How many people own or have owned a vehicle which went over 300,000 miles?

[4570Man]

Of all the improvements made in the name of safety I think stainless steel brake lines would go a long way.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I have pick up another gallon of Skyco Ospho $26 at True Value since we just opened our last gallon of Skyco Ospho. Amazon has it at about the same price but I don't want to loose local hardware stores. Our F150 came out of southern Illinois with one new brake line. When the bed was off from some body work we addressed some surface rust. I plan to keep it out of the salt to rest of it's life.

 

[Jstpssng]

Saw on 4.3L in a 1998 Chevy S10 PU that was still running at 524K miles with no internal engine repairs. I drove a 2002 4.3 Blazer from 102K to 218K and I think the guy that got it gave it to his granddaughter a few years ago and I still see it around town. The 2010 5.4L in the F-150 we picked up this summer now has 211K and is very quiet and powerful. I am driving it today to drive the moisture out of the cab so the door handles do not freeze as bad. I do not get it out on salt so I have been driving the 2010 Subaru mainly for the last 2 months since I have not towed the equipment trailer for any reason in a while plus I would like for it to be dependable for another 20 years for old tractor events.

Good motor oil changed by the book makes 300K+ possible for many modern cars and trucks.

I plan to go outside the rust belt this spring to pick up a ton truck and do the same. Hopefully I will either find one with a dump body, or if the price is right I can pick up a kit from Northern Tool.

If they would put galvanized metal under the plastic do you think it would help?
I don't have any experience with salted roads and have never had a rusted vehicle.



TBS

There's always a corner someplace that catches the salt and crap, usually where normal washing can't reach it. They've come a long ways with making bodies rust resistant; now it's the frame which rots out.

Of all the improvements made in the name of safety I think stainless steel brake lines would go a long way.

The coated brake lines used today help a lot. Still, SS makes a lot of sense.

 

[aczlan]

The coated brake lines used today help a lot. Still, SS makes a lot of sense.

The brake lines that Volvo used to use were good, they were I think a copper-nickel alloy? They supposedly didn't work harden like copper does, but resisted rust unlike steel lines.

Aaron Z

 

[rademamj]

I did a quick check for all used Toyota vehicles on Cars.com, and then sorted by highest mileage. There are 21 Toyota vehicles that are for sale with 300k or more miles. The highest miles went to a 2007 Tundra, with 508k miles. A recent insurance study, shows that 57% of vehicles don't make it past 160k miles due to mainly accidents. So accident avoidance is just as important as good maintenance procedures.

 

[Tractorable]

I did a quick check for all used Toyota vehicles on Cars.com, and then sorted by highest mileage. There are 21 Toyota vehicles that are for sale with 300k or more miles. The highest miles went to a 2007 Tundra, with 508k miles. A recent insurance study, shows that 57% of vehicles don't make it past 160k miles due to mainly accidents. So accident avoidance is just as important as good maintenance procedures.

Good point.

Also, I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen a vehicle junked for internal engine wear like worn piston rings. Most of the time I see cars junked because something major breaks like a transmission or head gasket, and in addition to that repair the vehicle also needs new tires, brakes, exhaust, A/C, etc with the grand total of repairs far exceeding the value of the car.

In short, the car falls apart around the engine. I have a friend who admittedly isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but his 1999 Subaru needed a new timing belt, followed by a transmission, followed by a head gasket, followed by an exhaust leak, and he wanted to fix it all on a car worth maybe $1000. At that point it’s time to junk it and move on.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^
It's easy to make that mistake though. My Toyota needed a head gasket, luckily it didn't overheat as it was winter so I noticed as soon as the heater stopped working. They got it apart and it needed timing chain and gears... when all was said and done I dropped well over a grand into the engine. When I got it back it would randomly overheat, always when warming up; but all that I had to do was throw the clutch, kill the engine, dump the clutch and it would be fine. New thermostat didn't fix it, and inevitably one night I drove home after a hard day in the woods without noticing that it overheated and I either blew the head gasket or cracked the block. I had just had a new clutch installed, brakes steering components, radiator, tires and I don't remember what else; and sold it for $250.
I've always wondered if the machine shop had planed the head too much, it was the second Toyota that garage had worked on which ended up with the same problem.

 

[southerniltractor]

2003 Hyundai Elantra had 266,000 miles on it when I finally sold it. Maintenance consisted of routine oil changes, timing belts (3x), front brakes (2x) plugs/wires, trans lube, coolant, and hoses every 100,000 miles. Replaced axle boots twice on both axles. Water pump as preventative maintenance when doing timing belts. Replaced front lower ball joints when boots failed. Tires.

Did all maintenance myself. Taught three teen kids how to drive a clutch. All three kids did manage to put it into the ditch at least once on winter roads. It still had original clutch when I sold it, but it was about shot. Burned oil like crazy when I finally sold it. Paid $10,000 for this car brand new. It was a great value.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I had a 79' Toyota 2wd with a non turbo diesel I had bought used. You had to pick your battles wisely when entering a high speed road but it got around 36-40mpg. No guts but still enough torque that I had transmission issues which I had heard was common with that truck. I pulled the trans and had a friend rebuild it. Other than that and normal maintenance, I sold it with 225k. A couple of years later, I happened to speak with the person that I sold it to. He had 350k on it with normal maintenance.

 

[Renze]

The brake lines that Volvo used to use were good, they were I think a copper-nickel alloy? They supposedly didn't work harden like copper does, but resisted rust unlike steel lines.

ive only heard of rusted brake lines on Ford Focus. Though it was crunchy all over, a Ford thing. All my Volvos indeed had brass brake lines, ive only replaced a few inch when i twisted the line while undoing it from the caliper.