New car Saturday! (if its all okay)

[ozonehostile]

I'd be looking very closely for symptoms of headgasket failure, the inefficiency of indirect injection makes these run pretty hot for a diesel so to say it never runs hot with no fans, unless it truly is all open road driving, then I'd be suspicious.

When you view it, leave the car running upto temperature, see if the heaters blow properly hot, if it takes forever then you possibly have a seized thermostat

Just be real careful looking over it, try not to get carried away with new car excitement as the sad truth is that these days it's hard to find a decent xud powered 306 as the majority have been ragged to near death over the last 15 years or so

The clutch must be quite bad if it's slipping with a standard turbo and lucas pump...

[Toms306]

Looks pretty good . Although, with a slipping clutch and short T&T you have good opportunity to get some money off...

This! MOT advisories from a year ago are probably fails by now, and considering it needs MOT soon, you also don't know what other non-obvious things might need doing. I'd set aside £100 for that at least. £126 for 6 months tax. And then £250 at least for the clutch and cable at a garage.

That's over £1100 for an old XUD within a couple of months!

It does look alright though, just not at that price.


As for headgasket, check for hard coolant hoses after a drive, bubbles in the coolant, and signs of rusty orange colour around the header tank. If that engine picture is recent, it doesn't look like part of team orange engine bay at least!

[bigcheez2k3]

Where are you getting it from? Might be a member local that could help for the price of lunch.

[spike2002]

Check the inner pasenger wheel arch for rot. Esp if there is no arch liner fitted

[DavidA]

Check the inner pasenger wheel arch for rot. Esp if there is no arch liner fitted

Sorry for jumping in here, but I've seen this mentioned a few times now. Why is the NSR arch so liable to rusting out ?

[Midnightclub]

A lot didn't get arch liners that side, so mud, water, shite etc.. builds up there and rusts it out

[Nathan1305]

Should I offer say £500? And see where it goes from their

[Danny2009]

Can always offer more can't offer less is how I see it

[bigcheez2k3]

I'd say start at £450 and mention what needs doing and how much it's going to cost you.

[Nathan1305]

Where are you getting it from? Might be a member local that could help for the price of lunch.

It's at Pontypridd so if anyone's local that would be great

[powerandtorque]

You really need to go on condition and what you see in front of you in the metal as there's only so much that you can tell from a few ropey pictures and a description that may not be very true to reality.

That said, I agree with what has been said about that looking expensive with a clutch that's going to be replacement shortly (circa £300 fitted) and with only a few weeks MOT. If you're not particularly mechanically minded, I think you might be better bartering for for the seller to get a fresh MOT on the car as part of the sale, preferably at an MOT station of your choosing, rather than a small discount that would go nowhere near covering the costs if there's any notable MOT failure points on the car which isn't exactly beyond the rhelms of possiblity.

Indeed, the response on the seller when you ask them to put a fresh MOT on it as a condition of sale will be telling, as all too often cars are sold with short MOT remaining because the seller knows full well that it's likely to fail horribly and they want to palm it off on some mug.

[Danny2009]

Tbh mate unless your mechanically minded in other words you can change the clutch and other work yourself I'd look for another

I know your set on it but there isn't nothing special about it

You can pick up a tidy example with plenty of tax an test with no issues for £4-500

A set of them wheels will set you back £100 and probably another £100 if you want to lower it

Be cheaper and I bet there is more problems than he is letting on

[bigcheez2k3]

You really need to go on condition and what you see in front of you in the metal as there's only so much that you can tell from a few ropey pictures and a description that may not be very true to reality.

That said, I agree with what has been said about that looking expensive with a clutch that's going to be replacement shortly (circa £300 fitted) and with only a few weeks MOT. If you're not particularly mechanically minded, I think you might be better bartering for for the seller to get a fresh MOT on the car as part of the sale, preferably at an MOT station of your choosing, rather than a small discount that would go nowhere near covering the costs if there's any notable MOT failure points on the car which isn't exactly beyond the rhelms of possiblity.

Indeed, the response on the seller when you ask them to put a fresh MOT on it as a condition of sale will be telling, as all too often cars are sold with short MOT remaining because the seller knows full well that it's likely to fail horribly and they want to palm it off on some mug.

Excellent advice.

There is always another car, they made thousands of 306's.

[1616six]

Still recommend waiting for Toms...

[mr_fish]

650 is a bit rich tbh, id want it alot cheaper, but then im cornish...

EFA (sorry had to be done)

as said by others, bit high ££ really.

[Nathan1305]

I'll bid him a lot lower and see where it goes from there

[Andy annear]

Been on autotrader for aaaages iirc.. best of luck though dude

[Nathan1305]

Been on autotrader for aaaages iirc.. best of luck though dude

Thanks mate going up in the morning so I'll spend a long long time looking it over and if I buy it I'm taking it to pugfest so you guys can look in over and give me some abuse haha

[Lolben91]

Open the boot and give the arches a good thump, it's an S reg so they should be fine but you never know. Open the oil filler tube and check it's not full of this grey/white/watery shit like mine was, was only condensation build up because the intake pipe to the turbo had split, but still. Make sure you start it cold and don't touch the throttle, if there's smoke and it sounds like it's struggling a little, and when you press the throttle a little and the idle changes and it sounds different, it's possible that was oil sat on the pistons from a soon to die turbo, it's hard to explain that one but someone may have a video they could link? If the clutch is slipping and the engine does run away, goodbye engine

[Nathan1305]

Open the boot and give the arches a good thump, it's an S reg so they should be fine but you never know. Open the oil filler tube and check it's not full of this grey/white/watery shit like mine was, was only condensation build up because the intake pipe to the turbo had split, but still. Make sure you start it cold and don't touch the throttle, if there's smoke and it sounds like it's struggling a little, and when you press the throttle a little and the idle changes and it sounds different, it's possible that was oil sat on the pistons from a soon to die turbo, it's hard to explain that one but someone may have a video they could link? If the clutch is slipping and the engine does run away, goodbye engine

Yeah he says the clutch only slips when you try push it. Mine was like that it's fine for everyday driving but when you put more power on it slips a bit

[Lolben91]

Open the boot and give the arches a good thump, it's an S reg so they should be fine but you never know. Open the oil filler tube and check it's not full of this grey/white/watery shit like mine was, was only condensation build up because the intake pipe to the turbo had split, but still. Make sure you start it cold and don't touch the throttle, if there's smoke and it sounds like it's struggling a little, and when you press the throttle a little and the idle changes and it sounds different, it's possible that was oil sat on the pistons from a soon to die turbo, it's hard to explain that one but someone may have a video they could link? If the clutch is slipping and the engine does run away, goodbye engine

Yeah he says the clutch only slips when you try push it. Mine was like that it's fine for everyday driving but when you put more power on it slips a bit

I was stressing more that you try check the turbo as best you can, hell even if you have to pop the pipe that connects the turbo to the top mount to check for an excess of oil, my point is if the clutch is slipping and the turbo happens to let go, a clutch that slips when a bit of power is added wont be able to stall the engine.

But like everyone has said so far
Check rear wheels for signs of camber
Check the rear arches, not cool going to the beach and coming back with a boot full of it
When was the cam belt last done? Service history at all? Previous MOTs?
Squeeze the top radiator hose, if its hard then i would leave it as thats headgasket territory, also check the water tank for mayo
Check the oil level and look at the floor under where the engine was parked over, mine leaked oil from both sides of the crank seal and it does ruin drive ways
If its smokey on a cold start up and clears when you blip the throttle a little and the idle sounds different, that may be a sign the turbo is on its way out, mine lasted about 3 weeks doing that every morning before it let go, but my clutch was very good and stalled the engine even when the RPM gauge was over 6k
Check under the car where the footwells would be, because sometimes they get jacked up wrong and the underneath gets bent, which caused one of mine to rust and needs welding

Other than that do the standard car viewing procedure, tyre condition, look for odd sounds, get a test drive and get it through all the gears, get it to up to temperature and see what happens, all electrics work, is there much fuel in it

I dont think the front window tints look illegal, they look the same as mine but it might be worth getting it checked anyway as it could save you a ball ache

But yeah, that does look a really nice example, good luck!

[Seb_Ryan]

When you going to view it? Pontypridd is only ~half hour from me and im a qualified mechanic

[Nathan1305]

Open the boot and give the arches a good thump, it's an S reg so they should be fine but you never know. Open the oil filler tube and check it's not full of this grey/white/watery shit like mine was, was only condensation build up because the intake pipe to the turbo had split, but still. Make sure you start it cold and don't touch the throttle, if there's smoke and it sounds like it's struggling a little, and when you press the throttle a little and the idle changes and it sounds different, it's possible that was oil sat on the pistons from a soon to die turbo, it's hard to explain that one but someone may have a video they could link? If the clutch is slipping and the engine does run away, goodbye engine

Yeah he says the clutch only slips when you try push it. Mine was like that it's fine for everyday driving but when you put more power on it slips a bit

I was stressing more that you try check the turbo as best you can, hell even if you have to pop the pipe that connects the turbo to the top mount to check for an excess of oil, my point is if the clutch is slipping and the turbo happens to let go, a clutch that slips when a bit of power is added wont be able to stall the engine.

But like everyone has said so far
Check rear wheels for signs of camber
Check the rear arches, not cool going to the beach and coming back with a boot full of it
When was the cam belt last done? Service history at all? Previous MOTs?
Squeeze the top radiator hose, if its hard then i would leave it as thats headgasket territory, also check the water tank for mayo
Check the oil level and look at the floor under where the engine was parked over, mine leaked oil from both sides of the crank seal and it does ruin drive ways
If its smokey on a cold start up and clears when you blip the throttle a little and the idle sounds different, that may be a sign the turbo is on its way out, mine lasted about 3 weeks doing that every morning before it let go, but my clutch was very good and stalled the engine even when the RPM gauge was over 6k
Check under the car where the footwells would be, because sometimes they get jacked up wrong and the underneath gets bent, which caused one of mine to rust and needs welding

Other than that do the standard car viewing procedure, tyre condition, look for odd sounds, get a test drive and get it through all the gears, get it to up to temperature and see what happens, all electrics work, is there much fuel in it

I dont think the front window tints look illegal, they look the same as mine but it might be worth getting it checked anyway as it could save you a ball ache

But yeah, that does look a really nice example, good luck!

Thanks mate that's awesome!

When you going to view it? Pontypridd is only ~half hour from me and im a qualified mechanic

I'm meeting him at Cardiff train station at around half 9 could you also meet me there? Then we will go back to where he lives

[Seb_Ryan]

Ahh crap cant make it at that time mate, busy until around 12

[Nathan1305]

Ahh crap cant make it at that time mate, busy until around 12

Ah okay no worries I'll give it a good going over and if it has issues then so be it I'll sort them, I'm gonna try sell my current car so that will pay for the clutch to be done

[Ruan]

I'd be looking VERY carefully at it...

It's a modified Ph2 DT - it's got a cone filter, a big exhaust etc.. It's probably had a hard life, the clutch is slipping on a Lucas pump so probably 190lb.ft tops, considering those clutches will hold 280lb.ft new and it's slipping now - it's proper shagged and will want replacing yesterday. Frankly I wouldn't be too concerned about the beam, it's probably shagged anyway - let's face it you're going to want to put on a GTi6 beam fairly quick anyway.

£650 is going it IMHO, although it's often cheaper to fix engines and suspension than bodywork... Make sure it's not rusting out, make sure the paint isn't just destroyed or there's dings all down it... Don't get distracted by oooh leather interior, oooh shiny wheels since they're £60-100 parts you can fit in an afternoon... You want to be making sure the parts that are difficult to change and you don't want to change are in great condition.

[Jimmy306uk]

Are these steering wheels a straight fit?