I own a wheeled toilet! Vent about automotive nightmares

I have Fords and Jeeps. Wife has a 05 Freestyle wagon. NO issues, maint items only. Brakes, wife drives HARD.
I have 2005 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. Plows TONS of snow, brake light switch let go....we cycle the crap out of these things.
1995 Jeep Wrangler, Plows TONS of snow. I have done radiator, shocks, 1 clutch( my cousin burned it out....dick) and finally
springs and shocks after 14 Years of plowing. 1998 Windstar.....this puppy threw a few curves, mostly electrical, but I figured
it out. I buy new, and take reasonable care of them. No issues, no deal killers. Bought an 06 Mustang.....kept for 2 years
sold it for all the money and had 0 problems. Bought an 08 Ranger to replace it ( not as fun, but way more useful) 0 problems.
Fuel sipper too.
I grew up in Horses, so I have spent time in all brands of trucks. Ford is the way to go. GM is touch and go, Dodge is
crap, Jap trucks break hard.....and stupid too. When GM and Chrysler went down, I was not surprised. That Toyota is
hurting as well, again, no surprise. Any company has winners and losers, they can not all be great. 70s and 80s Jeeps were
turds( Union guys breaking them on the line on PURPOSE.....nice.)
When I was young with no $$$$, I would score an old Ford for nothing, spend a few bucks on it, and drive close to free, working the crap out of it until there was nothing left to attach the 2X4 too that I was using for a cab mount Ah, the Flinstone Floors, I do not miss them!
I am curious who will buy the Jeep Brand when Chrysler goes down for the third time, it will not be GM, as they are
already lying on the bottom, they will not be coming back. My only hope is that they manage to live long enough to pay
the gov (you and me) back. Buy Fords ( the good ones any way) and be happy!

try and walk into the average parts store and order an average brake part for a ford truck. because all those components have been via canada I bet 75% or more times it will be wrong. yes they work but there are more design flaws with ford vechicles than others. the others fail more often due to cheap greed production quality issues so no win. willy's jeeps were the last good ones. they too aka chrylser have gone the cheaper , lighter guage wire, flimsy'er plastic snap in junk way of the world. makes the very old citroen's and peugeot's look like they were good cars....... no just kiddin!!

I'm also the proud owner of a 07 Chrysler T&C minivan. Rear wheel bearings went at 40k miles, I changed them and inspected the old ones - they use plastic inserts so they can use a smaller diameter bearings to save money. Pretty soon we'll all be driving a sealed car - nothing to work on or replace just drive it and then junk it once it's exceeded it's emissions design life. And I thought my 86 Renault Alliance was a cheap car

I agree with the fact that the emission compliance will cause many of us to either trade, sell or scrap our cars and trucks. It isn't a safety issue, it's air quality we are being 'stuffed' for! Electronics are wonderful as are computers, however that just mainstreams everyone into the same trough of life. Not all of us are so stupid that we need someone to tell us what to do, when to do it, and how often. As the kids all say: "Bite Me!" Many of us carry a scan tool in our toolbox just to get a head start on diagnostics before the 90 dollar an hour uniformed robots try to sell us stock in Advanced Auto Parts Regional Headquarters. The day of the 2000 dollar emissions repair are here right now.

I just cost myself over a grand today by backing into a little tree with my '07!!! ARE YOU *censored* KIDDING??? I was going about a half-a-mile per hour -- & it nearly totaled the ass end of my truck!! & the tree was tiny!!!!!

When I lived in Phoenix, I stopped at a Jack-In-The-Box, hammered, mind you, & proceeded to leave the parking lot in reverse at about 25 MPH --- BAAAAAAAM!! right into a concrete support for a lamp!! I hit so hard it almost knocked me unconscious!! Stalled immediately. Pushed the bumper in about 1 inch & mis-aligned the tailgate to the body by about 1/4".

I hit this *censored* tiny tree today & my truck bumper folded like a God Damn Pepsi can!!!! Already cost me $450 in parts ...... going to body shop tomorrow to see how much it's gonna cost to fix the whole right side of the bed -- YEP ... it even bent that!!! WTF!!!!!!! Glad I paid $30K+ for a *censored* tin can!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although the bed took a 530lb flying Harman Mark III with very little damage ... go figure..

But I will say this .. go lean on a Ford Super Duty with the tow mirrors -- if you put any pressure on those mirrors, the door will nearly buckle under your weight!! EVERYBODY is building *censored* these days.....

I'm about ready to sell this thing & just drive the '72 'Camino. It would be alot cheaper ... that's for *censored* sure!!! The break from the payments, insurance & excise tax is totally worth it. Just hate to part with it. It's the best looking vehicle I've ever been seen near in my life. Had to have something to show for all the *censored* I dealt with for the last 10+ years!!

Yep .... body shop says about $1300, so I'm looking at $2grand for tapping a friggin tree. Thanks for building them tough, GM!

whistlenut wrote:I agree with the fact that the emission compliance will cause many of us to either trade, sell or scrap our cars and trucks. It isn't a safety issue, it's air quality we are being 'stuffed' for! Electronics are wonderful as are computers, however that just mainstreams everyone into the same trough of life. Not all of us are so stupid that we need someone to tell us what to do, when to do it, and how often. As the kids all say: "Bite Me!" Many of us carry a scan tool in our toolbox just to get a head start on diagnostics before the 90 dollar an hour uniformed robots try to sell us stock in Advanced Auto Parts Regional Headquarters. The day of the 2000 dollar emissions repair are here right now.

No joke, in NY if your check engine light is on you fail inspection. It will not pass unless it's fixed properly, basically no way around it besides blatant fraud. Everything is computerized, so if you drive with an expired inspection sticker the state just cancels your registration and/or suspends your driver's license. When you renew your reg they want the inspection sticker # to catch any previous owners who put a bogus sticker on from a junk car. It's all about the money, NYS gets $4 a sticker from the dealers.

Same here in MA, blatant fraud is a strong term. If you are not afraid of it, there are some ways around some issues.
I personally have NO PROBLEM finding alternative ways around that check engine light.

Yep, MA basically invented the unreasonable inspection. At one point they were slapping reject stickers on vehicles that were LOW ON WASHER FLUID!!! That was right after they forced garages to install a mandatory $30,000 dyno for inspections. Most gave up. The ones that hung in there became like the gestapo - any little thing wrong with your car emissions wise, you'd get a PLEASE PULL ME OVER NOW bold black capital R on your sticker! Anything else, it would be a big RED R!! Here we are less than 10 years later & now the dyno's are obsolete! The state had all inspection stations remove the dyno's at their expense. Some were still paying for them!! Way to help small businesses MA!!


Funny how both NY & MA states are run predominately by libby libs...

I was just reading posts and thinking that I'm lucky with my 2004 Dodge Caravan with 180K miles is running like new.
Until this morning. The cat converter fell off. Boy it scared the crap out of me, when I started it this morning
while trying to leave to work quietly.
Nothing a few minutes of welding won't fix, but it made my day.
I guess I stop reading about boiler problems, or something similar will happen to my boiler.

Dan

Hollow it out first - you'll be shocked by the better mileage & power!

Wait - you have an '04....... OBD II -- don't hollow it out unless you can cheat that post-cat sensor...

MA inspections are screwed up. That dyno and the soft ware that communicated with the cars brain were a mess. The dynos got pulled after it was determined( by lengthy expensive investigation) that the soft ware company was scamming the
state, and through updates that each station PURCHASED,could and did, change the parameters of " Pass" and "Fail" at will
for the companies gain. The ultimate corruption deal....there is no skank like high tech skank!

SMITTY, you have a lot of material for a great reality tv show. I feel for you. Been there, done that and left a lot of skin there.

Al

Yeah, Smitty needs to write a book

Paulie , Ohios e-check was the same crap. They even busted the people for taking $50 to pass your car. They would use their car they new would pass as yours. It's nothing but a big scam. Todays cars meet the standards. Screwing the poor people that can't afford a new car. I have my 2 of my kids cars rejestired here. Our county doesn't have e-check. Now EPA wants whole state do e-check. Wonder whos property will be used and who will build the sites.