I think you really have to be careful with older Honda and Toyota cars. Not sure about other imports as I have no real direct experience with them. We had a 88 Honda Accord that was clean and low mileage but the rust was a bit scary. There were holes in the floor and the rocker panels were not good. Unfortunately with these unibody cars, stuff like that matters. I have also talked to people who have had the strut come through the hood because the strut tower was totally rusted out.
I like to bang on stuff with a hammer to see if there is still metal behind the undercoating. Sometimes I don't like what I find but I would rather know when I am parked in the garage than on the road. Should not just pick on the imports either though. We had an 86 Taurus that caused trouble too. My wife was driving home from work for lunch (a little more than a mile to our house from her work) and the car made a strange noise but continued to drive OK. On her way home after work that same day, it made the noise again and then did not steer quite right. She nursed it home and into the garage. Both of the rear bolts on the subframe - cradle - whatever you want to call the thing that holds the drivetrain to the body had rusted and broken off. She was lucky it did not disconnect the steering shaft from the rack. In any event, I went to the dealer and they cheerfully told me that happened all the time and there was a retrofit kit of heavier components with galvanized washers etc. Sure wish Ford would have told us before it broke. Cannot imagine what might have happened had she been on a highway at speed and hit a bump. It was an easy fix but the whole thing gave me the heaby jeabies (sp?) Randy -----Original Message----- From: mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com [mailto:mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com]on Behalf Of Mitch Haley Sent: Monday, January 11, 2010 12:08 PM To: Mercedes Discussion List Subject: Re: [MBZ] how to check block heater R A Bennell wrote: > So, do you ever wonder if you should stop driving cars before they fall > apart? You are lucky the Honda incident did > not kill you and some poor guy in the oncoming lane. The car had been repainted before I bought it, and AFAIK at the time it was rust-free. I'd owned it a little more than a year when this happened, it had been parked for a while after I bought the Saab. I don't know what happened to the subframe, it was totally solid except around the socket for the left torque link. IIRC, the battery was on the right side. Fortunately I was stopping for a red light when it did the spontaneous left turn, so no actual traffic. I think I got a foot or two over the yellow line before I wrestled it back to the right. I got another subframe at the scrapyard and drove it occasionally for another five years with no further structural problems. Mitch. _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
