YACT: Time for a new car?

[funboy6942]

Originally posted by: Kristi2k
Hmm.... I think I should research and think more on this issue before I potentially buy a new car, just get the brakes fixed and worry about the rest later. You say the blower is easily fixed? I can have the mechanic check it out I suppose.

One thing that upset me is that Midas stated the brakes were fine 3 weeks ago... I even watched them take the wheel off and look inside.

Hell I would big time, unless like I said you have money to burn. Everything you stated is normal maintenance stuff. Crap goes wrong with cars. As long as its not the motor or trans, its not that big a deal to have fixed. And just to buy a new car to have a warranty is stupid, chances are your still going to be paying on it when the warranty is up on the new car and then you have car payment, full coverage payment, and what ever the repair cost may be.

Your at a point now it will be paid for, no more hefty bill, take care of the small stuff, and yes easily fixed if your mechanic is any good. Now you can pocket the monthly, and drop full coverage on your car, I would bet anything you are going to pocket $400-$500 a month if you do this. And again in no way is that car going to cost you $500 a month to keep up, may cost a bit right now to get the wipers, blower, and radio working but after that you may go 2-3 years before anything else goes wrong, and you have a kick ass radio with MP3 and WMA abilities, hell of a lot better then the stock crap, should be glad it finally broke

Now you got the cash you can do a lot of the stuff you been wanting to do, go do it before you think about putting yourself in debt again for another 5 years

As for the brakes, what are they doing that keeps making you think you need new ones?

Feel free to pm me if you like.

Originally posted by: psteng19

Originally posted by: Kristi2k
I am NOT rough on my brakes, I know how to drive a car. The CD-player just died, the temp control dials only work at full blast, windshield wipers work sporadically.

HVAC not working except on full means the resistor module is dead.
$15 part, 2 minutes to replace.

And there you go, I'm not talking out my ass here

 

[funboy6942]

Originally posted by: TheKub

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Doing things like not changing the coolant and brake fluid every two years, or not checking the tires every other week, or not checking the oil level between changes, or leaving the spark plugs in for 100,000+ miles instead of changing them every 30,000. Those kinds of things are hard on cars. Always have been, always will be.

Owners manual specifically says not to change spark plugs and coolant before 100,000.

Ive seen those supposed 100K plugs not last 50K, and really at 100k miles try getting one of them sunofabitches out of the head without it breaking off. Sometimes its a pain at just 30K miles, 100K that sucker pops off in the head your fvcked up the creek with a twig as your paddle.

May say 100K but at 30-40K Id be popping them out to atleast look at them and put gobs of anti seize grease on the threads.

Coolant yes, its the pink gm stuff, good to go, just never put green in there. And if mem serves me correctly that trans is a non serviceable one as well with a lifetime filter inside it, has no trans pan, but a drain plug.

 

[Kristi2k]

I have a "meeting" with midas about the issue in an hour, we'll see what they can do for me on the sporadic brake squeek (the reason I took it in 3 weeks ago and they cleared it). If they are fine or are not and need to be replaced I am going to try to get them to cover the fee for having my car failed inspection. Funboy, thank you for the help, I will look into the resistor as well, is this something a non-mechanic can get to and replace? I'll probably save ~$400 or so a month which is great, I'll put half into a new savings account and save that up towards a down payment on a new car in the future.

I'm all about saving money, but my thought was things are starting to go wrong even if they are minor, I didn't want to invest a lot of money into it and find out I should just purchase a new car. But I'll wait till something larger occurs.

 

[funboy6942]

As far as brake squeak goes you cannot get rid of it all the time 100%. It is different factors that cause the squak or grind. I rain or high humidity will cause a light surface rust on the rotors and you will get very touchy brakes first thing in the morning along with a squeak till you use them a few times. There is absolutely nothing for that problem to make it go away, it happens on almost all cars depending on the brakes uses, compositions of the metal parts used in the making of the pads and rotors, and Chrysler's cars, especially the neons are the worst for this problem.

Other factors that can cause the squeak is a build up of brake dust on the brake parts getting caught up between the pads and the rotors when the brakes are applied causing the squeak. And then there is the little metal tab that all brakes have attached to them as indicators and make them squeak to let you know the pads are getting worn and time to have changed, if the squeak goes away at that point, then you wore down the little metal tab and it wont be long till your metal to metal causing more damage and money out of your pocket.

Again it all comes back to cheap parts though. Midas will use cheap parts unless you buy the really high end packages. Yes they may offer a lifetime warranty on the pads but you get the same lifetime warranty on the pads when you buy them at the parts store and do the work yourself, even on the cheap $10 ones. Midas offers this warranty because then they can charge you for the labor to change the pads, and upsell to you stuff you really do not need.

Go to any prts place and buy a chiltons book on your car. It is the holy grail of car manuals that IMO everyone should own on any car they own. It will give you a detailed step by step procedure to do almost any and all repair know to man on your car. Best of all the book only costs $20. It will go into depth, telling you step by step how to remove the part,, and how to put it back on, most with pictures, and what type of tools you will need for the job. A decent $100-$200 set from sears will do most of the jobs you will ever need out of the book, along with a decent floor jack ($70 at walmart) and jack stands ($20 for a pair at walmart).

In the end you will get this money back the first or second time you do you own repair on your car be it brakes or a tune up. After that its all savings in your pocket.

People complain they dont have the time to do it themselves, but if you factor in how much your time is worth, the time you took from what ever to get to your appointment, the time sitting there waiting, or had some one pick you up, the ride home, the time out you had to take for the ride back to go get your car, then the ride back again, you could of done the work yourself at home in the street in a lot less time, and a lot less money. That time you sat there and waited for them to get to your car and start working on it to the time it was done, you could of stayed home and di it alot faster as well and cheaper too. You sat there with your thumb up your ass bitching how much this was going to cost you and how long you sat there waiting, you could of spent 1/5th of the money and less time if you took the time to do it yourself. Car repair is not hard at all. If you can swing a hammer, or turn a screw, you can do car repair, 90% of it is just the removal of a part and putting one back on.

Anyway I can keep going on and on. sorry for the book, hope you enjoyed it. I think your doing right though if you can keep it and pocket the $400+ you say you can. Saving half that tll the car finally does go out because of something major, like engine, trans isnt all that bad $1k-$2K depending on where you go vs engine $5k+, by the time the engine blows you could have one hell of a bank roll.