FIL wrecked his car, might be a good thing

[cute fuzzy bunny]

And of course check and make sure all the recalls have been performed.

Has that naughty ford cruise control been recalled in the '93/'94 tauri yet or is ford still waiting for enough of them to burst into flames?

 

[Walt34]

You might want to know when the coolant was last changed. If it gets old then the water pump seals start leaking. (But if you have real winter then you probably also have people who actually winterize their vehicles.) We've also had age-related troubles with air conditioning heat exchangers. And every piece of plastic inside the passenger compartment is turning to crap, but that's probably a characteristic of all Ford vehicles!

I did look at the coolant hoses and the top one felt soft so (assuming it passes inspection) just out of general principles I'll have those replaced along with the heater hoses and new anti-freeze. It does have a new serpentine belt, tires, exhaust system, and PS pump. The seller had a lot done to it to get it registered in his name in May but due to a quirk in MD law it has to be inspected again to get registered to another owner.

And the inner door panel is loose on one corner so I'll ask what fastener failed for that, and if that costs too much a bit of epoxy will hold it. That was the only defect I could see on it. Otherwise it seems in better condition than most cars that old. Carfax came back clean on it, it was bought new locally which corroborates the seller's story.

The plastic parts falling apart I think happens on just about everything, something with the outgassing/chemical aging of plastic. I almost flunked HS chemistry so I don't know much about that stuff.

This car only has to hold together for another year or two and by then I think his driving days will be over. Which leads to the next thread....

 

[Nords]

And the inner door panel is loose on one corner so I'll ask what fastener failed for that, and if that costs too much a bit of epoxy will hold it.

That's a cheap little plastic ring-shank pushpin that auto-parts stores sell by the truckload-- a few bucks for a bag of a dozen.

If you epoxy it, as soon as the bond is cured the window will need work...

CFB's fireball comment is in reference to a contentious cruise-control recall that we should have shared on our vehicles. Many many other Ford models (sharing the same cruise control equipment) have experienced fires from spontaneous failure/ignition of the cruise control's circuitry, even when the vehicle's parked in the garage. Ford has put out a humongous recall that seems to be restricted to certain [-]cheap to fix[/-] models & years [-]owned by especially litigious lawyers[/-] with [-]lots of stonewalling[/-] no clear discussion of the components or the scope of the recall.

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/anyone-fixed-cruise-control-before-21172.html

FOXNews.com - Ford to Recall 3.6 Million Vehicles Due to Fire Risk - Business And Money | Business News | Financial News

Our cruise control works once or twice a year for about a week. That age of model doesn't have a standard ODB-II port so I've given up trying to fix it.