Vehicle Maintenance - Make it Run Forever

[BCClone]

Das Audi, the A5, will turn 11 come 2026. Been thinking lately about what I should keep an eye on for a 10 year old car. It only has 45K on it so it's obviously more of an age thing than mileage. The miles don't pile up with no work commute for the last ten years (retired).

Only do the oil yearly, each Nov/Dec since yearly mileage is like 4K or less. Just did that last week and asked about some other items like brake and coolant flush. And records showed I had already done them so not much else on the schedule that I can think off. I asked about transmission fluid since this is the first automatic I've owned in my life and they had no recommendation for fluid change or anything. They are usually eager with upsales** on stuff so was sort of surprised at that. Got new rubber last spring. Everything is still working on the car.

And don't need to worry about rust, panels was fully galvanized.

** Each time I go in they try to tell me it would be good to get some gaskets on the engine top replaced because of an "oil leak" at a cost of thousands. It "weeps" a very tiny amount of oil, not enough to effect anything or even leave a drop on the garage floor. You'd have to look really hard to even so any residue oil (their quote "The oil is pooling here" LOL) so that's a no go and waste of money repair.

Valve cover gaskets?

 

[cydsho]

We have two 13 year old Subaru's each approaching 200k. No major issues, knock on wood, just normal oil changes and other maintenance. Brakes, tires, ,and one wheel bearing replacement been the most expensive.

 

[Morty52]

My daughter is driving grandmas 1996 Toyota camry LE 85,000 miles on it. Her friends call it Nana.

I sold my 1996 Camry XLE, with 307,000 miles on it. (V6). I bought a 2004 Camry and traded it in as junk ($400) with 302,000 miles on it, (V6) I now have a 2013 Toyota Venza with 125,000, (V6). I used them for work and took the milage deduction every year as allowed. The best decision I made was to keep them running.

 

[KnappShack]

Car care adjacent

The dealer who advertised a certified pre-owned but then showed numbers with this being an add on sent an email.

How can we save the deal?

Gave them a detailed recap on how they lost the business and what it would take

It was blocked.

Car dealerships earn their reputation

 

[JEFF420]

My last Ford Explorer I drove until 350K.

My current Ford Explorer has 180Kish, but warranty has replaced the engine around 100K (cracked cylinder wall allowing coolant in the cylinder) and 2 new transmissions (one at 60K for a recall and one at 160K for a bad torque converter). So it's pretty much brand new.

Have you ever had an excursion?? I've always wanted to drive one. Idk about owning

 

[CYEATHAWK]

Have you ever had an excursion?? I've always wanted to drive one. Idk about owning

Had one with a V10.

It's a "domesticated" F350. Was still going strong with around quarter mil. on the clock when it was sold.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

My truck was at 177k and needed thousands in general maintenance. I hadn't paid it down completely either. I traveled for work and was doing 40k+ miles a year for about 4 years. She was limping along after I used her hard like the great truck she was. Then a Rhiners plumbing truck buried itself into my truck bed and tools at a stop light.

Got a new truck from the insurance. She's been pretty solid and got her with only 54k miles. Not using my own vehicle where I work now and have only put on about 8k miles in about 9 months. It completely screwed my life up for about two months but that accident did me a favor in the end. Hated getting another car loan but this time I might be able to sell it for a profit since I'm not using it much.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

After driving Fords, Chevy and Dodges for years, we tried Toyota in 2018, and will never go back. Currently have a Camry with 105,000 miles on it, no rust and still drive great. Our other vehicle is a 2024 Grand Highlander Hybrid Platinum Max version, have 42,000 miles on it and love the vehicle. Plenty of space and it will fly down the highway. Toyota knows how to make a vehicle and the best thing about them, is if there is a problem, they fix it. Can't say the same for the other brands. Our GH was made in the US, which is a big deal for the buy American crowd.

Our vehicle before the Camry was a Ford Fusion, purchased brand new, and I was putting a new set of tires on it every 12 to 15,000 miles, it just ate up back tires. Every time you hit a bump in the road the back in would move from side to side and just wore them out. Ford refused to do anything about it, blamed Goodyear, saying it was a tire problem. I tried other brands of tires, same result, the local Ford/Toyota dealership sold me a set of tires at cost, they knew Ford had a problem and refused to fix it. They had other Fusions doing the same thing, they were the ones that recommended me to purchase a Toyota.

 

[isufbcurt]

Have you ever had an excursion?? I've always wanted to drive one. Idk about owning

No I haven't. I've had a Ford F250 and 3 explorers. i love my explorers lol

 

[JEFF420]

Had one with a V10.

It's a "domesticated" F350. Was still going strong with around quarter mil. on the clock when it was sold.

yep any in my price range in Michigan are all V10s. the diesels are either dead or people want 20k for em.

 

[Die4Cy]

In my experience that does't sound half bad.

Sometimes getting to the spark plugs requires a lot of work in itself.

Or you have a Ford with the 5.4 Triton.

 

[ClonerJams]

07 Camry at 220k miles. I just do regular oil changes; recently replaced the water pump and a few years back the alternator. Other than that, no big repairs. I'm pretty sure I can get this thing to go to 350k or more.