1995 Civic mufflerx2, radiator otherwise brakes, oil changes and maintenance in manual.
Lots of road salt up here plus roads with big potholes that make the moon look more suitable for driving on. Would be interesting hitting a lunar pothole in zero G. Parts would be flying around forever. Sorry , had to inject some bad humour given the condition of our “roads”.Exposure to salt or lack of it makes an extremely big difference.
That’s a lot of repairs, but then again, that’s a ton of miles. Your experience feels a bit similar to mine (with repairs), except you went a good amount further. I’d say this car was reasonably reliable for you. Nice job with it!I'll try to recall from memory as best as I can.
1998 Chevrolet Cavalier
2.2L Engine
359,833 miles
Took ownership around 9,000 miles after totaling a 1997 Cavalier in sometime late 97/early 98.
During the time of ownership.
While under warranty:
Head Gasket Replacement
After warranty repairs:
Two belt tensioners (could be considered maintenance)
Gear shifter cable
EGR Valve
ABS Sensors
Starter
Alternator
A few batteries
Catalytic Converter
Fuel Pump
Radiator
Two water pumps (possibly three)
Front wheel bearings
Brake light/taillight connectors (the part between the harness and bulb melted)
A/C died - never did fix it, but it was good for about 280k miles.
Emergency Brake cable
Spark plug wires - I used wires for a Ford Ranger 2.3L because the wires for the Cavalier were 7mm (Ranger wires were 8mm) and the Cavalier spark plug wires were expensive!!! Nothing was remotely special about those wires. Normally wires are maintenance items, but the OEM wires went bad sooner than what I'd consider to be normal. And I wasn't about to pay top dollar for another subpar 7mm spark plug wire. The Ranger wires were about $15-$20 back then as opposed to probably $90 for OEM-style aftermarket replacements and were better.
General Maintenance:
Oil changes. Used Exxon Superflo Synthetic, then Mobil 1, then moved to Pennzoil Platinum
Oil Filter - Religiously used Purolator Pure One in the blue can and then the gold can. When I got on BITOG, I experimented with Wix a bit.
Transmission Fluid: Used Supertech early on and then moved to Pennzoil High Mileage.
Brake pad and shoe changes.
Spark plugs
Coil Pack
Serpentine Belt
Flushed power steering pump with Valvoline Synpower
Periodic Coolant Flush
Thermostat (whenever I did a coolant flush I'd replace the thermostat).
Upstream O2 sensor (replaced periodically)
Cleaned throttle body and IAC periodically
Replaced fuel filter periodically
At the time I got rid of it (2013), it still ran fine, but the valve stem seals needed replacing and something was going on with the cooling system and since the car had zero power options and I was in a much better position in life at that point and could afford better, I had no interest in fixing it. Had it had power options, I would have kept it. Sometimes I do wish I could come across one the same year and color, but with options. I'd have somewhat of an interest in picking it up. It was very good on gas.
As soon as I read “1995 Toyota Tacoma base model”, I knew you weren’t going to have many repairs. Lol.1995.5 Toyota Tacoma (Totally stripped, base model' regular cab, 4cyl, 5spd MT, no ac, no power anything)
15 years / 379,000 miles (~80% highway, no towing or OR, mostly commuter)
- Oil change every 5-8k (First 100k was whatever was on sale, last 279k was Mobil-1 5w30 and OEM filter)
- Plugs, filters, pvc, coolant every few years or so
- a few batteries and don't remember how many sets of tires
Around the 10 year ~250k mark there were some minor problems that triggered me to do a lot of extra preventive maintenance (And preemptive replacement):
- Engine fan assembly (Was making a grinding sound, this was the closest I ever had to a break-down)
- belts, hoses, thermostat
- master cylinder
- U joints and rear diff fluid
- Cat back exhaust
- Catalytic converter and O2 Sensors (Trying to get rid of CEL)
- Drivers Window crank (Manual LOL)
- Clutch
- Heater fan (Wires leading to it fried)
FWIW:
- Went the whole 15 years on the original rear drums and shoes (Might have cleaned them once or twice I think)
- 1 or 2 sets of front pads (But never replaced the original rotors)
- Never changed or even checked the manual transmission fluid
- I used BG "MOA" for about 10 years (Kinda regret spending the money on that)
- At the end it was due for a front end rebuild and exhaust system. Power was down a little; a mountain I crossed every day could no longer be done in 5th gear. Front (bench) seat was about shot and started to have some rust in the wheel wells and tailgate... Other than that I was mostly just sick of it and not having a/c
- Paid $10k new, got $2,700 as a trade in
It depends on what type of service you last had at Honda. Some techs aren’t going to check ball joints, they may move the tire side to side when it’s up on the air to check the tie rods, and they may move it up and down at the 12 and 6 o’clock position, but to truly inspect the ball joint on a Honda you must put a floor Jack under the lower control arm and bar it. A lot of techs might not bother to do that unless you ask for it. So, yeah. It might have been missed at your last service for sure. And you may not have had that much play in the ball joints...some guys will determine/say, it’s failed, while others might not. I’ve seen that many times. And lastly (long rant), yes, your ball joint could have failed over the winter...it could have been questionable to begin with and winter driving (pot holes) easily could have sent it to failure range.Ended up having to respect both left and right ball joints now.
Good thing tire guy noticed a problem when swapping winter/all seasons at some independent tire shop as the Honda dealer never noticed a thing wrong with them just last October. Is it realistically possible ( didn’t do much driving since last fall due to not working now ) that they could both be o.k last fall but both not be o.k in easily spring when not driven much? I am wondering if the Honda dealer missed it last service?
Thanks.It depends on what type of service you last had at Honda. Some techs aren’t going to check ball joints, they may move the tire side to side when it’s up on the air to check the tie rods, and they may move it up and down at the 12 and 6 o’clock position, but to truly inspect the ball joint on a Honda you must put a floor Jack under the lower control arm and bar it. A lot of techs might not bother to do that unless you ask for it. So, yeah. It might have been missed at your last service for sure. And you may not have had that much play in the ball joints...some guys will determine/say, it’s failed, while others might not. I’ve seen that many times. And lastly (long rant), yes, your ball joint could have failed over the winter...it could have been questionable to begin with and winter driving (pot holes) easily could have sent it to failure range.
Yeah, those crown vics were legends for reliability. Think about all the police cars and the abuse they took, sitting there idling or hammering the gas pedal. Very reliable cars.204,000 miles on my Crown Vic. Bought it used six years ago at 117,000 miles. The VIN report showed all the dates it had been taken in for regular service up to 100,000 miles. The dealership that serviced it looked up the VIN and told me it had never needed any repairs, only maintenance by the book.
Since I've had it, the only repairs have been a leaking differential seal and re-solder a connection in the circuitboard in the dash that shows the odometer reading. It's a known bug with 2008's. The EPA ordered Ford to use a lead-free solder that didn't hold up well. Fortunately, one of the shops that specializes in that repair was just a few miles down the road from where I lived. They removed the dash, fixed the circuitboard and put it all back togerther again while I waited, for under a hundred bucks. The A/C blend door motor is broken but I'm not going to repair it.
Other than that it's just been maintenance as needed when I take it in for 10K oil changes: Rear shocks when I bought it, power steering and brake fluid (once), lower radiator hose (twice), radiator flush (twice), transmission drain and fills (fluid stays cherry red), front brake pads and rotors (once), fuel filter (once), air filters, two sets of tires rotated every 6000 miles, wiper blades, replaced the windshield (once) because of sand pitting, and most recently a freon charge.