[Chainblade]

I swear, my g/f and I must have the worst luck in cars. We seem to always have some type of issue going on and we've tried Hondas, Fords, Kia's, Dodge's...they all seem to have some type of fluke problem.

anyways, besides the fact that my g/f's car just happened to get a nail in each of the left tires (so now we gotta buy all 4 new ones as the shop said they couldn't repair it), my truck suddenly won't start. As I was trying to drive off the ferry, it wouldn't start but it started the second time. When I got home and then tried to go out later, it just would not start at all. It doesn't seem to be the battery as the lights and gauges worke fine. I tried to jump it but it wouldn't jump. When I try to start it, the starter clicks but it just won't start. I had AAA come out and test the battery and he said it was fine. He seemed to think it was the starter cylinoid (whatever that is). What do you guys think it could be? any idea how much it would cost to fix something like this? It's a 92 Ford Explorer by the way.

[Dustin]

Seems likely that it's a solenoid, but you're best to get it tested thoroughly first to make sure it is (no sense putting parts in if you're not 100% sure what it is right?). Probably a cheap & easy fix for your vehicle either way; I think it's a $20 part. Get in there, clean it all up and change the solenoid and see how it goes.

It's a 1992 AND it's a Ford, it's likely parts will fail eventually! Just accept it as part of ownership Even my 1989 Honda has needed work from time to time (not a lot though).

And hey, before you go complaining about maintaining your vehicle; think about the money you spent modifying it... That's a lot of hard-earned cash you could have kept saved for when the vehicle needs repair

[Chainblade]

Ya I'm trying to find a mechanic that can look at it today to make sure that's what it is. Ya I know the 92 Ford thing will have it's share of problems. Unfortunately, I can't afford anything more expensive. Plus with our luck, it won't matter. My g/f's 2007 Kia Optima has had it's share of annoying issues as well. I think since we have been together (2 and a half years), she has had 6 different cars and I've had 5 different cars lol.

[Dustin]

2 and a half years and you two have gone through 11 cars? Something is seriously wrong there I don't think it's bad luck, I think you're making the wrong purchases!

Just remember that owning a vehicle is like owning a vacuum that only sucks money. Your best bet is to grin and bear it and just hold a little cash to the side every month for regular maintenance.

Also if I can give you any advice, it would be that you need to find a reliable, knowledgeable mechanic and develop a relationship with him. You'll have peace of mind, save money and have less stress.

Also, when it comes time to purchase another vehicle; GET IT INSPECTED thoroughly. I've made the mistake of not getting it inspected once in my life and it wound up costing me a LOT of money (and a lot of debt). Never again.

[Chainblade]

ya we seriously have bad luck. I mean it's not like we are only getting old Fords or something. We've tried the good 'ol reliable mid 90s Honda Accord (tried 3 of those), a 98 Dodge Neon, 99 Ford Mustang, 94 Ford Explorer, 92 Ford Explorer, 88 Acura Legend, 2007 Kia Optima...can't even remember the others lol. We tried the 2007 Kia Optima hoping that a new car wouldn't have many problems. It hasn't had anything major, just dumb ass fluke stuff like getting nails in the two left tires and blinker lights going out, etc.

[nidex]

Dustin took the words out of my mouth about poor choice in picking out cars. Volkswagens have a rep for being unreliable but I put 90,000 miles of not so nice driving on my A4 and nothing really went with it until the t-belt tensioner. I put 2 wheel bearings and an axle in it, as well as tie rods but that's all wear and tear type stuff.

Anyways, follow the positive battery cable to the starter. Tap the starter a couple times with a hammer. If you can't get it to start after a few tries, it's probably the solenoid. Also if you get the starter pulled out (all 3 bolts of it), AutoZone can test it for you.

And why couldn't they plug or hot patch a nail in the tire? As long as it's not in the sidewall it can be fixed. Hell, even sometimes if it is in the sidewall it can be patched(not recommended). Sounds like you got somebody that likes to bullshit you and bend you over.

And at my shop we charge about $130 for starter jobs if I recall right. Haven't done a solenoid since I've been there but I'd assume it'd be less.

[Chainblade]

i'll try out the hammer thing, thanks.

well, I doubt this tire plus is bullshitting us as they fixed 2 of her tires last time for free. they said her tires were too worn down to really fix it. i suppose we could always get a 2nd opinion. just haven't had time yet.

hopefully it's just the solenoid as that's a relatively cheap fixed (as opposed to the whole starter). From reading about, I guess it could just be the wiring as well. that seems like it would be a pain in the ass to determine and expensive to fix (i could be wrong though)

oh and to reply to dustin's edit above, I did have a reliable and honest mechanic but they just closed shop one day. I drove by them and they were suddenly gone. so that sucks. I also usually get my cars inspected before I buy them. I think the only one I didn't for some reason was the 94 Explorer that I had (probably should as the transmission went out and the engine needed rebuilt a year after I bought it...). I had a mechanic look at this 92 and he said there was nothing wrong with it besides a minor exhaust issue, which I got fixed.

[Dustin]

Well honestly you seem to think that starters going and nails in tires are bad luck with cars so I'll just say that be prepared for a long lifetime of owning lemons. It's not so bad!

But if the shop wouldn't fix the tire because they were too worn then we've already got a bigger problem here: Driving on unsuitable tires. But that's a whole other can of worms.

Not trying to pick you apart though so don't take it that way!

[86mcss]

starter solenoid..its easy to replace a whole starter. usually 3 bolts and 2 small nuts. get a haynes manual and do it yourself.

edit: its easier to replace a whole starter then taking your time to just replace the solenoid.

[Dustin]

Originally Posted by 86mcss

starter solenoid..its easy to replace a whole starter. usually 3 bolts and 2 small nuts. get a haynes manual and do it yourself.

edit: its easier to replace a whole starter then taking your time to just replace the solenoid.

Ask sims how easy it is to replace the starter on his AllTrac. Hahahaha poor guy.

But yeah most older domestics like that you can do it yourself if you're willing. I hate working on cars now (I owned a Supra, that's why), so I don't even bother

[Chainblade]

well i know that bad things happen but all of our friends and family are amazed at the issues we have with cars. and sure, it may be "normal" stuff that's happening sometimes and I wouldn't worry about it if we had money but we don't so I have no idea how I'm going to fix my truck. I am very very dumb with working on vehicles. i know a lot of people here say to pick up that haynes manual or whatnot but considering I don't even know how to take out the stock stereo, I doubt I can replace a starter. I can't afford for myself to mess up anyways as I have to have a working vehicle.

oh and as far as the tires go on my g/f's car, they don't look too worn down to me so I don't know what they are talking about...

[Dustin]

There's a good chance the shop may have tried to scam you or whatever else, but if you're ever not sure about how worn your tires are/should be, try the penny trick:



If you can see Lincon's head, it's time to replace the tire.

Just remember that because you can SEE tread doesn't mean the tires are ok. Age and wear will affect the grip. 1/16" is the MINIMUM tread required by law, but definitely even that isn't acceptable even if you live in a dry climate. The older and more worn the tire gets, the harder the compound; and the harder the compound, the less grip you have.

Tires are BY FAR the most neglected aspect of a vehicle; and they're also the most important. You basically have a huge mass of steel and plastic that's attached to the road by feet this big:



That's basically the only part of the tire that's attached to the road at any given time, it's not much and we definitely ask a lot of that small surface.

Sorry for ranting

[Chainblade]

no i hear ya. i need to replace the tires on my truck too. the simple fact is lack of money. i have literally no savings (don't have any money left over per month to even put into savings), i've canceled unneeded monthly expenses down as much as I can, i don't drive unless i have to but when I do, I don't drive hard, i have MAYBE $50 a month extra after all my bills to work with. But with my unlucky life, that $50 always goes to fixing something or simply the cost of living expenses going up. i don't know what to do at this point. i'm basically screwed and am going to lose my awesome job that I FINALY got 3 months ago if I don't have a car (which obviously then, I won't be able to make any bills and i'll end up homeless). I've already tapped out family and friends. it's pathetic that it cost so much to live these days. I make $16/hour, that's almost double the minimum wage and I can't really afford to live on that. yes i've turned this thread into a woes me post but my point was that ya I would like to be able to afford regular maintenance like making sure my tires are good, I simply cannot.

[MSP]

It sucks, but it costs money to drive, fuel, and maintain a vehicle.

How's the public transit where you live? If you're really struggling as badly as you say I would suggest you take some drastic steps to get on top of things. Downsize your dwelling, move close enough to work so you can take public transit / walk / bike, etc. At $16 an hour and assuming a 40 hour week you're bringing home $400 or so a week? Is the girlfriend working?

[Dustin]

I think maybe you're living beyond your means Chainblade. I don't know what cost of living is like out in your parts, but I'm easily living comfortably on $11/hr (roughly $14,000 a year after taxes) and also saving for short-term goals. I'm definitely not rolling in cash but I manage my money well enough to have cleared my debts, eat VERY well, dress how I like, drive a car and do fun things from time to time like eating out in nice restaurants and go-karting, road trips, blah blah. I was always under the impression that cost of living is quite low in most of 'modern America' compared to up north here

I'm not in a position to own a home any time soon, I couldn't even afford to go on a cruise to Mexico, but I'm definitely comfortable. It's impossible to judge you as your situation is very unique as all of ours are but maybe the Tweak3D elders can help you manage your money! We have some smart cookies here...

[Chainblade]

there really isn't any more downsizing I can do. I already live in a cheap mobile. we are actually lucky as the loan is through my g/f's aunt so it's no interest. this mobile home is usually $1200 a month but we "only" pay $750 a month for it. im not one that likes to talk about finances but hell, I'll show you my finances:

Rent: $750
Car 1 payment: $377
Car insurance for both cars: $255 (have as lowest, cheapest coverage possible)
water: $25
trash: $42 (every other month)
comcast: $100 (need internet for my g/f's school work, dsl is not available here...comcast has a complete lock on the area, that's why it's so expensive)
power: $100
food: $350
gas: $450
gym: $42 (sure I could cancel this if I wanted to be fat and unhealthy again...)
phones: $100 (
debt credit card #1: $50
debt credit card #2: 35
my hospital bill: $20
g/f's hospital bill: $151
g/f's school: $50 (private loan through a friend)

that's $2,847 worth of bills and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. and that doesn't include when bad things happen (which is basically every month for us)

i bring home $2000 a month after taxes and health insurance is taken out. my g/f works but she only makes like $900 a month (minimum wage...). ya she could go work for a call center like she was before making $13 an hour instead of $8.09 but with her bi-polar and depression and the shittyness of call center jobs, it put her in the hospital (hense the $151 a month because of the $7000 in hospital bills...which was down from $20,000 at the beginning) and she missed work which cost us as well. as you can see $2000 plus $900 is $2900. our bills are that alone, let alone anything that bad happens(on average we probably spend $300+ a month on something bad happening...no joke...cars breaking down, heater in the house breaking down, eletric problem, water problem, etc).

i live 5 miles from work. I could bike (well besides the enormous hill i happen to live on) but i HAVE to have a vehicle for my particular job. My g/f does not NEED a vehicle at this time but public transportation here sucks unless you live AND work in seattle. we live outside of seattle so it really isn't possible. I think the last time I checked, it would take 6 hours on buses to make it the 12 miles to her work in seattle. don't think that's practical, nor safe.

like i said above, we can't move as it would cost at least double. we have a good deal at $760 because the loan is through her aunt. we live in "cheap" kent and they are $1200 a month for crappy places. seattle is quite a bit more. our terrible credit prevents us from passing credit checks anyways to move.

tell me where I can cut some bills? I'd love to it. i have given up a lot of luxury's in the past 3 years. i don't know where else I'm supposed to cut. my g/f and I do NOT go on any dates to save money (which is bad for the relationship but we have no other choice). you may say to just get home phone instead of cell phones? nope, both of us need our cell phone for our jobs. cheaper internet? i'd love to do dsl but it's not available. dial-up is but she is doing onlines courses and half of them won't work with dial-up (already tried). gym? ya if we want to be fat and unhealthy and cost us in the long run.

so that's our financial life. there really isn't anywhere that we can cut. if you see some way to do so, feel free to let me know.

[Dustin]

Definitely a rough situation.

The only thing I can really see clearly is that your debts are crippling you. Car payments, credit cards, hospital bills... maybe small separately but definitely add up. Given the banking situation in your country right now I don't know how easy it would be to consolidate but I think that could possibly help you. Clear all the debts and make one large payment a month with (hopefully) some savings in interest.

Why do you need your vehicle and cell phones for work and why isn't your employer subsidizing it?

What kind of asshole transit system takes 6 hours to travel 12 miles?! Are you sure?

I have to go to work now but I'll be back later and hopefully one of the elders here will have some answers for you

[Chainblade]

how do you consolidate debts? i've used a few debt consolidation companies in the past but they ended up being shitty and causing more problems.

i am network admin for sound publishing, which owns all the newspapers in washington. at any time, i have to be able to drive wherever. so i have to have my truck. just yesterday, I had to drive to seattle, hop a ferry to bainbridge island to go to Poulsbo. tomorrow, I might have to drive 100 miles. so i have to have my truck. i also need it to do side jobs as well, which is why i need my cell phone. but i don't get side jobs very often. i wish I did though as the extra cash would be helpful. but everyone is so blinded by Geek Squad that little guys like me don't have a chance.

my g/f i guess doesn't NEED a cell phone. we're in a contract anyways so that doesn't matter. i find a cell phone a need these days anyways just to be safe.

and yes, like i said, the bus system sucks here if you live outside of seattle. i'm looking into it again to see if it's gotten any better. we will see.

i'm calling today to see if I can refinance the car. my credit still sucks but i've been paying them on time for 7 months so hopefully i can get the interest cut from 19% to a liittle lower.

[Jackalope]

I would say autozone check out the solenoid, then replace it yourself. get a chiltons and fix it on your day off, it shouldn't be too difficult of a job.

also