96_12V

Sometimes, ones' errors can prove to be beneficial for others, which I hope is the case here. This is not related to a truck, but rather a car, and I hope it leads to other similar stories being posted. The keyword here is any used vechile is a "judgement call" and a "risk." It also helps to realize little pointers to give one a clue as to what's ahead...

So last fall, my sister decides to trade her 1991 Accord for a '98 Subaru Outback. Nice vechile, nice deal on the new car, and my parents decide to keep the Accord since my sister has just installed new tires, starter and exhuast system. It has 195k on it and at this time, diesel prices are leveling out around $3.59/gallon in central Illinois, gas is staying at $2.89. My parents, in a nice gesture of kindness, ask me if I would like to commute with the Accord to save a bit of diesel expense with old 96_12V. I think, "why not - nothing here for any of us to loose..."

The first time I fuel the car up - I notice the gas cap, or the fact I can't get it off. The "tab" on the outside has broken off, leaveing only the ribbed ring to unscrew it with. Fill car, walk in to Wal-Mart and pick up new cap - installed, about $3.89. (Sister later tells me she drove the car for six years with that broken cap... )

About 5 days later, I realize I have no idea of the oil/coolant leves on this car. Check oil dipstick - wipe and check again - uh...nothing. Add one quart - only had one as I use mostly CG-rated Rotella these days. Level just starts to show on the stick. Uh - not good. Two quarts, back in business. Let Honda dealer change the timing belt as records for any previous T-belt swaps are gone entirely. While in there, Water-pump is swapped, and drive belts - dealer thinks it's a "good car" for the age and gives it a good bill of health for around $550

So I take off the next weekend for Chicago, get about an hour away and I see a nice little "ALT" light glowing in the dash. Find a Chevy dealer, as the electrical is starting to die out - Alternator. $450, back in business again - sort of, and have and oil change done as I forgot the have the dealer take care of it. Confidence in little Honda is dying fast.

Things continue relatively well into April - notice that the oil consumption is continuing - 2 quarts over a month or two, and then another two at once deal - I take it back to the dealer than changed the belt and they do an oil change - or they try to. The plug is the wrong size, it's been cross threaded into the pan and the threads come out with the plug when the cheater "oversize" plug comes out! $350 and a new pan later, it's able to run. My sister had a small independant shop "perform" most of the work to this car - and I am wondering what else they did to it now. They Chevy dealer said nothign about a plug problem, btw. The car is not buring oil - it's leaking it, from the headgasket, (no coolant in oil, however), the rear main seal, and the axle seals. Very not good. Decide to put the car into hold for a while, note ready to fork out $1500 for all that - more than the car is worth.

Then today - decide to take the car out for a 15 mile drive. Add one quart of oil, first. Drive a few miles, notice a bit of water vapor from the front at a stoplight. Raise the hood at the store - oh no - why is there coolant all around the top of the radiator....

Soooooo, if you're temped to save some money buying a vechile that winds up beign a money-pit - let me encourage you - don't! This 1991 Accord has now cost well over $3000 (including original price we gave my sister) and it's nowhere near all fixed. I won't be listing it on our classifieds here, in fact, I'm thinking about trading it in...

sadlerb_98

Good story. Take it to one of those deals where they will give you $3000 minimum trade in. One of those drag it in, haul it in deals.

Forrest Nearing

those places just charge you $3k more than you could buy the car for elsewhere if you haggled

Spooler

This is why you don't do business with family. Similar issue happened to me. It was my brother. Head gasket blew. Come to find out it had been running hot and he put a can of stop leak in her. I fixed the headgasket and sold the car. BYE-BYE problem child. Radiator looked like red clay in the water. Rust bucket of a cooling system. I had to fix all of this before I sold it.

wcbcruzer

I feel your pain. Sounds kinda like a pre-owned Acura Legend we bought a long time ago. The asking price was very reasonable, so we go check it out. Was nice and clean, only 70k miles on it. So we drive it. Drove good and the seller said it's been a great car. So we buy it. Since then we have changed:

Alternator
Electric cables
Water pump
Both driver door handles
Bunch of other stuff I can't remember
Oh, and the engine...

It had this other problem that I was finally able to fix after hours of research. Turned out to be a main relay. The car wouldn't start for no reason.

Then we painted it and reupholstered it. Looked and drove very nice after all this (finally). But it sure was a PITA car.

Just about 4 weeks ago, my friend had a carfax account so I decided to run all our cars including the Acura. Turned out it had over 155k miles on it when we bought it. The Edit who sold it to us rolled back the odometer. Dang, that thing must've had almost 250k miles on it by the time we changed the engine. This was over 10 years ago, carfax wasn't all to popular yet, but my uncle will never buy another used car...

Shovelhead

Just do like my SIL did over the weekend to his Civic.

Roll it into a ditch in a snowstorm.

ClackClack

My gf asked why I didn't get a beater to drive around to save on some diesel. We crunched the numbers and by the time we purchased, maintained and insured it we could buy a LOT of diesel, even at the higher price.

I like driving the truck better anyway.

SRTchris

people give me a hard time about always buying new ( especially all of my neihbours as most of em have wall mart greeter type jobs, not that there's anything wrong with that) but i would rather pay the depreceation ( i write it off anyway) and that way if i get stuck with a piece of junk, the only one to blame is me for it being that way, instaed of buying used, not knowing what has happened to this vehicle, and then paying out in repairs and guesswork in what i would have paid in depreceation. with my luck it always ends up a shoot in the foot kinda thing with used so i just get new , have warranty and be done with it. i realise others finacial situation won't allaow them the same option but if your putting $500.00 a month in repairs, why not put that into a payment instead??

catnfool

just saw this gem of a topic and have to tell of my recent sins... My father in law had an 85 ford escort w/300k plus miles on it that he drove back and forth to work for 20 years. He retired about 7 years ago and parked it in the weeds. I got it for free, and I paid tooooo much!! So far I have $50 into liscense, and park on hills because the starter doesnt always engage

when it dies, I'm taking the tags, tools and my batt. charger and walking

Mud Ready

My daily driver 84 S10 with 358k miles was finally on its last leg back in October. I go to the Dodge dealer and find a 96 12v 3500 that looked to be in excellent condition. I haggled with the salesman for awhile and got the truck for what I thought was a great price. I have put 5k miles on the truck since October and have replaced:

Fuel Lines
InTank Fuel Module
TPS
Tires
Exhaust
Brakes (still need alot of work)
and I still have a fuel leak that I cant track down

Im really close to trading in all 3 of my vehicles on a brand new truck thats under warranty.