> >>
>>> Vic Smith wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have heard the apocryphal stories about Corollas going 200 miles
>>>> with no oil. Always by those who know squat about cars.
>>>> OTOH that Brit show - can't remember the name - beat the s*it out
>>>> of a Toy pickup and couldn't kill it, so I don't entirely discount
>>>> what you're saying.
>>> My mechanic works on a lot of different cars. The horror stories of
>>> short-lived vehicles always center around Ford and GM products that
>>> were run without oil or coolant because the owner never checked them,
>>> and the fluid levels were low for various reasons related to the >>> engine design.
>>>
>>> You ignore changing the oil or checking the coolant on a Toyota or
>>> Honda, and you may slightly shorten the life of the engine, but
>>> you're unlikely to have a catastrophic failure because oil
>>> consumption is minimal, the cooling system is unlikely to
>>> malfunction, and the engine block design has enough margin so that
>>> brief over-heating won't crack the block. It's very different on a
>>> vehicle that can't tolerate ignored maintenance because the engine
>>> burns oil, the water pump leaks coolant, and over-heating quickly
>>> cracks or warps the block.
>>
>> Again, you offer no specifics. Might as well be Joe Schmoe talking in
>> the lottery ticket line. And there are well-known instances of
>> sludging and head gasket failures of specific and common Toyota
>> engines, most likely caused by lax fluid maintenance causing exactly
>> the failures you're speaking of. Don't know about Honda offhand.
>> OTOH, I've abused plenty of GM cars to the point where the lifters
>> were clacking or the radiators were almost dry with no catastrophe.
>> If you're going to make sweeping generalizations without specifics you
>> just come across as an American-car-bashing-Toyota-lover.
>> No doubt you are, but that doesn't mean I don't like you.
>>
>> --Vic
>
> Ummmm... it's a rare American car with 50K or more miles where the
> lifters DON'T clack. I can always identify a GM product with a 2.8 V-6
> derivative by the unique blatty exhaust sound and clickety-clack of the > lifters.
>
> nate
>
Those could be the fuel injectors. Wife's 90 Beretta has 150k miles and the injectors clatter like a diesel. And yes, the exhaust note is horrific. Damn car's like a cockroach tho - nothing short of dynamite will kill it.
Ray