posted 10-13-2001 22:11            

For the last week I have been driving a vehicle that ASPIRES to be ghetto.

When my car was used to stop a high speed chase a few weeks ago, I really didnt' worry too much about transport, since numerous family members are normally more than willing to lend one out. I ran dry this time though, and was given the option between renting a car and fixing one my dad had "laying" around.

This car is a 1985 Pontiac 6000 my sister had been using up until August, when it stopped running. Before that, a cousin of mine had gotten it to limp along for a couple years. Thankfully, sometime in the last few years someone had at least tried to take care of it, so it wasn't a hopeless cause.

--The first thing I noticed was that there was no radio.

It turns out my cousin had let her brother install a few radios/speakers/amps in the car over time. This didn't bother me at first until I noticed that he left all the wires stripped, bare, and touching the (grounded) frame. He also had, at times, cut the wrong wire (hey... where's the brake lights?) and just twisted them back together to fix them. It turns out he wired his radios that way too, and blew fuses a lot.

--The next thing was that there wasn't an unbroken vaccuum hose under the hood.

The ones that hadn't just rotted off were soaked in oil and soft. That turned out to be the main reason the engine wouldn't stay running.

--You cant fill the gas tank beyond a quarter tank without the gas leaking out.

--The "choke" light refuses to turn off.

I guess the "check engine" light also used to stay on, but apparently I have fixed that.

--The power steering fluid leaks out about once every two weeks.

--The radiator leaked (and the transmission fluid at the transmission cooler) until I swapped it out with one from another junk car my dad had waiting to be towed away.

--Someone had applied so many redneck stickers to the back of the car ("bite this ford boy!") that I was embarrassed to drive it through my ghetto neighbourhood until I had spent some quality time with a razor blade on the window, scraping shit off.

--For some reason, someone stole several of the fuses needed to operate the lights, fuel pump, etc while the car was sitting unlocked in the driveway for the last 2 months. Dont ask me why.

There is good news though: I have recently become the ashamed owner of a 1991 ford taurus station wagon in decent shape, so very soon I can give my current car back to my dad (who now expresses interest in putting in a radio and gas tank, since its running again).

-Chris

I guess what I want to know now is: What is the worst car you have ever been forced to drive regularly?

*edited becuase italics tags need to be closed man.

posted 10-13-2001 23:26            

I have a bike.

The seat is wore out, the chain slips, the hand brakes need new pads and tightening, and the front wheel is bent and needs its spokes adjusted.

posted 10-14-2001 01:07            

Anyway, my current ride is a '93 Probe GT... 2.5L v6, 225/50/16s, bad CV joints, several assorted dents, clogged fuel injectors (according to the dude at Monroe, where I got a free oil change) and the gas mileage is STILL GETTING BETTER. I hit 310 miles last tank, as opposed to the 230~ish I used to get, say, last summer.

The last major add-on I got for it was the portable mp3/cd player I bought at best buy earlier this week. Sweeeet!

posted 10-14-2001 01:51         

one of the first time it broke we had to get a new engine fan but they don't make the part anymore and the new version of the part has to be specially ordered so we got a make shift fan g.i. joes, no problems but i don't trust it enough to take it on a long trip.

my biggest problem though would have to be that after the first time it broke, the gas gauge broke and is still broken to this day
which means i have go refill the tank every 150 to 200 miles just to be safe.

all in all though it's a pretty decent and reliable car since it's my first one and all.

later
Trey

posted 10-14-2001 19:53         

Up until 2 years ago, I used to be the proud owner of a 1985 Plymouth Voyager SE.

What happened to make me go out and buy a new car? Well, let's examine the condition of "Betsy":

She had about 400,000 kms on her odometer, but that's really a guess since the odometer only had 5 digits so it could only display up to 99,999 before showing 00,000 again.

The fabric that covered the seats was so worn from my and other people's rumps that it was threadbare, with tufts of foam sticking out here and there.

The gas filler door was one of the fancy types that had you pull a lever inside the car so that it would pop open...except that the "pop-open" mechanism was rusted to hell, so the filler door was always open. I got around that but wadding some newspaper in between the gap of the door and the car frame.

The wiring was screwed up too. This being the "high-end" model of the car, everything was electric...doors, windows, mirrors, etc. Except that the wiring that ran from the dash to the controls mounted on the door armrest had worn out from the flexing when the door opened/closed. Thus, everything was pretty random...open a window, couldn't close it again...unlock the doors, couldn't lock them...well, that was until everything pretty much stopped working altogether.

Of course the A/C stopped working years before.

The engine was a peppy 4 cylinder 2.2 litre mitsubishi that would've been more appropriate on a Firefly. The absolute top speed of the car was 120 km/h (about 75 mph for you Yanks) and that with everything shaking so bad the review mirror would fall off.

Oh, and would stall immediately if you drove it in rainy weather.

Once I lost the entire exhaust system (catalytic, pipe, and muffler) in rush-hour traffic in downtown Toronto. Except that it all didn't fall off neatly. No, all those twists and turns in the exhaust pipe got caught in all the axles and bracing underneath the car and thus was a bitch to disentangle. Took me about an hour, with me blocking one lane of a very busy 2 lane street.

The fuel pump also had a small leak in it that sprayed fuel over the intake side of the engine...no real danger there, except that the interior smelled perpetually of gas.

The thermostat for the coolant system failed once (refused to open when the engine got warm, not allowing any coolant to circulate). This cooked the engine for a while, split a few rad hoses, and busted open the water pump, spraying coolant everywhere.

Of course the rad leaked (but not that much).

Oh, and one of the front suspension springs broke once, impaling the tire and totally screwing up the front alignment. That cost me 2 new springs and a tire. I would've used the spare (which was stored underneath the car), but at some indeterminate point in time the cable holding the spare in place snapped (due to rust), dropping the tire on the road for those behind me to swerve and avoid.

Eventually the alterator died, and I, being too cheap to replace it, went without radio, heat or any other 'trivialities' for a whole Canadian winter. I would plug in the battery charger every night, drive the car to work running only the headlights from the battery, and then charge the battery again at work.

That was what eventually did it for me. Then I went out and bought a new Nissan Altima.

[This message has been edited by equinox9 (edited 10-14-2001).]

posted 10-14-2001 23:20            

I've had a car that could have been worse. The funny thing is though, every time it broke down it was in my driveway. It was nice to me that way.

This car was a 1983 Pontiac 2000. Never heard of that model? Neither had any mechanic or parts store clerk. Always had to force them to look it up to believe it even existed.

This car.. Well.. part of the reason it was so bad was probably due to the fact it was my first and therefore I knew nothing when it came to care care. In fact... this car was only taken to the shop twice ever. I worked on it after reading books and asking people.

- Vaccuum leaks again. Common theme for me it seems. Took me way too long to figure out.

- The oxygen sensor would go every three months, rendering the car inoperable, as it was fuel injected.

-Air conditioning? No.. but once the heat inside built up fast enough that it blew out the rear-driverside window... I learned to always leave at least the floor vents open when I parked the car.

-It liked to burn out ignition modules at least once a year. Never could figure this out.

-Water pump leaked... I replaced it with a cheap rebuild, and it took me over 8,000 miles of random hotspots and fucked up timing to realize that the new one was also bad. The biggest problem here: The water pump was the tensioner for the timing belt.

-Rust: Oh yes... rust. It had very little when I bought it... because it was all underneath the special "1983 rust protection" coat of thick paint. When that chipped off, you could see inside the doors. The rocker panels were nonexistant when I finally ditched the car. You could watch the road through the passenger side-door.

I had taken some white barn paint and "touched up" the passenger side door though. (it was a tan car).

In order to open the hood you could use one of three methods:
1) Hold the hood button and shift into drive or reverse (since the transmission clunked so hard it vibrated the car enough to shake the hood loose).
2) Bang on the hood with one arm while hitting the hood release with the other.
3) assuming the above methods didn't work, get a prybar.

- I rebuilt the throttle-body fuel injection system myself. It seemed to actually help... didn't fix the problem that turned out to be the water pump.. but it helped.

-Small radiator leak. I was too cheap to find a new one and didn't have a car-graveyard to dig through at that time, so I would periodically put some plumbers solder over the leak to slow it down again.

-Lower ball joints... I was told time and time again to repair these... did I listen? Nope. They gave out right after I sold gave the car away. During the last few weeks the car would sometimes change lanes without the steering wheel moving

-Brake lines. They ALL gave out at the same time. The mechanics had never seen anything like it. The rear ones both somehow blew their cylinders, one front one froze up, and the other blew a line. The mechanics also shafted me for new brake lines to both back brakes too. Grrr.

-Fuel filter clogged once. IT HAD NEVER BEEN CHANGED IN OVER 14 YEARS. Was rust-welded on there and I needed new fuel lines.

-Shocks? What shocks... I had nice springs though.

-Rotor periodically would "lime up" and cause misfires. Once every three months I would take it apart and hit it with emery paper.

-The back seat had a roaming broken spring that I could never locate. Seems like every time someone would sit back there it would hit them... but when they went to find it themselves it was gone.

-The "rear defrost" was a 12v computer fan that I had accidentally wired into the wrong side of a fuse. This in itself wouldn't have been a problem if a girl in the backseat hadnt' caught her hair in the fan, and then shorted the connection trying to free it. The wires from the fan all the way to the fuse block all melted..and the fan was fused permanently on until I disconnected the battery and cut the wires.

From that point forward I used in-line fuses.

--The "horn" had broken, and I had replaced the switch in the steering wheel. How did I fasten this new switch to the plastic steering wheel? Wood screws. When it broke, it broke in the "on" position though. I had to pull into a gas station and unhook it.

-I would sometimes delay exhuast work by taking sheet metal and metal-tape and covering exhaust holes.

-It had an almost-flat cam-lobe... on the intake port. So... the third cylinder (on a 4 cylinder car) would only fire periodically at certain RPM's.

and on and on and on and on. I drove this car for four years. Willingly. Some of the repairs I did (myself) turned out to be unneeeded or could have been prevented with maintenance.

But do you know what pisses me off the most? When I gave the car away, the new owner put in 2 lower ball joints and is STILL fucking driving the car with no problem (other than SEVERE rust). It seems I gave it away at the wrong time... *sigh*.

posted 10-14-2001 23:40            

And right now, the litte light in the switch of the electric window is broken. I need to get that one fixed FAST!

posted 10-15-2001 00:05            

How do you manage rolling your window down at night if the light is dead?

Hell yes you win!

posted 10-15-2001 01:17            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Clme:
HOLY SHIT!
How do you manage rolling your window down at night if the light is dead?

---

Well I don't of course. Until it's fixed I'm forced to use the window at the passenger side. It wasn't really a problem in the summertime because it stays light for a long time, but now winter is approaching, I fear I have a real problem on my hands. Sigh.

posted 10-15-2001 01:46            

Damn, I hated that. I was almost glad when the stupid thing lost traction on a slightly icy bridge, causing me to hurtle into the median wall of the bridge, and shortly afterwards the ditch.

posted 10-15-2001 11:03            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Clme:

--The "choke" light refuses to turn off.

I guess the "check engine" light also used to stay on, but apparently I have fixed that.

---

posted 10-15-2001 20:39            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Amazon:
I have found that black electricians works best.
:-)

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posted 10-16-2001 01:10            

quote:

---

Originally posted by jumper42:
they work best in pounding you in the dirty poop shoot?

---

Wait a minute, my response to your obvious troll looked.. suspiciously.. like.. a troll! What gives??

Keep these posts up and you will earn a title of "Official Frat Troll", young man.

posted 10-16-2001 02:10            

guess what new dvd i got this weekend.

posted 10-16-2001 14:22            

1990 Geo Prizm with about 180,000 miles. This is the generic American version of the Toyota Corolla, so at least it has a Toyota engine.

Windshield cracked all the way across in November of 1996. Couldn't afford to get it fixed, so it's still cracked. I recently took advantage of my car insurance's free chip patching to fix several other chips. Didn't want those spreading too you know.

Passenger window rolls down but takes skill and a lot of swearing to get to go back up straight. Basically requires pushing in weird angles with one hand while the other cranks the window up and down over and over until it gets in the track and meets properly along the top edge. I tend to punch passengers who roll down that window when I'm not paying attention.

Last year it decided to try to kill me and then take all my money. I got tired of nearly falling asleep at the wheel due to almost visible exhaust backing up into the passenger compartment. Turns out the exhaust manifold had a HUGE crack in it. I spent over 3 hours in a blizzard waiting for someone to pick up a new manifold at another garage since the normally 20 minute drive took him 2 hours. I got to pay over $300 for the privilege of watching "Everybody Loves Raymond" on a tiny tv, alternated with watching cars skidding by outside.

Three years ago it tried to kill me again by throwing one of the brake pads up inside the rim and then alternated cutting out the brakes entirely or catching at random moments. After driving down a busy road and fortunately only getting green lights since I could no longer stop, I had to spend a ton of money to replace the whole rotors, pads, etc.

Geo's come with disposable exhaust systems. It's beginning to rumble again, just on time.

Clme has made plenty of ghetto mods of his own over the past several years.

1) The driver side door is now mostly bondo and paint. In spray painting the patches of my car he fixed, the overspray has given my hood a nice subtle two-tone effect.

2) The rear window defrost wires have conked out over the years. Now they have clumps of liquid metal that have cracked as well, so they still don't work AND look sloppy.

3) I made the mistake of complaining about the slightly loose and rattling cover over my steering column. He removed it and fixed it, but then dropped it and broke it irreparably before putting it back in my car. Now the thing looks like it's been hotwired because the whole steering column is just exposed wires.

Alas, this car missed getting totalled in my accident because it had a leaking radiator and I left it at home. Instead, Chris's car sacrificed its life. Honestly. I should just name it Christine. It takes all of my money and it won't die.

At least it's a cute car and not some damn Pontiac or Buick or something.

posted 10-16-2001 18:02            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bex:
....my car is satan and CLME has made it ghetto, etc etc etc...
-Bex

---

But the damn thing has always run and never broken down. The frame is sound and it rides nice on the highway.