Chat Thought you might like to see.....

[A2Steve]

Environmentally friendly yes but lucrative certainly not. Yes a tonne of clean aluminium is worth around £400 but by the time an A2 has been broken and completely stripped of all steel it is only around 200kg in weight.

 

[Dave M]

The vast majority of A2,s which are being broken up appear to be the petrol models. I am a strong advocate of saving as many A2,s as possible but i now quite understand that some are just sadly becoming economically unviable.

 

[Sarge]

For what it's worth, so far, breaking the A2 I currently have has been profitable. Nothing huge, but the thing paid for itself in a week. It's a long haul tho, and is obviously dependant on the desirability of the parts the car has AND how much the car owes you.

As sad as it is to break one, it would have been sadder to spend money on it when the market doesn't want them. I love cars, but other than depreciation I don't like them to leave a bitter taste in my mouth.

I can only justify breaking the car given the potential this thing has to keep many, many other A2s going, their owners that bit happier and how recyclable aluminium is. Once the shell and all the aluminium parts are separate from steel and glass it can be recycled without losing quality, and recycled again and again.

'Along with the energy savings, recycling aluminium saves around 95% of the greenhouse gas emissions compared to the ‘primary’ production process. Recycling 1 tonne of aluminium saves 9 tonnes of CO2 emissions; So when you consider that 1 tonne of CO2 is equivalent to driving 2800 miles the benefits of recycling really start to become compelling'.

From: http://www.alupro.org.uk/sectors/consumers/why-recycle-aluminium/

You've been lucky Pal, I have had the one I'm breaking now for nearly 3 years! and some others not far behind



Sarge

 

[Sarge]

The vast majority of A2,s which are being broken up appear to be the petrol models. I am a strong advocate of saving as many A2,s as possible but i now quite understand that some are now becoming economically unviable.

I agree, I have found the cambelt breaks on the 1.4 petrol, especially the small one a lot more so, thereby usually writing off the car


Sarge

 

[johnmed]

I agree, I have found the cambelt breaks on the 1.4 petrol, especially the small one a lot more so, thereby usually writing off the car


Sarge

I concur. The guy who did my last daily's Cambelt (A2 TDi) said he'd never heard of a diesel's belt to go on the A2. The 1.4 and 1.6 petrols are a different story

 

[Dave M]

It could well be that Tdi owners are maybe more aware and concerned regarding cambelt issues and change them at the correct mileage/date intervals ?.

 

[Darren C]

Difficult to second guess. Any owner of a belt driven engine, even having limited engine knowledge, should have the change on their radar. What is perhaps more likely is that the petrols do less mileage 'typically' and owners rely on component age vice mileage - forgetting that parts can still wear and corrode. The diesels by comparison 'typically' do the galactic miles and belt changes are therefore due more frequently by mileage covered than age and are perhaps changed by owners more often as a precaution.

It could well be that Tdi owners are maybe more aware and concerned regarding cambelt issues and change them at the correct mileage/date intervals ?.

 

[Sarge]

Yet since I have been working on the A2's (from around 2005-ish) I have found the 1.4 petrol AUA engine to be the most reliable and least troublesome, usually a simple service is all it asks for or a throttle body clean.

As they have become the cheapest run arounds from the A2 range they are also more likely to be less cared for.


Sarge

 

[Birchall]

Difficult to second guess. Any owner of a belt driven engine, even having limited engine knowledge, should have the change on their radar. What is perhaps more likely is that the petrols do less mileage 'typically' and owners rely on component age vice mileage - forgetting that parts can still wear and corrode. The diesels by comparison 'typically' do the galactic miles and belt changes are therefore due more frequently by mileage covered than age and are perhaps changed by owners more often as a precaution.

Yes, I have only heard of the petrol engines shedding their cambelts, or slipping teeth (although obviously it happens to TDis too)

A diesel engine is often over engineered because of the compression ratios of the engine and the extra torque involved.

So perhaps the cambelt and tensioners are slightly more robust too?

Steve B

 

[Dave M]

I am led to believe that the A2 Tdi cambelt is very similar in width to the one fitted to the VW 1900 tdi engines so that may mean that ours should suffer less stress and wear. They both have similar change intervals though.

 

[Darren C]

That still holds true to the theories put forward Sarge. The simplest and least complicated engine should prove to be and has proven to be the most reliable (in your experience), but a lack of attention of the belt leading to a catastrophic failure will easily put pay to that. Add in Steve's comments about the strength of components of the TDI and your analogy of the A2 becoming a more cost effective 'run about' and the reasons are probably more evident.

Yet since I have been working on the A2's (from around 2005-ish) I have found the 1.4 petrol AUA engine to be the most reliable and least troublesome, usually a simple service is all it asks for or a throttle body clean.

As they have become the cheapest run arounds from the A2 range they are also more likely to be less cared for.


Sarge

 

[manhattan$]

I bought a tdi with a shredded cambelt. The last owner forgot to change it after so many years and it looks like it deteriorated and ripped some teeth off.

New engine is in the garden waiting to go in.

Lucki

 

[Sarge]

Today the shell was taken to scrap yard...









Sarge

 

[johnmed]

Sarge, was the disposal process easy enough? Were the place willing to accept the car and dispose of it formally, paperwork wise and given I think it only weighs about 200kg, did you get paid for it, and was it correctly weighed in as aluminium?

Sorry for all the questions, but I've only had brief conversations with scrap merchants about the shell I'll eventually be left with.

John.

 

[A2Steve]

Sarge, was the disposal process easy enough? Were the place willing to accept the car and dispose of it formally, paperwork wise and given I think it only weighs about 200kg, did you get paid for it, and was it correctly weighed in as aluminium?

Sorry for all the questions, but I've only had brief conversations with scrap merchants about the shell I'll eventually be left with.

John.

I couldn't get anyone to collect my shell for free and ended up having to pay a scrap merchant £30 to take it away.

 

[Sarge]

Sarge, was the disposal process easy enough? Were the place willing to accept the car and dispose of it formally, paperwork wise and given I think it only weighs about 200kg, did you get paid for it, and was it correctly weighed in as aluminium?

Sorry for all the questions, but I've only had brief conversations with scrap merchants about the shell I'll eventually be left with.

John.

Hi John, called a couple of places and they messed me about, in the end we lifted it into a mates van and took it to two scrap metal yards last of which took it but would only accept it if it was 100% ally and picked clean. I had cut roof of and therefore even less metal, in end I got £88 (roughly 55p per kilo!) for it, yet others offered 45p per kilo. You will need photo ID they accept drivers license on own, or passport with bill as ID. They pay either in cheque or bank transfer, no cash dealing in there.

As I said you will need to have it totally clean ally only though, therefore you will need to remove everything, even from under car too!


Expect to be messed about by the scrap metal places, if it's anything like I found .