March started off with a bang (well more accurately would be clang clang clang). My wife took the Kia to look for apartments with our daughter in the town where she will be working in a few more months. While I was on a call with my mother at home explaining how the old Kia would be fine on our trip across the country to visit her in NY in a few weeks, I get a call from my wife about some strange sound the car was making.
She was forced to pull over because the sound was just too unusual and didn't sound safe. To make a long story short, the car was towed and the engine was declared toast. Used engine replacements were offered at 5k or 6k installed depending on the miles on the donor engine. We checked with the Kia dealership and they told us almost the same story. Used engine installed for 5k to 7.5k depending on the miles of the donor.
There were no rebuilt engines available. We were more than 500 miles from home. Without very many options, we decided to junk the car due to not having any trust in the repaired car that could die the same way our well cared for car just died a week earlier. There was no interest in spending $7k on a car that might die (knowing full well that this is a growing problem among Kia owners. Turbo models are currently being recalled, but no news about recalls on our engine).
We got $0 for the car. Actually about $100, which paid for the tow from the shop to the junk yard. I worry that the car will be added to the recall list a few weeks after we send the title, but not much we can do. If the car was totaled in an accident without collision insurance, we'd be in the same situation except no injuries so we'll take any good thoughts we can think of instead of dwelling on bad stuff we can't control.
We stripped whatever we could off the car: dash cam, matts, jack, head rest covers, license plate frame, and contents of the trunk and glove box. A final picture to say goodbye as we've done with all of our cars and try not to look back again.
2 Weeks later, we're ready to head to NY. "Should we rent a car for NY" my wife asks. "Nah, the Honda will be fine" I said. (the thinking here was to save money on the car rental for 10 days, but also to allow my kids to take turns driving since we were going to be driving long distance) This would be the $500 accord I got from my brother in law a few years earlier. I was still working, so I didn't have time to check the car. I had my wife take the car for an oil change and tire rotation at the local Walmart (had we used a full service place, they would have flagged the brakes. Hindsight is 20/20)
When Thursday came, we packed the car and drove to Chicago, then Michigan where we got stuck in a snow storm. Cars were running off the road and visibility was poor. Due to the lateness and being tired from driving, we turned around and found a local hotel to stay the night. With the snow, we decided to skip Michigan and head to Cleveland.
Just as we were getting off the exit for the Rock N Roll hall of fame, the brakes started making a terrible grinding racket. After we found a parking space, I took a look at the front brake pads and discovered we had no brakes (I could have sworn I replaced the pads last year). The terrible grinding noise was the wear indicator letting us know that there was only 3mm of brake pad left. Unfortunately, it was Saturday evening and nothing was open. The next day was St Patrick's day, Sunday and nobody was open so we made the decision to push on to Buffalo and Massachusets making appointments at 2 mechanics for the first thing on Monday morning. Driving hundreds of miles while minimizing the use of brakes was a thrilling experience my daughter and I will never forget. Slowing down with the parking brake, the cruise control or just coasting is a whole other driving technique we had never needed to use.
The first shop was a Midas and I had an appointment for 9am Monday morning. Just in case, my wife got an appointment at another shop for 10am but they called us back and couldn't fit us in. Luckily, our hotel was next door to the Midas, so I went there and they said: no problem, our tech can get it done before 11am, Noon at the latest. We'll check your car out to make sure there's nothing else wrong with it. I know that usually means they just want to look for more chances to charge me for something, so I decided to take a quick look at the rear brakes just to keep them honest and wouldn't you know it? The rear brakes were also shot and down to about 3mm although the wear indicators had not started rubbing yet.
I stayed in the waiting room to let them come back to me with their findings and in about 40 mins they asked me to walk into the shop to show me all the things they were recommending. $1200 for Rotors, pads, slide maintenance, a sticky caliper and scored rotors. I managed to get the price down to $450 for just the pads all around. Still much more than I was willing to spend, but really no choice other than doing it myself in the hotel parking lot which I was unwilling to tackle in 30 degree weather with no tools. My last alternative was to skip Boston and push on to NY to use my brother's garage to change the pads by myself.
Noon rolled around, the car was ready (they even checked my alignment for free, rear toe was slightly out) and we hit the road for Boston, then NY and onto DC where the battery died (from the wife leaving the hazard lights on over-night). AAA sold us a new battery (battery was 4 years old) and checked our charging system and we hit the road again to Nashville and finally back home to North West Arkansas.
When we got home, I ordered a set of drilled and slotted rotors for the front which totally improves stopping power for less than $50 delivered. There's a very noisy braking noise from the slotted rotors now similar to a baseball card in the spokes of a bicycle. Eh, we won't notice it after a while I'm sure.
She was forced to pull over because the sound was just too unusual and didn't sound safe. To make a long story short, the car was towed and the engine was declared toast. Used engine replacements were offered at 5k or 6k installed depending on the miles on the donor engine. We checked with the Kia dealership and they told us almost the same story. Used engine installed for 5k to 7.5k depending on the miles of the donor.
There were no rebuilt engines available. We were more than 500 miles from home. Without very many options, we decided to junk the car due to not having any trust in the repaired car that could die the same way our well cared for car just died a week earlier. There was no interest in spending $7k on a car that might die (knowing full well that this is a growing problem among Kia owners. Turbo models are currently being recalled, but no news about recalls on our engine).
We got $0 for the car. Actually about $100, which paid for the tow from the shop to the junk yard. I worry that the car will be added to the recall list a few weeks after we send the title, but not much we can do. If the car was totaled in an accident without collision insurance, we'd be in the same situation except no injuries so we'll take any good thoughts we can think of instead of dwelling on bad stuff we can't control.We stripped whatever we could off the car: dash cam, matts, jack, head rest covers, license plate frame, and contents of the trunk and glove box. A final picture to say goodbye as we've done with all of our cars and try not to look back again.
2 Weeks later, we're ready to head to NY. "Should we rent a car for NY" my wife asks. "Nah, the Honda will be fine" I said. (the thinking here was to save money on the car rental for 10 days, but also to allow my kids to take turns driving since we were going to be driving long distance) This would be the $500 accord I got from my brother in law a few years earlier. I was still working, so I didn't have time to check the car. I had my wife take the car for an oil change and tire rotation at the local Walmart (had we used a full service place, they would have flagged the brakes. Hindsight is 20/20)
When Thursday came, we packed the car and drove to Chicago, then Michigan where we got stuck in a snow storm. Cars were running off the road and visibility was poor. Due to the lateness and being tired from driving, we turned around and found a local hotel to stay the night. With the snow, we decided to skip Michigan and head to Cleveland.
Just as we were getting off the exit for the Rock N Roll hall of fame, the brakes started making a terrible grinding racket. After we found a parking space, I took a look at the front brake pads and discovered we had no brakes (I could have sworn I replaced the pads last year). The terrible grinding noise was the wear indicator letting us know that there was only 3mm of brake pad left. Unfortunately, it was Saturday evening and nothing was open. The next day was St Patrick's day, Sunday and nobody was open so we made the decision to push on to Buffalo and Massachusets making appointments at 2 mechanics for the first thing on Monday morning. Driving hundreds of miles while minimizing the use of brakes was a thrilling experience my daughter and I will never forget. Slowing down with the parking brake, the cruise control or just coasting is a whole other driving technique we had never needed to use.The first shop was a Midas and I had an appointment for 9am Monday morning. Just in case, my wife got an appointment at another shop for 10am but they called us back and couldn't fit us in. Luckily, our hotel was next door to the Midas, so I went there and they said: no problem, our tech can get it done before 11am, Noon at the latest. We'll check your car out to make sure there's nothing else wrong with it. I know that usually means they just want to look for more chances to charge me for something, so I decided to take a quick look at the rear brakes just to keep them honest and wouldn't you know it? The rear brakes were also shot and down to about 3mm although the wear indicators had not started rubbing yet.
I stayed in the waiting room to let them come back to me with their findings and in about 40 mins they asked me to walk into the shop to show me all the things they were recommending. $1200 for Rotors, pads, slide maintenance, a sticky caliper and scored rotors. I managed to get the price down to $450 for just the pads all around. Still much more than I was willing to spend, but really no choice other than doing it myself in the hotel parking lot which I was unwilling to tackle in 30 degree weather with no tools. My last alternative was to skip Boston and push on to NY to use my brother's garage to change the pads by myself.
Noon rolled around, the car was ready (they even checked my alignment for free, rear toe was slightly out) and we hit the road for Boston, then NY and onto DC where the battery died (from the wife leaving the hazard lights on over-night). AAA sold us a new battery (battery was 4 years old) and checked our charging system and we hit the road again to Nashville and finally back home to North West Arkansas.
When we got home, I ordered a set of drilled and slotted rotors for the front which totally improves stopping power for less than $50 delivered. There's a very noisy braking noise from the slotted rotors now similar to a baseball card in the spokes of a bicycle. Eh, we won't notice it after a while I'm sure.
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