Not a good day

[Althulas]

Last June I had a dreaded squeal from my engine, fortunately I was quick on dipping the clutch and minimizing engine damage. The indie I use advised a recon of my engine rather than spending 1.5k at the time on a unknown second-hand engine he reckoned it would be about 2K as I supplied a reground crank replacement conrods, ARP conrod bolts and a new oil pump. At the same time he would be replacing supplied air con seals, dryer and condenser. I am just waiting for him to set up the cams. My wife dropped her car off today for a MOT and enquired for a final estimate bill. She nearly had a coronary when he said about 4K, needless to say she's not a happy bunny and now wants me to sell my ///M to recoup some money (short story we've had a bad year nearly loosing my job with a financial spanking but things are on the up but going to take some time to get back on top). It's going to be one interesting 'talk'/dictation when she gets home from work tonight.

Its a shame I did not have a written quote but looks like I might have to face selling my pride and joy. Do you think having a rebuilt engine with add any value to my car or its just a loss I'm possibly going to have to face?

[BladeRunner919]

If anything I think it will possibly reduce the value. I'd always shy away from a car that had serious engine work. Best case is that it won't make any difference to the price.

Have you challenged him on the price?

[Del]

I'd refuse point blank to pay it and offer £2k in cash. Surprising how persuasive the sight and smell of a handful of £50 pound notes can be.

[Z3cade]

Doesn't sound like a very good indie if there doubling the price without telling you first.. I wouldn't pay it.

I'm not sure if a car with a recon engine would appeal or not. I would guess you can ask the general going rate or just keep the car for future investment?

[gookah]

Do you think having a rebuilt engine with add any value to my car or its just a loss I'm possibly going to have to face?

I say this as my personal hypothetical view
We bought a Zed for my wife with an automatic gearbox.
When I got it home we looked properly at the documents and it had been sold a month after it had a gearbox refurbishment costing £1900, a good thing, ....we thought!
However the 'reconditioned' box started playing up within the first 3 months and the warranty was not transferrable..
It was part-ex'ed soon after for the current one at a great loss.

If I was an independant buyer and not having access to this site, then you having spent £4k on it and getting rid of it so quickly would also ring alarm bells for me, regardless of how genuine it is.
I would then rather look elsewhere and pay the market price for a similar car that has not needed such repairs, let alone pay extra.
Now some may see a reconditioned engine as a benefit, personally I wouldn't, but there is no harm in trying to ask for more.
However, unless it came with a cast iron transferrable guarantee for 12 months, it would put me off (personally,)
Good luck with whatever you and the other half agree to disagree on....

[Althulas]

The engine has had a reground and balanced crank, all new shells and mains bearings, replaced and balanced conrods, ARP conrod bolts (I'm not taking a risk on another shell spinning) rehoned bores or rebored with new rings, new oil pump and new gaskets etc so a little more of a rebuilt engine and some vanos work done too. The engine best have a guarantee, I'll be going over the bill with a fine tooth comb and will argue the toss when the time comes, I hope he was just winding the wife up. The failure most likely come from me being a bit to enthusiastic/heavy footed and bouncing it off the rev limiter through 1st and 2nd but I'm going to get the limiter checked at a later date to make sure it's set to standard.

Well at least the wifes VW has passed it's MOT with no advisories

[Robert T]

Do have a good look at the bill. I recently had the engine in my frog rebuilt, and whilst the engine rebuild cost around £750 (including parts), the biggest cost was getting the engine out and then back into the car, which was all labour. The cost of removing your engine and installing a recon engine would have been pretty much the same. So the question is did he factor this into the price he gave you, or was that literally just the purchase price of a recon engine versus rebuilding your existing engine?

The logic of selling the car doesn't follow for me - assuming that you're going to have to replace it with something else, then you won't get a lot of car for what yours will fetch. Having had this work done, one would hope that yours is now good for another 100k miles!

Cheers R.

[t-tony]

To compare engine remove/refit between a Frogeye and a Z3 is really stretching things Rob. And surely the cost of parts would be a long way apart even though Frogeye parts will come at a fair premium. At the very least 4 cyl versus 6 cyl. I guess the moral of this story is to get a written quotation before starting and regular updates as we do where I work if the price looks like rising sharply. Best scenario is that he was winding your wife up, let's hope so.

[Gazza]

I didn't read read Robs comment re removal/refit as a comparison between the frog and the Zed.

I saw it as it needs to be factored into the total cost of the job.

[t-tony]

Well I guess I don't read it the same as you Gazza. Clear as mud. But I do agree that to invest all that money and then to sell it wouldn't be on my wish list either.

[Gazza]

I would see the rebuild as a bonus if I were looking to buy.

We all take a risk when buying cars, engines and other parts can fail at any time.

It would be a shame to sell soon after the rebuild but if that's what the family circumstances dictate, so be it.

I would increase the asking price to reflect the rebuild although it would be unlikely to recoup the full outlay.

[t-tony]

You took the words out of my mouth there Gazza. My sentiments entirely.

[Robert T]

Gazza is correct. I was not making any comparison of the costs - I really needn't have mentioned it - what I was trying to say is "did the price you were quoted include removal and refitting of the engine?", as this was the most expensive part of doing the rebuild on my frogeye.

Cheers R.

[t-tony]

I see what you're saying Rob, no offence intended. Tony.

[gookah]

I would see the rebuild as a bonus if I were looking to buy.

We all take a risk when buying cars, engines and other parts can fail at any time.

It would be a shame to sell soon after the rebuild but if that's what the family circumstances dictate, so be it.

I would increase the asking price to reflect the rebuild although it would be unlikely to recoup the full outlay.

If it were to be advertised at £2k, £3k or even £4k more, personally I would take the risk and buy one without the work done, keeping my £000's in case it needed it in the future, and benefiting if it didn't. But that's just me having been burnt once with this reconditioning..
Now if BMW had done it, that would be a different matter , not that they may be any better but the name suggests it would be more saleable.

[Althulas]

The choice of a engine rebuild did appear to be a better option at the time than buying a second hand unit of unknown history then taking a risk on that unit A bit of a dilemma at the time deciding what the best option was. My wife bless her cotton socks was just in shock at the unexpected price hike but she knows it would severely peeve me to sell it. So as long as I pay of the unexpected £££ quickly and don't do myself in doing some extra agency shifts to pay it off I should be fine but will see how it pans out. I don't want to sell it unless I really needed to as it just does not make sense and I'm too attached to the car

I forgot to mention though that the rebuild part of the engine has been done buy a builder my indie uses. I figure that some of the price hike has come from there and maybe my indie forgetting how much extra ///M parts are perhaps. The indie I use claims that he has never had any problems from any builds he has done for him. The work he has done for me in the past has been keenly priced, to a good standard and even some things for free etc. Giving diagnostic readouts and clearing errors for free that's why I trusted him on this project but his communication throughout this has been lacking to be honest. All I can do is wait until my car is ready and see the breakdown of the bill and see if there are items to negotiate on.

[Davejue1]

Other than a hefty bill to find then its a good result.