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Lupo 1.7 sdi cambelt


CheekyLupo
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Morning all. Been reading this forum for a few months now, some great stuff on here! Especially useful since I know nothing about cars (so please excuse my ignorance here). I bought a 1.7sdi (54,000) in Jazz Blue just before Christmas, for around £2600 from a private garage, so probably overpaid quite a bit.

Car is in great condition for age, standard factory specification not modified at all. Much better car than the tub o' lard Mk 3 Gti that I had a few years back :rolleyes: . Plus no hassle with boy racers at the lights!

Use it on a work run from Redhill to Crawley every week and never misses a beat, great fuel consumption and drive, turns heads, although especially with a full tank of gas it's short on acceleration and feels like a slug crawling across a lettuce leaf. Wanted a TDI but nevermind, good Lupo diesels are so rare...

Anyway, the old girl was doing well, but recently started sounding like a Massey Ferguson and developed a slight knocking from the gearbox/handbrake area. Just out of its 3 month warranty, alas; don't know how long problem was brewing for and if I was done by the garage. Ah well!

Anyway, she is currently sitting with Tutts of Dorking awaiting a new catalytic converter - current one has big hole in. (There are some good reviews of these guys online BTW; has anyone else had dealings with them?)

The mechanic there initially thought it was a dual mass flywheel problem (said he sees at least one VW with this a day, gulp) but then decided the SDI engine only uses a single mass flywheel, so the knocking must be the exhaust banging the bottom of the car. Any views on this? Seems to happen on startup, shutdown, in (5th mainly)gear under acceleration.

Obviously, it's better news if the transmission doesn't need an overhaul, and while the car is in there I asked the guy to give it a full service to be on the safe side, which leads me to my next question. Will he check the timing belt as a matter of course? Bit worried about this as I have no idea if/when it was done (car is on 56,000 miles) and don't know if I should ask for this to be looked at, or whether it's taken for granted that this is checked and I'll look a total idiot if I ask?

One colleague at work with a 2009 Yaris (yuck) warned me off buying a 10 yr old car, and although I'm a bit gutted the wife and I are obviously going to have to dig deep to sort the Lupo out, I guess such problems could just as easily happen to a 5 year old car that wasn't looked after...

Cheers...

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I can't be sure of what your knocking problem is, but your Cambelt is probably in need of a change, if it hasn't been changed since it rolled off the factory floor, usually 60k is the point of change -although 40k seems to be mentioned too. I'd have it changed as a formality at any rate if I'd just bought the car, and nothing is stated in the log book about it. As you never know how hard the car has been pushed before you get it, and if the belt goes...

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Thanks Hazy, I'll phone them and make sure they check it out, as you say can't run the risk of it going. Guess a good mechanic can tell how recently it was changed based on wear? Sure hope there are no nasty surprises on the knocking front, but guess I'll find out soon enough!

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Thanks mate -- cost £645 for catalytic converter (£227,) fitting it and full service. Knocking problem is fully resolved. Guess that's a little on the steep side, but happy to pay that if the work is done properly. There's a recommendation on 'oil leak from selector shaft' on the invoice though: is this a big issue for Lupos? Guess they would have said something if it was a major problem.

Edited by CheekyLupo
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