FML, is it worth fixing?

[Kenny_McCormic]

My 92 died on me today, appeared to be a bad alternator(which looks kinda burnt), but once home I found it lunched the timing belt too.

On top of that

-needs rear control arms
-needs rear sway bar links
-trunk is leaking on both sides now(rot)
-Wipers are kinda goofy
-Brakes might be smoked now due to a shitty tow home(thanks dad! believe it or not a camry wasn't designed to stop 9000 pounds in normal stopping distances)
-Windshield is about trashed, deep scratches and rock chips(partly old mans fault for choosing a gravel road and going 40)
-interior is coming apart
-over 185,000 on the clock
-front speakers don't work

Should I try to dump this thing as parts for $1000(andbuy some other pos car that is just as liable to break down) or what? Its gonna need $250+ just to put it back on the street assuming the brakes aren't roasted.

[hill8570]

IMHO, a car with terminal body rot isn't worth major money into. If the engine & tranny are good, you could consider swapping them into a good body with a blown engine (doing the timing belt is easy with the engine out).

[ToyotaTrav]

Agreed, if your state requires yearly safety inspections, a rusted out car will not pass. If not a problem now, how about the next year or two? Unless you are a welder, rust repair is what will be the kicker...

Some of the stuff, like the speakers and interior isn't critical, if you can get it back on the road for $250, you're in good shape. If you got another cheap car, you don't know what might go wrong, but sounds like you know your own vehicle pretty well.

[zythr]

It sounds like you're tired of the car.

[LynchburgCSI]

Yeah, ditch it. New camry time.

[Chris Crash]

Do what I did.

Find a nice body with a blown engine or something similar, and put your engine and trans into it.

Voila, new car.





.....until it blows up.....

[Kenny_McCormic]

New car time, def not new Toyota time!

Timing belt is at least intact, sucker was making some bad noises, then the old man walked out and convo went like this.

Dad: Hear that? You hear that?

Me: What? This god awful noise?:Starts engine, it makes the nastiest mech. noise imaginable for a few seconds and then dies:

Dad: Rod bearing, son. Nothing else in the world sounds like that.

Dad: The engine is fucked, lets drop the pan, I bet its #2.

I then danced around the driveway yelling FUCK! for a minute.

Dropped the pan and it was full of metal, dropped the balance pack and there was a big pile in the #2 area.





What do y'all figure its worth for a parts car? It was an good running roadworthy vehicle prior to 12:30 on Friday.

[carsrus]

You could probably sell it for like 500$ as a parts car. Youd probably make some more $ if you parted it out yourself or took all the good parts and then just junked it.

[Chris Crash]

Part it out yourself. Though you probably just need rod bearings.

[Kenny_McCormic]

If the car stroked out on me once its kinda liable to do it again.

[Chris Crash]

Sounds like time for a new engine

[Kenny_McCormic]

New(to me) engine is $500+, plus my labor of installing it. The car was only worth $1200. It simply isn't economical.

I looked at a rotted out Lumina today, was sort of a letdown as it was listed as a Z34 car but turned out to be a Euro(and holy), some dumbass told the owner otherwise. Real dealbreaker was the ABS was bad, windshield was in need of replacement, and it didn't have OD. They were asking $600.

Might have an old Subaru Wagon lined up for $1000.

[zythr]

This has been a humourous thread.thank you. Where have you been looking for your replacement car? A Lumina, Lol. They're built to last 5 years tops, then passed off on an unsuspecting owner.

[Kenny_McCormic]

It happened to be close by, and like I said, it was listed as something special.

[zythr]

It was special. A special headed to the scrap heap. The older Luminas are pretty lousy.