Out of self defense and to be able to actually get places, I have always had one extra car available. For me. If any one of the drivers in our house is on their way out to do as they are want to do and their chariot is not for any number of reasons usable, it is assumed my daily driver is available. They seemed to always have great grades or maintained employment deemed a benefit to man kind and I was the one to oblige. They in fact earned the keys, but I still needed to get moving too.
My go to is a 1994 2 wheel drive, Nissan Pathfinder. An automatic, V-6, with working A/C and no reverse. I will touch on that in a minute. Yes, it has its share of issues. The bi-lateral exhaust leaks will seal them selves after a few minutes of running. The transmission will start using all the forward gears after a few minutes of warming up and restarting the car( the electronics need the heat of the warmer fluid to come to life). All and all, a true POS. But it is mine. No one else will drive it. Lifting the hood to reattach the battery is greeted with the reassuring sound, that the dead short in the system confirms, the battery is not dead.
Now reverse is not over rated. I do have to plan ahead. But today the car turned 300,000 miles. I have been looking forward to this mile stone. And, it happened. I have a picture of the rollover, that yes I will post, but a funny thing happened as I pulled away from the corner of Colton Ave and Judson, the odometer stopped working. After all our time together, I will forever be reminded of that corner. I hope the car will not take notice and continue to run as needed. I might have to replace those back tires, just to continue to have it sit around.
The odometer, like reverse, I can live with out.
There's nothing like saying yeah the odometer stoped at 300k but it's still going.
Attached is conformation the valve stems on these tires will disintegrate from direct morning sunlight, eventually. Not driving or moving the car has a curious effect. The stack of 2x4's are to protect the side wall of the tire, that really needs to be replaced.
Yes, I do still wash the car. Keeps the locals guessing.
That's really cool.
The odometer in my GMT400 quit in about the year 2000 at 242k miles. I wish I knew how many miles it's gone.
jr02518
HalfDork
3/29/21 10:54 a.m.
A funny thing happened on Sunday. After a weekend of driving around in the Pathfinder, Redlands to Ontario and back, the odometer came back to life on the trip home from Redlands. I had stopped at the barn to check on my next project and on the way out of my last stop I looked down, low and behold the numbers were rolling. It had not moved a lick on my road trip but it was moving now! Without as so much as touching a tool or lifting a finger, it had healed it self. But within the time I left the highway and was headed up the hill, the car reminded me that it might be attempting to tell me it's not done dissolving.
The working A/C in this thing is much more than antiquate, the fan motor is noisy but it is still working. Heading up the hill I turn off the A/C and open the windows out of routine. This time I can hear something not normal and with a look around the cabin it only take a second to realize the out passenger mirror is not looking right. In fact the glass portion of the outside mirror has separated from the housing and is just floating next to the housing.
Who knew, the leads to the heated connection on the mirror were keeping the glass from sailing off to its destruction. The glue bonding the glass had spontaneity failed, but it had stayed attached because of the two leads. I found a suitable length of what turned out to be a perfect temporary fix for tying the combination of housing and mirror back together, then back on the road home.
The gas thank is almost empty, the rear tires are no longer even remotely adequate and thing are "happening" with the car. The tags are good until November, hope it is not needed in the wet.
You probably have a cracked gear in the drive for the odometer. When it had to roll all six numerals, it started to slip on the shaft, until you hit a bump and rattled it enough to start moving.
Welcome to the 300k club. I'm really hoping to make 400k before my neon kicks the bucket.
FMB42
Reader
3/29/21 11:23 a.m.
Wife had a similar PF years ago. I think it had ~ 240K on it when she traded it in. Btw, the bearings/bushings in that blower motor are pretty easy to re-lube. Her BM started to screech for a bit when first used, so I lubed them and it ran fine from then on. Anyway, good luck with your PF.
FMB42
Reader
3/29/21 1:22 p.m.
Hey, I just remembered that her PF auto transmission failed in someway or another. Took it to a transmission shop that recommended a complete rebuild. She told them that we just could not afford to do that at the time. Shop said that they could replace just the valve body at a price we could afford (shop said that it probably wouldn't solve the issue). However, it did solve the issue.
I will look into that idea, Thank you.
This 190D 2.2 5speed was purchased by the guy in the passenger seat from the guy in the vintage BMW jacket. He drove it for a few years only to watch the odo break just before it hit 400k. The shifter linkage felt like it had done twice that.