My Smart Car Is Broken! The Engine Blew Up! - Do I Fix It? Smart ForTwo 450 2004
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ธ.ค. 2022
- A couple of years back I bought this little Smart 450 ForTwo from Facebook Marketplace for the bargain price of £700.
It has since then been my daily 'hack' and I commute about 100 miles a day with it.
I have covered over 30,000 problem-free miles in the past 2 years with it ... until recently, when the engine decided to eat itself and go bang!
Its now totally broken and needs a full engine rebuild (among other things)
In this video, I have a chat about the future of the car and a general musing about if it's worth it or not!
Hope you enjoy it!
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I'd be happy to see the rebuild content. Please keep up the interesting stuff 👍
Thank you - having some more investigation today so fingers crossed
It's a car you know and a car you like. There's no guarantee an equally-priced replacement will be either.
I had this dilemma with my old Golf a few years back when it needed extensive work. I looked at the used market and decided I was better off spending more money getting it fixed than buying something else as even if there is something wrong with the broken car, you know what it is. A replacement car cannot guarantee that.
With used prices as they are at the moment, I think the logic is doubly relevant.
Go for it Jon. It's a great little car and the rebuilt engine will give it a whole new life!
Fingers crossed eh!
Go for it . For the money to rebuild the engine reckon you would struggle to buy such a nice one with todays crazy 2nd hand prices . Sorry you have had some abuse joys of social media eh. Good luck with it and would be great to see some video if you feel well enough 😀
I'm doing the same thing with my one. It's a 598 cc, was using oil and is now firing on 2 cylinders. Most of these engines blow up, because they've been sitting around too much, or because the engine oil hasn't been changed at the recommended intervals. It goes very gloopy, affecting the oil circulation and thus damaging the engine. Apparently, the thing to do when you rebuild, is to rehone the block and get the right sized piston rings for your rehoned block. Then, you will not have oil ingress in to the ignition chamber from the bottom end and the valves won't burn out. I've consulted a lot of Smart experts about this and that's apparently the way to do it. My brother is going to help me with the refurbishment. I'm going to use Hurley Engineering in Bath, to rehone the block. If you do do this, the rebuild (provided you change your oil regularly), done properly, it will last and last. I've heard of them going on for 3 times longer than the original. If you don't, it could only last you around 7000 miles.
Would really like to see the engine rebuild process that you and your Dad do. 9 times out of 10 you are better off starting with what you have, as it is more of a known quantity, plus yours looks good in the purple.
Thanks for your comment :) - i think that's going to be the way forward for us. Ill keep you all updated obviously :)
I concur !
Parts wash everything, prepare every surface and apply good quality gaskets and gasket sealant, apparently.
Generally, the better quality rebuild kit you use, will give you a better quality and longer living engine.....
Thanks Steve.
Car is fully rebuilt (documented on here) and is now 1000 miles run in ... Running a treat 👍😍
Rebuild and keep. Smarts aren’t the usual vehicle they get under your skin. Don’t bother with used unknown engines rebuild yours.
Thanks Bumble!
I think you are right - im going to take a good look at all the engine components (to make sure nothing major has gone wrong) - and reusue mine :)
Absolutely go for it! In the end you know what you got! Any car driven that much would have issues and it held up quite well through all the thrashing! It's a treasure please keep it!
Thanks
We went for it
It's now fixed
The progress is on the channel
Hi John, Sorry you've had such an expensive failure with the Smart. I did recently find an engine listed on ebay that was supposedly already rebuilt but never used (I was looking at viability of buying a ForTwo with a dead engine). I'll have a look and see if it's still there and post again. That would still leave you needing the ancillaries like turbo and cat. What might swing it is the condition of the car's underside. Have you had the wheel arch plastics out to check the notorious rust areas behind them and the inner sill areas? That might swing the decision. Otherwise looks like a very tidy car otherwise and while £1k is a lot of cash, it'd give you years more fun motoring. The used values at the moment for a tidy running car (especially with the inevitable 70k rebuild already done!) seem to be far more than the £700 you paid originally in any case.
Hi Chris :) - thanks for taking the time to comment.
If you could that would be brilliant! Its still early days but the intention is to either swap the engine or rebuild.
Underneath is absolutely fine so that is not a concern of mine (although it does get used an abused in the salt etc)
I genuinely bought it as a cheap runabout to smash to work and back ... but actually, i quite like the little thing, and its just 'handy to have'
Thanks again for getting back to me
@@JonCoupland No problem. Hope you get a good result and can keep the car going. I've had a hankering for a smart for years and been waiting for them to come into my "affordable range" but have yet to take the plunge. I did some repairs and servicing on a friend's Roadster a few years ago, and was so impressed with the way it drove and with the general engineering of the car (aside from the tricky access for certain jobs!). Apologies for adding the h to your name in the first post, brain wasn't engaged.
@@JonCoupland I think YT just deleted my post with engine item numbers, This time without mentioning the name of the obvious auction site. There's this one I saw before for £699 with photographic evidence of the work done 283709377023 And this one out of a Roadster (believe fitment is the same) at £350 with 2k miles since rebuild but not sure I'd trust it 255837378591 Of course the cost of collecting/having it couriered is a factor also.
Hi Jon, what could you get the money for repair compared to cost of used car to replace it? You may get lucky but don’t think you’ll find a used car which wont need work for less than £850.
I got my mrs an 05 smart passion …. It developed a misfire I changed the plugs and coil but still missing a beat …. Rebuild time I guess
Rebuild kits on evil bay are about £150 so only just within my budget
Wish me luck (disabled old fool)
Hope it goes well!
I’m following you for the information so keep the content coming
@@vincegaines2069 there is a whole playlist dedicated to it :) - it documents the rebuild 😀
Fix it and drive it for 5-6 year and sell it😃
Yeah I'll continue to use it :)
Look on eBay for a used Smart Roadster engine and fit that instead, they have stronger internals than the standard 700cc engine and don't suffer from the same valve burn out.
By the time I've bought an engine I'm concerned about how long it would be before it possibly needed some sort of overhaul :)
Don't get rid of the smart car
See other videos :) - we've now fixed it
Take it to smart tecnic at Birmingham they are brilliant and won’t rip you off like others I can mention. I had the same issue as you I had 78k on it now fixed and still running 150k
We're fixing it ourselves :)
How much did you pay to fix it ?
@@123PSPs it's cost me £650 all in
Hey mate, just bought a fourtwo pulse 61 auto 2007. Is this the same car as yours just worried as it has done 72k miles and I don’t want it to go bang. Great videos btw!
Yes it is the same :)
Keep an eye on your oil usage. More than 1L in 1000 miles is excessive and indicates engine failure
I'd say EV convert it, but 100 miles would probably be a push to fit in unless you make it a smartforone.
No sadly no EV being considered
@@JonCoupland I've done my Beetle, its pretty cool but it doesn't do 100 miles :D I've had the flatbed of shame recently too, feel your pain.
They are all the same that 1st gen some don't even get to that mileage... the second gen is a far stronger engine ... but maybe not as cute .... if you can replace with a second gen I would do that personally 🤔 there's hundreds for sale all generations your spoilt for choice 😉
This one is being rebuilt 😅
@Jon Coupland Go for it it's a nice looking thing for sure 👌
you deffo pushed it two miles from your house because you dont have homestart 😂😂. better the devil you know, with engine rebuild will see you out. you know the car
I have some FANTASTIC breakdown coverage through my work 'perks' - which comes in handy with a fleet of unreliable old cars!
@@JonCoupland I know you would
I take it you have driver rather than car cover
I would throw it in the wheelie bin 😆
Not sure which it would go in ... the Brown, Blue or Green