Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You mentioned replacing belts on an older car upon buying it. How about timing belt? Last year I got a 1998 Toyota Camry for $900 and although it was doing OK someone told me they'd have the water pump and timing belt changed anyway, at the time I had the money and that car seemed worth it so I did it just because. Too bad my wife, the driver of it, never checked the oil and I didn't check behind her and it toasted it. I now check behind her.
So I guess whatever we get next month I should take it in for an oil change and a checkup and have them check belts, radiator, suspension, transmission fluid levels, that sort of thing? What's a good list to go by?
You mentioned replacing belts on an older car upon buying it. How about timing belt? Last year I got a 1998 Toyota Camry for $900 and although it was doing OK someone told me they'd have the water pump and timing belt changed anyway, at the time I had the money and that car seemed worth it so I did it just because. Too bad my wife, the driver of it, never checked the oil and I didn't check behind her and it toasted it. I now check behind her.
So I guess whatever we get next month I should take it in for an oil change and a checkup and have them check belts, radiator, suspension, transmission fluid levels, that sort of thing? What's a good list to go by?
If you are getting a 2500-dollar vehicle..............you better get a Chilton and/or Haynes manual and slowly but surely learn to do your own work. Cars in that price-range, yeah, they WILL need work, usually on a pretty regular basis.
Yes, like the last post said, with the thermostat active it loses coolant FAST and within 7 miles I'm in trouble. Done this way, I can go the whole 15 miles to-from work without going past 3/8th on the temperature gauge. Everytime I stop, once it's cool just to make sure, I open up the air bleeder screw and add water so that it's always "current."
I will say that I am still losing coolant, although less of it, wheras before it was boiling over into the reservoir tank, even then before it became a head case I could still make it the 15 miles. The point when I no longer could was sometime after I had to have the belts replaced, they broke off when I was nowhere near home and although I stopped frequently I imagine something became messed up engine wise in the hobbling I did do. That is what I mean when I expressed frustration at how things happen suddenly without warning, I'm like "you've got to WARN ME if you're going to do something like that." I can only look for signs for just so many things.
The main problem I'm having, not always but sometimes--difficulty starting it. One day it took 20 minutes to start, in my words it will "turn over" but it won't "catch." I sometimes have even had to use jumper cables because the battery became drained from trying for so long. It seems more prone to this if you restart it after having just shut it down, say when getting gas, when you are first leaving or if you're there longer (say half an hour as you're eating) it does better, it can be a bit reluctant but it will typically catch on. All in all I know that I don't have long, as I said if it can just get us by for about the next month or so that's enough. It's not worth putting $1000 in, I'd rather put that towards a $2500 or so caliber of a car that basically just runs.
Your car is hard to start......it may or may not be related to your damaged-engine. You can easily get an idea if it is related the bad engine, or not.
1. Does it sound like the engine is cranking at normal speed.......if not, it may be your battery is weak. Charge your battery nice and hot, then try starting your car....if it helps significantly, then you need to do some maintenance to your battery/charging-system.
2. If charging your battery does not help in starting, you need to look elsewhere. Get a can of starting-fluid and spray a big dose into your engine's air-intake, then try starting. If this helps a lot, most likely you have a problem in your fuel-system.
3. If the 2 steps above don't help, most likely the engine-damage is the culprit.
If you are getting a 2500-dollar vehicle..............you better get a Chilton and/or Haynes manual and slowly but surely learn to do your own work. Cars in that price-range, yeah, they WILL need work, usually on a pretty regular basis.
Call me crazy, but I'm expecting a car in that range to NOT need very regular repairs. I shouldn't have to work 60 hour work weeks paying for a $10,000 car to have something decent. Five years ago we got a 2002 Saturn for $2500 with only 115k miles and it hardly ever needed anything done for the 4 years we had it. I'd say maybe once a year a repair in the $250-300 range was needed, that was it. I'm going to be looking for this year's car to be the same way.
I figure whatever I get I should take it in for an oil change and have them inspect the belts, fluid levels, radiator etc, anything else, especially if there are no slips showing it's been worked on? Maybe change the timing belt and water pump as a preventive measure unless the prior owner is able to show service receipts showing it was done recently?
Call me crazy, but I'm expecting a car in that range to NOT need very regular repairs. I shouldn't have to work 60 hour work weeks paying for a $10,000 car to have something decent. Five years ago we got a 2002 Saturn for $2500 with only 115k miles and it hardly ever needed anything done for the 4 years we had it. I'd say maybe once a year a repair in the $250-300 range was needed, that was it. I'm going to be looking for this year's car to be the same way.
You got lucky. If you're buying $2500 beaters, they're going to need work. And if you don't DIY, they can bankrupt you pretty quick. You get what you pay for.
You got lucky. If you're buying $2500 beaters, they're going to need work. And if you don't DIY, they can bankrupt you pretty quick. You get what you pay for.
I agree with you!
It is nice to get a 2 to 3 thousand dollar vehicle, that runs like a clock for years, with no major infusions of work and/or cash. But yeah, I would say those cases happen a lot less than the money-pit scenario.
You got lucky. If you're buying $2500 beaters, they're going to need work. And if you don't DIY, they can bankrupt you pretty quick. You get what you pay for.
Not to argue with you, but to me it should be normal that a $2500 or $3000 car "just runs" without being a money pit situation. If not, then supply and demand notwithstanding cars are WAY too expensive. People have better things to do with their lives than work all the time only to watch cars, owning to high acquisition prices or constant repairs popping up, essentially stealing all of their money like a thief to where they can't enjoy any fun things in life because the car is always sucking it all away. No thanks. I don't mind doing some basics, but I've got better things to do with my time than being a Chilton manual bookworm or working overtime to pay a dinosaur sized car payment.
Hopefully that our $1500 Corolla has mostly "just ran" is indicative of how things can be. The $400 Altima being a head case, well that even I'm not surprised over.
Not to argue with you, but to me it should be normal that a $2500 or $3000 car "just runs" without being a money pit situation. If not, then supply and demand notwithstanding cars are WAY too expensive. People have better things to do with their lives than work all the time only to watch cars, owning to high acquisition prices or constant repairs popping up, essentially stealing all of their money like a thief to where they can't enjoy any fun things in life because the car is always sucking it all away. No thanks. I don't mind doing some basics, but I've got better things to do with my time than being a Chilton manual bookworm or working overtime to pay a dinosaur sized car payment.
Hopefully that our $1500 Corolla has mostly "just ran" is indicative of how things can be. The $400 Altima being a head case, well that even I'm not surprised over.
At $2,500 it will just run. That doesn't mean it will run well. Lower priced cars typically need more maintenance performed to keep them in top condition. That doesn't mean to avoid them, but it does mean to avoid them if you aren't mechanically inclined.
People have better things to do with their lives than work all the time only to watch cars, owning to high acquisition prices or constant repairs popping up, essentially stealing all of their money like a thief to where they can't enjoy any fun things in life because the car is always sucking it all away.
That's why public transportation exists.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
