Quicksand Fans

Sad to announce the death of my 1998 Toyota Camry, engine failure. The worst of it is that I was royally taken to the cleaners for $800 of repairs before it died. Horrible, stressed to the max right now. Disposing of the corpse to damagedautos-dot-com for $550 later today. THEN I worry about a used car to replace it.

reisen55 wrote:Sad to announce the death of my 1998 Toyota Camry, engine failure. The worst of it is that I was royally taken to the cleaners for $800 of repairs before it died. Horrible, stressed to the max right now. Disposing of the corpse to damagedautos-dot-com for $550 later today. THEN I worry about a used car to replace it.

What's the specific failure? You sure it's not just a broke timing chain or something?

reisen55 wrote:Sad to announce the death of my 1998 Toyota Camry, engine failure. The worst of it is that I was royally taken to the cleaners for $800 of repairs before it died. Horrible, stressed to the max right now. Disposing of the corpse to damagedautos-dot-com for $550 later today. THEN I worry about a used car to replace it.

If you think that is stressful, that is nothing compared to what my dad went through with one of our previous cars, a black Crown Victoria (can't remember the exact year, but it was one of the luxury cars from the '80's). It looks like this one:


One day, he put oil in it as usual. But, when the car suddenly started to not run properly, he realized that the oil container he dumped into it was actually the one he had used for storing Roundup, a weed killer, which was the same color as oil! To his horror, it had turned into crystals in his engine! Can you imagine what something gritty in an engine can do to it (oh, those poor cylinders)! That engine was ruined! Just a simple mistake, and it cost him an engine, which he then had to replace! The thought had crossed his mind in the past that he might get the oil container containing Roundup mistaken for one containing oil some day, but he thought he was being careful enough not to make that mistake. Then it happened, a costly mistake.

Boggy Man wrote:One day, he put oil in it as usual. But, when the car suddenly started to not run properly, he realized that the oil container he dumped into it was actually the one he had used for storing Roundup, a weed killer, which was the same color as oil! To his horror, it had turned into crystals in his engine! Can you imagine what something gritty in an engine can do to it (oh, those poor cylinders)! That engine was ruined! Just a simple mistake, and it cost him an engine, which he then had to replace! The thought had crossed his mind in the past that he might get the oil container containing Roundup mistaken for one containing oil some day, but he thought he was being careful enough not to make that mistake. Then it happened, a costly mistake.

This is why one doesn't reuse containers... at least, not without removing any and all labels from them, and relabeling them properly. They only teach such things for the sake of not reusing food containers to hold nasty poisonous chemicals, but it can also apply to chemicals used in mutually exclusive ways, such as oil and weed killer.

Really, it's cheaper to buy containers for the purpose, than to reuse and have the major accident of using the wrong fluids. Yes, you might save $3-5 right now, but if you make that mistake, it could cost $100-5000 later.

reisen55 wrote:Sad to announce the death of my 1998 Toyota Camry, engine failure. The worst of it is that I was royally taken to the cleaners for $800 of repairs before it died. Horrible, stressed to the max right now. Disposing of the corpse to damagedautos-dot-com for $550 later today. THEN I worry about a used car to replace it.

At 14 years old, it did live a decent life, but still...I hate it when that happens!

I think Charlie needs to snuggle up to you right now.

Nessie

Boggy Man wrote:he realized that the oil container he dumped into it was actually the one he had used for storing Roundup, a weed killer, which was the same color as oil!

If it's possible to laugh in horror, I am.

Nice-looking car, that...was.

Nessie

You can't get much more bang for your buck then 14 years of life out of an economy car. How many miles were on it?
Their styling and performance can at best be described as blah, but you have to give Toyota props for making one hell of a durable car. It's not unusual to see 90's model Camry's with over a quarter of a million miles on them that haven't had any major repairs and still start right up and run.

Sydney wrote:This is why one doesn't reuse containers... at least, not without removing any and all labels from them, and relabeling them properly. They only teach such things for the sake of not reusing food containers to hold nasty poisonous chemicals, but it can also apply to chemicals used in mutually exclusive ways, such as oil and weed killer.

Actually, my dad did label it, but apparently not good enough.

Nessie wrote:Nice-looking car, that...was.

It still is. My dad replaced the engine, and it was used for quite some time before my parents moved on to other ones (they then got one minivan and then replaced it with another). But, the Crown Victoria is currently sitting on our acreage gathering dust, was home to paper wasps, and I wouldn't be surprised if mice have even been in there. My dad might fix it up and sell it one day.


Reisen55, I do hope that you get a new set of wheels soon to replace your old one.

The land of the insane. Yesterday, my wife and I drove to Honda and, it is expensive, purchased a 2003 CRV. It looks great and will be a good car for my clients to see. She helped ALOT with the purchase too. So, today I drove up to Monroe NY to check on the dead Toyota, parked at a medical office I support 3 offices in.

It is gone.
Should have been towed tomorrow morning.
Gone
Not even a drop of oil.
Police have no impounding reports.

Can this be more strange?

You lucked out. Now just cross your fingers the cops don't find it in one piece and you'll get a nice fat insurance check for it.