I finally heard back from the garage where I left my leaky ol' truck. Turns out one leak was from a radiator hose. No big deal.
But the other leak was from a split seam in the radiator itself. Big deal.
I could have had the radiator welded (I've driven thousands of miles in the past with a radiator held together by JB Weld) but since I plan on keeping the truck for a few more years I just went ahead and sprung for a new one.
Since the truck was already going to be in the shop for a while, I told them to go ahead and do a thorough bumper-to-bumper inspection, like they would if I brought them a used car I was thinking of buying. Turns out that was a good idea. Overall, things were in good shape, with two exceptions.
One, the serpentine belt had a small crack. Since I do a lot of high speed driving (3 hour trips at 80 mph twice a week) through remote country, I was thrilled to find the problem now, as opposed to having it break while I was in BFE, where I found myself last week when I had the blowout.
Speaking of the blowout, the other problem the inspection uncovered was a damaged right rear suspension strut. It apparently was banged up when the tire blew and a chunk of rubber slammed into the strut.
While it was there I had the mechanic go ahead and clean and adjust the brakes, and flush the tranny and power steering systems. I'm nearing the 200,000 mile mark, which is a major maintenance point, so i figured I'd get a head start.
Bottom line - estimated cost of repair is around $1400. That's a big hunk of change, but spread out over a year it's a lot less than car payments, even taking into account the difference in gas mileage between a '95 model and a newer one. Besides, I just put a new radio in it when the original cassette deck finally quit working.
Now I need to figure out what to do with all those 20 and 30 year old mix tapes...
CTT,
ReplyDeleteIf you figure out what to do with those cassette tapes let me know.
I got a couple dozen 8-tracks I need to deal with.
I used to have a bunch of old 8-tracks, but I made the mistake of leaving them in the garage during a Texas summer. The little rubber drive wheels literally melted.
ReplyDeleteEbay... ;-) And the PM is worth it now, rather than the tow truck at 0300... Just sayin...
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I paid twice as much to have a Dachshund's small intestine repaired, so I feel your pain.
ReplyDeleteAnd, like you, I am holding on to an old car, planning on something newer in 2-17 years. Every time I get something fixed, my mechanic tellingly says, "See you soon!"