Bought 2002 Mazda Protege last Feb. with 80K Mileage. Pd $5500. Changed timing belt $700. Now have found that gas tank leaks & exhaust/catalitic converter has rusted thru $2000± just for parts. Plus fuel tank not readily available. When I looked under car there was an incredible amount of rust.
If I bail, how should I get rid of it?
I would agree that putting any money into this car is truly “sending good money after bad”, as the expression goes. Consider it a learning experience.
Donate it to the Republican Party if you still got working headlights.
Would ya believe one light wnet out last night?
Personally, I would get rid of this car, as I suspect that it may have been a “flood car”.
For future reference, paying your mechanic ~$100 for a pre-purchase inspection would have revealed the extreme rust situation. That would have been a very good way to avoid buying a money pit, and I would suggest that you do this with all of your future car purchases.
Did take to my mechanic . Seemed OK
Maybe you need a new mechanic.
Take it to another mechanic and have him check out the rust. If it’s truly an issue, which I’d suspect it is given the issues you’re having, I’d bail on the car.
If you get lucky and the rust isn’t too bad, get the converter and gas tank after market. I don’t know about the tank, but I had a converter replaced for $500 at an independent shop specializing in exhaust work.
Good luck!
There is rust and then there RUST. It is hard for us to tell if this your rust is surface rust, of which you have to expect some on an 8 year old car. Or, rust of the frame and other critical parts of the car.
Rust in the exhaust system isn’t really that big a deal. Hangers rust, and rubber mounts deteriorate over time. Apparantly your exhaust system is not made of stainless steel which generally doesn’t rust out.
Many fuel tanks are plastic, but the straps holding it in place could have rusted and allowed the tank to develope a crack or perhaps a fitting came loose. Are you certain you need a new tank?
You need to get the car up on a lift and take a real hard look at the underside to see if the rust is worse than expected for the age of the car and the area you drive in. States that use salt to clear roads in the winter will have cars that are more rusty than cars in Arizona.
Sounds like your car has been Bostonized. If it hasn’t been Flintstoned you can still keep it.
Without us knowing your financial situation, it would be rather difficult for us to suggest you dump that car and go for a new one. If you were independantly wealthy, the easy obvious answer is yes, get rid of the car, like yesterday. But since I’m thinking you are probably like the rest of us working stiffs out here, trying to get by on what you have, if you wish to get rid of the car and can afford to take another chance with a car of unknown history, that might be the best route. I would think if you got a few more bids, you could have your fuel tank and cat changed for a lot less than $2K. If you could do it yourself, your parts are probably are less than $500 combined. To get rid of the car, be honest up front and hope you find a mechanic willing to do the work on it himself, and expect to get half of what you originally paid. Otherwise if you try to hide those two major mechanical issues, your buyer might show up on your doorstep demanding his money back. Just my humble opinion.
As I said before, the fuel tank is unavailable. checked Mazda parts, after mkt parts & junk yards. Problem is that not many of this model were not sold. Car had most of it life in up state NY where they use even more salt than we do. My gut reaction is to get it to the auction & take my beating.
Mazda Protege sedan fuel tank(about $300):
http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/index.cfm?action=getJointLocator&siteid=214264&chapter=§ionids=6,2782&groupid=2783&subgroupid=2784&componentid=9458&make=22&model=Protege&year=2002&catalogid=2&displayCatalogid=0
Catalytic converter(front: 730, rear: 650 for auto tranny, 825 for stick)
http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/index.cfm?action=getJointLocator&siteid=214264&chapter=§ionids=7,2489&groupid=60222&make=22&model=Protege&year=2002&catalogid=1&displayCatalogid=0