I wouldn’t give up on this one. It is low mileage and is basically a Toyota. These things run forever and it sounds to be in good shape. Maintain it and keep it that way.
My 1997 F250 Light Duty about convinced me to get rid of it over a minor and simple problem that was quite annoying. I got the truck on trade over 10 years ago and had to put a decent amount of money into it. It came with 278,000 or so on the odometer and that mileage never changed. I assume it has over 300,000 miles on it.
It will likely die due to rust as the engine and transmission seem solid. It is a manual so those seem to last forever unless abused.
I had decided to sell it when it needed $500-1000 in repairs for cheap. I even thought the next time it needed tires would be me excuse to move it along. Along came the pandemic and car prices went nuts and I realized it would be stupid to move something that runs along. I ended up spending several thousand dollars on front end work, a new clutch due to a failed hydraulic cylinder, among other minor issues.
I had been dealing with intermittent starting issues due to failed starters. This went on the better part of two years and mechanics couldn’t figure it out. I couldn’t figure it out. The voltage was always testing good but it wouldn’t start. Luckily I bought a starter with a lifetime warranty, otherwise this would have gotten expensive. It was still inconvenient and I began to wonder if there was a failed computer module or similar but this is still a pretty simple truck. It ended up being a corroded solenoid signal wire. Basically several feet were black and brittle up inside the insulation. It could carry the volts but not the amps to engage the starter.
Anyway, I ended up having a junk boat motor in some junk I have ready to be recycled as scrap. It had some nice heavy marine grade wire that I cut off and used to replace the bad section of wire. This wire is far better than what came on the truck from the factory so I expect it to last the rest of its life.
Basically, small crap like this can drive a person nuts. This is an extra for me so it wasn’t as critical but if this was my daily driver, I probably would have moved it along due to a fix that cost me basically nothing. It was just a lot of hassle and not fun not knowing if the truck was going to start, having to park it where it could be pop started, etc.
Talk about being penny-wise and pound-foolish. Of course, if employee theft is a major problem, then the company isn’t properly screening and training its staff, and/or paying such poor wages that it is impossible to keep people honest.
Every company I have worked for has kept oil and coolant on hand, for employees to top off their truck. Nonetheless, not everyone bothers to check. Last summer, one of our apprentices destroyed the motor in his work truck, a 2007 Toyota Tundra with the V-8 engine, because he ran it out of oil. That truck went to the junkyard with less than 170,000 miles on it.
Just basic management control. All our cars had individual credit cards so gas or other needed items were charged against the car and ultimately the budget the car was assigned to. A little auditing revealed if someone buying too much. Then most places have stock items under wraps and checked out again against particular job tickets or budgets.
Tere’s a village here with a Ford truck from around 2006 (11th gen, just after the switch to the thin box frame) with less than 4000 miles on it. It’s their salt truck and now it’s mostly junk because of rust. I’m actually not sad about this. It deserves what it got.
Although most “reasonable people” don’t measure their cars/engines by hours. The only places I know that do are Government, city, towns, companies with fleets, and of course aviation which has nothing to do with cars.
If the rest of the truck were still in good condition, I would have thought that to be a good candidate for a used engine transplant. Especially if the truck has been upfitted/modified for use as a service vehicle.
I did this with a new engine after a boneheaded shop ruined the other one and told me to take out a full coverage policy and light it on fire. Of course I didn’t follow their advice and let my local State Farm know about what they told me to do.
Of course the shop that fixed it found that the bad shop had busted a bunch of other crap under the hood as well.
Also, other features might be gone in a newer car such as manual transmissions. The 300,000 mile 2009 Camry video I posted had a new short block installed because the owner wanted a more basic car with manual transmission. It was also in GREAT shape for a car with this many miles. Having a manual transmission is one thing that has made me hang onto some of the older cars I have including the old beatup 1997 F250. I also prefer mechanical buttons and analog dials. I find myself annoyed with the touch screens in rental cars. Keep in mind rentals are usually the cheapest stripper models so assume this is just something on everything these days. I can change the station, volume, etc. without ever looking away from the road with the old way of doing it. Even if you press the wrong button and end up on the wrong station, you can just move your finger over and hit the correct one without looking. Touch screens are a distraction. I like that potentially new features can easily be added via a software upgrade of plug-in module unlike the older way but still think this is not the way to go.
I could tell the mechanic knew what he was doing and seems to really like Toyotas. Everything you can see in the shop sitting around is some form of Toyota or another. He is also a defender of the 2zr-fe oil burning engine. Basically he says that besides the oil use, this is a great engine and will run forever if the proper pistons and rings are installed to solve the oil consumption problems. The owner of the 300,000 mile Camry sought the place out.
The video is somewhat long but I thought it was well done and informative.
I have one of those hour meters on my snow blower that wraps around the spark plug wire, by Briggs though. Works great on single cyl except when the battery dies. If I read the instruction right, doesn’t work well on twin cyl so have a stansrd meter on the mower.
The RPM meter function may not work on a twin cylinder. The hour part will though. Mine can be set for 1:2 1 and 2:1 spark to revolution ratios for two stroke etc.
I live in snow/rust country. My rule is 10 years and 200,000 miles. If you hit both then it is time for a new car when the next major repair opportunity rolls around.
