It's time for me to start on my accelerated maintenance program on my vehicles,
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| That would be me, Tim! |
This is for my cars that don't need rebuilding or substantial repairs. This will apply to the '07 F150 and '07 Mustang. Also to the '96 Mustang, eventually.
Last week I had made a comment on the Jaguar Forums concerning a 2007 XK. The new forum member was asking for advice about his Mother's car, the XK. She had purchased it new, but it was now proving to be unreliable and was requiring frequent repairs and expenditures. He asked what he should do with the car, his Mom had already replaced the car with a lease on a new Jaguar E Pace. He asked if it still had any value, should he scrap it or donate it to get rid of it. I think that he was being disingenuous about it and his situation. Several forum members provided him with advice, one seriously addressed each of his listed concerns and advised him that an investment of five thousand dollars would probably get the car squared away.
I thought that the question of value was kind of funny, as last year I had gone and seen a low mileage 2007 XK at a Toyota dealer that was priced at 17,000 dollars, so I knew that it certainly wasn't worthless. But an older Jag with an accumulation of problems wasn't going to be in high demand.
I replied that at a certain point a car gets to an age where routine maintenance isn't enough, it's really becomes a candidate for "minor" restoration. In other words, entire systems on the car have to be completely, preemptively, replaced. Things like batteries, cooling system hoses, fuel system items, drive belts, ignition components, some brake and suspension parts. Replacing the parts piecemeal will not be satisfactory as they will just fail in a series, one right after another. Each failure will result in disappointment, frustration and a general loss of confidence and enjoyment with the vehicle.
The typical beater will be run out in this manner, but it's not the best path with a "Better Beater."
My own two older Jags are in a different situation as they still require more "substantial "restoration.
First things first, will be the '07 Mustang. I plan to start with replacing all the coolant and heater hoses, and the serpentine belt, idler pulley, and tensioner. Then it will be rear brake pads and rotors, and a brake fluid flush. Next will be transmission fluid and filter change. Front brake inspection and wheel bearing check. Front strut and rack and pinion inspection, replacing what is needed.
I'm going to have to duplicate the process with the F150, it's got about the same mileage.
My first surprise is just how difficult it can be just to source the parts. My Mustang is only 14 years old and Ford built tens of thousands of the things! The dealer didn't even have the heater hoses in stock! My second surprise was how expensive the parts can be, especially if you choose to buy them from a brick and mortar store.
I had decided to look up the parts on the Rock Auto site first, even though I thought that not everything would be available. There was a substantial savings on the website. The serpentine belt kit was a hundred dollars cheaper than my parts store could provide. They could not order the complete kit and had to supply each item individually. They were able to source the radiator hoses, but for almost twice the cost. Now, I want to support my local business, they've had a tough time during the pandemic. My local parts store is part of a small chain that has provided me with good service over the last thirty years and I do want to help them stay afloat. My Wife suggested that I buy my parts there. But they are so expensive, so I decided to compromise. I'd buy the radiator hoses there, order the belt kit from Rock Auto and probably buy the heater hoses from the dealer, as they are generally not available as aftermarket items.
I want to replace all the hoses at the same time. My goal is to insure the reliability of the cooling system as it was when the car was new. If I leave an old hose in place, it is sure to fail, probably sooner than later!
My experience with the Explorer has really affected my outlook towards my older cars. Can I achieve a satisfactory degree of reliability from an older car?
I'd had lot's of older cars in my youth, many quite old. But I never really drove them that far from home. All of my long distance travelling was done by motorcycle, which was a much simpler machine than a late model car.
When I got married I had a '77 Cadillac, my first "good" car, which had 50,000 miles on it when I bought it in 1980. We traded it off in 1984 for our first new car, an '84 Mercury Cougar. We traded that off in 1990 for a new Dodge Caravan, which we kept for ten years. And later that year, a new '90 Honda Civic SI coupe.
Then we bought late model, three year old used cars with fairly low mileage My '94 Seville was three years old with 28,000 miles. My '97 Chrysler Town and Country was seven ? years or so old with 70k mileage?
Then in 2007 we again bought two new vehicles, the F150 and the Mustang coupe.
During this time I had started buying my hobby cars, some were better than others, but none were depended on for long range transportation or vacation trips.
I've owned my '07's and enjoyed them as new cars and now they have progressed into being old cars. I have owned them for 14 years, longer than I've owned any of my previous, or current vehicles! That fact just kind of slipped my mind until recently.
The realization has just dawned on me, I've been like any other middle class driver. Buying new, then keeping the cars until they reached a certain amount of miles. None of my new vehicles were of the higher priced variety. But tat least they were new.
I've never really depended on an old car for long distance, vacation travel.
Last year I rented a new Dodge Caravan to use for our Oregon trip, that van had only 5,700 miles on it when we began our trip. It was spanking new!
Back to the original topic, can an old car, even one that has been well kept, provide the reliability that you need?
A very good question. It's not like I've never had a problem with my new vehicles.
My truck seized up the a/c compressor and had to be towed home from Santa Maria. Just out of the 60,000 mile warranty!
My seven year old, used, Town and Country broke down coming back from So Cal right at the top of the Cuesta Grade and had to be towed to the dealer in San Luis Obispo. It was fixed, but it was never the same after that. Many types of problems continued over the years.
My STS developed a minor transmission problem, luckily still under warranty, driving home from work, less than ten miles from the dealer.
I've had premium Triple A coverage for years, 150 mile tows with a single two hundred mile tow a year. We've got three memberships in the immediate family. That provides a lot of assurance, that you're not going to be stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, though my experience with the Explorer was not exactly what I would have liked.
Still, the Explorer was towed, with cell phones an Uber ride was arranged, and with good, high limit credit cards we could cover all the expenses. Such as a rental car for the trip home. It was mostly all an inconvenience, compounded by the pandemic.
Most people have endured similar if not worse mechanical problems on a long trip. Back in the early 1950's my Father was en route to Mexico with my Mom and my months old big brother when his old Ford burned up the motor somewhere in the Arizona desert. He had a three day delay while the gas station garage found a used motor in a local wrecking yard and installed it in the car. I don't know how much that cost him, I know that he had to have my Uncle send him some funds through Western Union. This episode resulted in my Dad's decision to learn about automotive mechanics, he had no idea up to that point. He later surmised that the motor had overheated due to a broken hose, or it had just run low on oil. I'm sure that it was an old oil burner. He saw the red warning lamp but didn't realize that he should have stopped immediately. Of course, the fact that he had my Mom and infant son with him probably colored his reaction, I'm sure that he kept driving until he reached someplace that he felt that he could stop safely. Having your family with you changes everything. The stakes are just so much higher. Once the repairs were made he continued on his trip.
Come to think of it, he started to buy new cars a few years later. That's a common reaction after enduring an epic break down. It's not something that you want to repeat.
This whole reliability question is getting to be more and more complicated.
A few months ago I made the old joke about how far can you drive an old car. The answer being, how far are you willing to walk?
The question might be, how far is far? What kind of distances are you considering?
A further discussion is warranted.
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