Sell or Repair

[JohnA]

Hi...I have a 56 Plate Forester 2.5 which has been sitting on my drive now for 2.5 years. I've had an issue with losing pressure in one of the cylinders. The garage quoted me £1500-£2000 to fix. In additional I had a fuel mix issue which bought on the engine light,

I really liked the car and thought one day I'd get it fixed. But considering the current circumstances and finances, I just cant see it happening.

Question is, do I hang onto it or do I sell as is.

I'm struggling to put a value on it. Just sell on eBay? 

[Judd]

Ageing Subarus are difficult to value because the people who want them are very much individuals and few and far between, these are not mainstream cloned vehicles and don't appeal to the mainstream car buyer, this applies doubly so to fast Foresters in my opinion, they are fairly anonymous looking estate cars with no attempt at sporting styling (apart from the lowered STI's), this appeals to some of us who like sleeper type cars and have no interest in impressing anyone else, they are expensive to own and run and horrendous on fuel.

56 plate like my 08 model has that £555 annual VED bill hanging around its neck, which again puts lots of people off, it would probably be more valuable as a sale had it been 55 plate so earning the cheaper tax.

Whether its worth repairing is up to you, do you really like the car enough to ignore its value as a sale prospect and concentrate instead of what it means to you? unless its otherwise pristine i doubt you'd get your money back to be honest if you repaired it and then sold it, i'd be more inclined to sell as is if you want shot of it, its not the type of car to appreciate as it ages further.

 

[SF5Fozzi]

Can you explain in a bit more detail what your cylinder issue is ?

& What is a fuel mix issue?

 

 

[JohnA]

Apologies this is where it gets a little vague. By this point I will be showing my ignorance about car technicalities. 

About 4 years ago I got an engine light on. My local old boy garage told me not to worry about it as it was in their words not worth changing. Then just under 3 years ago I noticed that it was misfiring every now and then. This got worse over the next few months. I've checked the paperwork and all its states is "read fault memory.. Misfire on no.4 cylinder. Replace ignition coil. Fault still remains. Replace no2 and no4 injectors, fault still present. Check compression on no4 cylinder as it is low" 

I took it to a local specialist, they confirmed fault (at this point I can't exactly remember what work was required) but they said it could be fixed for £1,500 - £2,000.

I really liked the car, but I think I've left it too long for it to be my everyday car as by now you've guessed my knowledge of cars is abismal and need professional support whoever something goes wrong. 

 

[SF5Fozzi]

Hmmmm, ok.

Well from what you just wrote, I would do a compression test & leak down test. 

You would need to get a mobile mechanic in to do this if your not confident in doing that. 

Get all the details wrote down before he leaves. 

Before you mentioned the low compression I was thinking it sounds like the coilpack metal (x3 in each) connectors INSIDE the black plastic connector. 

iv seen this issue a few times now, where coilpacks are diagnosed, but it's the connectors not making a good connection. This COULD have been the original problem. 

the more they are slid off & put back on over time, makes them looser & looser. bad connection = misfire. Driving with missfire = eventually damaging that cylinder, what damage I hear you say, well that's what a compression test AND a leak down test will tell you. 

Hope this points u in the right direction.

let us know the results.....👍 

Did this oldboy garage 4 years ago give you a code?, Did they document it? 

Never ignore an engine light on a subaru. They come on for a reason.

Toolstation sell for £25 a cheap(but does the job) obd2 scan tool to tell you any code that might be stored. Might be worth you getting, plugging it in under the steering wheel & seeing if there's any codes    

[Tidgy]

i'm guessing its a 2.5 turbo?

 

the 1500-2k is for an engine rebuild, although a cheap one. i suspect it may have dropped a ring land, but as said needs looking at properly to diagnose

[Mr B]

bore and ringland for sure, 3 years of miss firing and fuel washing cylinder is not a good thing .
cat and o2 sensors likely taken some damage and engine in general could be poor state from petrol dilution of the oil . Head cam journals tend get ruined from this .
Sat idle on a drive for 2 years in UK weather will also add issues in getting it up to usable/mot passed spec .
They not worth a lot even in good order really ...

[JohnA]

Thanks guys for your comments... I'm now thinking just stick on eBay, be honest as possible and I get whatever I can from it.