Blue Turbo on Ebay

Wee..eee..eellll,
I went to pick up the car but with agreement with the vendor it's not the car for me. I don't know if you want me to go into details on this public part of the forum or not, but I was concerned with a fairly constant stream of fine bubbles coming up out the header tank and the ABS light came on and stayed on.
The guy selling it was a top bloke and not trying to hide a thing, so if you want to buy it and get on with driving it (could be nothing I suppose), or have a couple of weekends to spend on it in the near future I think it's going to be relisted.

Cheers,

Sam

sam pity you didn't buy it, but you might as well dish the dirt warts and all.....it saves another buyer going after it and not knowing whats wrong , maybe then the seller may have a sale

Ok then here goes....

Overall the car seemed in good shape, lacquer curling up a bit here and there and a chip or two on the nose, not much. Lights and stuff at the front was fine, at the back a bit of fading, nothing too grim. The subframes had a coupld of rusty places, as did the wichbones but again, seemed pretty sound, the benefit of having lived in a shed for a few years. Interior wise the dash had a bit of grey moulding going on but would have wiped off, the interior looked like that of a 20 year old car, with on rip to the driver's bolster, actually it was the stitching given up. Speedo didn't work, rev counter did, boost gauge wasn't but temp and oil pressure were and it held both at midway when revved. The other one (oil level? Not sure) wasn't working.
Cooling fans seemed to be on all the time though, I think hard wired.
Tyres had tread but were old, wheels were pretty decent nick too.

The engine sounded very "tappety" when started and had a lot of rattly action, this did go after it was warmed though, and revved up a bit. A little water did come out the exhausts on start up and it seemed to be a bit steamy (damp cold day in the North and a car that had not been used though). Once it sorted out it's idle it did sound pretty happy. Turning it off and on again it was a tricky thing to restart, although revving the throttle cheered it up (dunno why, I thought it was a fueley). The coolant was busy warming up and I like to leave them ages like that cos if the owner knows it's going to overheat they start to get a bit panicy. Feeling the hoses and with the cap removed things were circulating but a few bubbles were coming out. I put that down to the cooling system sorting itself out, plenty of hoses in there eh? Took it up the road and back and it did feel very tight and behaved, although I didn't try anything clever, it was a drive half a mile up the road and back, not a test of bumps and clonks, couldn't tell you if it blew it's guts out on boost for I was looking forward mostly, but no big clouds anyway.
Got back and let it idle, it sounded way happier than before but the ABS light was now very illuminated and didn't seem to want to go off. Took the coolant cap off and it was showing a small amount of "fizzing", very fine bubbles coming up and through, when revved you could see the coolant going round but the bubbles never disappeared.

So, seeing as the need for me was to get something that I could drive the 50 miles home, and I was expecting sorting out peripheral electricals, not ABS and heads, with the danger of really screwing something up on the drive home we agreed that he'll relist it.

I actually think it was a pretty good car but I do think there's some problem just beginning and it would be a case of investigate it sooner rather than ignore it. If it's nowt then it's at the point that it could be caught and sorted with out any other damage but I felt that at the end of 50 miles if it was the head gasket I really would need more work than if I trailered it home.

Phew, anybody read this far? I think for the money it is a good buy, but pick it up with a trailer and dive into the engine straightaway, then you'll be laughing for years. I haven't got the time in the next couple of months to do that so not for me.

Cheers,

Sam

Great write up. All in all it doesnt sound too bad. It doesn't sound like a rolling restoration though so wouldn't be a cheap doer upper but more like a sound basis for a thorough restoration.

Recently, there have been a few good looking GTAs around for about the £7k mark which sound like pretty good bargains really.

You can buy one for £7k and hope it is all good or spend that on a restoration and know it is .

You can buy one for £7k and hope it is all good or spend that on a restoration and know it is .

This is true and although a lot of work I tend to prefer going this route At least yo know what has been done and to what standard; although I have done two now and I dont think i'll be doing another one for a long time now

si21

I really would like to see A5 GTA restored even though I'm not sure if it's my old car but it clearly isn't the car for Sam. I think a well sorted runner is more what he needs right now.

I too prefer the route of taking a good basic car and then restoring it to perfection rather than spending money on what other peoples interpretation of good practice is.

[BIG_MVS]

Does it have to be a Turbo Sam?

This looks nice and the owner is a club member:

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/3472635.htm

Only problem is it's in Dublin! You could kill two birds I suppose and go for a weekend break?

There is also a Turbo on there but I guess you have seen both these already...

Beaver Boy - What's the crack with your A610? No updates in the Projects section? It's not disappeared back to France already has it?

Oh and how come you haven't joined yet?

I think Lee might have a good base car you could have done to your spec- might be worth an ask. That way you know what your getting....

Hi All,
Been in touch with the owner, I think it's being relisted. I realise I may have been overly picky about it but I was expecting to have something with peripheral issues, then perhaps take it apart fully in around 6 months time!
Thanks for the other suggestions, I do need to contact Lee but I'm away from home at the mo.
There's a couple of other things that have come out the woodwork after comments to mates, Ginetta G27, TVR 1600M and a Lotus Excel, not the same things at all by a long chalk, but still interesting cars in their own right.
All of them need looking at in fair detail though, so who knows.

Cheers,
Sam

Not wishing to hijack the topic, a brief update on mine is that it is sleeping in a nice warm car store in Lancashire.

When I bought it, the intention was to get it roadworthy which happened more quickly than expected. Phase 2 is to get the car back to its former glory but I'm away from home more often than I'm there so it will have to wait.

I've learned before that when you find a good one of these then buy when you can. Restoration can happen whenever but you can't restore what you haven't got.

The car would be 90% right if I farmed the paint out to Andy and the interior was spruced up but that's too much wheeler dealer.

My plan is to strip the car down removing the subframe, suspension etc. Replace any tired suspension, brakes etc. Repaint, refurb interior and refit.

[Alpineandy]

Ginetta G27, TVR 1600M and a Lotus Excel,

I'm a big fan of old Lotus (Loti?) but the Excel isn't a patch on a GTA as either a tourer or as a sports Car.
Same goes for the TVR 1600 (needs to be a 3Litre to be mentioned in the same breath as a GTA).
The Ginetta is a great little sportscar but isn't much of a tourer.
A motorway journey will turn into en endurance test.

Now re-listed -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1990-RENAULT- ... 011wt_1120

Being sold as suspected head gasket failure...

If someone wants to pick me up on the way to pay I'll drive it back here and check it out
If gaskets ...out and back in over the weekend

I'll save it.... If no one else bids

top man are you one of us northern lot