Ugh, exhaust pipes / manifolds always seem to be located uncannily close to areas one might be tempted to stick a hand while the parts are still hot. On the '05-'09 Subaru Outbacks, the exhaust system does this funky twist thing around the oil pan in order keep it up for better ground clearance. As a result, it snakes its way around the oil filter and offers little clearance. I burned my hand a couple times trying to get the grip I needed on the oil filter, then finally gave in and purchased a filter socket that attaches to a 3/8" wrench extension.
How is the Z running for you, overall? Are you using it daily, or only for the autoX activity?
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
Thanks. The old car is very photogenic - it probably looks better in pictures than up close. It's just a survivor that hasn't been messed with too much, that I have kept clean since I have owned it. The paint is a little tired now, some of the chrome is better than others, the interior is decent but not perfect - it has patina. It gets a yearly wax and interior cleaning, and I give it a quick wipedown every time I drive it. That keeps it pretty spotless.
The yearly bill to keep the fintail around, including maintenance, storage (the greatest expense), insurance, is not much more than $1000, certainly under $1500. That's not a terribly expensive habit to own. I try to make some kind of improvement to it each year...looks like it will be the shift linkage this year. I don't know if I will ever have it restored - to do it right would cost a tidy sum, maybe 25-30K. I might be able to get half that for it if I had to sell, and I would be worried about damaging it. With the car as-is, I just drive it and enjoy it.
If I had a nice garage, hopefully with some kind of lift, I would do more work...as it is I just play with the timing and fuel injection settings. The car seems happy with that.
The Imperial seller is hoping that someone will overlook the looking for $7 to $10 grand phrase, and just out of the blue offer him $9 grand, which just happens to be in the target price of the seller.
I actually do like those Accords. But if he's going to use book values, he should deduct $1000 for the missing rear bumper, which means he'd have to pay $200 to someone to take the car away.
'52 Imperial -- $2500 would be a magnanimous offer.
'83 Mazda RX-7---my theory is that these days, anything on wheels that is clean outside, doesn't smell like a dog or a cigar or a dead body, runs well, has all its windows and is not 3 colors, passes smog and can be driven 100 miles without blowing up or sputtering to a halt--- is worth $2000.
How is the Z running for you, overall? Are you using it daily, or only for the autoX activity?
It runs great. Its not a daily driver, but I commute with it as much as I can. I'd say its been split about 50/50 between it and my G35x. Some days my son simply insists we take Daddy's red racecar. The crashing suspension has started getting on my nerves, though. I'm now in the middle of putting on new shocks. Hopefully that cures it.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
this evening, I decided to give my '79 New Yorker and '76 LeMans a try to see if they'd start. The NYer fired up just fine. Not so the LeMans. :mad:
I got one of those circuit test pen thingies, the kind that lights up when it's getting a current. We pulled one of the spark plug wires off the distributor cap and I had a friend put the pen to it, while I cranked the engine. We got nothing....and that should light up when I crank the engine, right? We also put it to where the wires came into the ignition coil, and that lit up when I turned the car to the on position.
So would that signal a problem with the coil? I took the cap off and looked at it and the rotor, and they both looked fairly new to me, with no corrosion on any of the contacts. Well, I put it all back together, and tried a few more times to fire it up. I got one slight grumble, once, like it was trying to catch, but then that was it.
Weird thing though, is that the car started up just fine last week, ran fine on Saturday, and also on Sunday. Didn't mess with it yesterday. And then today, it decided to get cranky again. When a coil starts to go bad, can they get intermittent like that? Or could it just be a loose wire somewhere that I'm not noticing? The way they crammed stuff in those engine bays back then, it's amazing you don't break a wire or hose or vacuum tube every time you have to reach under the hood! :mad:
That's great! I'm smiling, thinking about my own son's fondness for my old vehicles. He turns five on Sunday, so I get to meet up with him just in time for his birthday! Occasionally, I entertain the idea of getting a "toy" car with which to tinker, but my wife has her foot down that any additions require a deletion. So far, I am not ready for that. But, if I get there, I think I might just move forward with the "Pinto Sleeper," assuming I can get the car to Alaska.
I bet the shocks will make a big difference in the ride; when the old shocks are bad, I equate replacing them with buying a new car (for much cheaper, of course)! I almost replaced the shocks on my Escort a couple weeks ago, but decided they were good enough to stretch it until next Spring. Instead, I ordered replacement headlamp assemblies and mounting bracket so I will actually be able to see the road during the long dark of winter.
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
So, how do you repair melted carbon fiber, or do you?
Well at least this wasn't another presentation by the Rich Boy's Telephone Pole Club. This was a more excusable catastrophe, although I do wonder how you can drive merrily along with the back of your car on fire.
I was out in the yard doing some trimming and such, and went into the garage, just on a whim, to start my LeMans. I turned the key, without even touching the gas pedal, and the thing fired right up like a brand-new car!
So, now I dunno what the deal is with it. Oh, and just for kicks, I took one of the plug wires off at the distributor cap and hooked my circuit pen up to it, just to see how it registers with something like that. It did light up, faintly. I guess it just didn't get that bright because it wasn't getting a steady current. So that makes me wonder...yesterday when I was cranking the car, and trying to test it at that point, does it just not turn over fast enough to give much of a current for the pen to register?
Another thing I'm wondering...with one plug wire disconnected, and the car only running on 7 cylinders, it still sounded the same to me...just fine and plenty of power. Is that normal? Or is it one of those things where it'll sound fine idling, but under any kind of load, that's when it would let you know it's only running on 7 cylinders?
I just thought it was odd that, even as a "V-7", it still sounded better, to my ear, than most 4-cyl or V-6 engines! :P
I've never used one of those "circuit pens" for troubleshooting a spark problem. Aren't they designed for 12 V (cars) or 115 VAC (for household circuits)? If so, I do not know how they would react to a 20,000 V signal to the spark plug.
What was the weather like when it wouldn't start? Was it damp or foggy out, or had it just stopped raining? I had a '73 Fiat that needed a new distributor and rotor about every 30,000 miles. I think they would develop hairline or microscopic cracks that would hold moisture and thus short out the high voltage signal to the spark plugs. If the car wouldn't start one damp morning, I would just pull the cap, rotor, and plug wires and bake them in the oven for 30 mins or so to dry things out. Then, the car would start, and I knew it was time to get new parts.
This was just some cheap little circuit pen I bought for about $6 at Advance Auto. It says it can read 6V or 12V systems. My mechanic has one (probably a better one though), and was ribbing me a bit for not having one. The guy who comes out and works on our lawn equipment also has one, and he said it would be good to have for troubleshooting on my old cars. I had mentioned my LeMans to him a month or so ago, and he said he could fix it, and how handy that pen would come in.
As for the weather, on Tuesday evening, when it wouldn't start, it was hot and sunny. Probably humid, as the clouds were really starting to build up and rise, but it never did rain.
Yesterday, when the car fired up without even pumping it, it was also pretty hot, thunderstorms were starting to build up, and it was sprinkling a bit.
Anyway, it ended up raining all night, and it still drizzling this morning, with temps around 60. I went out to the garage to try the car. First attempt, I just turned the key, without pumping the gas. Wouldn't start. So then I pumped it once, tried again, and still wouldn't start. Third try I pumped it three times, turned the key, and it fired right up. I let it run for a minute or two, and then turned it off. Turned the key back on, and it fired up immediately.
Another one of my online friends, in another forum, who's pretty knowledgeable about a lot of this GM 70's crap, said that on these cars, it's common for the rotor to fail. It's a designed-in weak point to protect the more expensive components, such as the coil and cap. He also said that if you pull a wire off while the engine is running or cranking, it usually burns a pin hole in the rotor under the arm where you cannot see it. From that day on, humidity has a large effect on ignition performance, and even when it seems to run well, you get a miss under hard acceleration. Now, I didn't pull that wire off while it was running...I took it off before I started the car. So hopefully I didn't mess anything up, worse than it already is! :surprise:
I was tempted to drive the car to see how it behaved, but it's in the back of the garage, with my '79 5th Ave parked in front...and I couldn't find the keys to the 5th Ave!
I ended up driving my other '79 NYer. It was a little cranky starting up, which I sort of expected since this car sits outside. And I'm used to Chrysler products acting up when it's wet out...my GM products always seemed much better behaved in the rain.
Anyway, I think I will change the rotor, just to see if that does the trick. I've had the car for a little over 4 years now, but only put around 3,000 miles on it. Haven't really had to do anything to it yet, other than a new master cylinder and rear wheel cylinders back in 2006, and a new battery in 2007. So I have no idea how long ago the cap, rotor, plug wires, etc, were last changed. They still look good, and the one plug we pulled out looked good as well. Still, I guess the wires, cap, and rotor could end up getting flawed with age...hairline cracks and such. Might not be a bad idea to change them.
He also said that if you pull a wire off while the engine is running or cranking, it usually burns a pin hole in the rotor under the arm where you cannot see it.
I can see the pin-hole problem. As you probably know, I don't think it's a good idea to pull a plug wire while the car is running, or even to try and crank the engine over. Without the spark plug's gap, there's nothing there to limit the voltage. When the points open up and the magnetic field in the coil collapses, the collapsing filed across the coil secondary is what creates the high voltage. Absent the plug, the voltage will just keep increasing until something else breaks down (arcs over). Might be the rotor, might be a plug wire, or something else.
Naw, that's why you don't buy a Biturbo, period! Here's a link to what the unlucky freeby mechanic will have to face (pic's too big): There's an engine under there, somewhere
About an hour or so ago, I went out to the garage to see how the LeMans would act. It's been raining all day, and I don't think temps got above 65 or so, so it really hasnt' been the most hospitable weather for cars that don't like dampness. First try, I turned the key without touching the gas pedal. It tried to fire up, grumbled briefly but then died. Second try, I pumped it once and let go, turned the key, and nothing after a few seconds. Third try, I pumped it 2 or 3 times, let go, turned the key, and it fired up after a second or so.
Oh, one other thing I should add...I had a few beers in me. I also had a few in me last night, when the car fired up without even touching the gas pedal. So this is really making me wonder...is this car trying to encourage me to drive drunk? :shades:
Did the beers make you spell the car's name wrong or are you referring to the pain it's been inflicting lately? :P
I also wanted to take the opportunity to compliment you on the looks of your nicely freshened '67 Catalina! I always liked that pale yellow color and those Rallye wheels definitely fit the car.
Did the beers make you spell the car's name wrong or are you referring to the pain it's been inflicting lately?
Yeah, that was a reference to the pain that car's been inflicting on me. :sick: And evidently, I haven't drunk enough yet tonight, because I went out there about 1/2 hour ago, and now it won't start again!
Glad you like the Catalina! Hey, are you going to be going to the GM show in Carlisle this year by any chance? I'm going to have the car up there. If you're going, let me know and we can exchange cell phone #'s or something. Sorry I missed you there last year!
a lot of cars don't react well to being started, then shut down before they are warmed up, then started again. although a much newer car, my wife's 96 sho hated it if you backed it out of the garage, say washed the car, then drove it back in and shut it down. sometimes the next time you would try to start it after that was a pain.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
I don't know if this would help much, but I at least tried to let the car run for at least 5 minutes each time it started. Heck, some days that's about how long it takes me to get to work! When it would fire up and go into fast idle, after a bit I'd gun it a little to get it to kick down.
It's also idling too fast, but other than that sounds healthy.
I'm not sure yet about GM Carlisle, because my wife and I just became grandparents for the first time. We're hoping to visit the new baby girl around that time in NYC. My brilliant idea is to combine Carlisle and NYC on the same extended weekend, but I don't know if my wife, son, and daughter-in-law will agree.
If I do go, I'll let you know beforehand via your carspace e-mail and we can certainly exchange cell phone numbers at that time. It would be great to meet you, Lemko, and grbeck in person.
Friday, I bought a 1998 Lexus GS400 with 209K miles on it. I bought it from the Lexus dealer, but it was traded in by a friend of mine a week or two ago. He bought it new. He is a cardiac surgeon that ran up the miles driving to hospitals. He had every bit of recommended maintenance and all repairs done at the local Lexus dealer. If so much as a tail light went out, he took it to the dealer. The driver seat is pretty worn out. Other than that, cosmetics in and out are really good. Mechanically, it is near perfect.
I know Shifty's healthy looking old man analogy, but this car is nice. I couldn't find a BMW 5 series with half this mileage that was nearly as tight. And the 300 hp V8 feels good.
Miles per se don't scare me off. To extend the healthy old man analogy---better a 60 year old athlete than a 25 year old junkie.
I do believe though that there comes a point in a car's high mileage when safety becomes a consideration--that's not 200K by any means, but when someone starts running up 300K and more, you have to start looking for metal fatigue, etc. An annual inspection of this sort should be done.
Cars do have a lifespan and one has to respect that I think.
You can always offload a clean Lexus if you don't like it or it proves temperamental.
Very true on the metal fatigue. In one case, a friend driving a very old, very pristine Studebaker turned into a parking lot only to have a front spindle snap. In another case, a fully, carefully restored '65 Mustang convertible had the entire suspension tower collapse due to metal fatigue. Inspection showed that there had never been any repair or rust in the area, the stamped sheet metal just tore.
Yup, just like people, there is a life span to all things.
I'm always on the lookout for interesting wheels. Right now I'm sniffing around for an MG Midget (ironically, more room in it than in a Miata!!) and maybe Norton motorcycle.
I did bid on an old BMW bike that needed complete restoration but the selling price turned out to be ridiculous. People really get their heads up their....hats...when it comes to auctions. Bid was $4200 and I saw the same year/type of bike sell a week later on eBay for $7400, RESTORED already. I bid $1200, which was IMO exactly right.
Subaru has 142,000 on it now. It's been a good workhorse for me.
That GS400 sounds like a winner. The old 'put the big engine in the mid size car' routine. I'd like one, except it has major headroom problems for me (as do many). It's going to be an enjoyable and reliable ride, I imagine.
...as I suspected, it was the alternator. I'm keeping the old one as I hope to have it rebuilt as it's the original one. I'm also changing the fuel filter as the current one has been in there a l-o-n-g time!
I looked at the fintail yesterday...the linkage under the dash at the steering column is intact, so the issue is under the hood. I tried to look under there, but in a poorly lit garage couldn't really see much, so I said to hell with it, closed the hood, and covered the car back up. Next week or the week after I am going to try to get it into the shop.
Well, the LeMans still hasn't fired back up, since Thursday now, I think. I'm still suspecting the cap, rotor, or both, but just haven't had the ambition to mess with it. As for my blue NYer, well, it'll always start...eventually. However, now it's learning a new trick. Sometimes when I turn the key it cranks over really fast as it tries to start, but then sometimes it just clicks, like the battery's dead.
I probably should replace the battery, since I've had the car for two years now, and it looked old when I bought it! But if the battery's getting weak, would it try to fire up strong one time, and then just click the next? Actually, now that I think of it, my '67 Catalina would do that sometimes when the battery connection was loose. So, I guess I should check that, first...make sure it's not just something stupid like that.
Comments
How is the Z running for you, overall? Are you using it daily, or only for the autoX activity?
The yearly bill to keep the fintail around, including maintenance, storage (the greatest expense), insurance, is not much more than $1000, certainly under $1500. That's not a terribly expensive habit to own. I try to make some kind of improvement to it each year...looks like it will be the shift linkage this year. I don't know if I will ever have it restored - to do it right would cost a tidy sum, maybe 25-30K. I might be able to get half that for it if I had to sell, and I would be worried about damaging it. With the car as-is, I just drive it and enjoy it.
If I had a nice garage, hopefully with some kind of lift, I would do more work...as it is I just play with the timing and fuel injection settings. The car seems happy with that.
Potential drifter project?
Not bad for the right project
Another drifter project?
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
'83 Mazda RX-7---my theory is that these days, anything on wheels that is clean outside, doesn't smell like a dog or a cigar or a dead body, runs well, has all its windows and is not 3 colors, passes smog and can be driven 100 miles without blowing up or sputtering to a halt--- is worth $2000.
78 Ranchero---fair enough
It runs great. Its not a daily driver, but I commute with it as much as I can. I'd say its been split about 50/50 between it and my G35x. Some days my son simply insists we take Daddy's red racecar. The crashing suspension has started getting on my nerves, though. I'm now in the middle of putting on new shocks. Hopefully that cures it.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
I got one of those circuit test pen thingies, the kind that lights up when it's getting a current. We pulled one of the spark plug wires off the distributor cap and I had a friend put the pen to it, while I cranked the engine. We got nothing....and that should light up when I crank the engine, right? We also put it to where the wires came into the ignition coil, and that lit up when I turned the car to the on position.
So would that signal a problem with the coil? I took the cap off and looked at it and the rotor, and they both looked fairly new to me, with no corrosion on any of the contacts. Well, I put it all back together, and tried a few more times to fire it up. I got one slight grumble, once, like it was trying to catch, but then that was it.
Weird thing though, is that the car started up just fine last week, ran fine on Saturday, and also on Sunday. Didn't mess with it yesterday. And then today, it decided to get cranky again. When a coil starts to go bad, can they get intermittent like that? Or could it just be a loose wire somewhere that I'm not noticing? The way they crammed stuff in those engine bays back then, it's amazing you don't break a wire or hose or vacuum tube every time you have to reach under the hood! :mad:
I bet the shocks will make a big difference in the ride; when the old shocks are bad, I equate replacing them with buying a new car (for much cheaper, of course)! I almost replaced the shocks on my Escort a couple weeks ago, but decided they were good enough to stretch it until next Spring. Instead, I ordered replacement headlamp assemblies and mounting bracket so I will actually be able to see the road during the long dark of winter.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
Well at least this wasn't another presentation by the Rich Boy's Telephone Pole Club. This was a more excusable catastrophe, although I do wonder how you can drive merrily along with the back of your car on fire.
"Kessler told firefighters it was worth about $2 million and was insured for $3 million, Lantz said."
Well, there's your
problem,answer, :P ...So, now I dunno what the deal is with it. Oh, and just for kicks, I took one of the plug wires off at the distributor cap and hooked my circuit pen up to it, just to see how it registers with something like that. It did light up, faintly. I guess it just didn't get that bright because it wasn't getting a steady current. So that makes me wonder...yesterday when I was cranking the car, and trying to test it at that point, does it just not turn over fast enough to give much of a current for the pen to register?
Another thing I'm wondering...with one plug wire disconnected, and the car only running on 7 cylinders, it still sounded the same to me...just fine and plenty of power. Is that normal? Or is it one of those things where it'll sound fine idling, but under any kind of load, that's when it would let you know it's only running on 7 cylinders?
I just thought it was odd that, even as a "V-7", it still sounded better, to my ear, than most 4-cyl or V-6 engines! :P
"That offer's not serious!" "No, but you started it!"
What was the weather like when it wouldn't start? Was it damp or foggy out, or had it just stopped raining? I had a '73 Fiat that needed a new distributor and rotor about every 30,000 miles. I think they would develop hairline or microscopic cracks that would hold moisture and thus short out the high voltage signal to the spark plugs. If the car wouldn't start one damp morning, I would just pull the cap, rotor, and plug wires and bake them in the oven for 30 mins or so to dry things out. Then, the car would start, and I knew it was time to get new parts.
As for the weather, on Tuesday evening, when it wouldn't start, it was hot and sunny. Probably humid, as the clouds were really starting to build up and rise, but it never did rain.
Yesterday, when the car fired up without even pumping it, it was also pretty hot, thunderstorms were starting to build up, and it was sprinkling a bit.
Anyway, it ended up raining all night, and it still drizzling this morning, with temps around 60. I went out to the garage to try the car. First attempt, I just turned the key, without pumping the gas. Wouldn't start. So then I pumped it once, tried again, and still wouldn't start. Third try I pumped it three times, turned the key, and it fired right up. I let it run for a minute or two, and then turned it off. Turned the key back on, and it fired up immediately.
Another one of my online friends, in another forum, who's pretty knowledgeable about a lot of this GM 70's crap, said that on these cars, it's common for the rotor to fail. It's a designed-in weak point to protect the more expensive components, such as the coil and cap. He also said that if you pull a wire off while the engine is running or cranking, it usually burns a pin hole in the rotor under the arm where you cannot see it. From that day on, humidity has a large effect on ignition performance, and even when it seems to run well, you get a miss under hard acceleration. Now, I didn't pull that wire off while it was running...I took it off before I started the car. So hopefully I didn't mess anything up, worse than it already is! :surprise:
I was tempted to drive the car to see how it behaved, but it's in the back of the garage, with my '79 5th Ave parked in front...and I couldn't find the keys to the 5th Ave!
I ended up driving my other '79 NYer. It was a little cranky starting up, which I sort of expected since this car sits outside. And I'm used to Chrysler products acting up when it's wet out...my GM products always seemed much better behaved in the rain.
Anyway, I think I will change the rotor, just to see if that does the trick. I've had the car for a little over 4 years now, but only put around 3,000 miles on it. Haven't really had to do anything to it yet, other than a new master cylinder and rear wheel cylinders back in 2006, and a new battery in 2007. So I have no idea how long ago the cap, rotor, plug wires, etc, were last changed. They still look good, and the one plug we pulled out looked good as well. Still, I guess the wires, cap, and rotor could end up getting flawed with age...hairline cracks and such. Might not be a bad idea to change them.
I can see the pin-hole problem. As you probably know, I don't think it's a good idea to pull a plug wire while the car is running, or even to try and crank the engine over. Without the spark plug's gap, there's nothing there to limit the voltage. When the points open up and the magnetic field in the coil collapses, the collapsing filed across the coil secondary is what creates the high voltage. Absent the plug, the voltage will just keep increasing until something else breaks down (arcs over). Might be the rotor, might be a plug wire, or something else.
Poor guy--owns the worst car in the history of the world and no money to fix it.
I've torn down Fiat, Alfa and Porsche engines but I wouldn't put a wrench on that thing, no way.
Ummm, those are free already, and I think less complicated to learn than tuning a Maserati, even for an old timer italian mechanic.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
Oh, one other thing I should add...I had a few beers in me. I also had a few in me last night, when the car fired up without even touching the gas pedal. So this is really making me wonder...is this car trying to encourage me to drive drunk? :shades:
I also wanted to take the opportunity to compliment you on the looks of your nicely freshened '67 Catalina! I always liked that pale yellow color and those Rallye wheels definitely fit the car.
Yeah, that was a reference to the pain that car's been inflicting on me. :sick: And evidently, I haven't drunk enough yet tonight, because I went out there about 1/2 hour ago, and now it won't start again!
Glad you like the Catalina! Hey, are you going to be going to the GM show in Carlisle this year by any chance? I'm going to have the car up there. If you're going, let me know and we can exchange cell phone #'s or something. Sorry I missed you there last year!
although a much newer car, my wife's 96 sho hated it if you backed it out of the garage, say washed the car, then drove it back in and shut it down.
sometimes the next time you would try to start it after that was a pain.
It's also idling too fast, but other than that sounds healthy.
If I do go, I'll let you know beforehand via your carspace e-mail and we can certainly exchange cell phone numbers at that time. It would be great to meet you, Lemko, and grbeck in person.
I know Shifty's healthy looking old man analogy, but this car is nice. I couldn't find a BMW 5 series with half this mileage that was nearly as tight. And the 300 hp V8 feels good.
I do believe though that there comes a point in a car's high mileage when safety becomes a consideration--that's not 200K by any means, but when someone starts running up 300K and more, you have to start looking for metal fatigue, etc. An annual inspection of this sort should be done.
Cars do have a lifespan and one has to respect that I think.
You can always offload a clean Lexus if you don't like it or it proves temperamental.
Yup, just like people, there is a life span to all things.
I did bid on an old BMW bike that needed complete restoration but the selling price turned out to be ridiculous. People really get their heads up their....hats...when it comes to auctions. Bid was $4200 and I saw the same year/type of bike sell a week later on eBay for $7400, RESTORED already. I bid $1200, which was IMO exactly right.
Subaru has 142,000 on it now. It's been a good workhorse for me.
I probably should replace the battery, since I've had the car for two years now, and it looked old when I bought it! But if the battery's getting weak, would it try to fire up strong one time, and then just click the next? Actually, now that I think of it, my '67 Catalina would do that sometimes when the battery connection was loose. So, I guess I should check that, first...make sure it's not just something stupid like that.
two overpriced scrap piles
Audi "mechanic's special"
world's most boring drift car
Hairball of the Cat.