Hello. I figured i’d make a topic on my cars. I own older cars (nothing newer than 08) And most of them love to have some dumb issue that pops up.
The 08’ Grand Rustvan
I bought my 2008 Caravan in 2016 as a replacement for my 2002 Grand Caravan that had a bad transmission (Hmm, not a surpirse with Dodges) At the time it only had around 86,000 Miles and was not rusty at all. (I live in New York so rust is a bad issue here) Fast Forward to now and it doesn’t look like the same vehicle. Now its rusty covered, has a dent in trunk and the fender (My idiot self did that) and is kind of gross… I plant to fix the rust with some Bondo (because why not). Since 2016 it has had multiple random issues (such being the axle giving out while i’m about to turn onto a busy road) It now has about 133,000 miles.
This car is the best. It was a Arizona car that wound up in NY and i bought it for 2,000 in 2018. This car likes to have very weird issues such being a Spider Injector (yes this exists). the miles are very high. 230k miles. I’ve noticed some bubbling on the door and I plant to get that fixed before it gets worse. It sounds great and i bought it with a folding tailgate (rather than doors that open like a van), and some smoked custom taillights. I also left on the dash mat that came with the car.
I guess I cant make up my mind on what car brand I want, because I have a car from each of the “big three” automakers in the U.S. (Stellantis, Ford, GM). I still think Chrysler Corp. sounds better but whatever. I bought my E150 in 2012 from my uncle (yes this is true). When i bought it it had about 60K on it, and i’ve put about 10K on it. The car always had ran great, until around 2021 when it started having some random codes. I put the van to the side and let it sit. 2 Years later I chose to start fixing it and it’s kind of a pain but I made it work. It hasn’t been inspected for 2 years, and it’s off the road as of now, but I plant to do something on it everyday. I’m hoping it will be road ready by next week.
I honestly agree with you. i had no idea what it was until I was looking up fixes on the Suburban. I think it’s some weird GM name for a fuel injector, with some differences.
I believe they were throttle body injection early on. Or a much more primitive multi-point system. Plus usual GM shenanigans. They did all kinda of janky shit then, look at the optispark distributors in the LT1s of the time,
Ended up selling mine due to a good offer. Never had any fuel problems, my only major issue was the no crank/no start when I got it due to the starter solenoid likely being bad.
before this thread was made i had fixed some issues on the ford E-150. I didn’t take any pictures because I didn’t plant to post this. I ended up needing a starter because the old one was rough. When I got it start it began to smoke and smell like burning rubber, then i found the issue. The serpentine belt was fried. So i dug around the engine the next day to figure which part was froze and it was the alternator. The factory alternator was still in it, but it was cracked right down the center of the old alternator. I had to use some extensions for loosing it but then I ran into a issue. Some parts got in the way so I had to spend 20 minutes to get it out, after, I installed the new alternator and then it was a paint to put the serpentine belt on. Now the van ran nice.
I have pictures from me changing the shocks on this thing, and all i had to do was push it down a few times and it was going up down up down. The shocks had some bolts that I used a sawzall to cut them off with then putting them on was easy.
Today I’m gonna check the brake line for leaks (because the pedal nearly hits the floor), and tomorrow i’m going to register it and use a 10-day registration so I can see how it drives. I Have to change a mirror I managed to hit a mailbox with back in 2020 and the tires are dry rotting so (They haven’t been changed since 2004 and still have tread)
Well thats my agenda so far. I have a video on youtube of a startup:
Ok so not much has happened. except i got the E-Series on the road, the 10 day inspection ran out a long time ago, so its back to trying to fix the stupid engine light that has to do with the environment stuff. Yippee. The Suburban has a light on, and it needs a change of spark plugs. as for my daily, the Grand Caravan, its still runs quite fine, despite i’ve put near 1,000 miles on its since the last post. I plan to change the fender on the side, but every junkyard fender has some dent on it. Anyways I might be getting a 1999 Oldsmobile Alero that is right down the street from me. It only has 76k, and is about 2k. It needs a few things, but i could use it as a daily for a bit, re-paint some stuff and sell it (kinda like flipping it).
Ok so on my daily trek to a campground with some of my buddies, I happened to spot some extremely “car” vehicles, and that was none other than the bland old Ford Tempo and its counterpart the Mercury Topaz. I last saw a tempo in 2017, let alone nearly 6 of them, with 1 or 2 being a Topaz? I didn’t stop or anything, so I took a video, that way I could just pause the video on the tempo’s and topaz’s without it messing up. I might plan to ask the place next door, which has 4 other cars out front, a blander Malibu, and a taurus (I used to own one of those in red), but 2 intriguing cars, and Eclipse an a Lincoln LS. I will check in next time to see if I maybe could snatch one of these tempo’s
Depending on the quality of that Lincoln LS, that might be a steal. It might have the 3.0 v6 with a manual, or the 3.9 aluminum V8 (you might actually want the V8 auto in this car, the 3.0 is a Jaguar engine.) And they are comfortable.
Well, the Alero and LS are boring, capitalist cars that require a lot of money to buy and maintain. If you buy them, you can identify yourself as a New Yorker and anything else, but not just a car enthusiast, who is passionated by auto theme.
The Malibu is just a tolerable option against the rest.
The Alero has a rather frankly and friendly design oriented towards japanese style, all together this makes such a car a rather strange choice, and for a limited number of persons.
Because first there must be excellent looks, and secondly - the stuffing itself. Who cares if it is a V8, V6 or l4, as long as it is a pleasure to drive. Most do not even know what gives more amount of cylinders. Also, the V8 rattles in combination with a perforated exhaust more, which makes it worse for the city.
And that lowers the city comfort points, and also, importantness and seriousness all place in whole.
In my matter pardonless criminal city, which is only 4 times quieter and more ceremonious than Detroit, would love to have a super modern glossy black BMW sedan or liftback or SUV, that is why I hated them even more.
Update on this, I havent seen any progress on contacting them about a car, but i Have seen wonderful East Coast weather that will rust out my Caravan even more, not to mention my E-150 (Which i might sell for something more efficient). No pics, just a lot of snow and salt
