MossRoad
Super Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2001
- Messages
- 60,222
- Location
- South Bend, Indiana (near)
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT425 2001 Model Year
I need some advice.
My daughter has been using our 2000 Impala for the last three or four years while going to college. Friday she was heading out of town to meet some friends and got stuck in traffic on the interstate for two hours. Then the electric cooling fan failed and the car overheated to the point that it died. Thankfully she made it onto an outer road, and then to a gas station.
After incurring a hefty tow bill to get it back to my trusted mechanic, I got the bad news that the head gasket had blown. Cost estimate is $1,300 for replacement with valve job, assuming the head is good, which I don't know of course. The fan motor is $300. Add another $100 or so for new plugs and a new belt and we are in it for about $1700 assuming best case.
The car has 190k on it and ran great before the issue. The engine is a 3.4l. I've kept the car mechanically in good shape, and cosmetically it is ok, but teenage girls are hard on cars. Recent outlays included new front bearings, struts, and other suspension parts, new brakes and rotors, new ac compressor, and the tires only have about 5k on them, all told about $4k in the last two years. The car is super comfortable and everyone in the family likes it. The only other potential big ticket items on the car would be the transmission, which is working fine right now.
I do trust my mechanic, as I have done a lot of business with them and they have always been fair and honest.
So as I see it my choices are:
1) Dump the car with the head gasket problem and buy a new one. I'd get maybe $500 out of it, and reasonable cars could be had for $3k to $4k more.
2) Move forward with replacing the head gasket/valve job and hope that the head is ok. Cost would be about $1,700. The shop I trust does not rebuild whole engines.
3) Obtain a low mileage used engine and have the shop swap it out. Cost would be about $3k according the the mechanic, but it remains to be seen what the engine will cost.
4) Another option is rebuilt, but I don't know what that would cost, and the mechanic didn't mention it. Online sources for rebuilt engines show about $2k plus shipping.
I am thinking that the first option is the least desirable, since for the price I'm looking at, I could just be buying another problem. Budget dictates no more than about a $4k outlay, as I will not borrow money for a car. But if someone thinks differently, please educate me. It's just that I've replaced a lot of wear items in the car already, and it drives really nice.
I'm thinking that a used engine or a rebuilt would be better than doing essentially a top end refresh on an engine with 190k on it, since something else might go wrong. I'm really looking for some advice here, as I'm in a quandary as to what to do. I hate spending so much money on repairing an old car that is only worth maybe $2k when fixed. However, I'm not sure I buy into the concept that you don't ever spend more money to fix a car than it's worth. The worth of a car, in my opinion, is how reliably it gets you to your destination. I think that when repaired, this car would be more reliable than a car I could buy with the amount required to fix this one.
Advice please.
I have a 2000 Impala with the 3.8. I can get a used engine for $500.00 and install it myself in 2 days. $3K seems excessive, to me. Tranny repairs on that year can run $2500 and that will fail soon, given the mileage on the car.
If I were in you shoes, I would find another used Impala with low miles, have your trusted mechanic give it his blessing before purchase, then, if all is well, swap the tires and be done with it.