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Need some advise, and possibly a quote...

B

BenS

CEG'er
Joined
Jun 10, 2003
Messages
76
Location
Southgate, Michigan
Well with taxes coming within the next few days I'm going to be getting a "family mobile" probably a van (Windstar, or Grand caravan). I'd also like to either A) Sell/trade the tour to get a small pickup, or B) Fix her up and drive her till she no longer can.

What I'm asking of the EGL mechanically inclined folks, If any of you are not busy and might have some free time in the next couple of weeks. Could you come by and look over the tour, and give me a rough estimate on how much you would charge to repair her.

Known issues:
Oil/coolant leaks, today smoke coming from under hood (has full coolant and clean oil), popping noise when ever I back up, needs from passenger side turn signal replaced (I have the turn signal, and the mounting fascia). Drivers side windows motor recently died, needs new interior carpet (damn kids).

Small possibility of just replacing engine as car has newer trans...

Thanks in advance...
 
hey ben, I would be happy to help you diagnose and fix your problems.

I have done a lot of basic maitnence on zetec motors so I know what to look for in terms of basic issues.

In terms of finding a family mobile, stay the hell away from minivans, ANY minivan is a pile of junk... well unless its a honda, which might be out of your price range.

If you are looking for a good family mobile, check out an early Ford Escape, you can find them for really inexpensive with average mileage, look around a little bit.

Or! check out a pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix, the car is built on the Toyota Corolla frame, just bigger body pannels to give me interior room, and since its a corolla motor and transmission you get great reliability and awesome fuel economy. My buddy has one of them, and when he folds the passenger seat and rear seats down he can fit his kayak inside of it, you can even get one with All wheel drive if you are concerned with snow traction, I drove it in the snow (all wheel drive) and it grips like crazy while letting you have some fun :D
 
AliasJerk said:
hey ben, I would be happy to help you diagnose and fix your problems.

I have done a lot of basic maitnence on zetec motors so I know what to look for in terms of basic issues.

In terms of finding a family mobile, stay the hell away from minivans, ANY minivan is a pile of junk... well unless its a honda, which might be out of your price range.

If you are looking for a good family mobile, check out an early Ford Escape, you can find them for really inexpensive with average mileage, look around a little bit.

Or! check out a pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix, the car is built on the Toyota Corolla frame, just bigger body pannels to give me interior room, and since its a corolla motor and transmission you get great reliability and awesome fuel economy. My buddy has one of them, and when he folds the passenger seat and rear seats down he can fit his kayak inside of it, you can even get one with All wheel drive if you are concerned with snow traction, I drove it in the snow (all wheel drive) and it grips like crazy while letting you have some fun :D
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All of the loyal American made car makers in my family would slit my throat and hang me in the freezing winds.
 
sounds like the loyal american made car makers in your family dont know that fords are built in mexico and GM's are made in Canada.

Toyotas, on the other hand, entirely built in america by american workers.

Technically you are supporting the american economy more by purchasing a toyota than if you buy a GM or Ford, sorry to say... Tell that to your relatives.

I told that to my grandmother and she about had a heart attack when she found out her buick was built in Canada.
 
AliasJerk said:
sounds like the loyal american made car makers in your family dont know that fords are built in mexico and GM's are made in Canada.

Toyotas, on the other hand, entirely built in america by american workers.

Technically you are supporting the american economy more by purchasing a toyota than if you buy a GM or Ford, sorry to say... Tell that to your relatives.

I told that to my grandmother and she about had a heart attack when she found out her buick was built in Canada.
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Yes, but then they would be me with the barely earned spoons purchased the week they were actually not at work but still got paid 40hrs plus some...=)
 
AliasJerk said:
sounds like the loyal american made car makers in your family dont know that fords are built in mexico and GM's are made in Canada.

Toyotas, on the other hand, entirely built in america by american workers.

Technically you are supporting the american economy more by purchasing a toyota than if you buy a GM or Ford, sorry to say... Tell that to your relatives.

I told that to my grandmother and she about had a heart attack when she found out her buick was built in Canada.
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Yes but where were they designed? Support your local engineers too!
 
Once again Tod has hijacked and derailed my thread. =(

(Side note what can anyone recommend as far as minivan's are concerned)

Small budget of $4,500
 
Honda and Chrysler have had the best rated minivans for years. I have no personal experience though. I try to stay away from that segment of vehicles.

(Ford's minivans were always lowly rated)
 
todras said:
Once again proving your extreme lack of knowledge.
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yet you dont back up your criticism with an explanation.I dont mind being criticized, if someone has reasoning behind it. Calling someone dumb and not saying why they are being dumb makes you no better than the person being "dumb"

Either way, obviously American engineers are supported when you buy an American car, but its still built in another country. I'm not saying American cars are junk by any means, but there are a lot of great options that aren't American as well. Either way, with a 4500 budget, I haven't seen much in terms of people carriers, could look into a Focus Wagon, or 5 door hatch, or a Taurus wagon.
 
My .02, sister-in-law had both chrysler and gm minivans, both had major problems (tranny on the chrysler, forget what on the gm). My wife and I have a 98 Windstar GL 3.8L 113k no major issues until just recently and the ABS module burnt up. We've used our's for everything from people hauling to furniture hauling and regular towing as well. As been very reliable, we bought it with 52K..... Other than that have been very happy with it. Oh, the passengers side window stopped working, but haven't investigated the cause (although, I do not conisder that a major issue)
 
dacker said:
My .02, sister-in-law had both chrysler and gm minivans, both had major problems (tranny on the chrysler, forget what on the gm). My wife and I have a 98 Windstar GL 3.8L 113k no major issues until just recently and the ABS module burnt up. We've used our's for everything from people hauling to furniture hauling and regular towing as well. As been very reliable, we bought it with 52K..... Other than that have been very happy with it. Oh, the passengers side window stopped working, but haven't investigated the cause (although, I do not conisder that a major issue)
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We plan on people hauling, furniture, camping, pulling a tow, and general everyday driving. We see a lot of high mileage vans and a high price tag in KBB, but right now were trying to decide if we should get a van with high mileage and just had a the tranny replaced/rebuilt, or just a high mileage dealer maintained van.
 
my_black99svt said:
Yes but where were they designed? Support your local engineers too!
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I am a local engineer working in Northville (Mitsubishi Electric Automotive) designing for and selling to local engineers working in farmington hills (Nissan). Our parts (part japanese and other asian contries made and part US made) go in just about every make around (excluding Toyota, they just don't seem to like the Mitsubishi in the front of my companies name).
 
I still dont think a windstar is a good idea, the 3.8L is nutorious for head gaskets, I dont think any of the GM older minivans are good either, my sister-in-law's parents have a chevy venture, at 40K miles the A/C system catastrophically failed. Later the intake manifold gaskets fell apart, and after that the trans failed at about 102K, differential exploded. On top of that at only 105K it drives like a pile of junk, has all kinds of klunks and bangs, and the rotors are so warped that you bang your head on the dash the first time you use the brakes, and rotors have less than 10K miles on them.

its the same story for my mom's friend's venture, trans failed at about 100K, A/C quit.

The only minivan I have driven that was tolerable would be the Chrysler town and country, it was... fair, however the trans had issues on it, but the motor was pretty sound.

Like I said, look into an escape, occasionally i see them go with fairly good mileage for around 5K. Of course, this would be a first year escape though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2001...206597663QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item150206597663

that one is a little rough in 1 or 2 areas, but the price certainly is right.

I still think you should look into a Taurus wagon, they are nice to drive, cheap to run, cheap to buy, either of the motors (Vulcan or duratec) are reliable as hell, and on top of it all parts are extremely available and cheap if you do run into any issues. Plus the Cargo Volume of a windstar is 26.30 cubic feet, where as the Taurus wagon's cubic feet is 39 :)
 
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AliasJerk said:
I still dont think a windstar is a good idea, the 3.8L is nutorious for head gaskets, I dont think any of the GM older minivans are good either, my sister-in-law's parents have a chevy venture, at 40K miles the A/C system catastrophically failed. Later the intake manifold gaskets fell apart, and after that the trans failed at about 102K, differential exploded. On top of that at only 105K it drives like a pile of junk, has all kinds of klunks and bangs, and the rotors are so warped that you bang your head on the dash the first time you use the brakes, and rotors have less than 10K miles on them.

its the same story for my mom's friend's venture, trans failed at about 100K, A/C quit.

The only minivan I have driven that was tolerable would be the Chrysler town and country, it was... fair, however the trans had issues on it, but the motor was pretty sound.

Like I said, look into an escape, occasionally i see them go with fairly good mileage for around 5K. Of course, this would be a first year escape though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2001...206597663QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item150206597663

that one is a little rough in 1 or 2 areas, but the price certainly is right.

I still think you should look into a Taurus wagon, they are nice to drive, cheap to run, cheap to buy, either of the motors (Vulcan or duratec) are reliable as hell, and on top of it all parts are extremely available and cheap if you do run into any issues. Plus the Cargo Volume of a windstar is 26.30 cubic feet, where as the Taurus wagon's cubic feet is 39 :)
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Yeah, but if you need to leave the passengers seat to hand out an arse whoopin your in trouble...see you at 4:30-5pm Alias
 
BenS said:
Yeah, but if you need to leave the passengers seat to hand out an arse whoopin your in trouble...see you at 4:30-5pm Alias
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lolol, I think telling the kids they are getting an arse whopping later, but not specifying a time is a hell of a lot more effective, leaves the kids scared for an extended period of time, thereby behaving :D
 
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