I bought a silver 20vt from a liar in Essex back in November.
I was very naive when I bought the car, I had just sold my Range rover and was really excited about getting a coupe. I ignored a lot of advice and just went out and bought the first one I saw.
I didn't even see it start from cold and didn't check a lot of things I should have done.
The drive home really put a smile on my face but that was quickly wiped off the next morning when it filled the car park with blue smoke. Turbo seals.
I also found out the keys were different, The cambelt doesn't look great but will last another few weeks/months before I get it done.
It had no locking wheel nut socket, it's letting in water into the passenger footwell and the manifold has a crack.
The gearstick was wobbly and it has some nasty lacquer peel on the edge of the bonnet, but I knew about those!
On the plus side it's a relatively low mileage (68k) 20vt with good oil pressure, albeit with no history
So first on the list was sort the turbo, I bought a rebuild kit, whipped the turbo off and rebuilt it. When I put it back on it was throwing out more smoke than before.
After taking it off again and working out that it was the exhaust turbine shaft that had worn, a new one was ordered and installed.
That cured the smoking problem, I hammered a socket onto the locking nuts and managed to undo them.
I've just inserted an inch of garden hose into a selector shifter arm near the bottom of the gearstick, that's cured the wobbly gearstick.
I was hoping that would solve the problems getting it into first and second gear but it hasn't, it seems that the syncro's are screwed.
I had to remove the alarm ecu because I couldn't deactivate it.
So that's how far I've got to, I gave it and oil and filter change yesterday.
It is now making a horrid droning sound which I'm almost certain is a wheel bearing, Already changed the front NS with no joy but it gave me a chance to unstick the inner caliper pistons and clean up the disc(did the OS too).
If I can get the gearbox to go into first and second nicely , and when I sort the droning/whirring and the water ingress then I'll have a half decent car, and given that I've only spent 2-300 quid so far; I think I've been quite lucky in some ways, It could be a lot worse.
I don't fancy doing the cambelt myself so I'll have to add that into the equation, plus all the other little bits it needs, rocker cover gasket and an exhaust tip spring to mind.
There is a small drain on the battery as well, It will be dead if I leave it for 3-4 days but it shouldn't be too hard to locate the culprit.
I dread to think how much I could have spent if I wasn't doing all the work myself.
Car is standard aside a gtech1 at the moment. I really need to get a fueling check done, but am trying to get it to a standard where I can decide if I want to put a fmic and an uprated turbo on it first.
Just writing this as a warning really, as well as an account on what I've done.
In retrospect I really wish I had have been patient and spent 2 maybe 3k on a car that had been cherished (a recent cambelt change, and a fmic would would have been nice as well
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Thanks to those that have helped with my queries.
JH