Is it the thermostat? The water pump? The what????

[Guest]

Why does it have to be the whole friggin' engine?

My poor Taurus, not quite 80,000 miles on her lovely blue frame, is awaiting an entire engine transplant. Like we have a spare $1400 lying around the house?

http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smilie/auto/r010.gif

Fuck.

Feel free to add your own car woes here.

 

[Eroticus_Rex]

Now you know why FORD stands for Found On Road Dead...

80M miles, and out...

 

[Guest]

Now you know why FORD stands for Found On Road Dead...

80M miles, and out...

The last Ford I'll buy, certainly.

Although my husband got 50,000 more miles out of his before we bought new.

Damn. This truly sucks.

 

[carsonshepherd]

I just spent $400 on something called an oxygen sensor confused: )

$300 on two tires

and some other ungodly amount on a cracked manifold gasket. This car is only 6 years old and it isn't even paid for.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Oh yeah. Our 98 Altima failed the engine emissions test. So what's that gong to be? About 100-200 dollars, right? Just replace the PCV valve, a 2 hour job.

Three weeks and $943.05 later, we finally passed. New plugs, new PCV valve, new head gasket, short in the wiring harness, tune-up, time required to reset the emissions computer chip. And all the while we're getting these angry letters from the state threatening to pull our plates and even our drivers' licenses.

This is a good mechanic too. Well, an honest one. I don't think he's the best technician. They once overcharged me $100 for a job they said would be $250, and he called me back and apologized and gave me $100 credit for my next job. He also spot welded the seat in our old pontiac back when the rails had rusted free from the floor. Did it gratis.

I'm not sure what's better though: an honest mechanic or a good one.

---dr.M.

 

[R. Richard]

I'm not sure what's better though: an honest mechanic or a good one.

---dr.M. [/B]

Dr. M:
ALWAYS try to find a good mechanic. A good mechanic is almost always an honest mechanic because he/she knows what he/she is doing. Once a good mechanic fixes something, it rarely goes wrong again within the useful life of the parts.

One of the traits of a good mechanic is the ability to diagnose problems. Many, many mechanics are "parts replacers." They just replace parts until the problem goes away. A parts replacer is a fraud, because he/she is not a mechanic.

 

[ravenmx]

My son bought his first car for 350 dollars.

2500 dollars later of Moms money it now runs great.

New transmission, new radiator, hood latch, belts, tune up, you name it.

I kept saying if one more thing goes, then it got to where I had to much money in to junk it.

And it has 143000 miles on it.

Better run for another 2 years is all I can say

 

[Guest]

i so know that people shun kia
and rightly so for some instances howevah,
i love my little tin can
its a little green sephia and yes, ive had normal car woes... yes, it doesnt want to start when the themometer is below 20 degrees F...i wouldnt have it any other way. i get great gas mileage

however... after my accident this past summer, it makes all sorts of funky noises which i have been told are not part of the accident... whatever! i know it doesnt have long,this car o mine but ill run it into the ground before i let go.

 

[Liar]

Should I really? Ok.

I have no car. Not since this summer, when it was

stolen,
crashed,
flipped over
and
burned.

Anyway, no use in getting one now, since I don't have a driver's license. Oh, I have the right to drive, I've just lost the actual card and paperwork that proves it (papers was in the car, license ID I lost later), so I'll have to get all that again from the guv'ment, which costs more money and time than it's worth, since I don't use it anyway.

 

[oggbashan]

Volvo - no worries

I have a 1990 Volvo Estate with 185,000 miles recorded.

I have two minor niggles with it. There was a problem with the automatic choke - my local mechanic fixed it but the computer hasn't been reset. That would cost 100 pounds to show that the fixed problem HAS been fixed.

The second is that from time to time a light appears on the display panel to tell me that I have the automatic gearbox locked in low gear. It is a manual gearbox (stick shift) so how can I lock the automatic I don't have?

Apart from that it does everything I want it to do. If I make an error parking, as I did 3 months ago, it isn't the Volvo that suffers. This concrete bollard jumped out at me in the dark as I was reversing. It won't do that again. The Volvo knocked it out of the ground and once I had wiped the concrete dust off the fender there was no sign that I had done it.

What will I replace it with? Another Volvo estate.

Og

 

[R. Richard]

I drive a 1957 Porsche Speedster. I bought the car in terrible condition and built it myself. I now have a fun, reliable car with a much modified 2007CC VW engine in the back and disk brakes.

Also, I can fix what goes wrong.

 

[LadyJeanne]

Um, how far can you drive after the check oil light comes on before destroying your engine?

 

[cloudy]

My T/A currently has a problem with the starter (I think). It starts just fine, but once it's been on the road a minute or two, if I turn it off, it won't start again - think the starter's heating up.

Butthead won't get it fixed because he says I have the other car to drive (the one that he bought that I didn't want), and so my car getting fixed isn't important.

Nice, isn't it, when I get stuck with a four-year-old in a car that won't start.

 

[she_is_my_addiction]

I've got one for you people.

I live in a little pisshole that's almost impossible to find on the map.

It's nearly impossible to get a job in this town and the surrounding towns are just as small.

I have no car.

So. If the only jobs I can get are not within the limits of my little corner of wonderfuck, then I'm screwed up the ass.

 

[Vincent E]

The last car I owned was a Buick Century. After five years on the road it needed a new transmission. So I had a rebuilt transmission installed for $2,000. The six months later some asshole tried to back twelve feet of car into five feet of space by stepping on the accelerator in reverse and fucked up two rods in the transmission. It cost the insurance company another two grand to fix the problem, but I almost had to go into their offices with a shotgun to get then to straighten things out. motherfuckers were trying to give me $250 and tell me that I was getting a "betterment." More like a bullshitment.

New car woes have included a replaced multifunction unit, oxygen sensor, front left tie rod, right front tie rod, new struts, new tires (which doesn't count since they all have a limited life,) and opening up the engine recently for open heart surgery to fix the source of the oil leak. Then again I have put over 134,000 miles on this 1996 Dodge Stratus, and I would actually get a new one. All in all it is a good car.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

If it makes you feel any better, my last Chevrolet, a '97 one ton pickup left me stranded on the side of the highway not once, not twice, but three times before it even turned 70k.

In comparison, my last Honda, a 90 Accord EX, went 185k with nothing more than brakes, tires and a clutch.

 

[Guest]

 

[yui]

Should I really? Ok.

I have no car. Not since this summer, when it was

stolen,
crashed,
flipped over
and
burned.

Anyway, no use in getting one now, since I don't have a driver's license. Oh, I have the right to drive, I've just lost the actual card and paperwork that proves it (papers was in the car, license ID I lost later), so I'll have to get all that again from the guv'ment, which costs more money and time than it's worth, since I don't use it anyway.

And I thought my crankshaft sensor was a bummer. Oy! Sorry about your car. Burned, huh? Wow...that sucks.

 

[NoJo]

And I thought my crankshaft sensor was a bummer. Oy! sucks.

No, but I believe a crankshaft can be used as a bummer

(ps. every time I see you type "Oy!" I think you're Jewish, until I realise you're just spelling your name wrong)

 

[yui]

No, but I believe a crankshaft can be used as a bummer

(ps. every time I see you type "Oy!" I think you're Jewish, until I realise you're just spelling your name wrong)

Edited for too much trouble.

 

[NoJo]

Yeah. Me too...

 

[Awful Arthur]

My transmission started to slip...hate it when that happens -- wife doesn't like it either...went to the dealership. They said it was shot and needed rebuilding. Since it was barely out of warranty they would give me special deal. $1150.00

Went to a mechanic I coached as a kid. He said that the lock ring holding the thing-a-ma-jig up to the dooflatchey had broken allowing the bands to slip. Probably no damage done. Common as hell on that transmission. Total cost = $72.00

That was three years ago and no further problems.

 

[The_Fool]

Cars suck...

Trucks too...

 

[rgraham666]

Since I don't drive, I don't have a car. A major load off of my shoulders.

I don't drive because I would rather to something safe, like patrol duty in Fallujah.

 

[SeaCat]

Ummmmmm, 1988 Dodge Caravan. Cracked Headgasket, Blown Radiator. (I expected that one. I was pulling a trailor weighing almost as much as the van from New Negland to Florida. Blew the Radiator on I-95 just south of Charleston. Tow truck driver pulls up and tells me he can have me in his garage in less than ten minutes, and have the car fixed within a day at a cost of maybe $1500.00. I asked him to move out of the way, opened the back of the van and pulled out the new Radiator Core I just happened to have back there. {I told you I expected this.} Had the van fixed in about half an hour, and most of that time was waiting for the engine to cool enough for me to work on it.)
Replaced the front rotors, and of course smoked my battery last week.

Hmmmmmm, I don't seem to be having enough problems with mine, maybe I'll have to get something else. Oh yeah, I currently have 195,000 on the odometer.

Cat