A mechanic is FL took a look at my Civic and declared it was a “north” car. Yes it is rusty compared to a FL car but not yet unsafe. Mechanics in FL, AZ, CA aren’t used to seeing the rust that a mechanic in upstate NY, MN, or WI would expect to see on a car.
I’m saying that your car could look awful to a CA mechanic, but in fact not be that bad and not nearly unsafe. What kind of shape are the structural components? Just because this mechanic see’s rust doesn’t mean the car is ready for the crusher. Perhaps you need a good body shop to inspect it for structural integrety?
keith- I’ve been pretty good at keeping up the general maintenance of the car, got new brake pads and tires this summer, change the fluids regularly, and the car looks good- the actual body and interior are great. Don’t know anything about the CV joint boots, and getting a new timing belt was on my radar at this many miles (185,000)
WhaWho has a point though- is it damaging to the structural integrity of the car to replace these things one by one?
A coworker of mine who knows a thing or two about cars is going to come take a look at it at my house with his jack, and maybe he’ll advise me to fix it and help me not fall victim to young blonde woman syndrome at the mechanics (aka: Ripped off)
If anyone knows a good mechanic in the bay area, let me know!
My nephew from South Dakota is an engineer in San Diego and think he might be interested in advising a blonde.
Seriously, I don’t think we ever heard whether or not the brake failure was from a ruptured line or not. Just because the lines are rusty doesn’t mean they need to be replaced. I’ve had cars in Minnesota over 20 years old and can never remember having to change out a brake line before.
My 99 Accord had the same issue and the Honda dealer wanted almost two grand for brake lines and a fuel line. My Toyota dealer’s service department is much nicer to me and the service manager is a race car mechanic. He put in racing type flex line and just replaced the part of the fuel line that was leaking. The total ended up being $900 (all in). That was four years ago and all of those lines are still going strong.
I will say that I disagree with the poster that said something about the unitized construction meaning that once the car starts to corrode then the whole thing is shot. While having the clutch done in the 99 Accord in December the mechanic advised that the front sub-frame, that goes under the engine and transmission and connects the right and left front suspension, was rotted out. He checked the rear sub-frame, the rest of the body and the suspension and found no other serious corrosion issues. This Honda front sub-frame issue is apparently prevalent in my generation Accord when they hit high miles in the snow belt. I bit the bullet and had them replace it. My son (who drives it now) says it has never run or driven better. I have my fingers crossed that it will last another 12 months. You never know what will happen with an old car but this car has been meticulously maintained, the engine and (manual) transmission are in excellent shape, and the clutch is new. All I am saying is don’t be afraid to fix it but DEFINITELY get another quote.
If a brake line got a hole in it, how are the brake hoses? I have a 97 Accord and I replaced all the brake hoses last year, but I live in the south and the lines are not rusted. I replaced the hoses as part of a pad replacement, I also rebuilt both front calipers and replaced both rear wheel cylinders and the master cylinder. One caliper showed signs of maybe getting ready to leak so I did a preemptive strike on the whole system.
If the car is structurally sound, I think it’s worth it to replace the lines.
I live in southern california, but I have also lived in Germany and in Pennsylvania, so I’ve also seen rust. Some of my colleagues haven’t seen a lot of rust. We have a 2004 Chevy Colorado in our fleet which regularly spends a lot of time in Mexico, near the ocean. Much of the underside is rusty. But most of it is superficial. Structurally, the truck is in fine shape. There’s nothing rusted through and it’s mechanically in excellent condition. Yet many of my colleagues think it should be scrapped. The only repair that was due to rust was when I had to replace all of the u-joints. But you could also argue that was wear and tear.
Any mechanic working with rust should be extremely careful about recommendations and estimates because rust buckets can often turn into a “one thing after the other” type of deal.
It’s no different than someone who goes in and starts repairing a plumbing pipe on an old house. Things often don’t work as planned and usually there’s more than meets the eye.
@db4690 - One of my regrets in this whole business was not taking photos when the car was jacked up at the mechanics! I will post some if I get the opportunity.
The mechanic says that the brake lines were corroded all over- not just in one spot. He said that if it was just one spot he would have put a connector there and called it a day. He claims that when you depressed the brake pedal, fluid gushed out all along the line.
The last time I drove my car before taking it into the mechanics, when I was just starting to realize the brakes were not working as they should, I had to slam down on the brakes to avoid a car merging into my lane. The more I’ve been learning about brake lines, I’m sure that that action caused my brake lines to lose all of their fluid, perhaps making a very small leak a whole lot bigger.