of the value of the car is the cost of the repairs? You need to decide the ratio there that suits you. My car is approx €5k and once unexpected* repair bills in over €1k I'll sell her.

* = I don't count tyres servicing, shocks etc in this as any car will need these anyway

quietsailor

What percentage of the value of the car is the cost of the repairs? You need to decide the ratio there that suits you. My car is approx €5k and once unexpected* repair bills in over €1k I'll sell her.

* = I don't count tyres servicing, shocks etc in this as any car will need these anyway

ldxo15wus6fpgm

Because of all the work it needs I'd probably be lucky to get 500 quid. After it maybe a grand, depending. You're right about the maintenance work, it will need doing on any car, but I'm not sure whether or not the car is so old that I should leave it and move on... plus the car has some other issues that are annoying and odds are they'll never be fixed

Supergurrier

Sounds like you could go either way tbh.

Even 500e cars require maintenance depends if you like the car enough to do it or you could always just scrap it and move on.

quietsailor

For a 1K car you are going to be investing a lot of money, time and patience into a car that may or may not (by the sounds of it) have another serious breakdown in the near future - I'd trade up at this stage.

BTW in this scenario I am lucky enough to have saved some money and would be looking at new/6 months old which I would then drive for ten years, I don't see the need to change a car every few years. You might not want to buy such a young car

dgt

Tbelt is an easy job on those. £70 for a gates kit

New budget tyres (not chinese dirt) can be got from €40 a corner

I can write a guide on the WAX stat when building my engine up in the next few days/weeks

Them engines are a fecker for getting oily so don't worry too much

I'm in the same boat with abs, a load of un-necessary tat haven't priced new sensors yet

Shove it through the nct and see what it needs. My old 406 was a complete wreck I kept throwing new parts into and eventually gave up, it was a real bag of crap though!

ldxo15wus6fpgm

Yeah I'm leaning towards keeping it at the moment. About to put it on ramps and check a few bits though, think I might be getting a hole in the exhaust! I wonder would a bodge job fix get through the nct :P

That would be much appreciated dgt, you're always there with good advice about this car!

Bigus

700 miles a week will knock the value of any replacement car double quick. Personally I think there a big difference in timing belt life length if the mileage is run up quickly and in such case will last a lot longer, I'd patch the exhaust and chance an NCT test, first.
Good luck.