Spent alot of money, stop now? [LONG]
Posted: October 1st, 2007, 4:25 pm
Long read, please excuse me.
Alright here is my tale of woe. I got my MX-3 awhile ago for $1500 (4 cyl SOHC) with a pretty serious sound system in it. I've had no problems with it since I bought it about 5 years ago. I got in a front end accident about 2 years ago and all I had to replace was the power steering resovoir[sp], right headlight, and hood. Before being forced to replace everything and fix a minor problem with the ignition switch the car sat in my backyard for about a year. I took care of it during that year and started driving it again in February of this year. It currently has about 130,000 miles on it.
Recently (2 weeks ago), I was driving my car home from work (about 4 miles) and the engine shut off completely after the RPMs jumped about 1k and then dropped out completely (note that the check engine light came on). The stereo was still running and everything worked fine minus the power sterring and whatnot that requires the car to be on.
Me and my friend looked at it at the gas station I managed to pull into and could not see anything major wrong. We checked to see if the engine sparked, and it did not. Long story short we got it towed to out mechanic after he came to our house and deemed that it needed to be at his shop.
Skip to a week later and he tells us that he had to change the Distributor ($295.00 [new]), water pump ($67.99), and timing belt ($57.51) in order to get it working. Add in sealant and antifreeze and the total after parts, labor, and tax = $785.00 ($308.72 in labor). I'm looking at the invoice right now.
Already I've spent half of what I bought it for.
Skip to last week Thursday. After discovering that the parking lights don't work (front and tail) and being pulled over because of it (no ticket) I call the mechanic back. He tells me to check the fuses, they all look good. He tells me to bring the car to his shop. On the way, ironically, the engine gives out EXACTLY the same way it did 2 weeks prior but this time on the highway. I manage to exit the highway and a good semaritan pulled me into a parking lot. Car gets towed to the mechanic again (bless you AAA).
Skip to today. Mechanic tells me that he had to replace the computer. Normally it would be $380 but he knew a guy who had one sitting around who was willing to sell it for $100. He gets the cheaper one and the car works. He checked the fuel pump as well and said it was good. Tells me the headlight switch is no good and thats why the parking lights don't work. The switch will cost $180 used and some ridiculous price new. Total with the switch was somewhere around $423. W/o the switch $258.25.
Now I'm looking at spending $1000+ on this car and I bought it for $1500. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten a BP engine or a BP-T engine for around the same price minus the parts I'd need to do the swap. Should I keep throwing money at my stock 4 cylinder engine or drive it minimally until I can afford a new engine? It's getting frustrating and I assume I'm going to keep throwing money at it (I suspect the alternator is next even though he says it looks fine) until I've spent $1800+ on it.
If you've taken the time to glimpse or read this, thank you. Any input would be appreciated. If this is in the wrong section of the forum please move it. Ask any questions about thing I may have left out, I will be checking this post often.
Alright here is my tale of woe. I got my MX-3 awhile ago for $1500 (4 cyl SOHC) with a pretty serious sound system in it. I've had no problems with it since I bought it about 5 years ago. I got in a front end accident about 2 years ago and all I had to replace was the power steering resovoir[sp], right headlight, and hood. Before being forced to replace everything and fix a minor problem with the ignition switch the car sat in my backyard for about a year. I took care of it during that year and started driving it again in February of this year. It currently has about 130,000 miles on it.
Recently (2 weeks ago), I was driving my car home from work (about 4 miles) and the engine shut off completely after the RPMs jumped about 1k and then dropped out completely (note that the check engine light came on). The stereo was still running and everything worked fine minus the power sterring and whatnot that requires the car to be on.
Me and my friend looked at it at the gas station I managed to pull into and could not see anything major wrong. We checked to see if the engine sparked, and it did not. Long story short we got it towed to out mechanic after he came to our house and deemed that it needed to be at his shop.
Skip to a week later and he tells us that he had to change the Distributor ($295.00 [new]), water pump ($67.99), and timing belt ($57.51) in order to get it working. Add in sealant and antifreeze and the total after parts, labor, and tax = $785.00 ($308.72 in labor). I'm looking at the invoice right now.
Already I've spent half of what I bought it for.
Skip to last week Thursday. After discovering that the parking lights don't work (front and tail) and being pulled over because of it (no ticket) I call the mechanic back. He tells me to check the fuses, they all look good. He tells me to bring the car to his shop. On the way, ironically, the engine gives out EXACTLY the same way it did 2 weeks prior but this time on the highway. I manage to exit the highway and a good semaritan pulled me into a parking lot. Car gets towed to the mechanic again (bless you AAA).
Skip to today. Mechanic tells me that he had to replace the computer. Normally it would be $380 but he knew a guy who had one sitting around who was willing to sell it for $100. He gets the cheaper one and the car works. He checked the fuel pump as well and said it was good. Tells me the headlight switch is no good and thats why the parking lights don't work. The switch will cost $180 used and some ridiculous price new. Total with the switch was somewhere around $423. W/o the switch $258.25.
Now I'm looking at spending $1000+ on this car and I bought it for $1500. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten a BP engine or a BP-T engine for around the same price minus the parts I'd need to do the swap. Should I keep throwing money at my stock 4 cylinder engine or drive it minimally until I can afford a new engine? It's getting frustrating and I assume I'm going to keep throwing money at it (I suspect the alternator is next even though he says it looks fine) until I've spent $1800+ on it.
If you've taken the time to glimpse or read this, thank you. Any input would be appreciated. If this is in the wrong section of the forum please move it. Ask any questions about thing I may have left out, I will be checking this post often.