is it time to sell?

[tubby-ben]

basically had my car 17 months, 15.5 of this with no breakdowns. a3 1.8t agu....
6 weeks ago took car to local mechanic as had a knocking noise, had 2 lower wish bones replaced as were really dangerous around the rubbber mounts.
a week later the bolt fell out of the arb link and caused numorous noises etc aswell as dodgy handling, got it sorted for it to fall out again.
this time my father in law looked at it and the thread was knackered so cut a new thread and new bolt in place (had a real mouthfull to mechanic and no longer talk).
so everything was running smooth until last week, car was getting stiffer to get into gear especially if opening up the throttle and trying to quick gear change, and now ive got a constant missfire from start up all the way through the revs and also the car stinks of something burnt and have also a slight and i mean slight puff of blue smoke. was driving to work 40 mph, then engine hesitated, coughed and then a loud backfire then it was missfiring. so not driven car since. just really feel like its jinxed since the mechanic looked at it. i just dont know what to do with it now, starting to get depressed with it which aint good..

 

[knoxie]

well if you sell in the state its in you cant expect alot for it, or get another mechanic to look at it and see just how bad it is, might be somthing silly, look at your options obviously its all subject to the funds you have available.

dont loose all hope mate

 

[tubby-ben]

cheers mate, just seems every time now something else is going wrong with it, the missfire i think is my coil pack as its making a sound of a scooby now, but then i would fix it and something else would break, i do need to give it a good service too though, new pads etc but if my clutch is going to then well i just dont know. i was looking to modify my car, already got a TIP to fit but i just dont know if i want to now. everyone ive spoken to thinks my car is now jinxed, i just dont want to throw my money down the pan.

 

[bengal]

As has already been said you won't get much for it in it's current running state. The running issues could well be as simple as a split hose, the one under the inlet manifold would be the likely culprit and when it goes they do run like a bag of spanners in the way you're describing.

As for the stiff gears, check the gear linkage, it's easily visible under the bonnet and is right by the air box. The mechanic could have disturbed something and it is now getting in the way of the mechanism, I had this problem a few weeks ago after doing some work and I couldn't even get first gear. It was the wiring to the alternator which is in a cable tidy that was doing it to mine.

Sometimes things aren't as bad as they seem so don't give up on it just yet.