Well, it was a short lived love affair... The Volvo wagon I bought two days ago has jilted me by way of dumping its engine on the way home from visiting family in southern Nova Scotia, leaving me stranded at the 100 mile point (100 miles to home, or 100 back to family's place) on Christmas day. I was driving along and came to a long, medium grade, and just as I started to climb it the engine fell right on its face (no power) and huge clouds of blue smoke came pouring out the tailpipe. At that instant the oil light came on and the engine started clattering. I quickly pulled over and shut the engine off. I opened the hood and could smell oil. I pulled the dipstick - plenty there. I then started the engine and pulled the dipstick again, and there was a steady puffing of blue smoke from the dipstick hole.
My (preliminary) diagnosis: The Volvo holed a piston. I'm thinking this because of the heavy smoke out the tail pipe and the regular puffing from the dipstick hole.
Another possibility, but more remote, is a blown head gasket - if the gasket blew at an oil gallery, it would allow oil into the chamber and compression into the crankcase. This would also cause a loss of oil pressure on the top end of the engine, which could explain the clattering as the hydraulic lifters lose pressure (it was all top end noise).
Regardless, I am thoroughly pissed off. I had to pay $345 to have that car towed home, and now I've got to look forward to arguing with the dealership (I had the towtruck leave the car there). Yes, the car has warranty, but that warranty has a deductible and I don't think I should have to pay it. I also don't think I should have to pay the $345 towing fee. I will fight like hell to get that money back, and I think I'll even go a step further by demanding my money back on the car (I now have no faith in it). I belive in this province there is a 7-day "cooling off" period on a car purchase, and I think I just may use it. Much hinges on how the dealership handles things on Tuesday (Monday is a stat holiday in Canada).
And to cap things off, now that this car is down and the old Dakota has been uninsured and brought to the cottage, I'm stuck driving my Thunderbird until this mess is straightened out. And the roads are absolutely covered in salt. And the 'Bird is shod with summer tires.
I spend $15k (including taxes) on a car, it doesn't last a full two days, and I'm back to doing what I wanted to avoid in the first place: Exposing the 'Bird to salt. You can well imagine how happy I am right now.
BTW - I know I promised more pics of the Volvo. Here's a keeper - the unloading off the flatbed at the dealership's:
I still have ya beat. :p (at least on quickness of major failure.. can't touch ya on the mileage thing)
Bought my first brand new car.. a 1992 Daytona IROC V6. Got a little rough while I was driving it around to friends' houses that afternoon, so I got with one friend and we decided it's probably just bad gas from a questionable gas station, and we'd drive it off.
Long story short, we ended up pushing it the last half mile to my house. Dropped an intake valve. Took all of 12 hours of ownership to require sending it back to the dealership for a week's worth of work.
Sucks to finally get a newer car and have it take a dump on ya like that, though.
, that freakin' blows...
Do you not have towing insurance? We carry towing insurance because it's cheap, and if you ever have to have your vehicle towed the insurance company will reimburse you.
Anyway that car obviously had some kinda problem!
Yeah, forgot about that. State Farm tacked like a buck-sixty a month to our insurance to give us towing reimbursp00get coverage.
Sorry to hear that Thunder Chicken.I hope things work out for you.I bought a brand new 5.0 Musatng notch back in 92.Pulled out on the road, stabbed the throttle a little and hit second.All the sudden smoke started rolling and I heard it knocking.Not even 20 miles on it and it blew.Went back in teh dealership and got my old car I just traded in back and got out of the whole deal.Just lucky I guess.
Well good luck man,
Chris
That's B.S. The dealer should take that thing right back and return your money. An engine isn't going to blow just on the spur of the moment like that something had to be defective for that to happen. I feel for ya with the Bird. I almost had to drive mine last winter when my daily driver at the time (87 Plymouth Voyager 2.6L Mitsubitchy engine with 76,000 miles) had its timing belt tensioner take a . Car ran like shiznit and it wasn't worth fixing but I drove it like that for 3 months till I got my Buick. There was no way I was letting the Bird out in the winter. Hell see if the dealer will give ya a loner or something. I hope ya can get something soon and get the Bird off the road as fast as possible
, that bites. i would be beside myself if that happened to me. i would definately get my money back and take my business elsewhere.
sorry
If something happens to my cheap winter beater, then I'm buying another cheap winter beater! No way in hell I'd try driving my bird in winter, especially since it doesn't have a heater at the moment.
What year is the Volvo? It may be the year GM bought them out and they went to shiznit. The mid 80's 240DL you can't beat. Those motors are bullet proof. Does your car have the 5 cylinder?
James
It's a 2000 with the 5 cylinder turbo, and Ford bought them, not GM. GM bought Saab
Man that is very unfortunate.
It is unfortunate. But at least it didn't happen a few years down the road and then you would be stuck with the bill. Hopefully after this setback is over with you can get a car that will last you a good long while and maybe you'll like it even more. I hate to use a cliché here, but everything really does happen for a reason.
I always get those two mixed up. Ford should have left their grubby hands out of it!
James
That really sucks.
The dealer should definately replace the motor or the entire car. The only thing hurting you would probably be that the car is used so the dealer, depending on what kind it is, may not do much of anything for you.
Jim is right, atleast it didn't happen a couple years down the road. My dad bought an '01 Ram in '02 and back in February, his motor let go. After having it for just over 2 years, he had to pay to replace the motor while still paying on the truck. Not even a month later, the transmission went out and he had to replace that too. So his truck lasted him 70,000 miles and broke just beyond the dealer supplied warrenty.
Now get this... a couple weeks ago, he washiznit by somebody making a left turn who didn't see him. Now his truck is totaled and it looks like he is going to get screwed over. The real kick in the nuts is that it has about 10,000 miles on the engine and 8-9,000 on the transmission. He also just put new tires on it a month ago and I gave it a brake job. It's basically a brand new truck but the insurance is acting like it is no better than the 120,000 that the odometer reads. We've been fighting with the insurance company for a couple weeks now and the outlook still doesn't look good.
This sounds very familiar to my mother's '81 Buick Riviera. My father picked it up in early '84 as it had come off a lease program with under 20,000 miles on it.My father is a licensed mechanicand had a tax number when he used to live in NY so parts weren't a problem as far as cost goes but, working on the thing all the time is another. IIRC the car came with a 307 that ran well enough but everything around it fell apart. In one year and 10,000 miles the list goes as follows:
1 Transmission
3 sets front brake pads (factory ones at that)
1 set rotors
1 cruise control module
2 sets rear pads (again ....factory pads)
1 motor mount
These along with numerous other things I can't remember coupled with the fact that only my mother drove this car and she didn't drive like a nut forced the old man to sell it. The dealership he bought it from sold it to him as is so all parts came out of pocket.
Looking back my guess is the dealership knew what people did to lease cars back then (and now still) and decided to brake all ties with the darn car once it was sold.
I hope they make it right, you sure deserve much better.
My wife is wierd in that she doesn't want to get any other cars to replace the aging fleet, as she is so paranoid that getting something to replace what we have (even brand new) is not necessarilly better than what you already have... Your incident illustrates her point...
Maybe you better get a daily driver T-Bird :giggle:
, i left the forum 10 days ago, and Thunderchicken got rich, bought a Volvo wagon, destroyed the volvo wagon , and was his b-day, what else huh ?