Morden family cars and the engine failures behind them
Morden has a lot of hard-working family cars, estates and people carriers, and many are older and well used. Those engines tend to fail in predictable ways. A cambelt that was never changed because the car changed hands, an oil change that slipped a year, or a coolant leak that was topped up rather than fixed. Each of these can end in engine damage, but each is also something we can often catch at an earlier, cheaper stage if the car comes in when the first symptom appears.
London Road through the town centre is dominated by buses, with stands, stops and crossings, so engines spend a lot of time idling in traffic. That is where a failing cooling fan shows itself. Out on the St Helier estate and Ravensbury, trips are short and often start cold. Around Imperial Fields on match days and along St Helier Avenue, now limited to 30mph, traffic is steady but slow. None of this is extreme, but short, slow driving with overdue servicing is the pattern behind many of the engine problems we see.
When an engine has genuinely failed, we explain the options in plain terms. A reconditioned engine is rebuilt with new wearing parts and starts fresh. A used engine with known mileage costs less and suits older cars. Both must match your engine code. We also check the gearbox, clutch and body, because there is no point fitting a new engine to a car that needs expensive work elsewhere, and we will say so if that is the case.
We can recover the car from Morden and bring it to Hackbridge via Morden Road and Mitcham, about four miles. Fitting usually takes one to three working days once the engine arrives. The quote is written before any work, the supplier's engine warranty is explained before you commit, and our labour carries a 3-month workmanship warranty.