I’m not sure what I did to a vehicle in my past lives that I am paying for now, but note to universe…I Give!
Last week after spending 800 sheckles on the wifes Mountaineer, both the fuel pump and the ignition coil went out. We aere about a month away from trading the beast in on a Rogue or Murano type vehicle, so I felt pretty good about donating the vehicle instead of using it for the 100 to 1500 dollar trade in value.
During this time, I’ve had to deal with the brakes and change the water pump on the Subaru Outback, then a head gasket replacement related to the water pump issue. Also a seal on the drivers side front axle blew. This car has run great for five years, has over two hundred grand on the odometer, and was going to be our running around/weekend car.
This weekend we are driving down I-25 when everything dies. Still have battery power, but she won’t crank. Nutting. We called roadside assistance (Yay, USAA!) and this morning my mechanic says the three words I didn’t want to hear. Thown Timing Belt. Plus cam seals and a small tranny leak.
Sigh.
Another eight to eleven hundred dollars, depending. That makes close to 3 grand we’ve spent on this car in the last year. It’s paid for, but at what point does the law of diminishing returns take effect?
I’d love to keep this car, but I don’t want to keep throwing money at it.
Look, Universe, I know I have wrecked my share of cars. I know that in my feckless youth I abused, raced, and generally mistreated just about evey car I owned. Please. I’m so very very VERY sorry. What can I do? A sacrifice? Some sort of alms? Just let me know.
I give.
Remember about twenty minutes ago when all It was going to take was eight to eleven hundred dollars to fix? Yeah, that was pretty cool.
The mechanic just called.
Bent Valve.
Three grand to fix, five to seven for a new engine.
Seriously, universe, I give. Just let me know what I need to do.
What a craptastic day. I guess we’ll be car shopping soon.
Well, I was gonna make the ‘perhaps karma just doesn’t like to be misspelled’-crack, but now I just feel sorry for you… But I share your pain, I just put upwards of eleven hundred Euros into mine, and on Friday it went into the shop again because it wouldn’t start; don’t know what that’ll cost me yet.
Yeah, I was thinking as I was reading that a thrown timing belt is gonna set you back lots more than $800 - $1200. When they go, they do lots of damage - basically (as you know), the engine has to be rebuilt.
PSA people: Get your timing belts replaced every 60K to 75K miles - it’s money well spent. Or buy a car with a timing chain, instead of belt. AIUI, timing chains don’t need to be replaced (tho’ I suppose they have their own maintenance issues).
Sorry about your carma, yancey. Car trouble sucks.
At first the mechanic told me it was a non interference engine, so I was relieved. Short live but relieved nontheless.
On the plus side, a subaru only mechanic in town has offered us a grand to part out the car. So we have that going for us, which is nice.
I was seriously disappointed when Subaru stopped making all their engines non-interference.