What should I do?

[southerncomfort]

Hi,

I recently bought a 95 GR Tiptronic from a friend that had been parked up on my drive for nearly 10 months as he had bought a house and couldn't affoprd to run it. Now he had bought it for around £2500 in 2006 and i got it for £1000 thinking it was a bargain but after I spent a few quid on it to get it back on the road it's starting to reveal a few more things that need doing on it. So far its cost me around £1300 to get the car and get it on the road.
Now having looked around there are a few other cars of the same spec but the prices are so varied im not sure what the correct guide price is for these and im trying to decide if I do the work to it, am I just sending good money after bad? Also how much longer is the car going to run before more serious work needs doing to it after all it is 12 years old and will be covering some mileage due to the commute for work. I know I won't get much back in the sale so would it be worth doing the work and selling whole or breaking it down and sold peice by peice or just selling as is?
The car is completley standard and the bodywork is in good condition and has 73,000km on the clock.
the jobs that need doing are:

Tappets
Droplinks
ARB bushes
Could do with a full service
new Exhaust
refurb Wheels
New brake discs
Would need to fit HID's as the original lights are S*$T

I know next to nothing about these things at the moment except what im learning from here but I am handy with a set of tools and I will do as much of the work as possible to help keep costs down, so any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[CJ]

Welcome to the forum SC, if you're handy with the spanners, the following can be done yourself with minimum expenditure:

Rear ARB bushes (fronts can be awkward)
Front and rear droplinks
Brake disks
Service - change fluids, filters and possibly pads - all very straighforward

What model do you have? The Mivec tappets can be adjusted but the non-Mivec ideally need to be replaced. Its a fiddly job thats best left to a mechanic or a half decent grease monkey.

HIDS are dead cheap on ebay and are very easy to fit, search the forum for more info.

You could easily refurb the wheels yourself (depending on condition).

For parts, check www.camskill.co.uk

Let us know if you need any specific info, there a few knowledgeable lads knocking about the place who will be more than happy to help.

CJ

[southerncomfort]

Cheers CJ,

I would like to do as much as possible myself so I would be looking for some guides to follow. The engine is NOT Mivec so I know the tappets ain't going to be cheap. Im just more concerned that if I throw in another £500-600 to get the parts it will then need another major job in a years time due to its age and mileage. Do these cars tend to have a good lifespan? Also we live in southern England but my Mrs is from Dublin and goes back every few months. Is it much cheaper for parts and labour over here or there?

[CJ]

www.ftodiy.co.uk is an invaluable site in terms of listing guides for various tasks. You might find it cheaper to buy a set of tappets from Kempys in NZ than in the UK.

Tappet info:

http://www.fto-ireland.com/forum/phpBB2 ... hp?t=1408#

http://www.fto-ireland.com/forum/phpBB2 ... .php?t=752

Remember to use search if you're looking something, theres plenty of info available on the forum.

Parts and labour will probably work out more expensive in Ireland in comparison to mainland UK.

CJ

[mark]

Hey man, doesn't seem to be too much work there.
You could even pick up a second hand set of wheels in good condition which would save you the hassel of work.
Do the spark plugs,front and back and leads, this isn't as difficult as you may think.
I wouldn't waste your money on the tappets though. A few lads on the Aussie sites have replaced their tappets only to find a few weeks later that the tapping is back, Mitsi Achilles Heel. There are some good images on how to do it as I was doing mine but won't bother now on account of the problem coming back. If your car was plus 100000 miles i'd say maybe but with that low mileage/kms it ain't worth it.
Fuel filter is another cheap and good thing to do maybe.