As some of you may have seen in the "I want a retro/classic car" thread in the Wanted section, I finally bought my Ebay Capri and it lasted 30 miles. Heres a post from the other thread to explain:
"Well, picked up the car and it lasted............30 miles!
Overheated and popped the caps. Pretty much figure the heads gone as it wont idle properly either.
On top of that, no way should it have passed an MOT recently. The brakes are appalling . Need to be pumped to work and discs are VERY pitted and when braking on the A1, the car was trying to go all over the place.
The heater and blower doesn't work, nor does the rear wash or wipe. light comes on for the heated window but havent tried it yet. Lovely whine from the transmission oand/or diff too
However, ive still kept it as the bodyworks reasonable and repairs even on a head gasket won't be dear compared to modern curse word.
But basically, ive finally got a capri again and even if it doesnt work, I refuse to give one up again! "
Daverapid asked: Sorry to hear your bad luck....what do you mean when you say it's popped the caps?
What happened was that the temp gauge slowly went up and up. I pulled over and popped the bonnet and the expansion bottle cap had been blown off and also water/steam was being forced out of the radiator cap also.
AA put ran the liquid test thingy and the colour changed some blue to green but not fast so AA concluded that head gasket had gone so putting exhaust gases into the cooling system overpressurising it and blowing the caps.
He shoved some gasket/rad weld into the rad to see if the leak would stop but it still overheated. Also checked the thermostat but that was working ok.
Does this sound like a head gasket problem to you guys?.
Other niggles ive noticed:
1. Someones cut the radio cables way too short so i'm going to have to remove the dash to get at them to add length back on them.
2. No parcel shelf
3. No heater/blower (no working motor at least)
4. No working rear wiper or washer.
5. Bit of a curse word job on the so called respray/blowover ( Will never be concourse!)
6. Looks like pattern parts on the front wings that havent been lined up properly and also bonnet is crooked so catches on wing at front corner.
7. Side seat bolsters, although not ripped, are completely flat where spare tyres were left on them for 6 years.
8. Distinct Diff whine or more likely transmission as gearbox is horrible.
9. Brake discs are massively pitted and warped. New pipes are fitted but probably not correctly as appears to be a leak somewhere or the master cylinders shagged. May also have bush problems judging by the way it braked.
10. Cars running on 185/70/13's when i'm sure my last one had 205/60/13's.
Other than that, its great! ;D
And i've got until the 10th of August to do it all anyway as i'm not coming to Retro Rides 07 without it
Will post pics when I find somewhere to host them
"Well, picked up the car and it lasted............30 miles!
Overheated and popped the caps. Pretty much figure the heads gone as it wont idle properly either.
On top of that, no way should it have passed an MOT recently. The brakes are appalling . Need to be pumped to work and discs are VERY pitted and when braking on the A1, the car was trying to go all over the place.
The heater and blower doesn't work, nor does the rear wash or wipe. light comes on for the heated window but havent tried it yet. Lovely whine from the transmission oand/or diff too
However, ive still kept it as the bodyworks reasonable and repairs even on a head gasket won't be dear compared to modern curse word.
But basically, ive finally got a capri again and even if it doesnt work, I refuse to give one up again! "
Daverapid asked: Sorry to hear your bad luck....what do you mean when you say it's popped the caps?
What happened was that the temp gauge slowly went up and up. I pulled over and popped the bonnet and the expansion bottle cap had been blown off and also water/steam was being forced out of the radiator cap also.
AA put ran the liquid test thingy and the colour changed some blue to green but not fast so AA concluded that head gasket had gone so putting exhaust gases into the cooling system overpressurising it and blowing the caps.
He shoved some gasket/rad weld into the rad to see if the leak would stop but it still overheated. Also checked the thermostat but that was working ok.
Does this sound like a head gasket problem to you guys?.
Other niggles ive noticed:
1. Someones cut the radio cables way too short so i'm going to have to remove the dash to get at them to add length back on them.
2. No parcel shelf
3. No heater/blower (no working motor at least)
4. No working rear wiper or washer.
5. Bit of a curse word job on the so called respray/blowover ( Will never be concourse!)
6. Looks like pattern parts on the front wings that havent been lined up properly and also bonnet is crooked so catches on wing at front corner.
7. Side seat bolsters, although not ripped, are completely flat where spare tyres were left on them for 6 years.
8. Distinct Diff whine or more likely transmission as gearbox is horrible.
9. Brake discs are massively pitted and warped. New pipes are fitted but probably not correctly as appears to be a leak somewhere or the master cylinders shagged. May also have bush problems judging by the way it braked.
10. Cars running on 185/70/13's when i'm sure my last one had 205/60/13's.
Other than that, its great! ;D
And i've got until the 10th of August to do it all anyway as i'm not coming to Retro Rides 07 without it
Will post pics when I find somewhere to host them
