Then there were three cars, ...am I becoming a redneck? Options

[cobas]

Been a while.... long story short, I still have my Elantra GT now with 155k+ miles. It has a few minor issues like a spot of rust on the hatch door, a broken third gear synchro and a sunroof that doesn't know when to stop. But I still take care of it; just installed pads and rotors all the way around (StopTech kit with slotted front rotors!), changed the oil, etc, and I take it out now and then.

Five years ago I got a 2011 Volkswagen GTI DSG and kept the Elantra because the GTI wasn't so rock-solid reliable, had a tiny trunk, and because the DSG, turbo and throttle lag got on my nerves enough that I still wanted to drive a N/A stickshift Elantra once or twice a week. Well a year ago I finally had enough of the DSG and started shopping for used manual-transmission GTIs. But... then I drove a '15 GTI manual and... oh damnit. So now I have a '15 GTI manual with the performance pack and several more years of car payments left. It's bone stock because it came with 220hp, 258lb-ft and a limited-slip diff, I'm happy and not crazy enough to want more.

A few months ago I started thinking that it's probably time to sell my Elantra. It doesn't get used enough to justify it aging in my driveway, or the registration and insurance costs and I generally don't need/want two cars anymore. So after some pondering, last week I finally....uh... bought a third car.

This is where it gets a little weird / sidetracked... I came across an auction for a 2000 Volvo V70 SE, abandoned at an airport, going for $150, which seemed obscenely low even for a FWD automatic in 'unknown' condition, so I bid like $250 and I was pretty surprised to win the auction at $206. I rented a U-Haul with a tow dolly, recruited a friend and got the lump home. To make a long story short... well, not that short: someone installed the wrong kind of battery in it and decided to install the battery on its side. There was battery acid everywhere. It degraded the plastic transmission selector linkage, and sitting in a parking lot for an extended period corroded the selector lever enough that it was stuck and broke the linkage the next time someone tried to pull it out of Park. They probably figured Car Value < New Transmission or racked up enough parking fines to forfeit the car. Who knows. Anyway it turned out to start, run and even drive (sort of) once the linkage was fixed and a new battery installed. I drove it to the inspection station where it failed miserably: broken front sway bar links, worn ball joints, worn brake rotors, leaking CV boots, broken exhaust hangers, missing exhaust tip, dim headlamps, burned tag light, broken engine mounts, the 3-4 shift flares when warm... so... sure, it's not worth getting fixed. ("Did you just buy this? You should try to return it..." -Inspector) But is it worth fixing myself? I haven't done ball joints before but everything else seems pretty feasible. The shift flare seems like a $30 part and an hour of work rather than a rebuild kind of problem. The best part is, if you read the rules, ball joints, brakes, exhaust repairs and all the not-race-related bulbs are exempt from the $500 total limit for 24 Hours of Lemons cars.

Isn't that interesting.

[Bobzilla]

Gotta love accidentally winning an auction

[popeye]

We'll need all the deets on the rebuild and then a race report!

[2000J25SP]

I currently own five vehicles, I'm not a redneck. I'm about to get rid of two though.

[elantragt]

Nice to see you're still out there, Enrique.

[cobas]

I don't know; I've gone camping out to WV and as you drive out there you start to see more and more cars in driveways, including ones that are clearly 'works in progress.' Some would call that redneck but you know.... these are my people. Well in that way, at least.

We'll need all the deets on the rebuild and then a race report!

Heh, ok, well it's taking much longer than I thought. I thought about 3D printing the transmission linkage, but then I found an eyehole bolt at Home Depot and some hose clamps that would do the job. A new battery later the wagon was driving around. The sway bar endlinks were broken; one of them must've caught on the control arm and bent into an L-shape and then shredded the CV boot and yanked the ABS cable off its bracket, just to give you an idea of the neglect here. I replaced the links and it rides less like a boat now, more like a real car.

So far I've replaced all the brake rotors, the sway bar endlinks, a tire, wipers, both control arms, both CV axles, a couple of exhaust hangers and installed the missing exhaust tip. When I removed the rear brake discs I found... a drum mechanism! Inside the rotor. It was the parking brake. From the looks of it, nobody noticed it existed ever before. So I replaced those shoes and got that adjusted right. This model has so many drivetrain variations: 2.4L, 2.4 Turbo, 2.3 Turbo, FWD, AWD, Manual, Automatic... I ordered the wrong axles. Twice. I should mention I found a shop at an Air Force base nearby that rents out lifts (so nice...), tools and even does work with custom / customer parts at reasonable rates if you're not in a hurry. However, last time I used a lift it was a type I hadn't used before and I didn't put enough shims on the legs. So it partly lifted the car from the centerline and cracked the exhaust. That's getting welded next week. Sigh. The tag light wires in the back were melted, so I spliced some new wire in. The gear indicator took 20 minutes to assemble correctly. Got new wipers and a new tire and it's almost ready for inspection (good thing; the tags are expired!) Now it has some Idle Air Valve OBD code that probably won't pass emissions inspection. (it idles fine...?)

The bad news is I'm not sure the transmission issue is so minor. The hotter it gets (stuck in traffic) the slower the shifts are, to where several seconds pass between gears, which is very unnerving. I drained/filled a gallon of fluid and nothing improved. I could drain/fill more, and I do have a servo cover that's supposed to fix a 3-4 shift flare and I haven't installed yet. But I'm a little worried of screwing that up and gaining nothing even if I don't. So... this may not be destined for LeMons, but it's a huge wagon. Might be a good beater or furniture hauler or something. Sunroof works, heated seats work, the stereo sounds pretty awesome. I mean... I REALLY don't need THREE cars now...