Our 2006 Galaxy needs two new springs, new tensioner, belt and pulley, both trailing arm bushes are shot, as as some other suspension bits.
It’s got a couple of electrical gremlins on central locking, reversing sensors and airbag sensors at times.
I’m worried about clutch (100k old) and it’s never had dpf or egr cleaned/issue (152k) or turbo.

All adds up to a hell of a few bills in future.

So, what’s your decider about changing cars when they really are about dead…?

(I do 25k a year and must have reliable, big car for work and leisure)

If DPF and turbo have been fine forget about them, turbo is only an issue if oil is. Same for clutch, shouldn’t be too bad in a barge like that.

My Mondeo suffers from premature trailing arm bush wear, I’m considering just doing it myself for the sake of ~£100.

Reverse sensors are probably worn, I diagnosed mine by sticking my ear up to them when they were running, you should hear a ticking noise. Funnily enough it was the one with the flaky surface that was shot, £20 fix.

At the end of the day if the rest of the car is sound then I’d be fixing it, better the devil you know. My Civic got an £800 front suspension rebuild the year before I just about gave it away.

Wear and tear parts.

They are Fossy, but *could* all tot up to a shed load of the cost.

I do know it’s better to stick with what we have, that we own outright.

It’s just it is £1k + towards next car, that (optimistically) like the Galaxy will be wear parts only for 80k/3.5yrs…

I like to keep and repair cars, rarely changing <10yrs, but on the basis of your last sentence, Matt, it sounds like a twist. Even if the cost is palatable, a run of visits to the garage (who may not be able to fit you in and even then without a courtesy car at short notice) or breakdowns will soon grate if it’s your only vehicle or needed for income, or you’re in a remote location with a “wife & kids” breakdown (bearing in mind that callout times aren’t always great).

Front or rear springs? If rear they can be done while mechanic is doing trailing arm bushes.

Pulleys, belts etc are all in the one area – you may even be able to do it yourself.

Central locking not a big issue, as long as you can lock and unlock all the doors.

Buy and stockpile all the bits you need cheap from eBay then drop the car at a ‘backstreet’ indy with a good reputation.

Stick with the car, buying another is a pain.

It’s your choice really, but with big miles, stuff wears. The Ford TDCI’s go on for way over 250k.

If you have the one car to rely on, then it might be time to think. My car is 15 with 120k on the clock. I occasionally get airbag warnings, but it’s nearly always the driver seat connector getting knocked. A quick on/off sequence with the ignition clears the codes.

Cost wise, mine has been, over last 5 years, a CAT, Air Con radiator (holed by debris) and an air con pipe split. Usual anti-roll bar replacements and new rear shocks as they had become bouncy (no leak).

Depends what you’re going to change it for. If you try and get another car for the same value chances are it’ll need similar stuff doing to it.

Personally I like to stick with what I know. If you recall on here everyone was encouraging me to flog the car when it started playing up. If that’s what people generally do, then there’s likely to be loads of playing up cars on the market at that price. No ta.

I’ve spent money on the Passat but nowhere near as much as a new car, and thanks to the money it’s running sweet. Unless it’s rusty, or a proper huge bill* then I’d be tempted to stick. Remember a car is a collection of parts. So for the sake of say, £1k the parts that need changing, you’ll spend £5k on new parts instead plus a load of parts you didn’t need to change…

* as in, £5000 for a new engine when you can get a new car with the engine already in for £1000

The Ford TDCI’s go on for way over 250k.

Good to hear.

I’m tempted to stick with it, just had a wobble at this bill…

Springs are front, so can’t be done with bushes.

It’s not rusty, just looks scrappy. Hey, it’s character….

I’d just suck that lot up as wear and tear and service items, just unfortunate that they have all come at once.
Unless you dislike the car, in which case you’ll already know what you really want.

Have the springs snapped? My Octavia seems to consume rear springs, but springs are relatively cheap and the labour gets less as the garage get more practiced at squeezing them past the rear drive shafts.

Matt, I’ve just fixed the central locking and various wiring problems on my sons Galaxy…. The problems were all related to broken wires in the sections of wiring between the door pillars and the doors. Rear passenger door had eight broken wires……. Unscrew the rubber gators and have a look.

Joe that may be something to look into – drivers speaker doesn’t work either…

Id say stick, as has been said above, most of your issues are service items. You are probably doing the thing a car likes best, being driven lots of miles.

Things like springs shouldn’t be that hard to change. If it’s a strut and you need a coil spring compressor, I have a super duper Facom one you can use. The rear bushes may need a special tool to remove and replace them. There are bound to be YouTube videos of how to change them. Electrical stuff as has been said can more often than not be a broken wire or corroded terminal. As long as it goes safely, try end eek out every last mile out of it.

Matt try and set as many email alerts as you can for a low mileage 2004-05 Alhambra with the 130pd engine..
Missed one last month with 82k for £1700- they are out there if you are patient.
Experience has shown cars from 2005-2006 onwards started to have designed obsolescence increasingly built into them.
I bought a 2010 Octavia Scout three months ago which had a brand new short engine fitted by Scotlands favourite main dealer shysters at £8074.00!!! last year, this was due to an inherent design fault VAG had failed to see or accept responsibility for – in addition the dealer failed to fit a new auxilliary belt or rear diff service which means I probably need to spend another £2300 on it.
Modern mainstream cars are now merely white goods with short design lives before you need to spend ‘000’s to keep
them going.
However if you are confident that your Galaxy is a good one, everything you are concerned about is consumables.
As long as the electrics are stable I would pump the money into it.

Our 2006 Galaxy needs two new springs, new tensioner, belt and pulley, both trailing arm bushes are shot, as as some other suspension bits.
It’s got a couple of electrical gremlins on central locking, reversing sensors and airbag sensors at times.
I’m worried about clutch (100k old) and it’s never had dpf or egr cleaned/issue (152k) or turbo.

Are you me with my old Passat?

I went through the exact same scenario with mine. Needed front calipers, CV boot, suspension bits, dodgy lock on a rear passenger door, so I traded it for a newer Passat. BIG mistake, it was a complete pile & I really wish I’d just fixed the old one. Which had 235K on but was as sweet as a nut.

Experience has shown cars from 2005-2006 onwards started to have designed obsolescence increasingly built into them.

+1
My cut off is the end of the Volvo P2 series in 2006/7
I’d only draw the line with a car if it came to dealing with rust, our galvanised V70 will hopefully be with us for decades to come.

Well today’s bill was £400… 🙁

They want £350 for the bushes job, which seems steep…

Bushes are a pain, I’m expecting to be quoted around £250 for mine which is why I’m looking to just buy the tool.

That does seem steep though, if you weren’t so far I’d recommend a guy I know in Glasgow who does a good job and doesn’t take the piss.

Experience has shown cars from 2005-2006 onwards started to have designed obsolescence increasingly built into them.

Oh go on then. What evidence?

What evidence?

Submission A for the prosecution.

1999 Passat – ABS pressure sensor or something fails. Mechanic dives under bonnet for 10mins, replaces sensor from accessible point of the ABS pump thing, £50 job done.

2005 Touran – ABS pressure sensor or something fails (same fault as Passat). New unit required, brand new = £1300 odd, refurb £600 odd. All because the sensor is now buried in a sealed unit.

“or something”?

Doesn’t sound very convincing especially when you could be talking about two completely different parts with two very different price tags never mind the difference in difficulty in replacing them.

EDIT just reread what you said, not necessarily indicative of built in obsolescence, wasn’t the same garage you got the bushings done at perchance was it?

At the time the Touran pump failed the mechanic assured me if it was the old car, as he had done, it was a 10 min cheap part job, not sealed unit…

Looking to change mine for a petrol or at least a modern euro spec diesel as it’s low usage doesn’t warrent a baby robin killing diesel engine

What I’ll say is that consider carefully. Look at the used car money. People are asking frankly mental money for used cars.

My berlingo according to the usual suspects (age and milage)and people seem to be asking 12-1500 quid…. I was thinking I’d sell for about 750…… To replace my car with my normal circa 8-10 year old vehicle going to cost me 3-3.5k instead of like 12-1500 I normally pay.

And that’s before I look for a petrol engine

molgrips – Member
Experience has shown cars from 2005-2006 onwards started to have designed obsolescence increasingly built into them.
Oh go on then. What evidence?

Euro4 regs were introduced in 2005. I run a Mk7 Transit (+2006), it has mega high injection pressure (the hp fuel pumps are fragile ~£1500), also expensive to replace injectors which either fail on their own or are taken out when the hp pump goes. DPF because its a fundementally dirty engined that has been ‘cleaned up’, DMF because the powertrain weight has to be reduced to help emissions.
All bolted on additional devices that werent there prior to 2006.
Same goes for high output increasingly downsized petrol units.

I get it – fossil fuels have had their day but this last gulp of dino juice by the car manufacters and the engines they are making now just arnt for me. I’m hoping my old school luddite Volvo 2.4petrol and my LR200tdi last me until electric cars have evolved a little more and the prices come down to my level a bit more. I’d rather leapfrog the whole mechanically more complex than it needs to be current ice tech and get stuck into tinkering relatively easier and more reliable electrical drive systems

A couple of questions again on the old girl….

– Struggling to start, lots of white smoke, rattly for a minute from cold = glow plugs? I think they have all gone now..

– Clutch bite point is a bit grabby last couple of weeks, accompanied by a rattle as bite engages. DMF on way out? (It has done 80k on current clutch)

Front left has developed a rattle on suspension, having just paid for rear bushes and front right new spring…

I am still dithering about dumping the thing – WBAC shows £1700, even with me listing *all* the damage on the thing. That goes a long way towards another car…if clutch goes, I am shoving even more money at tired car, and have a £200 scrapper unless I fix it.

I’d get rid if there’s any suspicion you’re going to be on the hook for clutch/DMF/(plus starter motor unless you get it done quick). That would eat most of that 1700 immediately.

If you’ve just developed a rattle on the front straight after getting new springs then my first suspicion would be workmanship with the spring change job and worthwhile further investigation with the mechanic who did the job. My Smax developed a rattle on one side but it turned out to be a broken spring after about 60k miles. Not completely impossible that your new spring has broken if it was a quality issue with the component. In that case you should expect a replacement FOC.

Rear bushes was a PITA on my SMax. Apparently they are bonded to the main beam so the bushes themselves are not replaceable, it’s the whole beam, hence the high cost. The job was also a PITA apparently.

Front left has developed a rattle on suspension, having just paid for rear bushes and front right new spring…

Shouldn’t springs be fitted as pairs?

Rear bushes – you can change them, there is a roll, just many garages go for easy option. £220.

It’s opposite front spring side from the one we had done. I’ve changed one before on Touran – and second one a couple of months later when it too went.

Clutch/rattle, arrrgh, is Darn cold, could just be that.

OP we’ve just had new tyres, new brakes and you may remember new starter, DMF, clutch and gearbox on our ’08 Kuga after an unfortunate DMF incident.  Cost £2600.

But its a sound car, will do the school runs and with that French engine will go on carry us all to the bike races just like it did yesterday for years.   I’m convinced I made the right decision to get it fixed, it feels almost new again especially as it needs us to get out of muddy Rugby/MTB event car parks and having the Haldex with all season is an advantage there.  So for us its the family suburban workhorse.

Head gasket, timing chain and brakes in the last two months. £700.

Now the exhaust is blowing…

“Shouldn’t springs be fitted as pairs?”

Conventional wisdom says yes but outside of the main dealer and warenty you’ll not be surprised at how many folk don’t.

Unless you’re going to play the game of jumping from car to car every couple of months, run it until it gets rusty.

You’re never going to fix rust.

The only person I know who has fixed rust was a hippie with lots of free time, a welder, and a white van. And lots of free time. Oh and a motorised horse box he put on the road converted into a motorhome (by motorhome I mean him, his girlfriend and for a short while his daughter lived in it).

No rust – stick

Rust – start searching the classifieds

All within reason, obviously.