Yeah, my diary here, (diarrhea) was a bit lengthy, even by my standards..... which aren't really all that high
I love fixing what I got. Even better when I figure out the problems.
Say you buy a new to you vehicle. A month later the front brakes start grinding. Ok, gotta have brakes, so you buy em.
Six months later, there is a clunking noise when you shift into reverse.
Oh my God, now a U-joint needs to be replaced.
A year later the radiator and water pump go south.
Might as well sell this POS, right?
......bad brakes, bad U-joints, bad water pump and radiator.
Oh, what a bad buy you got there.
......so now you buy another used rig and lose money on the junker to get rid of that used "lemon"
with the new radiator, new brakes, new u-joints new radiator....
.....................
Now you have another "new to you" vehicle.
6 months later, the power steering goes out need to buy a new pump.
A year later you start hearing a clunking noise and the front shocks need to be replaced.
Three months later after replacing the shocks you still hear some kind of a rattle and discover the ball joints need to be replaced.
If you're going to buy used, why not just keep replacing parts every few years or sometimes every few months. $300 twice a year is a lot better than $800 every month.
Brand new with a warranty is wonderful if you happen to have 500 or 800 dollars a month to throw into this endless hole.
On the first used vehicle you bought, you have no payments.
You spent $1,000 for placing some minor/ major parts that will never be replaced again for 50,000 miles.
You just replace a bunch of parts and know the history record of your old vehicle. You know what's wrong with it and you know what you fixed. Why after fixing a bunch of parts do you decide to buy another mystery vehicle with you know nothing about?
You don't really know the real reason the person sold the vehicle to you in the first place.
Was it simply to get a brand new vehicle they liked? .....or did they pass a lemon to you?
If the cost for parts isn't horrendous, just keep replacing parts when they break or fail. You can get lifetime warrantees on parts at o'reilly's, AutoZone and Napa.
When you fix a part on your car, you now know it's condition. It's brand new. Keep a record of this stuff that you replaced and have comfort knowing those parts will probably never cause a problem again.
That's why I have a $600 pickup and I put $400 into it in just this month. I put $1,600 into it in the S10 this past year. To be fair, $750 was tires. I bought a new oxygen sensor, a new throttle position sensor, a new ignition module, a new ignition coil, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, an idle air sensor, a $24 pigtail to so that my water temperature sending unit sends temperature information to the computer.
That doesn't include the fluids, probably $50 or $60 this month to help free up the piston rings. It was absolutely successful.
After 180 MI the oil on my dipstick is down less than 1/8 of an inch. Prior to me attempting to free up the piston rings, the engine was sucking a quart of oil every 650 miles. My early estimations are now 1000 miles or more before adding oil.
Prior to diving into these recent repairs, I thought the engine would be lucky to last another year. The problems we're getting more and more intense each month. Now that I figured it all out, I'm really hopeful.
Here's the dipstick, oil level after 175 miles. It should be 1/3 of the way down the dipstick by now.
I know that not many people share my enthusiasm for the automobile, especially working on them. I feel as lucky as lucky gets being brought up around a dad that taught me using a wrench and associating with people who did the same. The only person that has ever worked on my rigs for nearly 50 years is me.
Partly because I don't trust the novices that work on cars for a living
I'll report back when my dipstick reading reaches, "add a quart".
I'm hoping for over 1,000 miles instead of 650.
The smoothness and performance is better than anytime since I've owned the truck. I couldn't be happier. It will be interesting seeing the highway mileage compared to what it used to be. I'm hoping for 20.
Driving in town, it even ripped the tires going from first to second gear.
Enjoy the ride...................