Thread: New truck ... or not?

Well JMW I would say stick with your vehicle. Did you buy it new ? IF you buy a new car you will have (approx) $450.00 a month payments for the next 4-5 years. THAT is a hell of alot of vehicle maintenance ! But everything depends on how you feel about your truck right now..........

Well... its sad a car of that age is giving you issues.
Payments suck.

I know from trying to keep my wifes Honda civic running that it can be more than just money that is the issue. Yeah I had to pull the head and have it worked on, and the transmission was on the way out. I dont mind working on cars, I actually like it. You do have to draw a line if the bitch is stranding you constantly. Sure it is going to happen, but when it happened at 2am with my wife driving home from work.... the line was drawn.

Really it is all about time. If it isn't screwing your life up with being carless or "car in the shop" guy, drive it into the ground. If you are missing days at work... missing quality time with the fam... etc.... it might make sense for your sanity.

Originally Posted by jmw_man

So you all have been seeing all of my recent posts with all the problems I've been having with my 2001 F150 XL V6 pickup.

Over the last couple years, I've probably spent about 2500 on maintenance costs for this pickup. Most of that is recent.

Besides routine maintenance,

Two of the tires were severely worn, I replaced 2

Check engine light stuff, Pepboys was changing anything and everything, EGR stuff, O2 sensors, etc. None of it fixed the problem. Finally took it to the dealership and they had to install a wiring harness overlay. That fixed the problem. (mind you, over the last couple of years, I've had the O2 sensors replaced many times.

Truck starts to missfire some, I changed out the plugs and wires. Problem wasn't fixed. The missfire wasn't too bad but I took it to the dealership and their diagnostic found the distributor was bad.

Truck starts missfiring again but this time it was horrible. Turns out they found all of the injector clips were broken. He explained to me that the heat from the engine will make the clips brittle over time. Then when I take it in for maintenance, they are routinely checked and replugged. Most likely a mechanic broke the clip and either didn't notice or didn't say anything. I got that fixed.

Over the last week, I've smelled freon or coolant or something in my A/C when I accelerate. It's not that bad, it's actually rare. I haven't had this fixed yet.

Last couple of weeks, I noticed my two older tires on the front were wearing really badly on the inside. I took it in this morning to have the alignment checked. Goodyear says the ball joints were bad. Alignment is good. They quoted something over 700 dollars, I think for only parts too. I'm not having that fixed yet, can't afford to do so.



So now it's the A/C and the Ball joints. After that, what's going to be next. My girl suggested that we just go ahead and get a new truck. This one has 175k. If I were going to choose, I'd want a gasoline, 4 door, 3/4 ton, with an 8' bed. I'd get a half ton but can't get a 4 door with an 8' bed which sucks. Question is, if I get my F150 fixed, will something else break soon after? What do you all think? I don't exactly want to get into another car payment let alone the full coverage insurance. I also don't want to park my brand new vehicle in the neighborhood I live in (Oak Cliff). A couple houses down the other night, an F150 had the driver side window smashed in, will my new truck be next. Alot of houses are being targetted based on the vehicle being parked in front of them.

Sounds like you've been getting screwed by the dealer. The wire hareness overlay was a recall on fords to begin with. They don't have a distributer to replace. The ball joint aren't really that hard to change. I replaced all of the tie rods, ball joints, idler arm, pitman arm, and shocks on mine in 1 day because i noticed a ball joint was going bad. Costs about 350 to do that.

The one i'm reffering to is a 99 f150 197,000 still runs like a top but i did maintain it. It has been beaten to shit by my work daily for years. Pulling a trailor thats well past it's tow capacity. So it comes down to a choice. Do some work and get past it or take on a new payment.

The work is cheaper in the long run but it is nice to have a new truck sitting in my drive way as well. You could go for middle ground. Look at a turned in lease at the dealer. 2 or 3 years old 18k miles still like new but half the price.

If you opt to keep yours and do the work yourself to save a little cash and need some assisstance with how to get it done let me know. I will be glad to help you out.

Originally Posted by jmw_man

so why are ball joints so expensive?

To buy or to have them replaced?