Dilemma

[Elstro1988]

As I've whinged about in various other posts on here, the invoice for the service I gave my car makes for gloomy reading.

Basically both my rear wheel cylinders are leaking into the dust covers...which came up flagged as a 'red' job. Also, my drums are worn over the maximum limit and both the front discs and pads are worn.

And despite charging me sixty quid extra to replace my points and condenser, the performance up hills is still horrendous (even for the OHV engine). They claimed they redid the timing but it's horse5h1t as there's still a slight miss on idle. Plus the engine's apparently full of oil leaks.

And plus I want to get the front wings replaced as the bottoms are rotting. All this on a car that's done 87k....

I'm torn - I want to keep the car and bring it up to a decent standard as it is (was) my daily for almost 2 years.....but at the same time is it better to sell it on as a project/parts/donor as it's still got 9 months on its MOT and almost 4 months on tax?

I'm certainly not going to drive it at least until payday because the brake cylinders being worn terrifies me. The other half thinks it's better for me to sell it :(

[L14MNP]

It's a Nova. You can fix it for buttons!

[Connor]

Get the old haynes out, my wild guess is that its running too lean, and the ignition time is out.

[mk1nova_rich]

Use it as an opportunity to uprate the front brakes - a decent set of 256mm discs and ATE calipers can be had for under £40

[Jack]

Brake change certainly won't be expensive, in fact it'd probably be cheaper to upgrade as above. Wheel cylinders shouldn't be expensive either but it will mean a bit of DIY.

As for the engine, look for a replacement if its p!ssing around. People normally throw OHV's away so you would probably be doing someone a favour by taking one off their hands.

The problem with selling one thats tatty or needs work is that people will just see it as that, and not want to pay anywhere near top dollar for it.

[mowgli]

you can get rear drums of the bay for £5 each, the shoes aren't that much more, and guess what, when you adjust them up, the rear cylinders go back in & stop leaking..

also if you don't mind me asking, just how bad were your brakes??? and i assume the garage removed both drums to check this out as there is no physical way to tell what is worn on a nova rear setup without doing that...

personally, i think someone robbed you & was planning to take the piss over your brakes too.

[paul james]

You run the risk of being ripped off whenever you pay a garage to work on your car, even the ones with a good reputation can let you down. At least with a Nova its cheap and easy to fix yourself, if you sell it any other car you buy is going to have problems at some stage. Things like brakes are cosumeable parts, and a more modern car is going to cost you more to fix.