Rescuing 1.4 petrols

S

sunsurfer

Member
I'm musing over rescuing a cheap 1.4 petrol. Possibly many petrol engines have mileages near to end of life. Shame to scrap them What engine relacement or refurbishment options are available to me and what are the likely costs?
  1. Refurbish the engine
  2. Replace the engine - new or used A2 or VW group
  3. Replace with better engine - how complex is this?
I don't have a garage or technical skills so any of these options I'll be paying a garage to do.
 
If you want to end up with an expensive A2 petrol (or diesel come to that), start off with a really cheap one then get a garage to sort it out for you.

Honestly, buy the best you can afford and keep it nice. The initial price difference (say going from £400 to £1400) will barely buy you a better engine, the inevitable clutch / fluids / service items and perhaps 15 hours of labour, let alone the myriad of other things a tired one will need. You still end up with what was a cheap A2, it's now just a cheap A2 with a different engine that owes you an extra £1000 +

Now ... if you were a DIY mechanic that could tackle all the work, then game on. Even then it's a moment's work to drop £400-800 into one of these and that's before you consider an iffy engine.

e.g. my current TDi came in to me at £300. It had been fairly well looked after, good mechanicals, recent tyres all round, good body and so on. Even so, with me DIY'ing and being sensible (not gone mad) I've gone past £900 all in. There's no one big expense, just a lot of bills for £10 to £150. Those £20's, 30's and 40's really add up, let alone when a garage is burning through £40-65 per hour, possibly plus VAT.

Sorry, that all sounds negative: the 1.4i is an absolutely cracking car so well worth hunting down, but if you're not DIY'ing, try to find a really nice one. If you're not sure, see if someone on here can assess it for you before you commit. At the very least, post any queries on here: someone will have a good / sensible answer for you.

Good luck!
 
I’m with Rusty911 on this one.

I’ve gone down that route with my project, bought a car that was a stones throw from the scrap merchant, nearly 12 months later, and many many man hours, and it is almost up to scratch.

However I’m lucky, I’ve done the work myself, but if I had to do a rough calculation then I would say I’ve put in a few hundred man hours.

A car with a knackered engine will very possibly be a car with suspension and brakes that need attention as well, if one aspect is neglected to can bet everything else is, and your little project very quickly turns into a money pit


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Agreed, although to be honest, unless it has had the suspension done already in the recentish past, it will almost certainly need it doing, along with brakes and tyres. In the case of our 3 A2s - the first 2 bought outside A2oc (which I think makes a big difference), purchased for £1750, £347, and £1, all needed the same doing - new struts front and rear, new brakes and tyres. The only significant advantage of the £1750 car was 70-160k less mileage and a proper valet had already been done (I've learnt this over the years).

Also worth thinking about batteries - it is amazing how many still have the 8z0-coded VARTA they left the factory with, or at least had them until the last cold-snap that caused starting issues.
 
@Rusty911 I get what you're saying and it makes sense. The information I'm looking for is along the lines of
  • "I rescued a petrol with a blown engine and bought a used replacement from A2Steve, Clackers etc and had it fitted and it cost me £XX"
  • "I had my petrol engine refurbished at the cost of £xx and it should be good for another 100,000 miles"
  • "I bought a new Polo/Skoda/SEAT engine that cost£xx and had it fitted for £xx and it will be good for 150,000 miles"
My point is there are highly specced 1.4 petrols with little life left in the engines. The diesel will go well beyond 200,00 but when does the petrol become uneconomic to repair? Can we refurbish, replace with a lower mileage used one, or buy a better new engine for a reasonable cost?
 
Our AUA is somewhere over 193,000 miles, so not all of them die at 100,001 miles - with some tactical bolt-on parts replacements particularly relating to ignition they can and do go further. I doubt Tdi mileage will be possible, but it's impressive nonetheless. Did the belts when we got it 3 years ago, have replaced plugs, leads, coil, throttle body, EGR, oil catch can, exhaust / cats and a couple of sensors, which has got it running generally o.k apart from the odd manifold pressure ghost message every few months - it is like a sewing machine when warmed up even if it sounds a bit nasal just after starting. Emissions at the last MOT were a fraction of the required limits and the MOT tester commented on how well it was running for a 19 year old car that cost buttons on Gumtree 3 years ago (and showed it in the totally parlous state of maintenance and lack of service history). Now working on making the bodywork better.

Consequently it is possible that a 120,000 mile AUA or BBY (give or take slapping pistons) may have another 60,000 miles or more in it at least if you give it some TLC.
 
There are people who have taken their 1.4s past 500k km (
). The thing that makes 1.4s uneconomical to repair are the same as for any other A2, it's just exacerbated by the fact that values will tend to be lower as it's the 'lowly' engine.
 
Afternoon all,

My old commuter, a 2003 1.4i BBY finally gave in at 258k miles. I’m sure the car would have been able to tell me that something was not right but Tom @timmus informed me that the EML indicator was covered over when I donated him the Instrument Cluster. Never noticed this myself but wasn’t looking for it to be honest.

It didn’t have any piston slap and was running very nicely until it’s demise. A couple of work colleagues even asked if it had Start/Stop technology as it was so quiet.

If maintained correctly these engines can last. The only reason I didn’t replace it with another BBY/AUA is due to my annual mileage and as such wanted a TDI.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
Exe_Chris said:
There are people who have taken their 1.4s past 500k km (
). The thing that makes 1.4s uneconomical to repair are the same as for any other A2, it's just exacerbated by the fact that values will tend to be lower as it's the 'lowly' engine.
Click to expand...
As most 1.4 Petrols are Euro 4 compliant, it should remain steady, price wise, or even increase as the ULEZ bug spreads, making the diesels less practical for every day use.
For anyone looking for an A2, the 1.4 and 1.6 should be seriously considered.
Mac.
 
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