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Movies => Bad Movies => Topic started by: odinn7 on December 31, 2005, 05:16:47 PM

Title: Happy F'in New Year To Me- Update-
Post by: odinn7 on December 31, 2005, 05:16:47 PM
Well, I've been battling an ongoing coolant leak in my car for the past 2 weeks. It all started when I used Walmart Super Tech pre mixed antifreeze that claimed it was good to -34 degrees. Well, 2 weeks ago we hit -4 and the crap froze...Froze like an ice cube. Since then, I have had coolant leaks. I've been losing coolant at the rate of 1 gallon every 3 or 4 days.
Last Friday I thought I found the problem. The water pump was leaking badly so I spent $50 on a pump and 4 hours of my time to fix it. Added another $24 for oil change and thought I'd be ok. It was still leaking but a little slower. Throughout the week, the rate of loss increased to the point that yesterday on my 35 mile trip home from work, I had to pull over twice to refill it. I then saw that coolant was blowing, no, spraying out of the overflow bottle. My experience told me that there is a head or head gasket problem.
I spent the time and took the head off last night and checked everything. The head appeared to be fine but the gasket on the #3 cylinder was blown out. I spent $56 on a new head gasket and went to put it back together today. As I was torquing the bolts, one of them near the #3 cylinder made a snapping noise at just under 20 ft lbs of torque. I took the head back off and there it was...the block was cracked where the head bolt threads in. Upon inspection, I could see that there had been a hairline crack all along it and only a small section of it was actually holding on. This is what had caused the problem in the first place as the bolt had obviously loosened just enough to allow the gasket to blow out.
Unfortunately, now I have spent $130 in the last 2 weeks for parts for this hunk of sh*t, and about 10-12 hours of wasted time. I have a worthless paperweight sitting, taking up space in my garage. The worst part is that I have no money to buy a car, am unable to get a loan, and I work 35 miles from here with no practical way to get there. Thank you Walmart for that high quality antifreeze. I'd love to be able to sue those bastards for the cost of a new engine plus the crap I just went through and will be going through until I find a solution.

I look at this as not a very encouraging thing to be starting the new year with. My luck is normally bad enough without having to start the new year off on a bad note.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: daveblackeye15 on December 31, 2005, 08:45:03 PM
Sorry to hear about your car troubles odinn7.

At least they'll always be bad movies to cheer you up.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: dean on December 31, 2005, 10:52:47 PM

Well that certainly is a bugger...

Sometimes I really do think a horse and chariot would be far less troublesome and less expensive to run than a car these days.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: trekgeezer on December 31, 2005, 11:59:29 PM
That's really a sucky note to start out the year on. I wish there was a way to help you other than just moral support, but it's kinda hard when you live 800 miles away.

For what it's worth man, I hope the rest of the year goes a lot better for you.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: Mr_Vindictive on January 01, 2006, 01:13:36 PM
I've had a similar experience with one of my cars, but I'll not go into details since I don't want to hijack the thread.

I hope everything gets better from here.  Sometimes when things start on a terrible note, it will get better from there.

Just curious, did your car happen to be a Ford product?  They have terrible block problems.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: ulthar on January 01, 2006, 01:27:46 PM
On a plus note, it really happened in 2005.  Silver lining, and all that.  So, maybe it is not a portent of 2006 to come.

Good luck.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: Zapranoth on January 01, 2006, 03:32:51 PM
I remember a guy I knew in college who, when I told him "it could be worse," always replied,

"It could be better!"

My best friend and his fiancee visited yesterday, and she told me the most awesome car horror story I've yet heard.  She used to have a Kia -- she bought it new, in about '96 (the second year they were made IIRC, so that made her a beta tester) for 8 thousand dollars.  She was so stoked to have a NEW car for ONLY EIGHT GRAND.

So the day she bought it, it had ignition trouble, and she had to take it back for work.  

She owned it for six months, and in those six months she had to have the brakes replaced TWICE, the ignition work, the cylinder head gaskets leaked, and there was some other major issue with an oil leak.  All of these were fixed under warranty, but she had the car at the shop more than it was in her driveway.

The final straw was the day she was driving it and the dashboard fell off *into her lap*.  

She immediately started driving to car lots, asking not "how much will you take this for in trade," but "WILL you take this in trade for anything else?"   She traded it in towards a Nissan Sentra, which never gave her problems.

I've always owned Hondas and Toyotas.  Not buying any Fords, GMs, or other premature obsolence engineering... nope, nope, not gonna do it, not gonna do it, nope nope nope...
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: Scottie on January 01, 2006, 05:14:47 PM
I owned a Nissan Sentra and I never had a problem until someone stole my radio, but no natural car malfunctions. Now I own a Cadillac and other than constant oil leaks from the engine (which would cost a mint to fix), I haven't had any problems. I swore when I first owned the Nissan that I would never buy anything that wasn't Japanese, but the Cadillac has honestly been reliable. It just costs a fortune to refill at the gas pump.

Sorry to hear about the car Odinn. It sounds like with your in depth knowledge of cars. though, you'll be able to find and repair a car that will suit your needs. There are millions of cars in the world like there are fish in the sea. Yours will come along.

And stay away from Wal-Mart brand anything when it's for something important like antifreeze or heart disease medicine.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: ulthar on January 01, 2006, 07:59:14 PM
Zapranoth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've always owned Hondas and Toyotas.  Not buying
> any Fords, GMs, or other premature obsolence
> engineering... nope, nope, not gonna do it, not
> gonna do it, nope nope nope...

FWIW, I've got a '86 Ford Ranger with over 300,000 on it.  That's probably more my force of will making it last rather than superior engineering on the part of Ford.

Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: odinn7 on January 01, 2006, 08:24:48 PM
Thanks for the words everyone. I'm sorry I dumped this crap on you guys but I was feeling a little down. I apologize.
My mother-in-law heard of the problems and talked to my father-in-law about it without me knowing. They invited us over today and offered us a loan at a fantastic pay back rate. That is a real help to me. Now all I need to do is find something reliable. I was quite thankful for their help.

I bought some JB Weld today that supposedly will fix almost anything and I "glued" the broken piece back in. Tomorrow I will put it all back together at least to get it out of my garage. With any luck, the JB Weld will hold it together and make it driveable for a few days anyway...at least until I can find a car.

Here's a picture of what broke if you care at all:

(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b170/odinn7/cracked.jpg)


Here I am putting the car out of it's misery with my Baby Eagle...well, I'd like to...

(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b170/odinn7/outofmisery.jpg)
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: Menard on January 01, 2006, 08:56:07 PM
That's great that her parents are willing and able to help out. Wish I had your ability with cars.

BTW, thank you for the picture.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: dean on January 01, 2006, 09:25:45 PM

haha, the picture of you 'putting it out of it's misery' perhaps sums up best the way most people think about their cars, especially when they are heaps of junk which are too costly to replace.

I know my brother definitely felt that way when he bought his first car second hand, and had it pretty much rendered undrivable for six months because it needed so many repairs.  Yet, of course, these repairs were just low enough to justify not selling the car, but high enough to consider it.  

[oh and don't worry about venting here, I'm pretty sure we've all done it at one point or another.]
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: odinn7 on January 01, 2006, 11:22:35 PM
Skaboi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Just curious, did your car happen to be a Ford
> product?  They have terrible block problems.
>

Actually it was a Geo Metro with the Suzuki 4 cylinder. I can't really blame the car in this case as I'm positive that the freezing antifreeze expanded and caused this problem since everything was fine up until it froze.
I was an auto mechanic for 15 years and saw plenty of odd things but I can honestly say, this was a first. The way this engine is designed, the antifreeze really had nowhere to go when it froze. The block has freeze plugs in it but where they are placed doesn't really make much sense and basically they did nothing.



And Dean...thanks.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: Andrew on January 01, 2006, 11:28:13 PM
The JB weld may hold for a while, if the parts were completely degreased and clamped tightly for setting.  I have used the stuff on a crack on an engine (water pump mount) before on a Chevy small block and it did hold.  I just do not know about it holding in that spot.  I would doubt it.

Almost all of my experience is with small block Chevy engines, so I am confused if that was a mounting bolt or is there also a coolant passage right there where the failure happened.  Really weird if there is not a coolant passage - I would guess that the freezing put enough pressure on that specific bolting point to crack the block.  I've seen a frozen small block and, crazy thing, all it did was what is supposed to happen - it popped some of the freeze plugs.  However, I cannot count the times that leaking freeze plugs caused a need for engine repair.  Funky.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: odinn7 on January 01, 2006, 11:50:56 PM
Andrew, that is a coolant passage where the piece broke out. The head bolt goes down in there and it's not all that thick to begin with. The strange part is that the channel all the way around the cylinders is basically just a holding area for coolant. There are no passages or holes along the block anywhere near them. The only way for coolant in or out is down through the holes in the head. This doesn't seem very efficient to me as I can't picture the coolant flowing very well around there.
I suspect that the cheap Japanese casting probably had a weak spot there to begin with and the freezing is just what it took to finish it.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: LilCerberus on January 02, 2006, 02:59:35 AM
ulthar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Zapranoth Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I've always owned Hondas and Toyotas.  Not
> buying
> > any Fords, GMs, or other premature obsolence
> > engineering... nope, nope, not gonna do it,
> not
> > gonna do it, nope nope nope...
>
> FWIW, I've got a '86 Ford Ranger with over 300,000
> on it.  That's probably more my force of will
> making it last rather than superior engineering on
> the part of Ford.

I've got a '92 Taurus LX that runs pretty good. Albeit, that first month, I wound up having to bum $1000 off my mom for a new radiator & some transmission werk, but then she was the one who talked me into it. And of coarse, this is the third year in a row that the starter blew out while it was still under warranty. Yeah, the new starter was free, and I was reimbersed for the towing, but I still had to pay for the labor, not to mention it's always a pain in the ass.
Still, gimme a 3.8 liter V6 with feul injection & overdrive... Just color me GO!
Although it does have a squeaky serpentine belt, and I'm afraid to touch it because it was made after 1979.

But my '92 Taurus is way better than that '89 Escort I used to have, which was a bigger peice of crap than the '79 Courier that it replaced.

Now, considering Zapranoth's patiallity towards riceburners, I got this '75 Honda CB400F SuperSport that's held up pretty well over last twelve years, especially considering that it needs a hell of a lotta werk, and I can't find parts for it anymore. However, the two Yamahas & two Kawasakis that I owned before that were crap beyond crap. Maybe not as crappy as that '89 Escort, but definately crappier than that ''79 Courier.

Well, as far American Vs. Japanese goes, I'll say that my mom's been in the car insurance business for about fifteen years, and while she thinks riceburners are okay, she'd recommend a Ford or a Chrysler, but she would deffinately recommend against a GM or a Chevy.
You know what they say, "Momma knows best."
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: Rombles on January 02, 2006, 07:56:14 AM
Odinn7,  maybe you should consider moving to Australia? No need for anti-freeze here at all, so this problem wouldn't have happened.  Mind you the number of cars I've seen pulled over with boiling radiators in the last few days is another matter.... it has been 42+/- here lately - and I'm talking Celcius, not Farenheit!
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: odinn7 on January 02, 2006, 08:42:43 AM
Every car manufacturer has their bad models that have problems. Examples off the top of my head are late 80's and early 90's Ford Taurus and Merc Sable with trans problems. 80's and 90's Dodge 4 cylinders with head gasket and warping head problems. Modern Dodge Neons with head problems. Chevy Luminas with cracking heads. Late 80's and early 90's Pontiac Grand Prix and Buick Regal (FWD) models with engine problems and rear disc brake problems. Mid 90's Jeeps with the 4.0 6 cylinder that had the wrong size rings installed from the factory. Many older Nissan and Subaru models that seened to have been made out of rusty metal with paint sprayed on them. I could go on...
What I'm trying to say is that this model vs. that model is really pointless. They're all crap in one way or another.  Through my time working as a tech, I had seen plenty of Toyotas and Hondas come in for routine maintenance with over 200,000 miles and still running like new. Collectively, they seem to be the most trouble free cars from experience.



Rombles...I would love to move to Australia except...they will not allow me to bring my guns ;)
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: Menard on January 02, 2006, 11:59:09 AM
I miss my Subaru. I abused that poor thing and still got 206,000 miles out of it.

I had a Chrysler LeBaron which falls into the category you mentioned. I barely got 60,000 out of it before a piston head developed a crack and left me stranded more than 100 miles from home.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: Mr_Vindictive on January 02, 2006, 12:56:39 PM
I wouldn't mind living in Australia.  Then I'd be able to buy and drive a Holden Monaro.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: odinn7 on January 17, 2006, 09:24:11 AM
Well, I have a "new" car finally. I got it last week and it seems to be a decent buy.
It's a '90 Buick Century with a 3.3 V-6, low miles, good body, very monor things wrong (most of which I've already taken care of).
Two things I don't really like about it and will take some getting used to: 1) I always looked at Buicks as an old mans car. That's really not too bad though because the Metro I was driving I always considered a teenage girls car so at least I've gone to the correct sex. 2) The Metro got 40 mpg and had a 10 gallon tank. This one gets about 25 mpg with just about a 20 gallon tank. This will certainly take some getting used to considering I drive 70 miles a day round trip.
Hey, at least it's comfortable and rides nice.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: AndyC on January 17, 2006, 02:13:31 PM
Don't forget Caravans and Voyagers in the early 90s, with their disposable trannies.

Around 2000 or 2001, I bought a '93 Grand Caravan from my Dad for $3,500 (what he was offered for a trade-in, plus the extra tax he'd have to pay). The old man takes good care of his vehicles, so it was in beautiful shape. And it was pretty good, for the first year or two.

But I probably spent at least twice the purchase price on repairs over the years I owned it. Hell, I think I came close to matching the purchase price the last year.

In 2003, we took it on a vacation to the east coast, and the tranny went in Halifax. Two days drive from home, already having spent a good bit of money, and we have to pay a $1,600 bill for a complete rebuild, then pretty much call our vacation finished. Telling that story to people we knew, you would be amazed how many had similar stories with Dodge minivans of that year.

That was also the first vehicle I ever needed to get towed -- and it needed to be towed three times in 18 months. Twice on the same street. Once, the belt tensioner popped right off, and I lost power steering, cooling and my alternator all at the same time. Next time, the clutch on the air conditioning compressor went and almost started a fire. Nice to be fixing the air conditioning in the middle of February. And there was the time the lock cylinder broke on the ignition switch.

And having always owned GM vehicles from 1981 or earlier prior to that, the cost of the very model-specific replacement parts was a shock. In the good old days, the same part served several models of several years. New ones were cheap and plentiful, or you could go to the wrecker's and get something off of any Buick, Chevy or Pontiac on the lot. And I'd sometimes put it on myself. These days, I won't touch anything under the hood.

Got rid of the old Dodge piece of crap last spring and bought a 2004 Venture extended, which still has lots of warranty left. Now, my wife's 97 Cavalier has started to act like the old van, starting with the tranny. We can't win.

So yes, I feel for you Odinn.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me
Post by: trekgeezer on January 17, 2006, 02:43:01 PM
Glad to see you are no longer automobility challenged.
Title: Re: Happy F'in New Year To Me- Update-
Post by: BeyondTheGrave on January 17, 2006, 11:27:45 PM
My grandfather has a 92 Buick Le Saber that I drive around. Sure its a old mans car but I could care less. My granfather really took care of though because we had it since 92 and it hasn't give him or me any major problems that couldn't be easily fixed.

Plus my granps has a sense of humor. Theirs little small dents all  over the car and he put car magnet bullets holes over them. Its pretty funny driveing around with fake bullet hole that from a distance look real.