carbore
Member
Iv always liked A2’s, hadnt ever been in one let alone driven one just would have had one as my city car if I was doing a cheap three car garage type thing. I tend to watch a lot of TV/Youtube on fixing things and do a lot of that myself on various things at home from washing machines to kids toys to my cars. Since COVID I havent done much driving other than 1mile trips to the super market or school. Some “man maths” started telling me this was bad for my Discovery 3 and a second small cheap petrol car would be a good idea as a project.
Buying
Iv had a search on eBay for about a year, mid October one showed up in Bristol with bids at £200, as I live in Cornwall, Bristol was right at the end on my range but the car was interesting. An X reg Green 1.4 Petrol. It had a fault whereby since a new battery the alarm kept going off when the door was opened and the battery drained. Because of COVID, The car haddnt been used for 6 months It has a few weeks MOT and diddnt have crazy miles. With a few minutes to go on the bidding and it still about about £210 I decided to have a punt, bid up to £350 and then just put my phone done and left it to it. A few minutes later I heard a ping and checked my phone, id won the auction for £256
Collection
Im lucky as I have a car trailer for Motorsport in my Elise and a Disco 3 to pull it. I arrange collection the next weekend and on the day loaded up with a fair bit of kit and set off. It as a four hour drive to a relatively quiet cul-de-sac on the edge of Bristol. The only problem was that the rear brakes had seized on but remembering seeing this in “Chasing classic cars” or “Wheeler Dealers” I took a big drift out the tool kit and used a hammer to give each drum a good tap between each spoke on the wheels. Low and behold a tug with the winch and it was moving and then on to the trailer for 4 hour drive home. The lady who sold it was super helpful steering for my while I was winching, pushing and just wanted shot of the car so was happy I collected it with the minimum of fuss
The Jobs
Fixing Pootle
How Much
Buying
Iv had a search on eBay for about a year, mid October one showed up in Bristol with bids at £200, as I live in Cornwall, Bristol was right at the end on my range but the car was interesting. An X reg Green 1.4 Petrol. It had a fault whereby since a new battery the alarm kept going off when the door was opened and the battery drained. Because of COVID, The car haddnt been used for 6 months It has a few weeks MOT and diddnt have crazy miles. With a few minutes to go on the bidding and it still about about £210 I decided to have a punt, bid up to £350 and then just put my phone done and left it to it. A few minutes later I heard a ping and checked my phone, id won the auction for £256
Collection
Im lucky as I have a car trailer for Motorsport in my Elise and a Disco 3 to pull it. I arrange collection the next weekend and on the day loaded up with a fair bit of kit and set off. It as a four hour drive to a relatively quiet cul-de-sac on the edge of Bristol. The only problem was that the rear brakes had seized on but remembering seeing this in “Chasing classic cars” or “Wheeler Dealers” I took a big drift out the tool kit and used a hammer to give each drum a good tap between each spoke on the wheels. Low and behold a tug with the winch and it was moving and then on to the trailer for 4 hour drive home. The lady who sold it was super helpful steering for my while I was winching, pushing and just wanted shot of the car so was happy I collected it with the minimum of fuss
The Jobs
- After getting it home and having a look at it, the jobs were thus.
- The original fault was still there, battery going flat and alarm going off.
- Service history was great, but it hadn’t had a cam belt for seven years.
- Haddnt had a service for two years, but haddnt been driven for one of them so fair enough but still needed it.
- Door crack on drivers side, which Im sure you know they all do
- Stereo wouldn’t turn down, which im sure you know they tend to
- Wiper droop, which im sure……
- MOT was due in 4 weeks
Fixing Pootle
- Door crack was a quick easy fix, the rollers were fine and the rivets just fell out so I just put some nuts and bolts in.
- I booked the MOT as I thought id use that as the checklist for any work
- The MOT only failed on a steering rack end with an advisory on the exhaust heat shield
- Rack end was easy enough and only a £20 part
- I did a cambelt service with some help from the guide on this site and then the oil service.
- Also I ordered a CCCU off ebay as its the prime suspect for the battery issue and also VCDS wouldn’t read the code and nor would the diags at the garage.
- Fixed the heat shield with a few repair washers, self tappers etc
- Fixed the wiper droop by drilling out the old rivets, some bolts, filed the bushes square again, tapped the back on the bracket and a few washers to take up the slack.
How Much
| Car | £260 |
| Gate Cambelt kit | £104.27 |
| Aux Belt | £20 |
| Sump Plug | £4.99 |
| Service stuff | £78.85 |
| MOT | £54.85 |
| Tie Rod | £20 |
| CCCU | £43.99 |
| VCDS Registration | £77 |
| Total | £663.95 |
