P38a time to sell?

4.6 1999 just failed mot for fuel flap and electric seat. 99,000 miles.
What's my chance of selling/scrapping for >£1000 as I am now bored of it. Engine seems good. No big dents but faded paint. 2 keys. Air suspension still working

All advice greatly received. Cannot sell on here as I've only been a member five years.

easy-shaft said:

4.6 1999 just failed mot for fuel flap and electric seat. 99,000 miles.
What's my chance of selling/scrapping for >£1000 as I am now bored of it. Engine seems good. No big dents but faded paint. 2 keys. Air suspension still working

All advice greatly received. Cannot sell on here as I've only been a member five years.

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Failed on fuel flap & electric seat? Can't see why the fuel flap should constitute a fail. As for the seat, I presume it doesn't move?
Bit harsh to fail it on that.
You need 50 posts to advertise.

Picky MOT guy ?? What are the issues with flap & seat ?

maybe the seat wobbles a bit back and forth like mine does
take the fuel flap off then they can't fail it?

kermit_rr said:

maybe the seat wobbles a bit back and forth like mine does
take the fuel flap off then they can't fail it?

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Yes they can. It has to have a locking cap if there's no flap !!

Equally if the guy cannot find the button to release it & check the cap, then he might wrongly fail it !!

pwood999 said:

Yes they can. It has to have a locking cap if there's no flap !!

Equally if the guy cannot find the button to release it & check the cap, then he might wrongly fail it !!

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didnt know that! just thought the cap had to be secure, ie not falling off or missing

Usual failure is temporary cap. Strange they failed it on the flap rather than the cap itself ?

from that, theres no requirement for the cap to be locked, just that the key is available for testing, if it has one. it can still seal securely

as for the flap, maybe its not shutting or damaged, causing a potential pedestrian hazard

At the end of the day, both of the original issues are easy fixes, so a 1999 P38 with that mileage could be good value for someone with £1001.

Fuel caps must seal ,,in the event of a rollover ,also some fumes from the tank might escape and pollute the atmosphere ,when they should be sucked into the engine n burned ,it can on newer cars bring on an engine light ,too much air getting pulled through the carbon filter emissions thingy , its all very very technical

easy-shaft said:

4.6 1999 just failed mot for fuel flap and electric seat. 99,000 miles.
What's my chance of selling/scrapping for >£1000 as I am now bored of it. Engine seems good. No big dents but faded paint. 2 keys. Air suspension still working

All advice greatly received. Cannot sell on here as I've only been a member five years.

Click to expand...

Easy to fix. They seem to get reasonable money these days. I'd have thought £2k at least if it has an MoT certificate.

First time, the tester couldn't find the flap button, so could not check the cap.

I spent the weekend removing the seat and looking for the reason for f10 blowing. Could not find a fault, used a 10a fuse instead of a 30a to check for fault. NFF but cable carefully rerouted. Reassembled and the fuse did not blow in 30 mins - great.

The instant I started the engine today, f10 (now the correct 30a) blew.
Changed it, seat worked.

Fetched mot tester to see these two points.... Door would not unlock with fob, it did before, but now the fuel cap would not open. 5 mind later, it will. Must be something to do with fob not unlocking the door.

So, I've bought short insurance for its two mots, paid for a new battery and chased wiring faults.

I did want to keep this car longer but have now run out of patience.

But just don't know how to get any money back on it. Getting close to scrapping it as I have little desire to deal with it.

IMO, you're better sticking with the devil you know - What are you going to replace it with which will be less complicated, or as rust proof ? Serious question!

P38 electrical maladies are very well understood now, especially on here.. Water ingress to the footwell causes all sorts of verdigris in the loom connections - easily cured by soldering them all.. etc. ..

I could junk the seat controls and just wire the fwd/back to a momentary dpdt switch. That would sort the mot. Am not interested in rebuilding bcm or seat out station. I suppose I could try just cutting the wires to the seat until just the fwd/bck are connected. But the faffing thing did not blow fuses for 30 mind when testing. I spent a lot of time doing hoses, water pump etc. Other than slow leaks ffom heat exchanger and suspension - all is good. But I think I've had enough now.

Seat does not need to move for MOT. Just needs to be properly fixed & not wobble.

Seat doesn't need to move? Interesting. If it is designed to move and does not, is that a fail?

the seat doesnt need to move but if the tester can't get in to drive on ramp etc then may decide its not testable and fail it

Seat was all the way back. Certificate suggests it must operate in the way the manufacturer intended? But I could swap it for a non moving seat and that would be OK....

Is there a readily available mechanical seat I can fit instead?

Just re-checked. Non-adjustable seats do not have to move, but if they are then either mechanical or electric must work. Easy work-around is to add a local manual switch as suggested above so it can move back & forwards. Seat back just needs to be in sensible position.

Strangely my passenger seat recently started blowing the fuse - even when not adjusting & no passenger sitting in it. So far had the seat out & checked all the wiring on the bench, but found no chafing, etc. With loom disconnected, fuse is ok, so I think the wiring under the carpets is probably ok.
Gotta take another look at the switches in case they are falling apart inside.