506K Mile Ford Escort

[GrandmaSideways]

True. Although I've seen a Volvo with a 350k mile head.

Volvo keeps giving free cars to the owner of the old Volvo P1800. Of course he holds the world record and just passes the other cars onto his family, and uses only Volvo genuine parts, and it's an iconic sports car, so, y'know... A little different. It's not a part of the company's cars they'd rather pretend don't exist, like the escort.
Start a petition.

 

[caravanmike]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
How anyone could bare to constantly work on and maintain and drive a rough 80's Escort is beyond me.
it depends on how much status your ego lets you have.

 

[occupant]

I got 351K out of a 1989, sold it still running. This is no crazy feat. Change the water pump every time you do the timing belt, every 60K. Inspect belts and hoses and check their tension and clamps every oil change. 5K intervals. 10w30 conventional, typically Pennzoil at the time. It's not hard to do. Oh, by the way, you also have to not drive like a lunatic. That might be hard for some people.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
I had an '87 Escort and that was the biggest piece of junk I ever owned. You would've had to put so many timing belts and waerpumps not to mention lots of other problem parts. There's too many opportunites for the engine to have overheated. How anyone could bare to constantly work on and maintain and drive a rough 80's Escort is beyond me.

Well I'm sure even that car beats walking or biking the 500k miles...
We should calculate how much he saved by running that car so long. $50-80k? Compared to buying a new midsize "respectable" car every 4 years?
Maybe he saved it all up so he can buy a new Shelby GT500...

 

[mechanicx]

The 80's escort was the roughest biggest piece of junk. I don't know how I put up with mine as long as I did. I replaced many parts, basically everything in 150K miles. It was literally rusting the strut towers off. That's another thing, they rusted bad. I couldn't bare to drive it anymore and drove it to the junkyard. I would consider the car to have average reliability. Most cavaliers lasted longer, and more importantly were a lot nicer to drive in the process.

 

[addyguy]

In the mid-1990's, I had a 1985 Buick skyhawk, while a guy I worked/hung out with had a 1986(?) Ford Escort. Mine was a fairly solid, comfortable car, and his was a completely falling apart rustbucket. No-one wanted to ride with him......

 

[mechanicx]

Exactly, riding in a car that vibrates and is as noisy as a moped gets tiring. After awhile it gets down right nerve racking lol.

 

[daves87rs]

My dad's old 82 Escort wagon made it to 257k, but rust killed it.

We came out one morning to find the back axle had broke in half. Car still ran, granted it was on it's last leg........

My 87 Cavalier made it 140k, but a second rear ending finished it off. Really sad, because the engine didn't even burn oil yet...

 

[GMBoy]

If you got so many miles using 10W/40 oil at 3-5k miles and it worked for you then why are you switching oils and going 10k miles?

 

[fsskier]

I am not really surprised.... we have run two 1.9 litre Escorts to 300K miles, and the motors both seemed like new at that mileage. Quiet, no oil consumption, etc. The 87 head gasket seeped and was replaced at 250K miles - the cylinder walls looked great while the head was off. Still driving the 94... always used Mobil 1, was 5w30 at first, then 0W20 last 10 years, 20K OCI's.

Have changed timing belts every 100K miles, it is a "free running" engine, no damage if they break.... except the tow job. Yes, two have broken, one only lasted about 25k miles. That was the only one installed by a garage, suspect the part was a cheapie charley, no way to determine what it was.

The 87 was very rust challenged at 300K and went to the recyclers, the 94 still looks pretty good.

The 1987 would go almost 10K miles on a qt of oil, the 94 about 5K miles..... and that was constant on both cars throughout their lives.