Well, granted, it's not like working on an Audi, with optical wiring and 15,000 computers controlling stuff. Still though, especially the new Subarus are not at all simplistic. The point is, though, that it's complicated enough to be a pain in the ass, and I don't have the knowhow to do it myself, nor the $$$ to pay someone else to do it.
True enough, my car only has basic computer crap, but it is enough where I don't fancy toying with it.
Gaffer tape it up.
Gaffer tape it up.
Bleh, just sell it and get some old Buick as replacement, those are at least reliable and simple machines 
My car don't need any electricity when I drive, so much better approach for reliable motoring
My car don't need any electricity when I drive, so much better approach for reliable motoring
Did you just call a GM product..... reliable?
Now I've seen everything!
Some people just don't understand finances, as in one's finances compared to another's finances. It's that stereotyping and misunderstanding that just because we are in the US, we are all rich.
I have a 96 Nissan Altima. It leaks oil. When it reaches the 3000-5000 mile oil change time, it is rapping so bad you can't hear the radio. The engine idiot light is on. That tells me nothing. It gives me 4 codes, each component is $300 or better. That's $1200 of replacing components trying to figure out which one it is not including labor charge if someone else does the work. The seat is broken that I sit at an angle driving down the road. The shocks are so bad, it nearly breaks my back if I hit a bump. I just cut the front end off the front to replace it due to it being completely rusted out. I could have had it done to the tune of $700+, but hacked and welded it myself for slightly over $100.
You know what? The car starts and runs. It gets me to work. It runs fine with all that is wrong with it's 153,000 miles. I just don't see the thought process behind putting thousands into a car that is worth approximately $800. I can put $3000 into my car just to get rid of it in 5 years for peanuts, or I can keep that $3000 off the credit card and run the car into the ground over the next 5 years. Which one is more economical to me? $3000 into the car, then sell for $500 after 5 more years, or not do anything and sell the car for $50 to the scrapyard after 5 years? If I had $3000 to put into the car, it would be better to just scrap it and pick up something used for $3000.
Either way, it's going to cost me a couple of hundred every month over just dealing with the condition for the next 5 years.
If you are worried about the environment and what my car is doing to it, then PM me and I'll send you my paypal so you can donate the cost of "environmentally friendly" transportation for me. Until then, I and others like me must stick with driving and dealing with what we have.
Had I not had a premature undrivable problem with my truck, I would not have needed to replace it with something more reliable for my wife to haul my precious children around in. I'll deal with driving my POS to work over my wife driving the kids around in it.
Wow - for a second there I thought NOBODY on this board had common sense...
That's exactly my situation.
That's exactly my situation.
You drive too new cars as we all know, those won't last and are generally crap
How come my 1983 car does not have such problems even I drive more than you?
How come my 1983 car does not have such problems even I drive more than you?
dude, tie the bottle down with the opening actually facing up...
or use a soda bottle in a ziploc bag
get creative man..
or use a soda bottle in a ziploc bag
get creative man..
Depends on how you drive... the climate you drive in... the quality of the roads you drive on... and many other things.
We have probably one of the worst climates for cars, they put salt on roads 24/7 during winter season that lasts 9 months, weather has been around 0, but has gone near -20 this winter, it can change over night, always damp weather because of that. At summer it can be +30 to +10, dry or wet.
Our roads are pothole after another, sometimes snow, ice, gravel, tarmac.
German car makers come here to test how their cars can survive in hostile enviroment.
That gives perhaps some clues
Key to have reliable car is proper car care, there is no substitute for that and unfortainly to you, I have heard that an average american is perhaps not best at taking car and servicing of his automobile
True, but that does not apply to our family. The problem becomes mileage. My dad puts three times as many miles on his car annually as does the rest of America (almost 50,000 miles a year.) This means, if anything, we HAVE to take good care of our cars or they'd fall apart in a few short years. The last vehicles we had before the Subaru that I now own were a Pontiac TransSport and a Bonneville. The Bonneville was sold with 210,000 miles on it (running perfectly) and the TransSport made it to about 250,000 miles - when we sold it (running OK.) This car has been used a lot more than those though. The transmission (original) has endured many winters of plowing the car through literally 1.5 - 2 feet of unplowed snow, as well as a lot of spinning doughnuts and having fun, off-roading, and a LOT of city driving. In the winter they put down so much salt here its ridiculous (it's America - so if they don't put down at least a 3" of salt, someone is likely to sue.) American roads, especially out where we live are crap, and it's been in New York City at least 100 times - which means going 30 mph over some of the most rutted roads imaginable. The car has made many, MANY cross-country all-day-long drive trips, has been used to pull OTHER vehicles out of snow-banks, had to fight its way up a steep snowy driveway daily during winter, and had been driven in temperatures ranging from 130 degrees (Florida) to -35 degrees (Quebec and Montreal, as well as mountains in Vermont.) And yet, it still runs. It has problems, but the fact that pretty much everything on the car is still ORIGINAL is a testament to the amount of care than went into it. My dad has owned a motorcycle, an E-Type, a DeLorean, an Alfa-Romeo GTV and is on his second Audi. We know how to take care of our cars. It's even more amazing when you consider that this car - for about 3 years, was my MOM'S daily driver - and she doesn't at all know how to treat a car correctly. She constantly drove it with no oil (even though saying she checked it) and she threw the brakes so out of round... I didn't know it was possible.
The point is we take care of your cars. Out of curiosity, what kind of car do you have, and how many miles are on it?
See pic 
Need to convert miles again
It has run now 200 000 miles by odometer, but I'm not sure if it has been tampered with, normally these are driven 100k miles more. It has 2.4l 6 cylinder diesel engine, everything is pretty much original from 1983.
I drive around 50k miles in a year, mostly at evenings and nights that is, shortest travels are perhaps around 300km (186miles) and longest bit over 1000km (621miles), thing is at fridays I need to do normal day at work and then drive home, while I need to be at destination at monday morning, sometimes there is shorter weeks when I'm in two places at one week and so.
It just is with cars that they will get worn and need new parts then, one can then choose to change car or put that money on old one, I have found out that if I put money to that old workhorse it comes cheaper in long run than getting new one, even new Subaru diesel Outback is bit interesting, it would be just at least 3 times more expensive to drive with that than with my old car.
But to subject, did you got that gasket paper already? That should seal your oil can, I have used that trick to my oilcans previously with great success
Need to convert miles again
It has run now 200 000 miles by odometer, but I'm not sure if it has been tampered with, normally these are driven 100k miles more. It has 2.4l 6 cylinder diesel engine, everything is pretty much original from 1983.
I drive around 50k miles in a year, mostly at evenings and nights that is, shortest travels are perhaps around 300km (186miles) and longest bit over 1000km (621miles), thing is at fridays I need to do normal day at work and then drive home, while I need to be at destination at monday morning, sometimes there is shorter weeks when I'm in two places at one week and so.
It just is with cars that they will get worn and need new parts then, one can then choose to change car or put that money on old one, I have found out that if I put money to that old workhorse it comes cheaper in long run than getting new one, even new Subaru diesel Outback is bit interesting, it would be just at least 3 times more expensive to drive with that than with my old car.
But to subject, did you got that gasket paper already? That should seal your oil can, I have used that trick to my oilcans previously with great success
Agreed, and to some extent you're right. The car I'd like to get ('04 Subaru Outback 6-Cylinder VDC) would cost around $15,000. I obviously don't have anywhere near that kind of money right now, and even if I did, I could keep this car going for quite a few years if I just invested that money. The thing is, there's just a few problems:
1. This car, while reliable, is not something I trust to make long trips. I use it to drive 450 miles home on breaks, and it's been fine, but with this many miles, I am always expecting something to break. Hell, just 3 weeks ago, the knock sensor failed and the car went into limp mode... right when I really needed my car. I'd just love to have a car I don't have to worry about.
2. The head gasket issue means I cannot drive this car hard. In that other thread, you guys were talking about how fun and underpowered car is cause you can thrash it about and still not be going too fast. I have pretty much the slowest car around here because I cannot give it more than 50% throttle, for fear of the head gasket giving again. It's held for 20,000 miles now, but I cannot chance blowing it out again. That means that this already underpowered 4-cylinder is so horrifically slow to drive that it's painful to me as a car enthusiast. I want a V6 that I can actually PUSH.
3. I have quite a few projects planned for my next car. I'd do them on this one, but if the car gives in tomorrow, it'd all be for naught. So I really want a car that I KNOW I will have for quite a few years so that I can do the mods I want to do to it.
4. The car has some cosmetic damage that would cost at least $700 in parts (though I may be able to get them at a junkyard) and I don't even know anyone who does body work who could do it for pennies on the dollar.
So yeah, what you're saying makes sense - but it depends on the situation. In fact, I honestly do plan on doing what you do with my NEXT car. I just want to start out with a car with low mileage, since I don't use it like my dad does, it'd last even longer and cost me a lot less in repairs in the long run.
Anyway - regarding the "gasket paper," I'll give it a whirl. If not, I may just try wrapping the threads with teflon tape and see if that does the trick.
New Outback diesel is here 53,184.09USD, that is base model, but I think it did include VSD which gasoline version does not have.
I did calculate that it could be around 1000USD/month to run it (all payments included), maybe 150-200 less if I keep it in garage and don't drive. Insanity, imo.
There is very few new cars that I would consider, that might be one.
Well, I was thinking that I keep current one for year, maybe two and perhaps on that time I have managed to save enough to get used one without too much of loan
I did calculate that it could be around 1000USD/month to run it (all payments included), maybe 150-200 less if I keep it in garage and don't drive. Insanity, imo.
There is very few new cars that I would consider, that might be one.
Well, I was thinking that I keep current one for year, maybe two and perhaps on that time I have managed to save enough to get used one without too much of loan
Wow - that's insanely expensive. A fully optioned 2008 Outback V6 L.L. Bean Edition here (you know - dual-moonroofs, leather, the works...) comes to just shy of $40,000... I wonder if there's a difference, or if it's just supply and demand.
But the one's I'm looking at are around $15,000 (less that 60,000 miles...)
I know where you can store your bottle of oil -
In your engine!
In your engine!
Like I said - the "bottle" leaks! lol
lol! well said!
Maybe you can put the oil bottle in a Giant Zip lock bag. not sure how big the oil bottle is.
Why's it matter, do you race everyone on a daily basis?
Again - you are assuming, due to my age, that I want power so I can RACE. Just because you don't race people on the roads doesn't mean that a car that goes 0-60 in forever is perfectly fine. The fact that I hold EVERYONE up on the acceleration ramp onto the highway is PLENTY reason to want more power.
Stop ASSUMING things about everyone younger than you for the love of god.
Well, you don't need to race for that to get annoying, also it is safer when you have bit of grunt under the hood.
My car is quite slow, about 20 seconds 0-100kph, mostly it is problem when joining to traffic.
But when I get it up to speed it is not too much of issue, overtaking requires quite lot of planning and it is impossible to overtake to uphill, but it is quite rarely that others overtake me, only on slower speed areas I see that happening as I don't support speeding on public roads.
There is however situations where it would be nice to have bit more grunt, sometimes when joining to traffic visibility is not best and I could use better acceleration, sometimes there is then lot of traffic and it is hard to find gap enough long for such low performance.
Exactly.
Have you tried one of the High Mileage fluids? Castrol makes one that I used before switching to Synthetic. It has additives that cause rubber to swell. The theory is that this will refresh worn seals.
By the way, the Amsoil fluid that I sell don't leak from the bottle. www.screaminSHO.com
By the way, the Amsoil fluid that I sell don't leak from the bottle.
www.screaminSHO.comI had one car that had been run low level diff oil by previous owner, I put this stuff in and all noises disappeared, they make stuff for engines too and it actually works.
Don't know if it will stop leaks, but it has little modern day magic in it that actually works unlike most stuff on market
Don't know if it will stop leaks, but it has little modern day magic in it that actually works unlike most stuff on market
Yup, as I said - I'm using Castrol GTX High-Mileage oil.
Automotive fluid containers
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