Do the work or cut your losses?

Both of a friend's daily drivers have developed serious mechanical issues--his 2005 Windstar will only move in reverse and his wife's 2006 Equinox V6 has is now constantly overheating. Both vehicles are in rough shape cosmetically and worth maybe $3-4K. The Windstar is paid for and a rebuilt trans is in the cards. The obvious cooling system problems have been ruled out on the Equinox, it's going to need new intake and head gaskets plus head machining. The Equinox will cost more to fix, but my friend is still making payments on it. He doesn't have the cash to fix both vehicles. Have any advice for an inexpensive way to fix the Ford trans or the overheating GM 3.4 V6? Or is it time to ditch both cars and start again?

I have never heard good things about either of the two cars mentioned. With the ford just get a junkyard trans. idk about the equicrap though

If he doesn't have the cash to fix both, I would say fix the one you're stuck with on account of still making payments on it.

Hard as it might be, he really ought to cut and run. There's no money in either car, spending money on them would be a waste and just postponing the inevitable.

These days, with everything out there and all of the deals in place, he needs to cut his losses now and shop MUCH smarter in the future.

Seriously ! ! !

Cut the losses. If the windstar is in rough shape it wouldn't be worth 4K around here. The equinox... Maybe... Maybe.

The 1700 it is going to cost to rebuild the tranny in the windstar isn't worth it. Ours had 160K miles and was in great shape when the tranny popped and I called it. No matter what you do you still have a windstar.

What do they owe on the chevy?

$3K I think? They haven't called for quotes on a rebuild yet because their go-to shops are closed for the holidays, but I'm sure it will be $1,500 or more for the head gasket work.

Moroso makes some E36 M3 called "ceramic seal" that will stop the equinox from overheating for a couple thousand miles. We used it in my sister's Caddy Northstar and it made the car useable until she could afford to fix it properly. By then we just put an engine in it because it was cheaper and easier than it would have been to R&R the heads

You can also use Ceramic Motor Seal:

http://www.irontite.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1

It's worth a shot to at least give you some time to figure up an action plan.

For the Ford, That seems to be a pretty common tranny issue and the front pump is probably gone.

I've had good luck with the Moroso stuff in a few stock cars.

What kind of hit would they take on the Chevy with all the ignition woes still fresh in people's minds? Oi!

Windstar transmissions are legendary for failing. Buying used is a real crap shoot.

Late windstars had the best available ford fwd transmission. However, it was still inadequate for the torque and weight of the windstars. It was pretty decent in the duratec Taurus and acceptable in the continental and V8 SHO.

I would almost bet that the equinox is just the intake gasket issue and not head gaskets. Those engines are terrible for that. Do a compression check. If the numbers are good, throw an intake set on it and ditch the Windstar.

M030 wrote: Moroso makes some E36 M3 called "ceramic seal" that will stop the equinox from overheating for a couple thousand miles.

If the Equinox is a 3100/3400, training the engine to run low on coolant will result in an air pocket around the front cylinder on the rear bank that will never clear itself. The only way to get the air out is to pull the cooling system under a vacuum.

I've never seen one eat a had gasket in a location other than that cylinder, and I only ever see it happen on perpetually neglected cars. That's the good news. The bad news is, the head gasket sometimes isn't a very good fuse, and the block cracks at one of the head bolt holes.

On both of these, MAKE SURE IT IS PROPERLY DIAGNOSED. Sorry for yelling, but I have scored SO many dirt cheap cars this way. Someone advertises "slipping transmission," you would be shocked how many times I handed over $500, dumped in a quart of ATF, and drove off. I'm not saying your friend hasn't checked his fluid level or skipped purging an air pocket in the coolant, but it all bears a little shadetree mechanic-ing. Has he or someone pulled the trans pan on the Windstar to check for a plugged filter? The filter/gasket kit is about $15 and 5 quarts of Merc V is $20.

on the 3.4L, has someone verified that both fans are coming on? Has someone done a coolant pressure test to verify its actually a bad head gasket? Other dumb-ass reasons I have scored a cheap car were because the coolant temp sensor was bad or the wire was pulled off.

I guess we can't really know without more info. I have owned a ton of 3k-4k cars, and the problem is, if you skip out on a $300 repair, the car is only worth $500. If he really has zero money, he has no choice - sell them both for $500 each. If he has $300, replace the Windstar tranny with a warrantied junkyard one and drive it. 3.4L needs proper diagnosing.

In general, I almost always do the work. I could not sleep at night if I let a $4k car go for $500 simply because I was too lazy to fully diagnose it. Now... if I've fully diagnosed it and realized it needs $3k worth of parts, that's a different story.

Just as motivation for your friend... I scored this 62 Caddy for $1500 because the guy "tried everything and it wouldn't run." I gave him $1500, put the loose distributor cap back on, and drove it out of his driveway with him chasing after me.

In reply to curtis73:

Great story (unless you loosened the cap). Cool old caddy.

In reply to curtis73:

Presumably when going to buy a car advertised as not being drivable, one would also have a means of getting it home as such...Why not just load it up and trailer it away, before fixing it?

In reply to Driven5:

Likely because a 62 Cadillac would seriously load most trailers close to their limits.

A deal is a deal.

Scored many cars for cheap because of what I know and what there owners don't. I use to feel bad about it but realized that they would probably would do the same to me.

best was a 944s2 that was supposed to have a bad clutch or trans. Tightened the bolt on the shifter rod where it connects to the trans linkage and drove it on the trailer. The issue here is this connection is hidden in a rubber boot so you can not see that it is slipping.

I lied a little saying I had manually put it in gear to get it to drive. But I thought the trans still needed replacement. I left very happy and they were happy to be rid of there problem.

Thanks for the detailed info and advice, everyone.

curtis73 wrote: On both of these, MAKE SURE IT IS PROPERLY DIAGNOSED.

I've checked in with my friend and he said that the Windstar was towed from where it failed straight to the mechanic. The shop said it needs a new trans, the job would run about $1,500, and that as it sits the van wasn't worth investing the money. My friend doesn't know what steps they took to make the diagnosis.

The Equinox has had drivability issues for about two months. It ran really rough and made no power so he replaced the plugs, wires and then the coil pack. He couldn't get the #1 plug out because of the asinine arrangement of the engine bay, and he said it felt like the previous owner cross threaded it. ODB2 was still recording a missfire at #1, but he said he could live with it.

Then it started overheating. On a cold start, the temp gauge starts to swing toward the redline after about 10 minutes of driving--while outdoor temps are in the 30-50s. Replaced the water pump, thermostat and flushed the radiator with no avail. Coolant overflow tank smells like gasoline inside, and the oil filler cap looks like it has a coating of fudge pudding. The intake gasket on the V6 shows signs of having been replaced already by the previous owner. So though it hasn't had a proper diagnosis by a mechanic, it's showing all the signs of needing $erious work.

nderwater wrote: The shop said it needs a new trans, the job would run about $1,500, and that as it sits the van wasn't worth investing the money. My friend doesn't know what steps they took to make the diagnosis.

$1500 is most likely for a junkyard trans. We usually get $2200-2500 for a rebuild with labor. As always, you get what you pay for.

I can't see any vehicle not being worth $1500 to keep it from being scrapped unless it was in really, really sad shape, and this is just the final nail in the coffin.

The Equinox has had drivability issues for about two months. It ran really rough and made no power so he replaced the plugs, wires and then the coil pack. He couldn't get the #1 plug out because of the asinine arrangement of the engine bay, and he said it felt like the previous owner cross threaded it. ODB2 was still recording a missfire at #1, but he said he could live with it.

Which engine is it?

On the other hand, anybody who feels they can live with a misfire is going to destroy any vehicle they come across. Best to not offer to work on any of their cars...

Windstars shear the pump drive on the input shaft. If, as noted earlier, the simple stuff has been checked and eliminated, the pump drive shaft is the most likely culprit. If the owner can pull the tranny himself (it's a pretty big piece), it might be worth doing.

In reply to Jerry From LA:

I have a 99 (iirc) windstar in my driveway at the moment with a totally dead tranny.

It had a "Check Transmission" light pop on a couple times during the last few hot days of last summer. Ran fine all winter and then just up and let go.

Granted the thing probably needs rebuilt, but is the pump easy to get to on that thing? Possibly just do a pump swap and have it running again.

There are a buttload of tutorials on the usual places all over the net. Watch out for who is doing the work, though. One guy practically disassembles the entire tranny before he checked the input shaft. There's also a list of troubleshooting symptoms floating around as well. The weakest link in that tranny is the pump drive.

Sorry about your buddy's bad luck. If it really needs a trans, I definitely squish the Windstar asap if it was me. No point in paying insurance on it. Do a quick CL search and you'll see a bunch of non-runners that aren't selling for $500, and clean runners with the trans replaced for $1500 - $2k.

Side note: Did they even make the Windstar in 05?