My girl's car has 300,000+ miles and it's a minor miracle that it's still alive. The engine and drivetrain have been near death due to a complete lack of concern for a decade.
It's a 2005 Scion XB.
The brake fluid also looks like mud and definitely needs bleeding.
Scion = Toyota, that's why it's still going. Do the maintenance and it'll keep going.
IMO Honda makes the best all around engines. Performance and longevity are excellent. Toyota though makes the best cars for longevity as a whole. The engine in my old Honda Element got fresh Amsoil every 10,000 miles. After 162,000 miles it still was only using a half quart in that 10,000 miles. A lot different from the Dodge dealer saying a quart every 1000 miles is normal! I said Dodge but that goes for Porsche and several more too!
Toyotas that are made in Japan are, in my opinion, the most reliable vehicles on the planet. I think Honda is right next to Toyota in most ways. AKA "Kaizen Toyotas"
I know plenty of people having problems with their USA-made counterparts. I've had lots of Honda bikes, and if Toyota made one, I'd probably buy it.
On the girl's car, while doing the transmission filter/fluid I noticed that the outer CV boots were torn. Miraculously the joints still had grease, were relatively clean, and still tight as new. The inner joints had the grease cooked up pretty good...so the timing was good. It cost me something like $50 in boots/clamps and half a tub of some fancy CV axle rated grease.
Her battery had been weak for some time...it was ten plus years old...a Duralast...which probably saved her from smoking her engine as she ran it without water pump circulation until it died.
My car gets driven hard but I'm meticulous about maintenance.
Also, her car has various warning lights on half the time, VSC, check engine, and TRAC Off. Apparently, these will all come on when there's anything wrong with the car. I've replaced all spark plugs and one coil when there was an obvious misfire. The cat. being inefficient may be another code. At any rate people commonly just drive their "boxes" like that.
And I still, really want to supercharge my car...or get a Mini Cooper R53 when I get a bike back on the road. They're supposed to have very European reliability. They're also supposed to be the funnest and most engaging driving experience of the new Minis.
European Quality is not what it used to be. Since around the early 90's Quality has been set aside for light weight plastic parts that will barely make 100,000 miles. If you don't keep cars that long then it's not a problem except the resale value is in the dumpster! Definitely fun to drive though, no arguing that!
Wife wanted a mini cooper, so we got a mini cooper. Admittedly it was a 2009 base model with the auto trans so first negative to me. She loved it but after the new wore off I began noticing how badly the trans shifted, the torque steer, the engine sounds it made. All the little things that just drove me crazy. I hated it with a passion until we finally sold it.
We picked up a 120K 2000 Toyota Camry and I preferred driving it over that mini.
We picked up a 120K 2000 Toyota Camry and I preferred driving it over that mini.
While fixing some minor issues with the Fit I rented a couple Camry's. One base and one SE. The SE rode a little nicer, especially on the highway...but that's as soulless a car as can exist. Definitely not my cup of tea.
On researching Mini's further, the 2011-2013 2nd Gens make the most sense. They're as light as the first gen, with almost as much power as the third. The fuel mileage and range is much better than the 1st and better than the third. Finding a clean example seems the challenge. They updated engines in 2011...so it's easy to find prior examples being dumped. I guess once those have some issues sorted they're fine...but still.
While on the highway recently nobody would get out of the way of the Fit...which was frustrating. People wanted to race, however...which was ridiculous...though my son found it amusing. There was a Corvette C7, Porsche Macan, BMW M3, some jerk teenagers in a jacked up pickup, and some goofball in an Audi all vying for maximum doucheness.
Yes. You can put a lot in a Fit. The rear seats fold down to flat. Its like an escape pod. Don't like the brakes much. Low on power but high in mpg. Paddle shifters are fun. Ours is a 2012.
The 2nd gen is considered best from a driving perspective. IIRC the chassis is some 200% stiffer than the previous gen, and the current gen has complaints of being too soft. Fifth gear has always been an overdrive gear, and everyone wanted a 6th gear overdrive for highway use. Instead they essentially put another gear between 4th and 5th, which disappointed many.
The brakes are fairly average. Stickier tires help...otherwise the ABS can be rather intrusive and not particularly great in performance. I'm sure decent pads would help. I should be installing braided lines soon.
The car moves okay if you wring it out...but that's work.
It's fun and practical for a small and slow car.
I found mine to suck on the highway until I put a rear sway bar on it (tramlined, susceptible to getting moved about by wind gusts, etc. Stock Sport model comes with a welded in RSB), and a proper alignment can also do wonders. The old toe and go dealership alignments leave something to be desired...but is better than not being aligned at all.
The main thing most motorcycles have over passenger cars is acceleration. I can generally hustle the Fit around a corner about as fast as the bike...but I have much better tires on the bike. I'll probably have better tires next time around. Right now similar corner speeds come with some extra drama in the car
Next on the list is installing urethane engine mounts. So far the first mount fouled the chassis and after clearancing is 1/4" out of alignment. Frustrating. If the others are in spec, that's a lot of pre load on those mounts. I'm going to have to install them all loose and hope they have enough slack to be okay.
The stock mounts are soft, have a disturbing amount of play, and can be easily moved about by hand.
Anyway, after fixing the broken muffler the car has had no creaks or rattles. Hopefully that continues
The mounts are in. The car is very racecar like at idle. Vibration intrudes through the seat and steering wheel and engine noise booms throughout the cabin. The car immediately feels more solid, as it no longer feels like there's an isolated paint shaker under the hood. Below 3K RPM the noise is a bit intrusive. Under load it's noisier to 4K RPM. Under acceleration/deceleration it's actually smoother and at highway cruise it's much the same. Loose items resonate at various RPMs which can be a bit annoying.
Installation was straight forward except for this right mount fouling the frame. My ex kept the grinder despite never using it anymore so I ended up cutting it with a dull hacksaw. Not fun. Once it set properly on the frame it also no longer lined up. Putting the bolts in loose then tightening everything down worked well enough. Also, the center isolator bolt was a smidge short. For a kit that's been out for years with these areas of complaint I found it annoying to deal with. The rest of the mounts went in with minimal drama.
Next time I'll be installing a front strut bar. The rear makes sense, but people can't discern the difference and it doesn't improve performance in timed events.
The instructions that came with it were totally useless for the application. 20200902_182052 by Slick_Rick77, on Flickr
For this application the wiper cowl assembly needs removed and it mounts to the forward hood bolts. 20200902_123032 by Slick_Rick77, on Flickr
The wiper cowl just kissed the bar, so a fat zip tie was installed to prevent damage. #racecar 20200902_182412 by Slick_Rick77, on Flickr
It also sits right on top of the brake reservoir, keeping it extra secure. 20200902_182357 by Slick_Rick77, on Flickr
This car has a problem with the #3 spark plug coming loose. They were all tight, but the #3 coil had signs of previous "scorching." 20200902_120527 by Slick_Rick77, on Flickr
All in all, not too tough, not too many problems, and the front end feels a bit more unitized under load.
"Race only" seems code for "doesn't always fit right...not our problem."
Other than that my passenger door has an annoying buzz emanating from it after the motor mount install at around 3K rpm which I'll have to address at some point.
I've isolated one trouble spot to the glove box. Fully open or pushed in with pressure and it's quiet. Kinda tough to do when driving. My passengers so far can't be bothered to find the source of the buzzing.
I'm not into the tint. I only wear sunglasses in the desert or on the beach.
I did recall how much I hate my meep meeping horn. A Stebel Magnum high tone horn is on the way. It's not the loudest, but I like the sound. Anything is better than what's on it. It's a joke. I doubt I'll get any respect on the street...but it's sure to get more attention. The stories I came across of people with too loud horns were funny...but making people panic to that extent seems counter productive.
The supercharger kit I liked has been discontinued. Oh well. Turbos are more efficient and there's more power under the curve. I just hate those whooshy sounds everyone loves so much. The use of premium oil products and shortened intervals is not cool.
I'm nearing that point at which I've invested so much time that I may as well keep it forever.