There are some news in case of the little guy, too. Took it for a drive early last week, everything was ok. The next day, it also looked okay - until I noticed a bad smell from the vents, and that the temperature indicator is not in the middle of the scale, but close to "hot" + there was some smoke coming out from inside the engine bay. The coolant level was moreover ok, but did add some, and drove the car for a few kilometres more, thinking that there is a leak at the backside of the engine block. Managed to get close to a car parking, where the engine switch off by itself and the car just rolled into an empty lot.
Drove it to the mech the next day, the initial diagnosis is a broken head gasket. Not really good. While thinking of a way to fix the engine, I stumbled upon an interesting offer, and got a sensible donor:
The underside is rotten as hell, stringers included. But the engine - 91 000 miles - is in a very good shape. So we are going to use it for parts. The whole car was 250 dollars, and the friendly garage said they can do the swap in a moreover similar range of prices. Also, the red one has a lot of nice spares to use. A very basic version (no airbags, grey interior), MY'92. The previous owner bought it from the first owner in the US while working there, and hauled it over the ocean to his place. Spent last 3 years in the garage, not used at all. Kinda sad to have it dismantled, but a rotten stringer is like a death sentence.
The Chilton book was a nice addon, and will certainly help in maintaining the white one operational.
Drove it to the mech the next day, the initial diagnosis is a broken head gasket. Not really good. While thinking of a way to fix the engine, I stumbled upon an interesting offer, and got a sensible donor:
The underside is rotten as hell, stringers included. But the engine - 91 000 miles - is in a very good shape. So we are going to use it for parts. The whole car was 250 dollars, and the friendly garage said they can do the swap in a moreover similar range of prices. Also, the red one has a lot of nice spares to use. A very basic version (no airbags, grey interior), MY'92. The previous owner bought it from the first owner in the US while working there, and hauled it over the ocean to his place. Spent last 3 years in the garage, not used at all. Kinda sad to have it dismantled, but a rotten stringer is like a death sentence.
The Chilton book was a nice addon, and will certainly help in maintaining the white one operational.
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