gf's car is a 98 vectra (opel)
has oil in the radiator system, and mechanic said that without taking it all apart (did a 2 day inspection on it), his best guess is a cracked head which will cost ~$4000 to fix (parts and labour)...PLUS whatever other damage has been done.

now the car was only bought for $8500, so we're not thinking of getting it repaired.
been told by a few people to try ceramic sealant (CarGo Seal Up was one such product mentioned). quite a few people swear by it, but one mechanic friend also said that it can (in some cases) actually block the heating system and other parts.

the car is still, at this stage, driveable...we're thinking of trying the sealant, but also looking to trade it in (i highly doubt a yard will be able to spot the damage with the crappy 5min inspections they do)

peoples' thoughts on the sealant (especially if u have used it), and also on what to do with the car...?


cheers,
adam

I think the mechanic is right about blocking up the coolant system, but you could do that prior to trade in - to clean it up, and replace the coolant, or put soap in the coolant to disperse the oil *laughs*

or learn to replace a head gasket. It's not that hard.

Maybe it's not the head gasket too - might be a crack in the head.

what about getting a 2nd hand motor from an auto recycler? that should be cheaper than you were quoted - only a few hundred.

My wife has a 97 CD Vectra with the 2.5 V6, and over 5 years it has needed a lot of repairs and is pretty much a
money pit. We planning to trade it in as soon as we can afford it

Read this also about them here Vectra Story
I found out too late that they are usually a lemon, also to replace the timing belt is quite expensive at $1000 plus.
As it is not just the belt that gets replaced, but the tensioners etc also.

It really depends on the km's yours has done and if you can repair it yourself, I would trade it in rather than spend $4000 on it.

well, we went to a few yards today and were told at one we could get up to $4000 trade-in, another yard (which was a much better yard in general) said about $5000-$5500...so we're most lilkely going to the second yard, and trade-in for either a 2001 hyundai accent at $8990 (120,000km) or 2002 accent at $10,990 (42,000km)

whoa slow down tiger. This is close to the largest possible loss you can make on the car.

step 1: Chemiweld is what your after. (Check if the oil is milky, chance of cracked head is slim, most likely HG)
step 2: Carsales / Trading Post to sell it.
step 3: DO NOT buy a hyundai. Especially from a assyard. Carsales & car forums are your friend. Get something reliable. Think carolla mazda etc. Looked after>low kms.
step 4: ?
step 5: profit.

If you sell someone that car in that state you're a grade A Dog.
Head gasket problems only get worse, not better. Can eventually lead to blowing holes in the cooling system, creating problems. Or if its water in the oil, you might aswell just run no oil.

Now should some other poor mug get that unwillingly thrown upon them?

1. read up on it...some say yes, some say no (blocks radiator system)...all say only a temp fex, and really only use on sh!tboxes
2. would not sell this car to a private buyer...car yard expects there to be problems with cars they buy - thats why u dont get much for trade-in
3. nothing wrong with hyundais...they are cheap to run and relatively reliable when treated right. well, at least the post excel era are...
4. ?
5. only way to make a profit is to sell to some poor schmuck, or buy a really crap car (old). not wanting to do that.

we've got two mechanics looking at the hyundais on monday, will see what they say about them

the later hyundais are actually meant to be very reliable cars

yes they are cheap and plastically but meant to be mechanically sound

been told this by many mechanics

change the head gasket yourself
doesnt take long you could knock it over in a weekend if any head shops in your area trade on saturdays to get the head cleaned up

3/4 of the engine has to be dismantled to do it...its those silly Opel engines from the late 90's vectras (thats why labour was quoted as so pricey)

i dont even know how to change oil filters, spark plugs or anything simple like that, let alone take apart and rebuild an engine


anyway, she is getting our mechanic to check over one of the hyundais this week, if all is ok, will prob get it

Ahh fair enough I forgot your not much of a grease monkey.

Cool cool. Hopefully the hyundai turns out to be a good car and you can get it at the right price!

The excel you are looking at, of that vintage, tend to have notchy gearboxes and can be very noisy. The accent I believe is the better choice of the 2. For that vintage and K's the only real major problem with them is the fuel pumps tend to die at about 80,000km. Its a $400 fix though for a whole new pump, and tend to be alot quieter than the excel and nicer to drive.

G/f has an accent of that age, and her mum has an excel of the age you stated too. I'd go the accent.

Luke

they're both accents

korean cars tend to be good and cheap up until the 100k after that bigger things tend to wear and need to be replaced. Compare this to nissan, mazda or toyota they may cost slightly more to service but it will be longer until expensive parts need to be replaced. I would personally look at a toyota.

I can't stand Chundai's.

But they are tough little buggers. Keep the servicing up and they keep going.

Have to disagree Lindsay. I would expect the servicing costs even major maintence on a hyundai to be far cheaper than a Mazda.

Nissan are generally cheap on parts (labour is through the roof but who uses a nissan dealer to service their cars)

Toyota have generally be reasonable on both parts (well most parts) and labour costs but they seem to be heavy on parts like brakes and yotas have never been known for their diffs (but buying a front wheeler that doesnt come into the equasion)

99% of cars need fairly major work once they hit the 100-120,000k mark and realisitcally concidering most engines will have done around 165,600,000 revolutions and close to 10,000 engine starts of which approximately 2,000 of which will have been cold starts thats not really too bad of an effort when you really think about it. And concidering that most of these vehicles only need around 15-25% of their current market value spent on them on the "major work" then need done for them to see another 100,000k's go by its really not that bad.

Think 20% of the value of a $6,000.00 vehicle is only $1,200.00 or on average - $240.00 for each year (roughly) of its life thats less than $1 per day ...

Sounds like an Opel, Richard (OMR10) who is a mechanic is always bitching about them, reckons there one of the worst cars you can buy, absolute bitch to work on and constantly break down. I know the Astra needs all the pulleys replaced at 60k or 80k close to $900 dollars, most cars don't need the cam belt changed till 100k (150k on my Fiesta) so to have pulley changes as a service at 60 or 80k is bullcrap.

As for a replacement car my choice would be either a Hyundai Accent, or if you can afford it the newer Hyundai Sonata, or a Ford Focus or Fiesta, the Fords are quite reliable, very easy on tyres I got 75k out of mine on the Fiesta and I give my car a hard time I'd had one wheel alignment and the tyres were perfectly worn and still legal, okish on fuel in there class not the best but not the worst, reasonably cheap to service about $220 dealer service every 15k with a $390 service every 60k. I've never heard of any reliability issues but might pay to search around to see if there are any common isues.

I agree with whoever said that's a bitch of a thing to do a quick fix and flog it to a yard, since they won't find it, and they'll sell it to some poor unexpecting person, who's going to discover it eventually and they'll quickly find that fancy warranty they paid extra for from the dealer isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Luke

Just read that article, that would be the 60k pulley service I was thinking of, which as the article and you aluded to is actually the cambelt and tensioner etc..

If the car is sold through a dealership the car yard is obligated to give a 3 month warranty - so f uck em i say stick in the chemi weld and be done with it sell it to the yard and if someone buys it its their bad luck. We all take risks buying second hand vehicles