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[Beerman462]

I have a 98 Ford Contour SVT 200K miles. It's old, but still fun as hell to drive with a great sound. Obviously at this age and miles things are going to go bad.

The AC compressor went out again. I replaced it myself it took 5 hours and $200. When we went to charge it one of the hoses was leaking. Had to wait a week, but 2 hours of work and $60 later I had cold AC. While all this was happening the power steering pump started getting noisy.

So today I took about 5 hours to replace it. I spent a lot of time trying to get better packings. Put it all back together and it's just pouring power steering fluid down the side of the engine. It's in a terrible place. The pump is behind a metal plate under the engine mount. I hope I can tell where the leak is coming from when I take it apart.

What makes this so bad is what it takes to get to the pump. I have to disconnect a high pressure PS line, drain fluid, jack the car, remove wheel, remove splash shield, release serpentine belt tension, place a jack stand, jack engine, move coolant reservoir(2 bolts), remove motor mount(8 nuts), remove PS pump pulley(4 bolts), remove cover plate(11 bolts/nuts), then I can remove the PS Pump. I think it will be a lot faster the second time, because some bolts were really stuck.

I really thew my back out today though.

Right now I have this car and my wife's van. Thinking about getting a third vehicle. Something new with a warranty. My daughter can drive it eventually and if my car is being a pain I don't have to kill my self trying to get it road worthy.

 

[whatsinaname]

Yeah, some of the design decisions can be infuriating. Like those Chryslers where the battery is accessed through the wheel well.

Maybe you can look at a CPO Honda Fit or something for the third car? Cheap, should give you a reasonable amount of space and will be a decent car to pass on to your daughter.

 

[biggersmaller]

Yeah, some of the design decisions can be infuriating. Like those Chryslers where the battery is accessed through the wheel well.

Maybe you can look at a CPO Honda Fit or something for the third car? Cheap, should give you a reasonable amount of space and will be a decent car to pass on to your daughter.

My wife had a Plymouth Breeze when we were dating. It had that battery design. It was #456 on my list of reasons to never buy Chrysler. What a piece of shit.

 

[Beerman462]

Yeah, some of the design decisions can be infuriating. Like those Chryslers where the battery is accessed through the wheel well.

Maybe you can look at a CPO Honda Fit or something for the third car? Cheap, should give you a reasonable amount of space and will be a decent car to pass on to your daughter.

I don't think I would like a fit. I really like the Fusions and $300 a month is my max. On second thought a Fusion is a bit much for my daughter.

 

[TheAbsolution]

I have a 98 Ford Contour SVT 200K miles. It's old, but still fun as hell to drive with a great sound. Obviously at this age and miles things are going to go bad.

The AC compressor went out again. I replaced it myself it took 5 hours and $200. When we went to charge it one of the hoses was leaking. Had to wait a week, but 2 hours of work and $60 later I had cold AC. While all this was happening the power steering pump started getting noisy.

So today I took about 5 hours to replace it. I spent a lot of time trying to get better packings. Put it all back together and it's just pouring power steering fluid down the side of the engine. It's in a terrible place. The pump is behind a metal plate under the engine mount. I hope I can tell where the leak is coming from when I take it apart.

What makes this so bad is what it takes to get to the pump. I have to disconnect a high pressure PS line, drain fluid, jack the car, remove wheel, remove splash shield, release serpentine belt tension, place a jack stand, jack engine, move coolant reservoir(2 bolts), remove motor mount(8 nuts), remove PS pump pulley(4 bolts), remove cover plate(11 bolts/nuts), then I can remove the PS Pump. I think it will be a lot faster the second time, because some bolts were really stuck.

I really thew my back out today though.

Right now I have this car and my wife's van. Thinking about getting a third vehicle. Something new with a warranty. My daughter can drive it eventually and if my car is being a pain I don't have to kill my self trying to get it road worthy.

Yeah, sounds like it's time for you to get a new DD and keep your old car as something to work on/drive occasionally. I'd say go with the new Civic. It drives great, has good features, and will last practically forever. My second choice would be a Mazda 3. Those drive even better.

 

[Eye for an Eye]

We have a '98 contour. I've done a few easy things in it, but overall I'm not a very good mechanic for tough stuff. Ours has fairly low mileage (130,000) on it and it still runs pretty good. My aunt gave me her car, 2001 honda accord, and now that has become the primary vehicle. It's got almost a 160,000 miles on it.

For being a ford, it's not a bad car and fairly roomy for its size.

 

[FUBAR McDangles]

Yeah, some of the design decisions can be infuriating. Like those Chryslers where the battery is accessed through the wheel well.

We have one of these. It is so unnecessary.

 

[Beerman462]

Yeah, sounds like it's time for you to get a new DD and keep your old car as something to work on/drive occasionally. I'd say go with the new Civic. It drives great, has good features, and will last practically forever. My second choice would be a Mazda 3. Those drive even better.

Civics are boring and my Contour has been great. The fact that at 200K my chief complaints are AC and powers steering on a performance vehicle are remarkable.

I like Mazdas.

Honda's have similar issues and are not more reliable really.

 

[acheron_xl]

Once a car needs that many repairs I just throw it away.

 

[n0razi]

There's a reason my mom's last 4 cars have all been Toyota Camrys... boring as hell cars but they all ran with no issue until they were upgraded simply from being old, not from breaking down.

 

[black_13]

There's your first problem, you bought a ford.

I still have a small scar on my hand from when I was trying to replace the heat flapper module behind the radio in my ex's ford van. I'll probably never buy any american car from the 90's/2000's era.

I mostly drive 90's Toyota's and while some stuff can be hard to get to but at least the car designers gave a shit about making stuff relatively easy to replace.

 

[LucidMomentum]

There's a reason my mom's last 4 cars have all been Toyota Camrys... boring as hell cars but they all ran with no issue until they were upgraded simply from being old, not from breaking down.

I bought a Scion FR-S like the cool kids instead of a Camry. In a straight line the Camry would've been faster lol.

But no one compliments a Camry...

But no one should have to pay for repairs and registration like I do. Phew.

 

[TheAbsolution]

Civics are boring and my Contour has been great. The fact that at 200K my chief complaints are AC and powers steering on a performance vehicle are remarkable.

I like Mazdas.

Honda's have similar issues and are not more reliable really.

You sure? Have you test driven the newest one with the turbo? I did so last year and while it wasn't the most amazing thing, that car definitely would be exciting enough for a DD.

 

[AP90]

Wish I had the ability/skill set to perform maintenance on cars like you op.

Base model impreza or a civic could dk you good. Depending on your credit I think with these two car companies, you can get a low interest 4yr loan out (depending on your credit and etc)

Lastly, I think scion recently released a iA sub compact car that is in the $16k range that has a built in warranty/maintenance.. Don't know the details per say.

Best of luck.

 

[Agent_ShortBus]

That sucks, but yeah you should get another car as a DD. I love cars and love working on them as a hobby. I also know that the usual 1-2 hour easy seeming job never goes with out problems and ends up turning into an 8 hour job lol. Luckily where I currently work they have a maintenance area with a small car lift they let us use. I've been working for the better part of a year to get my car up and running since it was in an accident a year ago and now that i have it pretty much completed, the feel of accomplishment is awesome. I had to replace the entire front right suspension and rear left suspension, along with the whole front end of the car including the radiator, radiator core support, front cross member and sub cross member, front bumper and side fender also airbags. Luckily my parents brought me up with the notion of always having two cars per person in the family just in case something happened to one of the two you'd always have a back up (I have a big drive way).

The feeling of fixing something like a car yourself is the best

 

[rokkerkory]

Get a mazda 3 hatch op

 

[KernelPanic]

I took my car in today and who knew the "check engine light" turns on if your gas cap isn't fully tightened?

They wanted $112 to diagnose that lol.

 

[Noobcraft]

I don't think I would like a fit. I really like the Fusions and $300 a month is my max. On second thought a Fusion is a bit much for my daughter.

It shouldn't be too hard to find something for less than $300 a month. I got a 2015 Focus SE Ecoboost for $248/Mo (60 mo.) with around a $2500 down payment.

 

[dalin80]

I took my car in today and who knew the "check engine light" turns on if your gas cap isn't fully tightened?

They wanted $112 to diagnose that lol.

It interferes with line pressure, you may notice the hiss when releasing the cap. Also oil filler caps do the same thing to crank case pressure, some engines can barely run if the cap isn't down all the way or if the dipstick isn't fully sealed in the tube.

Diesels are by far the worst nowadays, I don't care how many miles you drive never buy a diesel.

 

[No Love]

Yeah. You don't know what maintenance is lol 😂 That's the easy life!

 

[v1lla21]

My pops has close to 300k miles on his 98 expedition and still runs like a champ. He put close to 250k miles on his 05 focus before he sold it back in 2013. Never had a major problem either. He bought a Nissan Altima that same year and so far it has 38k miles. We've been lucky with cars, including mine.
The only problem I've had was carbon build up. Lol. 83k on my gti. Not bad.

 

[SpecX]

I took my car in today and who knew the "check engine light" turns on if your gas cap isn't fully tightened?

They wanted $112 to diagnose that lol.

Yup, it's a stupid design issue in cars now and I'm for them adding a separate light or message for it. It's really alerting to a larger issue that doesn't really exist.

 

[Forerunner]

So far I’ve only had two vehicles my whole live. My first on was an 89 Mustang. I honestly loved this car. I got it for around $2500 and it only had 50k miles on it, which is extremely good for an old car (I bought it in 2008). However, the biggest problem was the winters. I was stationed in North Dakota and the winter there are harsh. The Mustang was extremely light and it was also rear wheeled drive, this made driving in the snow a chore. I would spinout so easily at times and I got stuck all the time. Also it was so dangerous to drive. Putting sandbags in the trunk helped, but it wasn’t enough. It even had a block heater, but I still had troubles starting it on extremely cold days. Near the end it started to have more maintenance problems. I finally decided just to sell it even though I loved that car. If I had lived somewhere it didn’t snow as much and the winters weren’t so bad, I would have kept it.

My next car I got at the end of 2010. I wanted something with good mpg, so I got a Fiesta. Plus it was cheap, like $16k brand new. This car has been great so far. The only issue I ever had was two years back. One morning it had problems turning over, so I took it in. I thought I just needed a new battery or something. Apparently, there was a mouse chewing on one of the wires and that was the issue. It was an easy and cheap fix. Other than that, I never had an issue with this car. I don’t really have that many miles on it so far (30k), so that helps.