bad car luck

Altron

Altron

Well-Known Member
the Maxima strikes again

Here's the backstory.

My dad bought a '97 Maxima in October 1996. He drove it for almost ten years, about 130k miles. In late 2005, it started having lots of electrical/wiring/sensor/ECU problems. We spent a fair amount of money fixing all of this stuff.

In January 2006, I bought the Oldsmobile that you all know and love.

My dad was a sales rep (mainly NEC semiconductors, but sold a bunch of other stuff too). So he drove a lot for work, and having a car with all of these electrical problems wasn't working. The engine would randomly shut off (which is not a fun experience when you have power brakes and power steering and you lose intake vacuum). The car would start once or twice a day, and if it had to start any more times after that, it needed a jump start or to pop the clutch.

He got a better job in like April 2006, but with a 25 mile commute through Philly. So we said "fuck this", and he bought a '05 Mazda6 with about 10k miles on it and got a really good price for it.

But, because of the Maxima problems, we were looking at terrible trade-in values, so we didn't bother to get rid of it.

So it spends about 14 months being a driveway queen.

In july 2007, I start driving it, and sell the Oldsmobile because shit kept breaking on it.

Now, the weird thing with the Maxima is that it just randomly stopped having electrical problems within a few weeks after buying the Mazda6.

For the past four years, it has been running like a champ, with a minimal amount of repair costs. I had the starter go, and the tires went bald and dry rotted (so I got a full set of wheels and tires from a newer Maxima used for $100, and they're on the car now). The exhaust rusted apart, but it didn't fall off. The struts are blown, so it's loud and it rides like crap, but it's still pretty quick. I haven't really fixed anything on it since about 2006.

I put 20k on it over the past three years, and it has been running solid. Just ticked over 153k two weeks ago.

But, today, I was driving on the turnpike, and shit hit the fan.

I was going about 75mph, in 5th gear. Car ahead of me slowed down, because there was traffic. I put the car into neutral, and used the brakes. We all slowed down to about 40mph. Speed started to pick up again, so I hit the clutch and went to drop it into 4th gear. I couldn't get it into 4th gear. There wasn't noise or anything, it just wouldn't go into any gears. I pulled over on the shoulder, and after about five minutes of playing with the shifter, I was able to get it into 1st gear. I limped along the shoulder for eight miles to the next exit. It sucked, because there was bumper to bumper traffic, and there is a NJ law that you can't use a tow truck on the turnpike. I have 'roadside assistance' as part of my insurance company, and insurance refused to dispatch a truck unless I was able to get the car off the highway. So I crawled along for eight miles, and then there was bumper-to-bumper shore traffic on the first exit I got to. so I had to deal with all these people getting pissed off at me as I drove past the traffic on the shoulder with my hazards on.

The car wouldn't get into gear. I was able to force it into gear a couple of times, but if I took it out it wouldn't go back in. The car was stalling, even with my foot on the clutch.

The car behaved fine when it was in gear, but I had a bitch of a time getting it into gear. Was eventually able to get it towed back home.
 
Blower boy

the hydraulic cylinder (clutch) either master or slave has failed
replace them as a set
 
mechanic said I need a new clutch, but I have my doubts.

The clutch wouldn't fail catastrophically like that - it's essentially a disk of friction material. The clutch was not slipping. It wouldn't be driving along fine, then suddenly stop working. Even after it broke, once I jammed it into first the car was driving normally, with no slipping of the clutch.

I noticed that the clutch didn't seem to be responding very well to the pedal. For instance, several times when limping off the turnpike, I had it in first coming to a stop, pressed the clutch, and the car stalled anyway, as if the clutch hadn't disengaged.

I'm thinking that it's the clutch hydraulic system not properly engaging or disengaging the clutch.

He wants $700 to fix it. KBB for "fair" condition is $2000, which is what I could sell it for after fixing the clutch.

This means that if I could flip the car for $1300, I would break even.

There are two other major problems that I haven't fixed. The exhaust is rusted between the B-pipe and the muffler, and needs to be welded back together or replaced. The struts need replacement, it rides like shit on blown struts. Inspection is coming up in February, and it has some busted emissions equipment that won't pass inspection.

At this point, I feel like I have a good car to sell to a Maxima enthusiast who is mechanically inclined. Someone with the correct tools and equipment could fix everything for about $800 in parts in one weekend, and have a car that has a straight body, no accidents, 1 owner, and is in pretty good cosmetic condition. At this point, fixing the clutch, exhaust, and suspension would probably cost over 2/3rds of the KBB for the car, and is just not worth it.

I don't desperately need my own car. I carpool to work, and I don't bring a car with me to school, so it's really only weekend trips and stuff like that.

If I can sell the car for $1500 or even $1000, I'll break even on what it would have been worth if I made all the repairs. I won't need a car until I graduate in May, which would be another $1000 in insurance that I wouldn't have to pay.
 
I assume the turnpike is a freeway of some sort? There's a law that they can't hook you up to a tow truck while you're on the freeway? What if you were in an accident and your car was un-driveable or it completely died? What would happen?
 
Nixy said:
I assume the turnpike is a freeway of some sort? There's a law that they can't hook you up to a tow truck while you're on the freeway? What if you were in an accident and your car was un-driveable or it completely died? What would happen?
Click to expand...

It's some regulation thing where only certain companies are allowed to tow on the turnpike. My insurance 'roadside assistance' refused to pick me up on the turnpike when they called. I had to drive 8 miles with a bad clutch to get off the highway in order to get them to send a tow truck, or shell out some exorbitant fee to a towing company licensed to pick up cars on the turnpike not covered by my insurance.
 
Make it stop

sheesh Kid learn to drive without a clutch!

Wait I guess you know how now brown cow.

Sorry I forgot you are an engineer
not a mechanic, it’s not like you could
swap out a coupla cylinders and bleed the system.

Hey at least look in the clutch reservoir to see if its empty?



vy4o4p.jpg
 
Nixy ... I know this beast. It's called Exclusive contract. Specific companies contract for specific sections of highway. It means they're the only ones allowed to pickup there ... but they also have to maintain a presence there 24/7 ... whether there's traffic or not, profit or not. Montreal has the same thing. Any time you drive through here, look for the *4141 signs along the highway. You're in exclusive territory.

Al ... I'd wager Winky has the right of it. That's not to say the clutch itself doesn't need work, but they don't fail all at once without making one helluva noise.
 
That's bullshit. If I need my car towed I want to be able to choose who I hire to tow it.
 
Welcome to the great liberal northeast. Of course, Christie can fix that too.
 
This is where I broke down
40.127189,-74.696283

This is where the tow truck hooked me up

40.194426,-74.607715

There was a sign here that said "Leaving NJ turnpike"
40.194715,-74.609378

He told me that legally, I was supposed to get to that sign before he could hook it up. So I was like "fine, I'll get out and push it 100 feet to the sign" and he was like "no, its ok, I'll hook it up here even though I'm not supposed to"
 
hydraulics are fine, actually. and so is the clutch disk

the problem is the throwout bearing and the pressure plate.

Gonna sell the car to a guy at the shop. $800 repair for the clutch, blue book on the car is $1900. But, the exhaust is shot, and so are the struts, and there is a CEL code for the EVAP purge control solenoid that needs to be fixed within 6 months to pass inspection. Guy at the shop was saying it's in pretty nice condition, so my dad and I said 'fuck it, you want it for a grand?' and he jumped all over it. He's a good guy, only a few years older than me, and has always cut us good deals on working on our other cars.

Probably could have snagged a couple bucks more for it by listing it a bunch of places and trying hard to sell it, but this way it gets off of the $75/month insurance ASAP, and isn't sitting in a parking lot broken for a month while I try to sell it.
 
Re: Z Oh 6

Winky said:
Good call, now you can buy that Corvette you’ve always wanted.
Click to expand...

No, it will be probably a year before I buy another car, maybe a little less, maybe a little longer. I don't need a car when I'm at school, so no reason to buy one until after I graduate.
 
Re: Z Oh 6

Winky said:
Good call, now you can buy that Corvette you’ve always wanted.
Click to expand...
1967 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray convertible with the optional 427 cubic inch big block. A.K.A., The Last Sting Ray.

Now if that doesn't get your panties wet then I don't know what will.
 
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