Well I finally took the plunge and got a "bargain basement" 60 reg TDV8 Vogue. I took it to my local indie garage in Bexhill for a check-over and they found the brakes worn as are a number of suspension bushes, not surprising really, I'd expected to find that with the car having done 138000 miles. There's a coolant leak and oil in the coolant meaning the oil cooler needs changing. Any ideas what's involved, is it a relatively easy DIY job, what parts would I need and how long would it take? I've seen a couple of videos on here but neither are of any help showing how to even remove the engine cover! I'm going to a local "normal" car garage on Monday to see how much they'll charge to do the job; also what's the best cooler to buy? The OE seems to be around £500, there's a Nissan alternative at a very good price and cheap Chinese knock-offs. Is it essentil to change the water bottle/header tank or flush the cooling system through? Any other parts to replace while that lot is being done?
Luckily there's no faults shown up on autologic, the car drives nicely with no apparent rattles, and does about 28mpg on my motorway commute to and from work
gearfixya. It's done just over 500 miles this week, no problems except topping up the water every 2 days.
