Now this is how you keep your car running

How old is that vintage ride she's drivin'?

I've been posting recently about vacillating between getting a newer ride or continuing with my 30-year-old Trooper.

I had a city-driving gas-mileage problem, only addressed recently. Did a lot of online research. One of our members here who also had once driven an old Trooper recognized other related symptoms and pointed to the fuel-pressure-regulator.

I just dropped by the shop today, after delivering the Trooper yesterday. We were right: that part was defective. I'd replaced the $70 MAP sensor last week, and told them to replace the Throttle Position sensor outright. Those were "low-hanging fruit". The pressure regulator is a $50 part, but requires removal of the intake manifold to replace it.

I'll know the full dollar damage by end of day, but I am very happy with this. I was making plans to buy a newer vehicle like a RAV4 in the next year. I may still do that, but I don't think I'll be in a hurry.

The old girl in the youtube link was pretty sharp about her receipts and lifetime warranties. These parts I'm replacing were the factory original units, and the vehicle has 201,400 miles on the odometer.

If I do buy a newer "hybrid" vehicle, this old Trooper is going to be my backup ride. "The Trooper rides again -- Hi-Ho-o-oo!"

I just hope I'm as sharp at 90, and still able to drive. For that, I drove the Trooper down to a local park every day so I can walk a mile or two. Keepin' that amyloid plaque from building up in my brain!

Jon-T said:

A 64 Mercury Comet

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60 years old! And the driver is 90! This is inspiring, to a 76-year-old like me, driving two 30-year-old rides!

I'm amazed. The Comet was a budget model and back then such (American) cars would last maybe five years and it was a major event to get one past 100k miles. I'm guessing hers is a California or some such place where they didn't heavily salt the roads back then. Here in New England you would be doing great to get five years and/or 100k miles out of such a car.

And those lifetime warranties-she still has some in force where the original vendor isn't in the car repair business anymore (JC Penney, Sears). She's gotten 16 replacement batteries under her lifetime warranty from JC Penney (apparently Firestone is doing the replacements now). And she keeps a diagram of the lube points on her car to give to the mechanics-are there any modern cars that still get lubed at all anywhere?

Great comments under that YT video, best one wishes this lady lives to at least 130.

I thought I held cars a long time, but the longest I kept a car was 17 years.

Thump553 said:

...she keeps a diagram of the lube points on her car to give to the mechanics-are there any modern cars that still get lubed at all anywhere?...

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Probably not supposed to need it, but my '12 Acura gets a squeaky rear end if the rear suspension doesn't get lubricated every couple years. Very noticeable getting in and out of the car.

Probably just the size of my own rear end that's the problem though.

I think grease ports are still a thing on farm equipment and such.