FS: Interest check, 2001 X GDI manual estate

[I-S]

Ok, so it's no secret that I've not been desperately happy with this car. Here's an honest description of it, to see if anyone is interested:

2001 X reg GDI Elegance estate in Roanne Red.
15" alloys (polished face multi-spoke)
87000 miles


The good things:
Economical. It's averaged over 33mpg over about 12000 miles with me.
It drives, without breaking down
Goodyear excellence tyres, fronts are a little thin in the centre through over-inflation for a while, but they're very legal and rears are good.
Mostly good condition, other than the things mentioned in the bad things section
No rust in the rear arches, which I've done with underbody sealant to try to keep them that way.
Reg date Jan 2001 - thus it is under the old tax system and is at £185 per year. Two months later, on a Y plate and it would have been £300
No whining noises from gearbox.
New coil packs and sparkplugs, brake discs, pads, front shocks (bilsteins) and battery (moura silver alloy) fitted within the past year
Passed MOT, excellent emissions (negative CO!), etc. MOT June, Taxed until June.
Interior is in good condition.
Spare matching alloy with brand new tyre (done a few hundred miles).
LED interior lights (white), Osram silverstar headlamp bulbs, silvered indicator and side repeater bulbs

The bad things:
Oil consumption - it's started burning some oil. No blue smoke, but it needs topping up every couple of months (about a litre)
Gearbox is the apparently typical galant stubborn bastard. No idea how typical it is, but seemingly not unusual for a manual galant.
Clutch Shudder. Sometimes on a colder morning it will shudder at the first uphill junction. After that it's ok.
Brake judder. Typical galant, but not sure if it's front or rear. Recently rebuilt the fronts and made sure hub faces are flat, but the discs could be warped by now.
Cabin rattles. Not uncommon, but somewhat annoying...
A/C - there was a nice big hole in the high pressure pipe, so the AC didn't work. I've patched the hole but not successfully recharged the A/C (my charge thing disintegrated which didn't help). Might be worth trying kwik fit's "cooler AC or no charge" thing now.
Some denting to the bodywork around one of the rear arches
Spots of rust at seams in engine bay... not sure this is unique either.
Engine lurches a bit when cold - I believe this is GDI mode trying to kick in on a cold engine, plus the injectors not being totally clean. Smoothes out for the most part (occasional lurch in and out of GDI mode when warm, but mostly ok)
Driver's door open switch is occasionally dodgy. Pressing it a few times with hand has improved it so if the switch were removed and cleaned it would probably be ok.

I'll do an oil change and also throw in 4 bottles of Amsoil gearbox oil that I've never managed to get around to putting in there.

Club price £1500 - would put it up for £1750 on autotrader or ebay.

[Zaid]

So whats your next car Isaac?

[I-S]

If I can get the deal I want, a Honda Accord Tourer.

[Rambaud]

What do Mitsi state about an acceptable level of oil consumption?

Any ideas why oil consumption has increased?

[I-S]

Right, oil consumption...

I have today changed the oil to some 10W40 and a carton of wynns stop smoke. I had amsoil 5W30 in there and I think it was too thin for the GDI really. It's smoothed out a lot with that, and the amsoil was only 7000 miles old.

Also, in removing the oil filter, I found a lot of oil film on the adjacent suspension components, and the outside of the oil filter was coated in oil/dirt. The filter wasn't difficult to take off at all either. This suggests that some idiot didn't do it up quite tight enough, although I also think that the outside diameter of the filter was a little too big for the car (it was an amsoil filter, somewhat larger diameter than the mitsu filters I have).

However, I have also noted some oil on the side of the block, apparently from the rocker cover. When I changed spark plugs last year I noted that one of the spark plug holes was full of oil, and this was a suggested culprit.

Thus, I am somewhat confident that the level of oil consumption should be reduced by thicker oil and doing the filter up tight enough with the right filter.

With the GDI I think that using very good oil is fairly pointless... it is much better served by using cheap semi or "fully" synthetic 10W40 and changing it often. This counteracts carbon build-up and the need for the dreaded GDI walnut shell decoke.

One other bad thing that I didn't mention before is that there is a PAS fluid leak. Apparently also not uncommon, it's something to do with an alloy pipe becoming porous. I've kept it carefully topped up, and I'll even throw in a bottle of ATF and a bottle of slick50 PAS fluid.

Just thinking of what I've got kicking around parts wise, I've still got the old spark plugs, which looked in fine condition, and as they're expensive plugs I'll include. Changing them didn't fix what I wanted it to (which was fixed by changing coil packs) so I suspect that the old ones are fine.

It's possible that the car might get traded in on saturday, so if you're interested then give me a shout!

[Rambaud]

"With the GDI I think that using very good oil is fairly pointless... it is much better served by using cheap semi or "fully" synthetic 10W40 and changing it often. This counteracts carbon build-up and the need for the dreaded GDI walnut shell decoke."

I have come to the same conclusion, and likewise Amsoil 0W30 is too thin, especially when my GDI has done nearly 136,000 miles.

It got a new MOT and service yesterday at John Banks Mitubishi so I may have to keep her a bit longer before going for a VR4. :)

[I-S]

Well, it's gone...

[Paul Beazer]

Part ex or someone here?