poltergeist vehicles

Finally. Proof that this old beater truck is possessed. It makes bad noises, is ugly as sin, & acts like an angry honey badger is eating it's face off from inside it's skull. Most of the accessories are missing or don't work. The black paint is so faded it looks like primer now. It's a 1 ton 4 wheel drive workhorse though. Ya' gotta love such a beast. Who else has a beat up old vehicle that still runs?

Hubby wants to know how old it is. The modern ones have those darn irreplaceable computers that drive us up the wall.

However, yours lacks Hubby's Millennial Anti-theft Protection System - AKA manual transmission!

The blow-by on my '02 cummins is getting near terminal.. thanks to some asshole before me who chipped it and turned it up.. it's only got around 600,000km on it.

An issue with the front driveshaft means you will shake to bits if you go over 95. Been that way my entire ownership, no plans to fix any time soon..

Heat is stuck on defrost, dash is out, instrument lights stuck on veeery low..

Pickup body disintegrating from cracks and failed welds.. exhaust is bent badly from when the PO let it roll backwards down a hill..

Bush bumper has ovaled the mounting holes and wobbles.. grill front attached with wishful thinking.. cab leaks..


But it starts instantly in the dead of winter, has a 6spd, and it'll still pull 16,000lbs at the same 95km it does empty, so..

We don't get out and about much (probably doing c.3000 miles a year now including business use for the shop). The last time we went South of the border to Englandshire was to my sister in law's wedding a year BC (before Covid).  When we got to our lunchtime motorway stop it occurred to me that we were driving the oldest car we had seen (a 1990s Volvo estate called Agnetha) and it hadn't even occurred to me previously that she was old! She runs perfectly, is quiet and frugal, and other than a parking scrape (Mea Culpa!) is in perfect shape bodywise. Our newest car at the moment is a 2001 Skoda Fabia (Pippa) which gets 40mpg (UK).
Our tattiest working vehicle (not road legal however) is one of our Discovery 2's. (as yet unnamed, generally referred to as the 'croft Disco') We stripped all the interior trim out bar the front seats, it's missing a headlamp, which was sold to repair someone's road vehicle, and both bumpers, however it's fine to run up and down the hill to pick up firewood, or tow one of the vehicle patients about. We've put a frame on the back floor to support wood for cutting prior to loading.

To me, older vehicles are great.

Mike, is your poltergeist vehicle a gas or diesel vehicle?

As long as regular maintenance is done many vehicles have a lot of miles left.

We have a diesel that is over 20 years old that was bought new and a gasser that is over 10 years and was used but like new when bought.

The paint on both of them is shot due to cedar trees though the interiors are almost like almost new.

Only one is street legal though they both get driven.

I remember as a kid the interior of the vehicle sometimes was really bad even though the vehicle still ran.

Why buy a new vehicle if the one you have runs great?

Well lets see;
My work car is a 2000 Subaru outback wagon,   317,000 miles, original engine, stick shift, faded paint, rt ft fender has had 3 deer bounce off.
We live on gravel roads so interior's are filthy,  It starts every time and I would hop in it today and drive it to key west, Florida or Caribou, Maine  as needed.
My daily driver pickup is a 1974 Ford high boy 4x4, If it is tuned up, it get a record setting 8 MPG... not tuned up around 5MPG,  Most of it works, lights are iffy.  Heater is stuck on defrost, windshield has more cracks than a spider web.
Tires are will pops although I do have 2 brand new ones in the shed. I need to find replacement rims as it is still wearing old style split rims.
The tire shop refuses to mount split rims anymore... the dogs!
Then there is the 1953 chevy 1 ton, the 1939 chevy dump truck,  Can't forget my 1980 Subaru  dirt track race car. Have a 1968 chevy Implala SS  sitting on a trailer...
Then there is the pride of the fleet  our 2000 Subaru outback wagon.   barely broken in with a mere 197,000 miles.
This is our newest car...  
I have a real issue with the newer stuff.      $70,000 for a pickup truck???   Recalls every few months and a life expectancy of 5-7 years...
My home and land cost $27,000 I refuse to buy a throw away vehicle for more money than my land...

One summer in college (mid 90s) I worked at a camp for Fresh Air Fund kids, up near the Canadian border in upstate NY. I ran the horseback riding part and as such I had access to a pickup- a late-50s Studebaker. Minimal brakes, and the clutch was also mostly kaput... But with some attention and a lot of patience I somehow managed to haul things in it, and the Baker even was part of the wee town's Fourth of July parade (mostly hunting camps and log roads up there, street legal was not even a consideration). I loved that truck.

I now have a 1981/2 Fiat 147, which is maybe possessed but in a Casper the Friendly Ghost sort of way (although it sure rattles like there are a fleet of poltergeists in there....). We tweaked the motor when we rebuilt it though, and it's capable of fun things, although I need to remember it will probably shake itself apart if I go too fast.

We have a 1997 dodge cummins with a 12 valve p pump.  It is my dream truck.  It only has 180 thousand on it.  We only put maybe 2000 miles on it a year now.  It got a new intercooler thanks to a deer.  The air conditioning don't work due to the deer putting a hole somewhere.  The cruise control only makes it go faster.  The heater fan switch broke so it has a big power switch mounted next to the trailer brake assembly.  It is stuck on defrost. The drivers seat is torn and loosing stuffing.  It has severe brine rust on the body.  I sprayed the bottom with sheep wool oil when I got it. The frame and mechanicals are solid.  It got me 21 mpg with the 4wheeler and hunting gear in the back a couple weeks ago.  Last weekend I hooked to a 20,000 lb goose neck full of wood and ran it 24 miles to my dads house.  Wow them cummins pull.  It doesn't even leave a smoke trail.  

It out pulls and gets between 4-5 mpg better than my dads 2017.  I often wonder how loosing 25% efficiency helps emissions.  It cost 18,000 new in 1997, now to replace it it would be about 80,000. Back in 1997 I could buy one with what was left over after paying life expenditures from my engineering wage per year.  Now it would take 2 full years of nothing but paying for the truck being a senior engineer.  Why would I ever work that hard to buy something less efficient is beyond my thinking.

Upholstery you say? hmmm I guess it was at one time. Hard to tell under so much dust. Perhaps the previous user leaving the windows down in thunderstorms didn't help matters. The headliner has disintegrated into nothingness. A door panel is best described as floppy & half torn off. Missing only one arm rest so that's a plus. No springs are visible through the seat so far. Big cracks in the dashboard. The tach bounces all over the place. Somewhere between 2 & 6 rpm. Might just need some calibration. Yea, that's it.

Wasn't sure what year it is so looked at the door tag. Was very faded but I think it says 1992. Hasn't been on the road in several years but it probably could be registered again since there is no state inspection required. All the lights might still work. Don't know about the horn. Wipers work but turn off only when they want to. Tires might need replacing to be safe on the road. Not too worried about the power steering being replaced with 30 weight oil due to leaks. The 30 weight "fixed" it. The brake pedal going to within a millimeter of the floor is a bigger concern. Although it does stop good, at least up until now. A mechanic said don't worry about the rattling & grinding noise the brakes were making for a while. He said it probably just ate a small rock from a water crossing. Recently it starting making a thunk thump thump rattling sound over bumps. Which means every inch of the trails it is used on. It hasn't seen pavement in years. Not sure if the transmission is ready to drop off or what. It doesn't sound too good though. The bouncy exhaust is an entirely different rattle.

It starts consistently unless the battery cable is loose again. Vice grips solve that problem because the bolts were rounded off long ago. Sometimes it belches smoke when it first starts. As long as it keeps hauling stuff to the garden, yanking the mower out of deep mud, & towing heavy trailers it's all good.

I finally had to get rid of an undead car a few years ago. 1981 Volvo sedan. I got it free from a guy who said the mechanics told him it was dead. I got it running, and kept it going for 10 years. Toward the end it got towed so many times the tow truck drivers would pull up "Hi Pearl! Taking it home or to the shop?" "Home" "Still got that trench in your driveway? I hate that trench!" "Yeah I know, but it keeps the house from flooding..."  and it would go home, and in a week or so be out running around again.

The shop it went to when I was lost sent it home dead more than once, I'd drive it over there when it was running again "What did you DO?!" I looked at it differently...  Blew the timing belt once, I was really sick, sent it to the shop. They sent it home dead, said everyone in the place had put the belt on, still wouldn't run. I looked at it, needed to know where TDC was on that car, so I opened the distributor up, the rotor had sheared off (probably when the belt broke) and because they all KNEW where TDC was, none of them had opened it. I put in a $9.00 rotor, it ran fine.

That car was well known by the cops, as I'm a dumpster diver "Who's back behind that building at 4 AM?" spotlight hits my car "oh, it's just her, she's not a problem." I put a weird roof rack on it, hauled all kinds of stuff on it. Had a trunk that would carry anything.

I miss it terribly.  

A fun variant on poltergeist vehicles is vehicles only you can start. I'm notorious for them.

My 1987 Dodge truck has a short, I have a good guess where, but it's not an easy fix. I disconnect the battery when I leave it for more than 20 mins or so. Good theft deterrent. Doesn't bug me. Even when the battery is on though, you have to hold this thing in place, turn the key, and move the steering wheel just right to start it. Works for me. Don't know why anyone else can't do it, even when told how to :D

Another car was pretty normal, someone needed it moved one day, I handed him the key. He came back "it won't start" "oh, sorry, that light switch on the dashboard... turn the key to just before the ignition, flip the switch, count to 5, start the car, count to 5, turn the switch off." He came back "It started. What is all that?" "Manually triggered fuel injector that gives it an extra shot of gas. Use it when the air temperature is below 50." Naturally... :D

I was traveling in a VW bus, stopped at a rest area, it wouldn't start as I was going to leave. Walked over to chat with someone before I fixed it, (I knew what the problem was) leaving my keys in it. Next time I looked, someone was trying to start it. I wandered back, turned out to be a very sad story, an older lady who did NOT want to go back to where she was living, had jumped out of her daughter's car on the freeway, and gotten to the rest area. Her son in law was trying to keep her calm until help could arrive. I told him "I can't start it, there is NO WAY she can." It kept her busy until help arrived. I felt so bad for her. But I knew there was no way she could start it, so I wasn't concerned about that at all.  

I consider my bizarre car starting problems a feature, not a bug, no one can steal my cars easily!

Pearl, here in Brazil we pay good money for those types of low-cost anti-theft features!!

My Fiat is uninsurable and sort of rare, so it's got two. One is a button you need to hit 30 seconds after you turn the car on, or after the doors open, otherwise the fuel pump turns off and you're dead in the water.  
The other, more fun one, is a wingnut screwed under where the glove box would be (if this car actually had such fripperies). Turn it one way, and you have a circuit for the battery to start the car. Don't turn it, or turn it the other way, and the car is just a rather smelly Italian paperweight.

Not to even mention shifting the darn thing: reverse practically requires a blood sacrifice. I told my kid, you learn to drive this car, you can drive anything.

Since we are talking older vehicles, I hope this is not too off-topic.  Has anyone had problems with windshield wiper blades?  The rubber just dies after a few uses.

The windshield wiper on both vehicles are shot though we decided not to replace them just to use them one time.

Has anyone found a trick to replacing them?

Hahahaha mine is a 97 F150. "Betty". Wires have been run in odd places to bypass faults in the main cable loom, I had to cut a hole into the tunnel to fix my transfer case shifter, pretty much all plastic panels have been off so many times they are now stored under the back seat, more scratched than blue anymore...

Recently I decided to replace all the front end stuff and stick some new shocks on her, replace the rear brakes and actually get an alignment done. Damn thing hasn't run right since.

This one is newer than I'd like, by a few years - '04. And small! But, Flo (short for Florida) has been a real workhorse! She needs transmission work - feels like only an adjustment, honestly - it's just slipping a little, and (because she's sat for a year and a half) new tires. Otherwise, this little beauty can(top down) haul 6 - 8 square bales of hay or straw, 150lbs of feed, 50# of oyster shells (chicken minerals), me, Charlie, my rather comprehensive emergency kit, and 2 weeks worth of groceries!

Some folks think her back seat is too small, but Charlie, Kola, and I all love my little Sebring convertible!! I just need to get that tranny looked at, because that is beyond my abilities.

My old Volvo had 180k miles on the clock, no problems except after starting her you had to turn the key back about 1/4 turn. If you didn't the only thing you would notice inside is the ABS light would be on. But none of the non critical electrics would be working, no lights, windows... took a while to figure the trick out.
My present car is a Renault megan with 290,000 km on the clock, runs fine, other than 2 CV joints that are shot (but have been for 4 years) only 2 of the electric windows work and all the rear electrics (windscreen wiper, rear demist, and top brake light) work when they want to and not otherwise. She'll probably fail her next test I'm sure there's more wrong with the suspension that I don't notice.

My husband drove his 1988 Chevy S-10 pickup for 30 years before it finally gave up.

original miles

No major repairs and he was pleased to say it never leaked oil. He thought about trying to repair it, but it sat in the yard for another 3 years before someone bought it as a project vehicle and towed it off.

thomas rubino wrote:Well lets see;
My work car is a 2000 Subaru outback wagon,   317,000 miles, original engine, stick shift, faded paint, rt ft fender has had 3 deer bounce off.

YES, Subaru's are unstoppable!! Mine is a 2001 Legacy wagon stick shift with no dash lights that my previous dog redecorated to suit her tastes. In other words, she removed a good portion of the door interiors. The outside actually looks great even after a quarter of a million miles and she runs and runs and runs. Our other awesome rig is an '03 Ram 1 ton diesel with 281k miles on it. Just rebuilt the transfer case ourselves. It's looking a little rough on the outside after I've battered it with hay bales, wood chips, and garden soil but it is still my dream truck!  

I have a 1989 Toyota HiLo 4x4 truck. It’s got over 168,000 miles on it, and I bought it at auction for $4000 without knowing if it was driveable. I only had to spend another $300 to fix a few things so it was a good deal considering the used car market right now. It’s exactly what I wanted - something old and reliable that I don’t have to worry about. I’ve hauled giant bales of hay, compost, lumber, and a whole lot of materials from the Habitat for Humanity Restore. I love it!!

There are a few issues. The speedometer is broken (look close and you can see that the pointer is missing). The emergency brake doesn’t work, but the light comes on at random to freak me out while I’m on the highway. The aftermarket cassette player and radio don’t work. Shifting into first gear is challenging because the stick shift is so loose. The air conditioning doesn’t work. The passenger has to roll down the window to open their door from the outside, which is no fun because the knobs have fallen off the window cranks.

Ahh, old vehicles!

Our farm truck is an old Tundra that had been a plow and salt truck for awhile. AC doesn't do anything, body is rusty and dented absolutely everywhere. Re-framed like many northern Toyotas. The exhaust pipe was hanging off it when I bought it, although the seller was a parts manager for a local Toy dealer and had a bunch of exhausts sitting around that people had taken off their brand-new trucks to put loud pipes on. That was a nice freebie with it. I think it was actually off a tacoma, but our welder is a genius and managed to adapt it somehow. It's a half ton truck but we've had absurd amounts of heavy stuff in it and it's never complained. Someone must have upgraded the suspension in the past.

Current project is a prius we bought for $1200 because the previous owner took off a coolant line to replace a headlight bulb, forgot to reattach it, and fell asleep in the passenger seat while his daughter drove it down the turnpike with no coolant...

We got something like 14 years out of a $200 Caprice. I still miss that car, it was like driving a cloud! It had its own unique anti theft feature, it always started on the 4th try. I think the carb bowl ran dry overnight and it had to pump fuel all the way from the next area code (this was a wagon, so the tank was waaaaaay in the back) before it would fire.

We also had a heroic unstoppable 87 maxima that went to the salvage - under its own power - after 21 years due to terminal rust. I knew it was time when I had a flat tire and the jack kept going through the unibody instead of lifting the car. It always started, unless it had rained and water got into the ignition system. After awhile I learned to use the Caprice when it was raining.

Charles Rehoboth wrote:Ahh, old vehicles!

Our farm truck is an old Tundra that had been a plow and salt truck for awhile. AC doesn't do anything, body is rusty and dented absolutely everywhere. Re-framed like many northern Toyotas. The exhaust pipe was hanging off it when I bought it, although the seller was a parts manager for a local Toy dealer and had a bunch of exhausts sitting around that people had taken off their brand-new trucks to put loud pipes on. That was a nice freebie with it. I think it was actually off a tacoma, but our welder is a genius and managed to adapt it somehow. It's a half ton truck but we've had absurd amounts of heavy stuff in it and it's never complained. Someone must have upgraded the suspension in the past.

Current project is a prius we bought for $1200 because the previous owner took off a coolant line to replace a headlight bulb, forgot to reattach it, and fell asleep in the passenger seat while his daughter drove it down the turnpike with no coolant...

We got something like 14 years out of a $200 Caprice. I still miss that car, it was like driving a cloud! It had its own unique anti theft feature, it always started on the 4th try. I think the carb bowl ran dry overnight and it had to pump fuel all the way from the next area code (this was a wagon, so the tank was waaaaaay in the back) before it would fire.

We also had a heroic unstoppable 87 maxima that went to the salvage - under its own power - after 21 years due to terminal rust. I knew it was time when I had a flat tire and the jack kept going through the unibody instead of lifting the car. It always started, unless it had rained and water got into the ignition system. After awhile I learned to use the Caprice when it was raining.

You win! Lol, what a string of rigs

I and my husband still miss the 1990 chevy 1500 we had.  We put over 250,000 miles on that truck. I bought it new for $16,000 so I know for sure how many miles were on it. The tranny finally failed. My hubby decided he was going to turn it into an electric truck and was hauling it to our shop building ( we lived in a big hill in Arkansas at the time with 200 feet of rise in our half mile driveway) when the chain snapped and the truck probably hit about 35 miles per hour when it hit the tree center of the front grill.  

We are still driving the 1999 F-350 one ton with a flat bed. That 7.3 liter diesel keeps on going as long as you keep making sure to check the oil.  I keep promising that truck that if I win some money I will totatlly rebuild it.  It has at least 340,000 miles on it. The odometer doesn't work quite right so the miles are higher than the odometer.  Can't turn tight, leave the biggest doughnut but it keeps running.  We bought it when it had about 110,000 miles on it.  

We have bought a box truck to hopefully take the place of the 99 F-350. Isuzu 2007. My hubby had to replace the head gasket, but he keeps telling me how much easier it is to work on commercial trucks.  It does turn tighter than the F-350 and has been running great since we got the head gasket replaced. Picked it up for $8500.  Way cheaper than buying a pick up truck. It can haul 2.5 ton.  No CDL required. I don't mind driving it. I use it to pick up the spent brewers grains we feed our animals. I usually pick up at least a ton at a time.

Oh and if you don't have US rider vehicle roadside  service, consider it.  I was worried I would need to upgrade or something because we got a truck that could haul more, but US rider said don't worry we will tow your truck and provide our services as long as you are in the vehicle!   They have towed my F-350 with a four horse trailer with living quarters ( 8 foot short wall) without a problem and then helped us find a place to stay with our horses until we could get our truck fixed and called to check on us to make sure we were okay.  They take car of your car too.

I may still take the box off the Isuzu and remove the lift gate. Then i will have a kick but flat bed and I will put a trailer hitch on it.  

My husband's Honda CRV died so he is now driving the F-350.   The CRV had about 240,000 on it. We are probably going to put a new engine in it.

Anne Miller wrote:Since we are talking older vehicles, I hope this is not too off-topic.  Has anyone had problems with windshield wiper blades?  The rubber just dies after a few uses.

The windshield wiper on both vehicles are shot though we decided not to replace them just to use them one time.

Has anyone found a trick to replacing them?

I know it's been a while since this thread's been posted in so I hope I'm not guilty of thread necromancy (older vehicles, older thread ), but I saw Anne's question hadn't been answered and wanted to chime in:

Get full silicone wipers. I can't speak to longevity of other brands, but in 2017 I put PIAA Super Silicone blades on my wife's car, and they were still working well when we traded it in earlier this year; and we're in north Texas where we're doing good to get more than a year or 2 out of the rubber ones because of the sun (car was never garaged and only parked under cover for a couple of those years). At the time PIAA were the only full silicone wipers I could find, but it looks like they may be more common now. In addition to the longevity, another benefit is they make the water bead up on your windshield, just like Rain-X.