High miles on older vehicles

[PimTac]

I was thinking, back in the 50's through the 70's or so most people drove shorter commutes to work than they do now. A 30 mile commute would have been considered extreme back then. Today a lot of people drive even more than that to work as the population spread into the suburbs and beyond.

So, a lot of the miles on vehicles was short trips. Carburetors had their own fuel dilution issues.

Also, long driving trips were not common before the Interstates were fully built.

 

[ecotourist]

Originally Posted by PimTac
I was thinking, back in the 50's through the 70's or so most people drove shorter commutes to work than they do now. A 30 mile commute would have been considered extreme back then. Today a lot of people drive even more than that to work as the population spread into the suburbs and beyond.

So, a lot of the miles on vehicles was short trips. Carburetors had their own fuel dilution issues.

Also, long driving trips were not common before the Interstates were fully built.

What you say is correct. I grew up in western Canada from the late 1940s to mid 1960s. We lived on a farm until I was about 8 years old. I walked 1 1/4 miles to a 1 room school in grade 1. It was 3 1/2 miles to the local village. We drove to town to pick up the mail and a few groceries once or possibly twice a week. During the winter we didn't drive the car at all and got to town in a sled pulled by a tractor. There were 2 large towns 30 miles away in either direction on the main highway. We get to one or the other a few times a year. A small city was 65 miles away. We got there perhaps once a year. Two larger (university size) cities were both 150 miles away. We got there once when I was 6 or 7 years old and again when I was 12.

My dad bought his cars new and retired them when they got to be 10 years old; they had about 40,000 miles on them and were still running perfectly. People just didn't travel much in those days.

 

[AuthorEditor]

Depends on how far back you go to compare cars. I would say the average 2019 car will far outlast the average 1970 car mainly because of improved fuel injection, build quality, oil quality, and design. However, if you wanted to keep that 1970 car or earlier going forever, and you didn't have to deal with rust, you probably could do so, though there would be a lot of repairs along the way. You would never be able to keep a 2019 car going 50 years from now because chances are: a) we'll mostly be driving electrics then and internal combustion engines will be outlawed b) there won't be gas stations c) the electronics will not be repairable or replaceable. Mechanical stuff can be more easily rebuilt, but electronics and programs just fade away and will render many products useless well before the mechanical bits could keep going. The longest running vehicle and the cheapest I ever owned was a late 1970s Rabbit diesel. I bought it for $200 with a broken odometer that read something like 156,000 miles. I proceeded to drive the car to and from work, 120 miles a day (in the 1980s) for about two years winter and summer. I never did anything to it except change the oil at the cheapest quicky lube places once in awhile. Probably put 60-70,000 miles at least on that thing, then sold it back to the guy I bought it from for the same $200. Got 55mpg too. I suspect it may still be running today! I've never had a gasser go more than about 183,000 in the Northeast before rust and general decay made it uneconomical to keep on the road, despite the fact the engines were still fine.

 

[Propflux01]

I think the poorly adjusted carbs killed the engines more than anything did. Get behind any of te old cars of the 70's and you can smell the raw fuel. And this coming from "new" or rebuilt carbs as well.

 

[ecotourist]

Originally Posted by AuthorEditor
However, if you wanted to keep that 1970 car or earlier going forever, and you didn't have to deal with rust, you probably could do so, though there would be a lot of repairs along the way....Mechanical stuff can be more easily rebuilt, but electronics and programs just fade away and will render many products useless well before the mechanical bits could keep going.

You're right about that. I once had a distributor fail on my '65 Comet 289CID V8. The car wouldn't start and I eventually discovered that the rotor wasn't turning. As I was away from home for the week-end (and 180 miles from home at that), I pulled the distributor out and found that a pin that kept a gear fixed on a rotating shaft (that connected to who knows what) had fallen out. I fabricated a new pin and pounded it in, and low and behold the engine started right up. [I was surprised too! More good luck than good management there.] I never did replace that pin.

Peter Egan at R&T told a similar story. He and his buddies were away for the weekend and their small Japanese car wouldn't start. They figured out that the distributor was the problem but that whole group of experienced mechanics couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, couldn't fix it and had to wait 2 or 3 days for a new distributor to be shipped from the city.

Of course the Japanese car would be far more more reliable than my Comet, but at least the Comet distributor was simple enough to trouble shoot, was repairable with hand tools, and didn't require a whole new distributor and a 2 or 3 day wait.

So 50 years from now, which car could you keep going? The old unreliable one I think.

 

[addyguy]

Originally Posted by HangFire
Originally Posted by 01rangerxl
The Fox platform definitely had a rough start. It got a lot better in the mid 80s, but the first cars had tons of issues. My parents bought a 1978 Mercury Zephyr new. It was supposed to be their first "nice" car with AC and modernish design, but it had constant problems from the time it was new, mostly carburetor related.

Yeah, thanks for the reminder... it had carb problems, too. I think it was also a 78, but it's been too long to remember for sure.


Funny you mention this - my dad replaced his 1967 Mustang with a 'new for 1978' downsized Chevrolet Malibu wagon with a 305.

Had NOTHING but problems with it, and until his dying day cursed out 'garbage American vehicles'. Hated them all.

 

[Anduril]

Those were two cars from two completely different eras - dead simple '60s muscle car vs late '70s emissions control nightmare. No wonder he had so many issues with the latter.

Worst car I've ever owned was a Honda. 1998 Accord I owned for less than a year in 2006-07. Under 100k miles. Radiator failed. A/C failed. Wheel bearing failed. Window motor failed. One right after another, something was always broken.

 

[AuthorEditor]

Quote
So 50 years from now, which car could you keep going? The old unreliable one I think.

Look at all the old '50s cars on the road in Cuba, for example. Most of them have long ago moved on from the original distributors, starters, alternators (or generators), etc., but they can be kept going with simple tools, no computers, and some commonsense. I recently junked a 2003 Impala because of rot underneath due to road salt and it was interesting to see the nice-looking bunch of cars pulled in for crushing. Many of them were much newer than my car, looked great, and if I didn't know better I would have thought it was just an ordinary parking lot. Lots of today's cars die prematurely.

 

[TriMoto]

I have a lot of respect for cuban mechanics. I believe modern oils have a lot to do with it. I remember my dad telling me that at 100,000 miles a car was done and worn out in the 70s. I own a 1966 Dodge Polara which was bought from the original owner with a 383 that just hit 90,000 miles. 74,xxx when I bought it. The engine had new rings put in at 27,836 for some reason. It always used Havoline 10W40 in winter and 20W50 in summer based on the records I have with it. Currently has 10W40 in it and I use 15W40 when it gets hot out. I change oil every 5-6,000 miles and it never uses a drop between changes and it stays nice and clean. It's been the most reliable car I've ever owned. I average 16mpg driving around rural WI. 19mpg highway below 60.

 

[AuthorEditor]

I'm old enough to have driven the 60s-70s cars when they were just cars! It was usually not major engine problems that did them in early, but instead rot from road salt here in the Northeast and the failure of all the auxiliary components. Yes, 100,000 miles was considered a really old car, but I drove several well north of that without engine failure. One of the beauties back then was there were lots of little corner garages in almost every town with maybe one bay where you knew the guy by name and he would work with you to keep an old car on the road. Inspections were very basic and there was rarely anything that needed repair you couldn't have done at the local garage. We had one about a block away from my house and the guy patiently helped us kids repair bicycles when we were young, then cleaned our spark plugs when we got our first old motorcycles (2-strokes were always fouling plugs), then he showed us how to tune our carbs on our first cars. No doubt fuel injection has been great for engine life and performance, but there is something cool about carbs that you could take off the car, completely dismantle and clean, and put back on working just like new. It's the complicated electronics and systems that make today's cars hard and expensive to fix and will lead to their early demise. Try finding a module for a 2019 car in 50 years!

 

[wander2039]

Originally Posted by AuthorEditor
Try finding a module for a 2019 car in 50 years!


Funny how many times this gets repeated.. bet you won't have a problem. There will be retrofit kits around or remakes we already see today. Old timers were probably saying that 50 years ago also.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted by Eric Smith
Originally Posted by AuthorEditor
Try finding a module for a 2019 car in 50 years!


Funny how many times this gets repeated.. bet you won't have a problem. There will be retrofit kits around or remakes we already see today. Old timers were probably saying that 50 years ago also.

What about Chrysler Lean Burn? I suppose you could argue, just rip out altogether, but I'm not sure about the legality of that.

Where do obsolete parts fall into? Like exhaust downpipes for Saturns. It's an exhaust pipe, should be easy to cobble together, but last time I thought about Saturns that was raised as an issue. I guess A-arms are known for rotting out on them too.

 

[NYEngineer]

Originally Posted by ecotourist
Originally Posted by NYEngineer
We had a Ford E150 van at my shop years ago with a 300 inch six in it that went over 300,000 without ever removing the head or oil pan. I'm still amazed by that one.

What year was it? I've heard that the Ford 300 CID I6 was another great engine.


It was either an 83 or 85. It had a carburetor and a three speed C6 which is more impressive to me. With EFI and overdrive that engine would probably still be running.
The 300 inch inline six was an extremely durable engine. It had seven main bearings. I had an EFI, overdrive van later on that I put well over 200,000 miles on and sold in perfect running condition. There was a very brief period in the early 90's Ford made the inline six with EFI before going to the V6.