Had a bit of bother last night, which resulted in my Coupe ending up abandoned in a side street with a completely seized engine and me stomping around in a bad mood/state of depression/thinking I was having a heart attack.

I was travelling along a local dual carriageway when I heard a grinding noise, which had me on edge straight away. I pulled up at a set of traffic lights and when they changed and I tried to move off there was a lurch, an almightly bang and a loss of propulsion. I managed to get off the roundabout and into a residential street, thinking I had sheared a driveshaft or something similar. I was worried it was the gearbox which had been rebuilt around this time last year, but the car was still going into gear fine. I made a quick call to the mechanic who does my work who came down and worked out straight away that it had seized due to oil starvation. (Oil pressure had been fine and i'd had no oil warning light).
He called a local engine builder who reckons it will be around £1500 for a rebuild. I'm not sure what to do because I don't have that sort of money at the minute and if i'm really honest i'd never see it back. At one level i'm thinking, it's only a car, scrap it, chalk it up to experience and move on, but on another level, there is an emptional attachment which I haven't had with a car before.

The upshot of it is, the car is being brought back over to the house this evening, i'll SORN it for now and decide what I want (can afford) to do). I may end up taking off what I can to sell and scrapping the rest, so if anyone needs any spares let me know.

Bad luck fella. Have a look around for a doner engine maybe.

Put an add on the Irish backroad forum maybe.

Really sorry to hear the news matey, give Joe (FCSS) a call, he may have a 20V NA that would do.

Failing that, have a look at the 2.4 conversion, may be an issue though, if the pennies are short.

John

If you fancy swearing a bit, skinning the odd knuckle etc, it's not an impossible task to throw a donor engine in. Could maybe be back on the road for £500ish?

Right, so the car was towed back to the house on Thursday evening and I finally plucked up the courage to open the bonnet this morning and take a look.
First I checked the belts and they all seem to be intact and nothing has snapped there.

I dipped the oil, and the level is low, but there was oil present, so i topped it up, took a deep breath the turned the key. The engine turned over, started and it runs, but there is a serious banging noise from the bottom end, which leads to the think it may be big end bearings, an issue with the crank, or as someone else has suggested a broken or damaged flywheel. (It wasn't changed when the clutch was changed and gearbox rebuilt this time last year).

I'm still not 100% sure what i'm going to do. I think i'm either going to try to sell the car as a project for someone who has the time and money to give it what it needs, or im going to strip off what parts I can sell easily and scrap what's left.

Can understand why you'd want to strip and scrap, but if you can find a way to move it on to someone who's willing to keep and fix then you'd be saving another. Less than 300 20v's on the road according to howmanyleft.com.

Out of interest did you get a chance to speak with Joe or another trader about a replacement engine cost?

Haven't gotten round to anything really yet. Today was the first day I had a chance to go an investigate what had happened. I'm not sure if I have the heart (or money) to do the work necessary to get the car back on the road again now. I've put a lot into it already and it's starting to become a bit of a sore point with my wife.
If I could get someone who had the time and money and would give me a few hundred quid for it, they could have it. The bodywork is OK condition, the interior is good (seats are fantastic given the age) and in the last year its had a new clutch, a gearbox rebuild, new discs and pads, new front calipers and a stainless cat back sports exhaust among other things.

I went out and took some photo's of the car today in preparation for putting an ad on Ebay and Gumtree tonight. Cleared all my bits and pieces out of it too.
I'll be sad to see it go, but on the other hand i'm glad I got to own and enjoy a Coupe for the last couple of years. Hopefully someone else with the time and money to spare will be able to enjoy it for a few more years yet.
Somehow I don't think I would have had the same emotional attachment to a Celica or an MR2.

Put the Coupe on EBay today-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282311745025

Does it knock on tick over or when you try and drive away?

Yeah, there is a knocking sound on tickover from low down. Top end sounds fine. A couple of people who are mechanically minded have listened on separate occasions and the general concenus is that the problem is transmission rather than engine related (which would explain the grinding noise just before it went pop).

I suppose it's possible the thrust race bearing has failed as the bearing carrier is made of plastic, a common issue for these to fail before the friction plate slips.

My thoughts with the way you've written the ebay ad was that maybe the rear gearbox mount/bolt has failed and the drive shafts are sitting on the subframe, this noise of course wouldn't be heard when stationary so there's something else going on.

It took me about an hour of writing and rewriting the ad before I put it up. I had a headache by the time I had finished.

It took me about an hour of writing and rewriting the ad before I put it up. I had a headache by the time I had finished.

Oops, double post. Phone had a brain fart.

Can you post a video, I'd be interested in hearing the noise?

I took a short video and I've uploaded it to Photo bucket. As soon as its showing as available I'll post a link.

Video ready now. Hopefully the link will work.

[IMG]http://rs132.pbsrc.com/albums/...f.mp4?w=160&h=160&fit=clip[/IMG]

It's hard to judge the location of the noise due to the camera being held in one position but the noise sounds bad

Hence, the car being sold, rather than being at the mechanics for investigation / repair.

I've run out of spare cash and my wife has run out of patience with my folly.

It's definitely worth more than £400 in parts value alone, but I don't know how long I'd get away with it in bits in the drive and I could do with the money to go towards a new car. Laura (my long suffering wife) is getting a bit narked at me nicking her car all the time.

Which is understandable so I hope it's sold as a whole vehicle and someone rescues/repairs it so stays on the road, can't be many yellow N/A's left now.

So, I'm no longer a Coupe owner. It was trailered away yesterday. The guy who bought it had 2 restored Fiat 131's at the All Ireland Italian show last year so I know its going to be back on the road again.

The wife has requested something newer and a bit more sensible this time. I've spotted a Bravo 1.4 T Sport 150 online and I intend to go and take a look at it on Monday.

Good to know at least that it's in right hands.......you'll be back

Good to see you found a buyer.
As Simon says, hopefully, you will be back soon.