Was looking at cars over the weekend and saw a particuarly cheap citroen saxo 1.5d desire on a Y reg.

Stated the car up (which took a while) and when it started the engine was shaking really bad, it wouldn't rev above 1k revs and it sounded like a tractor.

It only had about 40k on the clock and was in ok'ish condition. The guy in the showroom said he thought the exhaust was blowing. Anyone know if this would make the engine vibrate loads and it not to rev at all.

Besides, it was smoking a fair bit out of the exhaust.

The smoke, wobbling engine and not wanting to rev past 1k sounds more like a fuel problem.

Blocked fuel filter? Diesel timing is a long way out.....

particularly cheap and busted is a vehicle id run a mile from matey. theres my advice. Ripe for an engine change tho to the VTS lump lol

What d'ya expect from a diesel?

Sounds a tad dodgy though mate, I'd stay away meself

it is like £800 for it though, worth about £2.5k, even if i done it up and sold it maybe?

Don't do it, chances are someone's already tried to fix it and failed. Definately more than just the exhaust mate.

Ok fair do's, found a nice fiesta Zetec, minus the service history, seems mechanically sound, doesnt sound tappety , but i am very aware of the Fix or repair daily slogun.

Diesel : If the car hadnt been started or driven for some time this would be typical from a cold diesel engine. Would be an idea to get the engine warmed up and take it for a good run and then asses it properly. Also water in the fuel filter is common, this can normally be drianed via the water trap valve at the bottom of the fuel filter. Proceed with caution.

Zetec : Tappety The zetec has 16 of these buggars, probably noisey due to low oil pressure and poor maintance. Also the Zetec takes a special 5/30w semi synthetic engine oil, most people just put normal mineral oil in them causing engine problems. Proceed with caution again.

Hope this helps ??

the zetec's have self adjusting tappets, the longer you run it for, the quieter it should be. Adam's has done 90k+ and sounds a lot quieter than my heap!

Try a good quality engine flush to help clear out and partually blocked oil galleries, then replace the engine oil and oil filter. Be sure to use the correct grade of oil for the Zetec....

If this does not help then you may have worn tappets or camshafts

Seem to have fixed this problem for the time being, replaced the distributer, the distributer cap, the rotor arm, spark plugs and the HT leads, seems to be running alot better, all the power (not that there was loads) seems to have returned.

will you be selling it on for a profit??

good man if you do

I was thinking about it, but don't know if i can be bothered with the hastle atm

Mate of mine has started doing it, and is making a fair wedge, luckily he is quite well of to begin with lol.

if theres money to be made then hey why not do it

if you dont fancy fixing up and selling cars on, another option is to break them and sell them for parts, i've done this with a car and made a good profit off it and managed to keep a few bits for myself too

hmm, maybe, so, you wanna buy a car?

no thanks i already got a fiesta