Death knell of a Rio, likely the end of its run Options

[bhorste]

Last night we made a family run to the grocery store to get some stuff. When we pulled into the driveway and stopped by the side door to unload, my wife looks over at me (we took her car) and asks "the brake pedal's not supposed to go to the floor, is it?" Well, no, hon... it's not. Unloaded the car, got everything and everyone inside the house and then I pulled the car into the garage for her (and so I can try to figure out what happened). As I'm walking back to the house I notice a puddle on the driveway. You guessed it: brake fluid.

Head back out to the garage, pop the hood and check the master cylinder: bone dry. Not a big surprise. Everything under the hood looks dry, though. No leak up here.

Fire up the compressor and pull off the LF wheel. Nothing looks too bad in here, either. But wait... I think I see a drip back there...

Put the wheel back on, drop it down and take the trouble light farther back. Ah, yes... here we are. The leak. Seems that at least one of the solid lines back to the rear wheels rusted through and finally popped when she stopped last night. I can't tell which one it is, but they're both corroded pretty badly. Certainly more trouble than the car's worth to try and fix it myself.

So now the search is on for a new vehicle. Likely going to be a minivan, what with 2 growing kids and all. That Rio is/was a pretty decent little bucket.

[Plain Jane]

I come from a family that swore by the Caravan for a number of years. My folks owned an '88 Voyager, a '91 Caravan, a '94 Caravan SE (10th anniversary model, real slick) and an '03. They're beasts of burden who aren't afraid to work. Very simple and plainly designed and engineered, but reliable and tireless. If your T&C is anything like that, she'll keep your family safe and trouble free for years. Congrats on the buy and sorry to see the Rio go. I'm sure she served her purpose well.

This post has been edited by Plain Jane: Dec 20 2014, 11:57 AM

[bhorste]

I come from a family that swore by the Caravan for a number of years. My folks owned an '88 Voyager, a '91 Caravan, a '94 Caravan SE (10th anniversary model, real slick) and an '03. They're beasts of burden who aren't afraid to work. Very simple and plainly designed and engineered, but reliable and tireless. If your T&C is anything like that, she'll keep your family safe and trouble free for years. Congrats on the buy and sorry to see the Rio go. I'm sure she served her purpose well.

That it did. In fact, it waited until after she got back from her mom's (with kids in tow) for the brake line to fail. Really thankful for that.

Wouldn't have minded something like an old Mercury Villager (my dad was an engineer for Ford), but they quit building those years ago and you couldn't get me to touch a Windstar with a 10 foot pole. When the old man says they're junk, you listen... especially if he worked for the company that built them.