What to do with my S2?

[UrS6 - IamS6]

I had similar problem with my urs4,even worst honestly
But i decided to not brake it up,and i worked on him day and night and now its almost finished with 5000e+ put in it,and 1k left to finish it
I worked alone on the car,with help of people from the forum with advices
Forget paying to mehanic's,it will cost you a fortune so its the best to work it by yourself,cheaper and u will be proud of it when u finish it,guaranteed

Agree fully, check out the thread.

[UrS6 - IamS6]

I agree with all above, sounds like a pretty average list for these motors.
Get a runabout, park it up, make a list of what needs doing, collect all the parts then do all the work in one hit once it warms back up in the spring.

Error, rock of sense - as usual.

Once broken it's gone, and it's much harder to part out a car successfully. It's a real pita, unless you nearly do it for a living.

Sold, it's gone and you won't get another one handy if you want one.

Buy a house with a large / room for a garage, park it it up for a few years, collect the parts as they come up and do it in one long hit yourself with help from here.

No one has enough money to pay a mechanic to renovate these cars. The mechanic's list seems a bit pessimistic. Does he need extra money of Christmas ?

You need to read the project section of this forum, learn how to do it yourself, find part suppliers and sand blasters etc. in your area, so that you know who to go to when you're ready. Use couriers also.

These cars take commitment and planning, they don't happen by accident.

HTH, rather than makes you give up.

Small cheap little one litre diesel, that is common, with loads of similar cars in the breakers yard to fix any issues cheap is the way forward.

Best wishes.

[Jack4688]

I would like to thank you all for your mostly kind and helpful comments. However I don't appreciate comments that my mechanic is just looking for a quick buck before Christmas. I appreciate that we are all free to express our opinions on this forum but it is my opinion that such comments are not welcome in this discussion.

I was originally recommended the bloke by a co-worker who has taken his Audis/VWs there for years and having owned 7 cars so far with only one non-VAG I have done so too. His run down of my car is not in question as far as I'm concerned, he has never undertaken any work that is unnecessary or that I did not ask for/give his approval to do. He once got a 200 quattro turbo back up and running in a matter of days after taking it off the Audi dealer's hands as they were about to scrap it - the man knows his sh**. As of my phone call yesterday all work has been stopped until I decide what to do. There was never any suggestion from him or me that I am about to undertake £2-3,000 worth of repairs, that price merely quantifies how much is wrong with it.

Back to the car itself... It will run now for the short term but the prospect of repair work looms. Thank you for all the encouragement that getting stuck in myself will not be the mountain of a task I think it will be, but factoring in my ineptitude it WILL. Frankly doing this amount of work on my car is not for me - I am not cut out to do it and because of that I envy those of you on here who have done. Pouring over build threads on here between my first S2 and this one is what convinced me to get rid of my Ibiza and get my Avant, however I regularly prove to myself that although I am addicted to five-cylinders and nothing else will do I do not have the determination and resolve that some of you clearly have.

Rest assured I will not break the car. I will remove the Recaros, 17" alloys, spacers and anything else I'm forgetting that is non-standard (and can be suitably replaced) and sell both a car in need of TLC and a collection of parts to join the stuff I was trying to clear from my garage. It's gonna be absolutely heart-wrenching but I have to be sensible and doing what needs doing on this car is not for everyone. I'd love to able to do what, for example, Error404 has done with his CQ 'Tidy up' (Alex you need to look up that phrase to understand what it actually means Overhaul is more like it!) but I will never be capable of that.

[Error404]

well I for one think your £2-3k budget sounds about right considering the jobs you've listed. You will be surprised how easy it is to get stuck in
Noone is born with the knowledge or skills and I'll bet most on here me included have zero professional training but have learnt through their interest in it and desire to do the job right, which I am sure you also possess
Best thing about working on a car you don't need to use is that you can stop when you want and it's no stress, so if you come up against a problem or need a tool or whatever it's no problem. Also you have the luxury of time, so you come up against a job you are intimidated by, I am sure someone will help you through it whether step by step or physically come and help you
It's a shame you are not local to me as I would help you do it all

[Tonybolony]

It's a shame you are not local to me as I would help you do it all

And this spirit is why I love this Forum so much
I'm saddened every morning when i leave the house, to find that my S2 has gone (Back) to Scotland

[UrS6 - IamS6]

Jack, I empathise with your predicament but I think you've made the correct decision for you to sell it as a whole car and the good parts separately to be honest.

These cars really do need the owner's to work on them to make them viable.

Kind regards.

[anthonys2]

Jack I know exactly what you mean when it comes to looking after your motor as am bloody useless and have the ability of an idiot lol!! My garage at Hexham have been mega superb to me as my cylinder head needed sorting 2 years ago and wow what a difference the subframes got done this year and because of my relationship that ive built up with the guys I just pay the bill when I want to! My subframe and welding and all my bushes new diff and a few other bits came to £2750 which am paying over 4 months now how many garages would let you do that?? I trust my guys 100% like you do with your mechanic so might be worth getting him to look after it and do it up in his spare time? Any how GOOD LUCK with what you do and if you do sell her and want to give her one final blast then drop me a pm and come up my way for a blast and a pint ok

[ruby-s2]

I know you have faith in your mechanic Jack but thats quite a list of faults to have dropped on you, a lot of the faults you have listed would be evident for a long time, ie subframe corrosion, bush wear, rack wear etc. I would hope that he would of given you the heads up on most of things listed if im honest, sounds to me like its a customers old car thats a pita to him. I would try and get another opinion on it after all its 20 years old now and all cars suffer the same kind of problems at this age. When you came to my house with your Avant i remember it being a really good example and looks better underneath that a lot ive seen. Dont give up on it chap!, they are an expensive mistress but thats the price we all pay for keeping a classic on the road.

[Cottis]

Ha ha, an expensive mistress indeed. You wanna stay up all night banging, you gotta pay the readies. You do get quite a lot of bang for your buck though.

I caught myself looking at 944 Turbos the other day. Then last night I was looking at how much VX220 Turbo's could be tuned. Then my head gets turned by some Jap crap.

The long and short of it is that there is a reason why you keep ending up in bed with the same mistress. It's because she goes like a train, makes a whole host of wonderful noises, gives you no emotional grief but can be known to bleed you dry in order to be enjoyed again. All of this while you stay under the radar.

Stay involved but if it is beyond reality, sell it to Alex so we can all watch another bout of OCD take over his life once more.

[sam80quattro]

buy a impreza similar power, plenty of grip and then when it brakes, scrap it and return to the s2 realising its a much better car and worth spending the cash on

[anthonys2]

Cottis that sounds like a man with experience!!

[Cottis]

Not at all Anthony. I was merely noting the similarities between S2 ownership and some other extra curricular activities.

[anthonys2]

LOL!! Think my S2 has been a very expensive mistress this year!!!!

[shaun5]

If I wasn't so snowed under with all my cars I would have suggested driving it to me and i'd do it for a fraction of the cost (and you are the other end of the country to me )

[Cottis]

Mine too and that is without anything actually going wrong as such. Just basic stuff really. new Aux Rad, new full AP brake kit up front, a couple of breather hoses, new header tank, clutch and gearbox recondition, full servicing etc. Like Jack says, even basic maintenance can be costly but when things start to go wrong, you either have to stop eating and really want S2 ownership or maybe take a view on it like Jack is.

They are fun but costly and sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture and figure out what is more important. I am determined to get a workshop of some kind when i finally find a house that i like. At that point, I will strip the thing down and teach myself more about how the thing works. I would leave the engine to pro's but stripping running gear for reconditioning is something that I cannot see being impossible given the correct tools, time and space.