Mechanics used an ungodly amount of silicone, and somehow this cheap Bentley survived 2,500 milesBuying a $15,500 Bentley is the kind of decision that looks brilliant right up until the first thing breaks. Ed Bolian already knew what he was getting into when he bought his 2014 Bentley Flying Spur, but even he probably did not expect one of its wheels to require an “unconscionable amount” of silicone just to stop losing air. The Bentley had already arrived with about 112,000 miles, multiple warning messages, major oil leaks, worn front control arms and a wheel that was leaking pressure. It was a $219,000 luxury car that had fallen into bargain-car territory for a reason. But Ed kept fixing it. And after the repairs, he did something that would have been a terrible idea if the Bentley was still as rough as when he bought it. He drove it roughly 2,500 miles in a single week. The cheap Bentley needed an expensive wake-up call Ed bought the brown-over-brown Flying Spur for $15,500, compared with its $219,000 original MSRP. Getting it home was already a test, with the Bentley running on about half its power, throwing errors and losing air from one of its wheels. The first major stop was DC Motorworks, where Cameron Davis gave the car a comprehensive wakeup service, repaired major oil leaks and replaced the front control arms. The work cost about $8,000, but the Bentley was finally running and driving properly. Then Ed started attacking the cosmetic problems. The ugly matte black, gloss black, camo and orange wrap came off, revealing the Arabica brown paint underneath. He also found a set of Mulliner-style wheels on Facebook Marketplace, which completely changed the way the Bentley looked. Then the wheel needed an ungodly amount of silicone The new wheels looked great, but one of them was dropping tire pressure very quickly. The multi-piece Mulliner-style wheel had a leak that needed to be dealt with before Ed could trust the Bentley on longer drives. That was where Butler Tire came in. The shop applied what Ed described as an “unconscionable amount of silicone” to the rear wheel. They were also careful to point out that the repair might not hold up long-term, so this was not some permanent factory-level fix. Still, it worked. At least, it worked for Ed. The wheel stopped losing pressure, and the repair would eventually get a much bigger test than simply sitting in the garage. Ed kept patching the Bentley instead of giving up on it The leaking wheel was only one of several problems. The Bentley’s window glass was badly delaminated, and replacing it could have cost around $8,000. Ed chose a much cheaper solution instead, having AP3 apply window tint to the outside of the glass for roughly $200 to $300. The shop warned him that exterior tint would not last as well as a normal installation, but it hid the ugly glass without requiring an $8,000 replacement. Steve Shadic, a mobile paint technician, also touched up peeling areas around the license plate holes, rear bumper and mirror for a few hundred dollars. DC Motorworks then installed replacement side badges, a new chrome front grille and handled the parking sensor work. The Bentley was still not perfect, but it had gone from a rough-looking $15,500 project to something Ed actually wanted to drive. That was when the cheap Bentley became dangerous in a completely different way. The Bentley survived roughly 2,500 miles Ed had two major trips coming up, and instead of taking one of his other cars, he kept choosing the brown Bentley. He drove it to South Carolina to visit the BMW Car Club of America’s Ultimate Driving Museum and see McLaren F1 GTR #17R. Then he took it to Travis Bell’s Outback in the Midwest event, adding another long drive to the week. Altogether, Ed put roughly 2,500 miles on the Bentley. And somehow, all those questionable repairs held together. When he finally got home, Ed said the Bentley had made the trips without error lights or mechanical problems. More importantly for the silicone experiment, the tires had not lost a pound of air. The repair that Butler Tire warned might not last had survived the entire trip. For a 112,000-mile Bentley that cost $15,500 and had already needed about $8,000 in mechanical work, that was a surprisingly good result. The bigger problem was that Ed had started to love the car. What began as a cheap Bentley project had become a comfortable road-trip car that he kept choosing over his Bugatti and Murciélago. The silicone may have saved the leaking wheel, but the repairs had done something much more dangerous: they had made Ed want to keep the Bentley. More from Fast Lane Only Unboxing the WWII Jeep in a Crate 15 rare Chevys collectors are quietly buying 10 underrated V8s still worth hunting down Police notice this before you even roll window down *Research for this article included AI assistance, with all final content reviewed by human editors. The post Mechanics used an ungodly amount of silicone, and somehow this cheap Bentley survived 2,500 miles appeared first on FAST LANE ONLY.