What to do with my expensive paperweight?

Hi folks,

Bought a Ford Galaxy (2008) last year. Drove it for about 2 months and it overheated and came to a stop on me. Checked it on the roadside and not a drop of coolant. Filled it up, and motored on.

Died suddenly on me again a few days later. Not a drop of coolant. Was under mad pressure with work/driving at the time, so i neglected to give it a proper examination and my 'rushing things' approach didn't do it any favours.

So anyway. It had some injector issues that were causing it to struggle to get started when it was stopped for anymore than a day or two (would take a few turns to get it to start). After it died the second time, I got it going again - loud clapping noise out of it (pistons presumably) and it died again almost immediately, never to be revived.

I'm assuming the engine is knackered.

Outside of the engine bay, about 6 weeks before all this, it had about €600 worth of work done to it, and 4 new tyres, and had just passed it's NCT (which is due again now, 01/21).


Quick mooch on donedeal tells me it's worth between 2-3k (running). I got a new engine in a car before and it turned out to be a very messy, expensive, experience that went wrong at every turn. I don't mind getting a new engine into it, but the last time i did it, it was nearly 2.5k, which obviously makes it not worth bothering with on the Galaxy.

I'm not sure if it's possible to do it cheaper, or if a mechanic has a proper look at it, if they can 'fix' what's there rather than replace, so I'm just looking to see what ye folk may advise upon?

I have a car that i replaced the Galaxy with. The Galaxy is just sitting in the drive gathering dust this past 6 months. I could scrap it, but it's only worth about €100 to me. I could also tow it to a nearby mechanics and see if they can revive it, but I'm not sure if I'm just putting a bill on my back then, just to be told it's knackered and end up scrapping it anyway (I'm unsure what it'd cost to get it looked at).

A local mechanic did offer to come out and look at it at my house, but i think that might be fairly pointless.

I've also no interest in breaking it, and having bits of it all over the front garden.



Would you advise taking it to a garage that will look at it and seeing what happens? Or am I just being naively optimistic?

Cheers

grogi

You're clearly doing something wrong here. Are there any other victims bar the C5 and Galaxy?

beauf

The only way to make that car worth 2-3k is leave 2-3k in cash on the seat.

Spending money on it just going a long way around to achieve the same end result.

Scrap it don't spend 3k on it. End up with 3k in your pocket.

wotzgoingon

I second them above it's scrap. Even if you were mad enough to put a second hand engine in it, it may not even run good after a few quid spent on it.

yamaha4life

I have personally changed an Engine in one of these at work it was a pain in the neck! was a 2 liter with the psa engine, customer got low engine oil warning and proceeded to put 5 liters of oil into it and drive to an all Ireland hurling final safe to say it was ruined after this!

The engine from a breakers was expensive to begin around 800 iirc with that add a new timing belt and waterpump, full service, bits and bobs and labour the bill was €1800 odd.

6 months later the dmf exploded and the dpf was clogged up another bill just under 2k parts + labour.

Probably not what you want hear but they seem to be abit of a money pitt IMO

I do believe it has more than €100 in scrap value probably €500 but thats just my opinion it could be more as outside the engine there is alot of salvage parts to sell off it for a breaker.

yamaha4life

yamaha4life wrote: »

I do believe it has more than €100 in scrap value probably €500 but thats just my opinion

I'd take the hand off someone if they offered me €500. I scrapped a Mondeo about a year ago and it was a struggle to even get €100 for that.

I might take a couple of photos and stick it on Donedeal as-is? Or am I wasting my time even at that?

grogi

grogi wrote: »

You're clearly doing something wrong here. Are there any other victims bar the C5 and Galaxy?

I think it's my driving. Car being on the road for 12+ hours without a stop is a regular occurrence.

beauf

Depends. Do you want to pay the fines for what ever they do with it.

beauf

beauf wrote: »

Depends. Do you want to pay the fines for what ever they do with it.

What do you mean?

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I think it's my driving. Car being on the road for 12+ hours without a stop is a regular occurrence.

I don't see that as an issue once the car is maintained correctly.

Engines are designed to run non stop if needed, there shouldn't be an issue with that at all

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

I don't see that as an issue once the car is maintained correctly.

Engines are designed to run non stop if needed, there shouldn't be an issue with that at all

You'd think it'd be grand alright. In fairness, though, people complain more than they praise things. I tend to moan on here about issues when they present to me, however i've still, ultimately, had more good luck than bad.



Well.. maybe not good luck.. but neutral luck..

beauf

Deleted User wrote: »

What do you mean?

They might not complete the transfer, leave it in your name. People are lazy like that.

beauf

beauf wrote: »

They might not complete the transfer, leave it in your name. People are lazy like that.

Who are you referring to? Scrap yards?

beauf

Who ever.

wandererz

Deleted User wrote: »

I think it's my driving. Car being on the road for 12+ hours without a stop is a regular occurrence.

Are you sure you are talking about Ireland here?

Wishbone Ash

beauf wrote: »

They might not complete the transfer, leave it in your name. People are lazy like that.

It's up to the seller to ensure the details are sent to Shannon.

I contacted two chaps on facebook who deal with scrap cars. One of them asked me to give him a price i wanted ( :rolleyes:) and the other offered €50 (again :rolleyes: )

I stuck the details into cartakeback.ie and they offered me €218.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I contacted two chaps on facebook who deal with scrap cars. One of them asked me to give him a price i wanted ( :rolleyes:) and the other offered €50 (again :rolleyes: )

I stuck the details into cartakeback.ie and they offered me €218.

I'd nearly take the €218 if it's legit.

I sold an old Corolla on done deal a whole back advertised for 400 I think. I said no silly offers etc and you still get could offering €100 and they'll be there in an hour etc.

I'd tell them straight out that I have offers there for 250-300 today and they'd come back with a higher offer of 150.... So don't waste your time with trying to flog it etc.

Personally I'd sell it and try for something different.

Strangely what I found with cars, the ones people say are reliable , haven't been for me . E.g toyota corolla was the biggest ball of **** I've ever owned.

But a 2009 520D ? Well the owner I sold it to still has it and still hasn't given any trouble since the day I bought it !

Plenty of interesting cars out there that are more reliable to what people make out.

If you can grasp the task, you'd get a nice big Volvo modern enough for not a lot of money (not an s40 or v50)

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime wrote: »

I'd nearly take the €218 if it's legit.

I sold an old Corolla on done deal a whole back advertised for 400 I think. I said no silly offers etc and you still get could offering €100 and they'll be there in an hour etc.

Well I still have my Megane, which is on the road at the moment and hasn't given any reason for me to be concerned about it (yet, anyway). The Galaxy is sitting up gathering dust the past 6 months.


I've offered it to cartakeback for 218, so I've to wait for them to contact me. Be glad to see the back of it, even though I still quite like it, to be honest. Even just sitting in it the other day, it really appealed to me. Not sure why, but I'm fond of the galaxy in general.