help with car issues

bluechair84

Morning guys,
The girlfriend's million year old fiesta wouldn't start this morning and I was wondering if anyone knew of that trick where you squirt something into somewhere in the engine and it magically fires up? I've seen it done on the idiot box but maybe it was a magic trick.
The engine turns over without even the slightest hint that it's firing. The water is low and there's a lot of white smoke when cold. I'm thinking water/moisture in the pistons which is stopping the sparks from firing. It was due into the garage today but sods law meant it couldn't get there.

mintedox

There is something called easy start you can spray into the inlet and it helps to fire the engine.
Dont know how it works im afraid and i have only used it on a mini digger. Ive been told that the engines can get used to it and form some sort of addiction for the stuff so it cant be great

bluechair84

easy start I'll check it out. RAC man said the head gasket was shot. So it probably wouldn't have been that easy to start :roll:

butcher of bakersfield

I was gonna say it sounds like the head gasket..

I've had two old fiestas, and my advice would be: They're shit. Get rid of it now. Don't bother even attempting to fix it, a door will fall off or something as soon as you do. It might be cheap and cheerful, but it's false economy.

There's plenty of cheap and cheerful cars out there that work.

None of them are Fiestas.

Briggo

RAC man sounds like he knows what he's on about, eating water, white smoke, engine not starting.. squirting something into the inlet isn't likely to do anything.

Scrappy goes the Fiesta.

mattv

What year Fiesta is it? And what engine? If it is an earlier model (1996 or earlier) then it is potentially an easy fix with basic bike fixing skills! Get a haynes manual and have a read.

bluechair84

'97. Garage thinks its the thermostat... Many things have been wrong with it so we're weighing up the cost of keeping it vs the cost of a 5yr old Yaris with a years dealer waranty

The Northern Monkey

bluechair84 wrote:

'97. Garage thinks its the thermostat... Many things have been wrong with it so we're weighing up the cost of keeping it vs the cost of a 5yr old Yaris with a years dealer waranty

In past experience, warranties are hardly worth the paper they're written on.

9 times out of 10 the thing that breaks isn't covered or the cost of fixing it yourself is cheaper than any excess you have to pay.

I learnt that the hard way with 2 cars!

If the warranty is "free" then fair enough, but don't pay extra for one unless you're sure you might need it.

bluechair84

Yeah, I'd only pick one up if it came with the car but if you can get one then at least it's something. I think the clause is 'consumable'. And pretty much everything on the car bar the paint is consumable. A friend bought a Corsa with a warranty and a month later the gearbox went with a cataclysmic bang. Not covered :shock:

The Northern Monkey

Yup...if it can be considered as "wear and tear" you haven't got a chance in hell!

tom_howard

A liquid to squirt into the engine to make it fire?

[inner monologue] 'Should I?'

'No, I shouldnt...'

'Im gonna....'

'Oh fine!' [/inner monologue]

Petrol?

hehe.

butcher of bakersfield

bluechair84 wrote:

'97. Garage thinks its the thermostat... Many things have been wrong with it so we're weighing up the cost of keeping it vs the cost of a 5yr old Yaris with a years dealer waranty

Seriously there's a reason you don't see many of them about at that age. I'm sure they're great when new. Everyone seems to think so. But once they get to a certain age they self destruct, slowly over the period of a couple of years, until you find yourself in a position where you've ploughed a ridiculous amount of money into a car that is now impossible to repair.

And don't think that the only answer is to get a newer, more expensive motor. It's entirely possible to get a cheaper one that is every bit as reliable as the 'newer more expensive ones'. I've managed 50k miles in cars bought for £200, whilst only suffering from the odd minor irritation, without even changing the oil. All of those cars were still going when I sold them.

bluechair84

Yup, I'm slightly of the opinion that buying second hand is mostly luck. Its very possible to buy a car that will drive the equator of the Earth. But fishing those out amongst the hyped up garbage is hard if you're not a mechanic. Mechanic says 600pounds to fix the things he knows are wrong, but there could very well be more once the engine is apart. We'll be sticking Japanese this time around, the Fiesta is for the scrap man and we're looking at Civics.

butcher of bakersfield

bluechair84 wrote:

Its very possible to buy a car that will drive the equator of the Earth. But fishing those out amongst the hyped up garbage is hard if you're not a mechanic.

It's not as hard as you might think. Whilst some mechanical knowledge is always going to be a benefit, and there's always an element of risk, it's not much different to buying anything else really.

But 'hyped up garbage' is a good phrase to keep in mind. There's a lot of cars out there that get a great reputation when new - like the fiesta - but they get that reputation for their out of the box qualities, and rarely for their durability and ability to age well.

Yet, you'll often pay twice as much for them on the second hand car market, than a car more robust, and often more luxurious. All you have to do is go boring!

That car that's been driven by the same pensioner for the past 15 years. Serviced every 12 months like clockwork and done an average for 4k miles a year, putting 60k miles on the clock. A car that is up for sale in the local paper for £500...

Or you can buy a civic and pay the premium for having one of the most popular cars on the road

bluechair84

But the civic tops the JD power survey for reliability, by following the consumer groups recommendations we hope not to be down this road in future. And we're looking at the older almond-faced civic, not the new retro-sci-fi civic, and they can be picked up for 2k. The advantage to popular cars too is spare parts. So I think we're biting the bullet on something like that. I've tried to persuade her into a Fabia VRS but no joy
We actually picked up the Fiesta from an old couple who only used it to totter about in. It had 52k on the clock and is 14 years old. It's lasted just over a year and already had an engine rebuild once. So I still lean towards a heavy hunk of luck ontop of what you can read and the rust you can see by the side of the road.

butcher of bakersfield

Nah, there's nowt wrong with a civic. I dare say they depreciate well too. By all means go for it.

I just love bargain hunting. British cars were never built to last unfortunately, no matter the condition. You should find the Japanese motors a lot more reliable. I had a Rover with the Honda engine in, and it was bombproof despite never changing the oil for 50k miles!