Is 160k miles too much?

[lukie-j]

I've been offered a lovely red mk1 1.6 for a bargain £650. It has a couple months MOT on it.
It is from a family member/car dealer so he has already said if anything needs doing for MOT or any issues he will fit parts for free as long as I buy them.
I know it has the permanent alternator light fault.
The car drives very well for the mileage and he seems sure that the engine has been replaced or reconditioned at some point - however there is no paperwork for it. It does have a lot of recent service history etc with receipts of over £500 in the last few years.

Mainly I want to know how would I be able to tell if the engine had been reconditioned or replaced?
If not, what should I be expecting to replace on a car with this mileage?

Thanks and hopefully I can join in on the forums more in the future!

Don't have permission to add pictures yet - sorry!

 

[wildrides]

Offer him £500 ...............£ 650 is a bit dear for what could turn into an MOT failure in two months.

Personally I would say I will give you full ask if you MOT it or else you could get into a world of poo and with family members that aint ever a good place to be.

Check engine number against log book .......... its leggy miles for a petrol but would be quite normal miles for a diesel.

At that milage almost anything could need replacing ............. get it MoT tested before you commit to buy ......... its only £40 quid ............. a free inspection of every thing for £40 when the AA or RAC would charge you £200 .

 

[lukie-j]

Thanks for the reply.
Might offer to take it to MOT for him (at his expense) and see what he says.
Do they go on much further than 160k? Would only really be a stop-gap for a year or two and I only do about 5k miles a year!
Thanks again!

 

[richman711]

At a 160k id personaly walk away, ive got a 1.6 16v bora ( id imagine the same emgine) and the engines suffering at 138k, stem seals, very noisey head, TB problems, and then high oil consumption

IMO a bad engine, a juicy one as well

 

[BrettBlade]

If it runs well at 160k, chances are it'll run well for another year and 5-10k with little problems. Yes it is high mileage, but the type of miles the car has done will make a huge difference - this could have done plenty of motorway miles, which of course is a lot less stress on the engine.

 

[wildrides]

Just depends on so much:-

The driver technique.
Regular changes of oil with quality oil used.

Could do 200,000 or could blow next week . best thing is to ask the mot tester what he thinks the engine is like .
Easy test for oil getting past rings or valve guide seals is :-
Drive down hill at meduim revs with your foot off the accelerator ( ie in engine braking mode ) then just before the hill ends plant your foot on the accelerator whilst looking in the rear view mirror . If you see a small puff of blue smoke lasting about 1 second there is some wear but not critical . If it smokes for 3 seconds or longer with BLUE smoke its clapped .
If the engine knocks on acceleration it will be worn big ends or if it taps loudly - little ends .
If knocks on overrun or transition to accelaration from overun then thats main bearings . Either of above conditions then WALK AWAY.

if it passes all those tests and runs at correct temperature without pushing coolant out of the header tank then you will probably be okay for the type of service you need it for.

Also dip the oil and make sure it is not SLIMEY LIGHT GREY and also sniff in the header tank to see if you can smell exhaust fumes or see floating oil on the surface of the coolant . Either would indicate head gasget is leaking . Again Walk away .

 

[lukie-j]

Thanks for all of the advice. Think I'm going to leave it. Not really worth the risk by the sounds of it.
There are some others about at a good price with less than 100k, just will need to travel a bit further to get the one I want!
Thanks again, hopefully will be posting up my 'just got my Leon' thread soon!