a bit of advice please

hi all,

i'm venturing into the frontera owners world, my only requirement is, i want a lwb, it's the only way i can justify another car to the wife :oops:

( i need to move our fairly large caravan from somerset to mid wales, only the once tho)

anyhoo, with me being a cheap skate & being handy with spanners, i was looking at this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=015

only problems are: seller is less than forthcoming with info, when i asked how much oil it was losing & how it runs generally his answer was "dunno mate, only bought it to sell" after reading through the forums i've got my fingers crossed it's the rocker cover, ever the optimist

what do you think of it? & secondly i need to get it home to birmingham, does anyone know of a decent company/man with a trailer that they could recomend?

i'm not looking for a spotless example, just something i can have fun in the mud with.

Thats a very very early 2.2 not seen one on an M plate before.

Personally I wouldnt touch it if its loosing oil and he bought to sell, I would ask why? Was the job to big and costly for him to be bothered with ? :wink:

I bet its knocking like a goodn and the conrod is soon to find its way out of the block :wink:

It would have to be a major rocker leak to be described as bad, so i'd have my doubts.
If he bought it to sell on, then why not fix it? Ok it's an early 2.2 but with the 6months tax and mot, surely a simple rocker cover gasket or at least a good investigation / explanation would be worth his while. And if it is the gasket and he either doesn't want or can't be bothered to do it, then i would think there's more to it. Judging from the feedback he obviously deals a bit in cars, and a few other wholesale items, so why is this one too much trouble?
All in all if the price was right then maybe, and who knows it might be a bargain, but i'd need a very good look at it first if it wasn't just for bits.

Keep an eye out here too, as in my opinion there's been some very good examples going for not much and without dubious oil leaks

If you check out the sellers feedback, he sells a fair few motors, most of them with stuff wrong with them.
Feedback is 100% so buyers generally happy with his discriptions, so perhaps unlikely that his discription is dubious as if got a neg for selling a car that was bad, he would have real probs selling cars in future.
I bet he's buying them at auction and knocking them on, or has someone in a dealership of whom he gets the PX's.

Personally I would say that potentially this car could be more hassle than its worth, bearing mind it will probably make £250-300 on ebay as a breaker and then scrap, and you can by a tired but working 2.3d for the £300-400.
If you are local it might be worth a look in person to see if you can where its leaking from and check engine for knocking in case its been run out of oil, but if in any doubt, bargepole it. If going to look at it I would arrange a time with the seller and arrive 1/2hr early so you can hear it start from cold, as any nasty noises will be more noticable then, not giving the seller chance to warm it up first!!
Try autotrader as there is loads of fronties on there for 400-600ish, (11 on there at the mo between 395 and 600) but you can haggle on them so more saving to be had, and you can walk away without a unpaid item strike on ebay.
Ebay can be an expensive place to buy cars sometimes, as so many people go on there, thinking they will grab a bargain, that it drives the prices up (especially if the sellers mates are bidding on it too!!)

Good luck

Gregster

Funny how theres no engine bay photos eh?

i can't view the car unfortunately due to work commitiments, thanks for all the pointers, i'll keep well away, unless it goes for pennies, lol

I do not think it's a 2.2. I bought one new, and waited for Vaux to sell out of the 2.4's before putting an order in. I got mine in Jan 97, which was a Oct 96 build.

I think it's way too early at May 95 to likely be a 2.2 . I also thought the 2.2's had the new dash as well.

Without seeing it, it's probably worth what people have bid it to currently, which is £155.

Mark

Just checked with the DVLA, and it is indeed a 2.2 ! Taxed until July 09.

Yer Sir Doris has one of the earlies 2.2's Ive seen on a N plate with the old dash but coils, I reckon it was destined to be a 2.8 but the got a spanky new engine and popped that is as they couldnt wait :lol:

how about this one?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1995-VAUXHALL-FRO ... dZViewItem

haven't had a reply about one on here yet

Ooooo a 2.8 very cheap to, could just some tlc to sort out the smoking

waiting to see if i can have a look tomorrow, smoking on idle may just need a new filter & a service? am i right?

just checked & it's been bid up to £215 already, hope it's no one from here spoiling it for me

It just could be filter and oil, worse case would be valve oil seals.

The bearings on the turbo give the symptons of a lot of smoke on startup which will disappear over the 1st 5mins and then smoke on idle. Which is also the same symptons as valve seals. You might hear a noise from the turbo though, most noticable when the engine is turned off and the turbo spools down. Changing the turbo is a real bugger of a job.

Regards

TFB

I wouldnt worry to much about the turbo spooling down, this is just a quirk and happens on quite a few, mine has been like that for over two years and not caused any problems, now if you hear it screaming, thats when to be concerned.
If its pulling well and not throwing out excessive smoke I wouldnt look at the turbo.