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[Ronald_McBurger]

On the back of a low loader.....  

This is a 1998 Omega 2.5 v6 CDX Auto saloon in star silver. I bought it on ebay last week with a Buy it Now of £299. It is MoT'd until August and taxed till the end of the month. It has done 111k from new and has a FULL service history.

See here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220080731759&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=012

Just before I bought it, the previous owner spent over £700 on it, including cambelt, tensioners and water pump. New alternator, new aux tensioner.

Having spent that the gearbox started playing up and they decided to cut their losses. They slung it onto ebay and despite 11 other people reading the listing, I pounced at that price.

So, today me and Laidback went to get it. I was told it was in reasonable condition and, despite the gearbox warning on the MID, it still drove albeit in limp home mode.

Well, it is not in reasonable condition. It is a minter. Absolutely immaculate apart from a couple of niggles, like a door strap etc. The gearbox did indeed drive, having 1, 2 &3 gears. However, it felt like it was going and then pulling back, almost as if you were putting the accelerator pedal down up down up like that.

So, we decided to stop and sling some ATF in, as it seemed to have the symptoms of being low. We could not undo the filler nut, so we improvised and removed the air intake box, and unclipped the top oil cooler hose, then with a bit of modifying of the bottle, we forced in a litre of ATF. A quick run around the services car park and it was still the same, so we slung in another 2 litres.

Now we had 170 mile journey to do. The car made it about another 5 miles from the services before Laidback radio'd me on our walkie talkies to mention the lack of vision he had due to the red-arrow type smoke coming from under my car. OMG it was belching out, so we stopped on the M2 to investigate. The trail of ATF along the carriage wasy confirmed that the gearbox did not like or approve of our choice of remedy and had prompty blown the seals to releave itself.

So, a call to RAC for recovery. 1 hour later they arrived and picked the car up.

Laidback then drove at his normal speed back and we had no longer sat down for a cuppa when the truck arrived. Great service.

Anyway, the low down. Laidback will (I am sure) confirm that this car is outstanding. It will need a gearbox transplant, but to be honest that will take us about 3 hours. Remember we did 2 last year, so we are old hands now.

After that, some slight tweaking of niggles and away she goes.

Project cost with gearbox and collecting etc : appx £450

Car finished sale value appx £1395.

A nice little earner.

Dave will be along soon with the embarrassing pics.........


EDIT.... GEARBOX JUST SOURCED, WILL BE HERE BY WEDNESDAY

[MikeDundee]

On the back of a low loader.....  

This is a 1998 Omega 2.5 v6 CDX Auto saloon in star silver. I bought it on ebay last week with a Buy it Now of £299. It is MoT'd until August and taxed till the end of the month. It has done 111k from new and has a FULL service history.

See here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220080731759&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=012

Just before I bought it, the previous owner spent over £700 on it, including cambelt, tensioners and water pump. New alternator, new aux tensioner.

Having spent that the gearbox started playing up and they decided to cut their losses. They slung it onto ebay and despite 11 other people reading the listing, I pounced at that price.

So, today me and Laidback went to get it. I was told it was in reasonable condition and, despite the gearbox warning on the MID, it still drove albeit in limp home mode.

Well, it is not in reasonable condition. It is a minter. Absolutely immaculate apart from a couple of niggles, like a door strap etc. The gearbox did indeed drive, having 1, 2 &3 gears. However, it felt like it was going and then pulling back, almost as if you were putting the accelerator pedal down up down up like that.

So, we decided to stop and sling some ATF in, as it seemed to have the symptoms of being low. We could not undo the filler nut, so we improvised and removed the air intake box, and unclipped the top oil cooler hose, then with a bit of modifying of the bottle, we forced in a litre of ATF. A quick run around the services car park and it was still the same, so we slung in another 2 litres.

Now we had 170 mile journey to do. The car made it about another 5 miles from the services before Laidback radio'd me on our walkie talkies to mention the lack of vision he had due to the red-arrow type smoke coming from under my car. OMG it was belching out, so we stopped on teh M2 to investiaget. The trail of ATF along the carriage wasy confirmed that the gearbox did not like or approve of our choice of remedy and had prompty blown the seals to releave itself.

So, a call to RAC for recovery. 1 hour later they arrived and picked the car up.

Laidback then drove at his normal speed back and we had no longer sat down for a cuppa when the truck arrived. Great service.

Anyway, the low down. Laidback will (I am sure) confirm that this car is outstanding. It will need a gearbox transplant, but to be honest that will take us about 3 hours. Remember we did 2 last year, so we are old hands now.

After that, some slight tweaking of niggles and away she goes.

Project cost with gearbox and collecting etc : appx £450

Car finished sale value appx £1395.

A nice little earner.

Dave will be along soon with the embarrassing pics.........

Good stuff, sounds like you had a profitable, (can I have my fiver back ), great and very relaxing day out

[Markie]

A fast buck and a quick turnaround.

Just the way we like `em!!  

[TheBoy]

Sounds like a good little earner.  Even if you don't make a profit, it has been worth it for the entertainment you have given us today

[Taxi_Driver]

Notice from the ad....it also leaks a bit of oil....you like those ones Ron  

[Ronald_McBurger]

Yep. The 'bit of oil' is the ATF fluid!

[tunnie]

cracking price you got that motor at!  

Can't wait to finish uni and get a job and at weekends get stuck into some projects!

Good luck on yours looks like a good little earner  

[Admin]

I got up at 5.40am today (yes Tunnie these times really do exist! ) to get to Fin for around 6.50am....

Heck of a way to start a Saturday, 180 miles down to Kent to collect project number 1 this year...

Drive down was easy and we arrived at around 10.30am (finally a time Tunnie does understand albeit scarily early for him!).

Car was very nice (woman who answered the door was rather better though!).
Quick look over the car while Fin took care of the paperwork showed the car to indeed be in excellent condition with a very smooth engine and a slightly worrying "Automatic gearbox" code on the MID.

It seemed to drive ok, albeit slowly (though with Fin behind the wheel this was usual).

10 miles up the road and we decide to see if the problem is indeed a lack of ATF (well it seemed like a good idea at the time!  )

Into services we go, end up lobbing in 3 litres of fluid via an "alternative" route (after a quick call to Mark to confirm viability of our idea) as the sump plug was threatening to round off!  
Note picture of concentration...


Yay we thought, that should get us home and we felt quite pleased with ourselves.... 8-)

Off we pootle up the motorway, actually I thought it was going quite well as the car reached 70mph with Fin behind the wheel!  

Alas this proved too much for car (and probably driver) as I suddenly found the day outside transformed from one of bright sunshine to one of dark (smelly) clouds in front of me!  :-?

I was following a car that was depositing more gearbox fluid on my car and the road than around the components of the box!

Fin quickly realised this through a combination of my coughing and gasping down the walkie talkie and the fact that suddenly he had LOTS of space around him on the motorway!  

Note below, the nice trail he left as he pulled on to the hard shoulder...


Below, the ultimate humiliation for any self respecting mechanic!  


During our (45 minutes... yeah right!) wait for the nice man with "the big truck wiv da flashin lights"   we were watched by a Police helicopter and visited by a nice man from the Highways Agency, who was not impressed at the mess made of his road by Fins "bargain" car....

Below... is this a sign of thngs to come for Fins projects this year?? Caption comments invited!


In the meantime, my Elite estate (which cost even less than this  )), perfomed faultlessly!

The car will be superb once the gearbox is changed (oh yay, another gearbox change!  ) but it has not has the most auspicios of starts....

[tunnie]

good pics, needs a caption for the truck driver "what ya want doin with shed m8?"

Seriously though looks good....  

[Admin]

Yep, pics are very good considering I took them on my phone!

As an aside, I highly recommend the Sony Ericsson W810i.  

[TheBoy]

I highly recommend the Sony Ericsson W810i.  

gnarr gnarr  

[Dave]

Now we had 170 mile journey to do.  The car made it about another 5 miles from the services before Laidback radio'd me on our walkie talkies to mention the lack of vision he had due to the red-arrow type smoke coming from under my car.
I told the kids we had a free air show in town [smiley=laugh.gif]

[Ronald_McBurger]

I am thankful to the honourable Mr laidback for sparing me from total humiliation at least.

It was a fun day all the same. Most notable point for me was when the men in the big car with blue flashing lights stopped to see what we were up to. Daves comment? 'Well, you would think he could have broken down next to a pub at least'.  

Then there was the sage of my new PDA/Phone/Football pitch thing. I couldn't hear a damned thing on it when the RAC rang to laugh at me. Volume on full, what was wrong. Ther is (believe it or not) a second volume adjustment 'during a call' to set the speaker level. How f*****g sad is that???

I must advise anyone buying a used Omega to take with them the following:

1. A good working phone!
2. A decent camera
3. Some money
4. A Laidback66
5. Your RAC card.

Jokes aside, I must express my sincere thanks once again to a damned decent mate. The likes of which are rare these days. Someone who I regard as a genuine and true friend. A bloke who thinks nothing of lending a hand. A geezer who really goes that extra mile.

Oh, and I shoud say Ta to Laidback as well!

A good day all round. All that was missing was indeed the beers, so I have a plan for next time. A mirror to signal SOS to the helicopter, a case of beers to share with the traffic police - they will enjoy that a lot, and a spare vauxhall omega complete with mate to get you home again.

This will be a great car in about a weeks time. I look forward to updating you all with the final product then.

[TheBoy]

I am thankful to the honourable Mr laidback for sparing me from total humiliation at least.

It was a fun day all the same. Most notable point for me was when the men in the big car with blue flashing lights stopped to see what we were up to. Daves comment? 'Well, you would think he could have broken down next to a pub at least'.  

Then there was the sage of my new PDA/Phone/Football pitch thing. I couldn't hear a damned thing on it when the RAC rang to laugh at me. Volume on full, what was wrong. Ther is (believe it or not) a second volume adjustment 'during a call' to set the speaker level. How f*****g sad is that???

I must advise anyone buying a used Omega to take with them the following:

1. A good working phone!
2. A decent camera
3. Some money
4. A Laidback66
5. Your RAC card.

Jokes aside, I must express my sincere thanks once again to a damned decent mate. The likes of which are rare these days. Someone who I regard as a genuine and true friend. A bloke who thinks nothing of lending a hand. A geezer who really goes that extra mile.

Oh, and I shoud say Ta to Laidback as well!

A good day all round. All that was missing was indeed the beers, so I have a plan for next time. A mirror to signal SOS to the helicopter, a case of beers to share with the traffic police - they will enjoy that a lot, and a spare vauxhall omega complete with mate to get you home again.

This will be a great car in about a weeks time. I look forward to updating you all with the final product then.

Aye, a damn decent chap...

[Admin]

Enough of that!

Just helping out a friend.