I own a wheeled toilet! Vent about automotive nightmares

I'm On Fire wrote:... after my wife's Caliber we won't buy any.

A guy in my office drove a Caliber for a few days while his Volvo was getting collision repair. He said the Caliber was the worst car in the snow that he has ever driven.

'99 - '00 seems to be the cutoff for every domestic brand. They all must've seen the writing on the wall & decided to cut every possible corner they could. Ford seemed to fair better than GM & Chrysler, although they had their share of issues too the past decade. I've been a lifelong GM fan, but the Jimmy just completely disgusted me. For the first time in my life I actually considered buying something foreign after that nightmare. Wife still has yet to be sold on foreign vehicles looks wise. I always bought GM V8's or V6's because they're easy to work on. The way they pack those little motors in the foreign cars .... not sure if I'm 100% on board with them yet. I have to work on them, after all -- and I don't care what brand it is -- they ALL break sooner or later. Some just more than others ..

SMITTY wrote:Wife still has yet to be sold on foreign vehicles looks wise.

They look better and better as time goes on if you put your "expected" repair budget into a separate account and pretty soon you find you have enough to pay 1/3 the cost of a new one. Of course if you are doing the work yourself it's not like me paying $70 an hour for labor, whether the mechanic knows anything or not.

Well I decided to spend some of my $ on an American van (was the most $ money i ever put out on an auto also) and I got hosed. I had a Jeep Rubicon and that was fine so some Chrysler stuff works... Overall very poor quality. I too had a Caliber for a "loaner" with the snow mobile transmission... it was interesting. At least I got my $ back after a long drawn out process...

I guess '11 -'12 Chryslers have come a long way .... but then again, we'll see in 8 years how they're all doing. My buddy has an '06 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup with the Hemi. So far so good with that one. Lots more low end grunt than my GM 5.3.

I've heard all kinds of horror stories from all manufacturers -- even YAMAHA! -- for '09. Guess there was some bad crap going around. '09 GM trucks burning oil - Fords getting 20K out of ball joints - Yamaha motorcycles blowing 3rd gear & having valve issues .... makes you wonder ....

gotta love the fords and thier brake bull@^#&...

the big body ones. excursions,expiditions, found on road deads...
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.d ... /110329886

I have a 2003 Navigator, and it has been a wonderful vehicle. I would love to know what happened to the one in that news article. By the mention of the ABS light, I wonder if the wheel bearing went and they just kept driving it until it self destructed. Either that or the caliper locked up and no one noticed the smoke trail.

brake jobs on them seem always like its all or nothing
rotors,calipers,pads,hoses..expeditions being the worse

lots of fun like the coil packs and plug boots....

or the cheap wheel bearings and tires and sludge building? naw...

if it wasnt for fords repair shops would go broke unless they also fixed jimmy's and blazers!! and kia's and hyundai headlite bulbs.....

Poconoeagle wrote:brake jobs on them seem always like its all or nothing

Back when I was dumb enough to have all my work done at the stealership, I had a Plymouth Volare that needed new front brake hoses every time it went for state inspection. After a few times I asked, what's up with this? The service manager said, "Oh, Chrysler designed them too short, so they bend too sharply when you turn the wheels to steer, and then they crack." So next time around I went to a non-dealer shop which put on slightly longer hoses and I never had the problem again. Duh!

My buddy has an '03 Expedition, Eddie Bauer Edition. Interior is beautiful -- undercarriage has more rust than a '72 Pinto driven in MA!

On page 2 of this thread I posted a pic of it while I was replacing his hub bearing at under 100K. Not long after that I had to replace the A/C pulley bearing. Luckily the bearing was so bad, it just fell out in my hand - no puller needed. I tried to remove the compressor ........ HOLY *censored* what a mistake that was!! First, the rotted high side hose let go on my hand or wrist just about giving me frostbite, then filled the barn up with fog. Then after trying a 3 foot breaker bar & my impact gun at 120psi, I was so pissed I was actually thinking of grabbing the sawzall & CUTTING the damn compressor out! It was around that point that I noticed the bearings could be removed ..... by hand. Under 100K ....

All his brake lines are rotted, tranny lines rotted, fuel lines rotted ... etc etc ...Then we had so much fun with that stupid Triton engine that's set so far back that you can hardly get in to repair the one coil that decides to arc out every 5K miles ..... it's never the easy coils up front ..... Unbelievable! I hope Ford Motor Co. is paying their techs for designing this *censored*!

You still wheelin the toilet are ya? long time no type, lol I got rid of the ol 78 chevy this spring, Picked up a 97 GMC 2500 6.5 Diesel Turbo with utility bed. Sofar has been great, a few problems, but thats expected buyin a truck w 162000 on it up to 170000 since may fingers crossed

Nope - the toilet is up on blocks in the yard with no drivetrain, wheels, or engine.

Speaking of this, I just spent the day replacing a flex pipe, & doing a front brake job on a '01 Pontiac Sunfire. Sucked because I had to do it on the dirt floor in my barn due to the rain. Nothing like laying in dirt & getting burned by balls of molten metal!

Bought the flex pipe & 2 adapters ... because the flex was 2" O.D. & the header pipe was 1-3/4" O.D. .. but I couldn't use either of them. Made the overall length too long. SO I cut about 3/4" off the flex pipe, cut a slit in it, then stuffed it into the 2" pipe ... which now fit the 1-3/4" pipe like a charm. Welded the mess up, & now it's MA compliant again.

I inadvertently became a bank as well on this job. It was for my bro & sis in law. They have zero cash, so it all went on my credit card & I'm collecting interest free payments - all for $100. Works out to $14/hour. The things I do for people ....

well i know how that goes, dirt floor, bank n all lol

SMITTY wrote:the toilet is up on blocks in the yard with no drivetrain, wheels, or engine.

It should cause a lot less trouble that way. Maybe plant geraniums in it?

Definitely makes a better lawn ornament than a mode of transportation.