Dartboy
I actually AM too lazy to Choose a Custom Title
and genera musings on aging cars, mechanical skills and letting go...
My wife's old CR-V, currently being used by my MIL for running around town while our daughter finishes school, then it's getting passed down to her.
2006, ~260K miles. Last Summer, in prep for her taking it to North Carolina, I flushed the tranny fluid, installed new lower control arms and a half-shaft, general tune up, new tires, etc. Maybe $500 invested there. While in NC, she ran over a road sign and cost a couple grand to fix the front end. Probably would have walked away then, but didn't want to try dealing with car shopping from a thousand miles away. Just the other day, I replaced the cat converter ($120 for the third time)
The CEL has come on, indicating a P0341. Doing some research, it seems like this is likely a stretched timing chain. Though possibly it's just a bad VCT actuator or clogged filter (bit of a PITA to replace, $60 part) Also, the transmission is making some pretty bad noises under acceleration, I fear it's not long for this world either.
Interior is in great shape, body is remarkably rust free. I know it's history, I'd like to keep it. Unfortunately, it's looking like it's going to need $2k worth of work. Checking classifieds, I can pick up another with about 1/2 the miles for $4k they look good in pictures, but I haven't actually looked at one to see what condition they're in. Now that we're not paying tuition, we could probably get something a bit newer too.
What to do, what to do
My wife's old CR-V, currently being used by my MIL for running around town while our daughter finishes school, then it's getting passed down to her.
2006, ~260K miles. Last Summer, in prep for her taking it to North Carolina, I flushed the tranny fluid, installed new lower control arms and a half-shaft, general tune up, new tires, etc. Maybe $500 invested there. While in NC, she ran over a road sign and cost a couple grand to fix the front end. Probably would have walked away then, but didn't want to try dealing with car shopping from a thousand miles away. Just the other day, I replaced the cat converter ($120 for the third time)
The CEL has come on, indicating a P0341. Doing some research, it seems like this is likely a stretched timing chain. Though possibly it's just a bad VCT actuator or clogged filter (bit of a PITA to replace, $60 part) Also, the transmission is making some pretty bad noises under acceleration, I fear it's not long for this world either.
Interior is in great shape, body is remarkably rust free. I know it's history, I'd like to keep it. Unfortunately, it's looking like it's going to need $2k worth of work. Checking classifieds, I can pick up another with about 1/2 the miles for $4k they look good in pictures, but I haven't actually looked at one to see what condition they're in. Now that we're not paying tuition, we could probably get something a bit newer too.
What to do, what to do
You just keep tellin' yourself that, Jeff! 
