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 .

Thanks to those that have helped with my queries.

JH

Have a look for a tracker of some sort. They have been known to cause battery drain on other people's cars on here.
I found one in mine but it's back up battery was still okay.

Great work so far! Worth doing both bearings (usually the rear) if you're doing one.

Good luck with the belts though, don't tempt fate too much!

Battery drain is always alarm or radio with the latter being most common.

Drone is rear bearing which is also common.



If you can't select gears when engines off either then its not the synchros.
If later box is fitted its most likely the plastic surround that's broken under the stick.
Nightmare to do but parts are only £20

For the money its usual to come across a few gremlins so don't get too disheartened with the car

Cheers, I'll get there, slowly but surely

How do I know which box I have? It's an R plate first registered 27.11.97.

How come the bearings are usually the rears? is that just from many peoples tales of changing both front bearings with no joy?

Hi
Welcome to forum and well done on the turbo restoration.
The droning is likely to be the rear wheel bearings, although as I recall, I suspected it was everything else on mine, including the gearbox! Try asking a tyre dealer to see if they can find any play/movement.
When I got it fixed it was without doubt the biggest improvement to driving the car!
The gearlever problem is I'm afraid quite a common one on our vintage of Coupe (mine needed fixing too), but the parts are cheap.
Keep up the good work!

Did the NS rear wheel bearing earlier, again no joy but it was an easy job so now I can put the original hub/bearing on the other side and see if that cures the noise.

I've had all 4 corners up in the air and couldn't find any play or movement, I've even run the car with the front wheels off the ground to an indicated 80mph but couldn't get it to make the noise.

I'm going check the CV's have grease in them as there's a small possibility it could be that.

What tyres do you have on the car? I can't remember which brands, but some can give a droning sound, often mistaken for wheel bearing noise.

If you have a different brand at the front, try swapping them to the rear. Worth a try just to rule them out and will only cost a bit of time

Pirelli's all round.

The fronts were getting low on tread so I swapped them to the rear, and around the time I did that the sound appeared.

Straightforward you would think, Change them back and the sound will disappear. I did and It didn't.

So I changed them back again, I've even swapped them over again since and swapped ones on the same axle just to make totally sure, and to see if the sound is different.

Happened to me when i got my car so changed the rear bearings myself noise still their so had a garage change the fronts and the noise didn`t go , so changed the tyres around still the noise was their.
A few weeks later i came across a set of refurbed black wheels and put a set of toyos all round and guess what no noise.
The noise sounded like the pod race in starwars phantom menace drove me crazy.
Anyway at least all my bearings are done

Great news!

I've found I have no compression in cyl number 1.

I haven't investigated further but it goes some way to explaining why it used a litre of oil every 200 miles.

Kind of a relief tbh, it needed a new gearbox and a paintjob, which I now won't be doing as I feel It's beyond repair.

Think I'll list it whole as a donor car.

It gives me a chance to get a cheap 4wd for some green laning before buying a cherished coupe in red in a year or two. Think I'll make sure it has history and the right keys this time

Can't help but think 'Bugger!' though.

You took that well. Was the car listed on here when you purchased it?

Seems to me it had a lot wrong with it for a 68k mile car. Maybe it had been clocked as well?