Sweet! Where can I find alloy OEM rims and tires for my Accord for $250? I have been looking for over four years!
Surely the Focus could be sold for parts and scrap, if all else fails.
I scheduled an appointment to look at it yesterday, but Mom scampered off, and returned an hour after I was supposed to be an hour away. I asked if I could see the car today and the owner replied "Sure! 8am or 2pm!"
Notaries and mechanics wouldn't open until 9 and I have clients starting at 2:30pm, so that didn't work. I suggested something and she asked "Why don't we meet up on Saturday?"
How many mechanics and notaries are open on Saturday?
So my first car was a red 1987 Honda Prelude Si. It was a fun car, but I needed to get a real inspection before I bought her. Two mechanics said "I only have the time to look at her quickly." Each of them found problems and said "Well, I wouldn't be afraid of her!"
That statement made me afraid. Why would a mechanic be afraid of a car? However, I wasn't a mechanic. I didn't know anything about cars!
At least one of them said that the clutch was going out. They showed me the receipt for the clutch they replaced two years earlier.
I replaced the clutch 3 times. None of them lasted 2 years.
Anyway, I bought the car with 150,000 miles, immediately replaced the clutch, brakes, and tires, and then when I nearly had 220,000 miles I hit the fuel tank covers in the bus yard parking lot. That ripped out some crossmembers under the engine and did other damage. A friend brought a friend of his. They looked at it and he just shook my hand and said "I'm sorry," but in a long list of times that Mom [and Dad] persuaded me to do something that I later regretted, Mom convinced me to drive my car, which didn't drive right, to our mechanic, who just said "My wife has done worse!"
So what? Did she wreck a car so badly that you couldn't identify it?
That was one of the helpful mechanics that declared he wasn't afraid of it.
I repaired one thing after another on that car before the transmission went out--not just through him. I think that I went to 3 different shops. Each time they only told me there was one problem, but as soon as they fixed that they found another.
One of those problems may have been unrelated to hitting the fuel tank cover and my parents' poor advice, although the car was clearly too old and prohibitively expensive to keep.
I had a power steering leak. I was struggling to keep the rest of the car working, so I just periodically added power steering fluid. Well, it soaked the rack and pinion. I went to get an alignment after hitting the fuel tank covers and they told me that I needed to replace the rack and pinion.
I don't know what damage power steering fluid can do, but when I had a leak in my Civic I didn't just keep adding fluid like my roommate insisted, I took care of it.
I think that an oil leak ruined the starter in my Accord, so not only do leaks always get worse, but they can damage other components.
Anyway, I drove that Prelude up here to visit Mom and Dad in 2004 and after about an hour, as I started to descend the big hill, I heard some kind of sound, which I wouldn't describe as a "Clunk," I turned off my stereo and my fan, but didn't hear anything else. I carefully drove to the first repair shop in Payson, maybe half an hour away, and the mechanic told me that my alternator seized and broke my belt.
They wanted $500 to fix it, but I was sick and tired of fixing up this car. I called Dad saying that I just wanted to have my car hauled off, get a rental, and ride my bike until I could afford another car.
He insisted on loaning me the money to fix my car and then when the transmission went out the old car with 222,000 miles had a bunch of new parts, including the alternator.
So, maybe the lady's alternator went out, killing the battery, and breaking the belt, but from what I can tell, it could be any of dozens of other things. I just don't know why they would prevent the car from starting.
I found many repair shops with pages saying that if your serpentine belt fails your car can totally stall and not restart, but all they said was that you need to have them fix it.
The belt powers the water pump, alternator, and power steering pump. The car might overheat and it might die once the battery died. No, the power steering pump really doesn't matter!