It finally happened. We sold off our last Subaru.
The car has been sitting in the driveway for several months doing nothing, other than taking a few trips here and there to the hardware store, mainly due to the size of the back section when all the seats are folded down. Easier to carry lumber that way, you know. But it's had its issues...
Six months ago (or thereabouts), it started leaking oil, dripping slowly from the oil pan. I tried to figure out exactly where it was originating from, checking the front timing belt covers and thinking perhaps it was a camshaft seal leak and it was going to destroy the timing belt and then the engine would completely self-destruct (which is what these interference engines do when the timing belts fail); but it didn't seem to be coming from there. Observing the bottom of the engine while it was running, the oil appeared to be coming from the back of the engine, which could mean that the rear main seal was bad. That would be ... well, bad. Because I don't the time or shop space to pull the engine and fix something like that.
Then there is the rust, the incredibly non-stop rust. The rear wheel wells are compromised; any rain or salt that gets picked up by the wheels is sent like a jet-spray right up into the inner part of the frame, and from there it rots the car from within. It's horribly insidious; in the space of a year or so, it etched huge gaps in the body along the periphery, from the support beam between the side doors all along the rocker panels and stretching on into the rear cargo space. Additionally, the entire underside of the car is covered with rust. Several of the body bolts have shed layers of rust so that it is impossible to gain purchase on their edges in order to loosen them. It would be impossible at this point to take it apart enough to clean the body parts, even if (and I had hoped) there were time and money available.
Other non-critical but annoying faults include: inoperative rear left wheel parking brake (the rear right one works fine); bald front left tire; alternator belt squeal when starting; missing radio; faulty hood latch (which explains the new windshield we put in several months ago); broken fog lights; inoperative rear window wiper; sticky rear hatch handle; various minor scratches, dents and dings.
So I put an ad on craigslist, listing a completely ridiculous price ($300, which is the maximum cash you can pull out of the ATM machine in one day), and within 20 minutes, people starting sending emails wanting to buy it. So many people responded, in fact, that I had to set up a spreadsheet to track them (to determine who is next in line in case the first-come, first-served start backing out).
The first couple were all gung-ho about coming to take a look at it, but due to various issues (on their end), they weren't able to come by on Monday afternoon (and I didn't want them coming by in the evening when it would be too dark to see all the details). And then they took forever to come by on Tuesday (today) due to various things they didn't explain. But they finally arrived, having driven 30 miles to see it! And apparently they liked what they saw (for the price), because they handed over the cash and drove away inmy old their new car.
I'm sad to see it go. It was a lot of fun to drive, even though originally it was only intended to be the backup car while my main car (Serenity) was getting fixed. But Serenity never got fixed, and now Serenity II is gone, and that is the end of my Subaru adventure.
Soon it will be time to get rid of our other rust-bucket car, the Grand Am, and then there will only be the Hyundai and the Toyota, with constant weekly car washes to reduce the amount of rust that inevitably destroys cars in this part of the country.
If we stay in this part of the country, we'll need to find an all-plastic car. Or something made from a material that doesn't hyper-oxidize in the presence of salt. Where's a good chemist when you need one??!
Six months ago (or thereabouts), it started leaking oil, dripping slowly from the oil pan. I tried to figure out exactly where it was originating from, checking the front timing belt covers and thinking perhaps it was a camshaft seal leak and it was going to destroy the timing belt and then the engine would completely self-destruct (which is what these interference engines do when the timing belts fail); but it didn't seem to be coming from there. Observing the bottom of the engine while it was running, the oil appeared to be coming from the back of the engine, which could mean that the rear main seal was bad. That would be ... well, bad. Because I don't the time or shop space to pull the engine and fix something like that.
Then there is the rust, the incredibly non-stop rust. The rear wheel wells are compromised; any rain or salt that gets picked up by the wheels is sent like a jet-spray right up into the inner part of the frame, and from there it rots the car from within. It's horribly insidious; in the space of a year or so, it etched huge gaps in the body along the periphery, from the support beam between the side doors all along the rocker panels and stretching on into the rear cargo space. Additionally, the entire underside of the car is covered with rust. Several of the body bolts have shed layers of rust so that it is impossible to gain purchase on their edges in order to loosen them. It would be impossible at this point to take it apart enough to clean the body parts, even if (and I had hoped) there were time and money available.
Other non-critical but annoying faults include: inoperative rear left wheel parking brake (the rear right one works fine); bald front left tire; alternator belt squeal when starting; missing radio; faulty hood latch (which explains the new windshield we put in several months ago); broken fog lights; inoperative rear window wiper; sticky rear hatch handle; various minor scratches, dents and dings.
So I put an ad on craigslist, listing a completely ridiculous price ($300, which is the maximum cash you can pull out of the ATM machine in one day), and within 20 minutes, people starting sending emails wanting to buy it. So many people responded, in fact, that I had to set up a spreadsheet to track them (to determine who is next in line in case the first-come, first-served start backing out).
The first couple were all gung-ho about coming to take a look at it, but due to various issues (on their end), they weren't able to come by on Monday afternoon (and I didn't want them coming by in the evening when it would be too dark to see all the details). And then they took forever to come by on Tuesday (today) due to various things they didn't explain. But they finally arrived, having driven 30 miles to see it! And apparently they liked what they saw (for the price), because they handed over the cash and drove away in
I'm sad to see it go. It was a lot of fun to drive, even though originally it was only intended to be the backup car while my main car (Serenity) was getting fixed. But Serenity never got fixed, and now Serenity II is gone, and that is the end of my Subaru adventure.
Soon it will be time to get rid of our other rust-bucket car, the Grand Am, and then there will only be the Hyundai and the Toyota, with constant weekly car washes to reduce the amount of rust that inevitably destroys cars in this part of the country.
If we stay in this part of the country, we'll need to find an all-plastic car. Or something made from a material that doesn't hyper-oxidize in the presence of salt. Where's a good chemist when you need one??!
3 comments:
So, after reading your post to the family, we have some questions:
1.Is it possible to wash your car in the winter time, or would the temperature difference between the liquid water and the freezing windshield crack the glass? (We have to be careful in the summer here, as the cool water can crack the hot glass.)
2. Do the car washes add chemicals to the water to keep it from freezing?
3. Is there a problem with road-salt runoff getting into the soil and killing the vegetation?
Happy James-Day! Love you all.
1. It is required of all Michigan drivers (who want to keep their cars from rusting away in less than 5 years) to have them washed weekly during the winter season. There are LOTS of car washes in the area, they are all enclosed (and very warm inside), and they all offer season passes. Most people make it a habit to wash their cars on Sunday after church, which explains the long, long lines. I have never seen a cracked windshield occur.
2. The car washes put chemicals in the water for the purpose of cleaning and coating and even waxing, but I am not aware that any additives actually lower the freezing point. It must be pointed out, though, that the last stage of the car wash sequence includes humonguous blow-dryers that (supposedly) remove the majority of the moisture from the car surface prior to customer departure. As mentioned, these car washes all take place inside. No one is brave enough to attempt car washing outside in the winter when the temperature is consistently less than freezing.
3. There are three basic salts used in Michigan are sodium chloride, magnesium chloride and calcium chloride. They all cause serious damage to plants growing in the immediate vicinity of neighborhood roads and sidewalks, and on county, state and federal highways. There are some efforts to switch over to urea-based chemicals which do far less damage -- but, as is typical, the state and federal governments pay more attention to the corporations who want their trucks to stay on the roads in the winter than to the "enviro-nuts" who would like to keep the planet green. The state/federal advice to homeowners is to "wash the salt off plants with clean water" -- which is idiotic, considering that we have to turn off our exterior faucets to avoid ice damage in the winter! (They also offer a list of "salt-tolerant" plants, very few of which are native to the area, which could rightly be counted as invasive species, just to show how the right hand of government never knows what the left hand is doing!)
That's why I'm trying to find a job in a part of the country that is not only closer to Mom and Dad, but also where they don't dump salt all over the roads!
Maybe you need one of those stainless steel cars! Delorian comes to mind ;)
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