Joined
·
501 Posts
Greetings list,
The last of the 164's must be over 10 years old at least now, my wife and I have a '91 12V auto model and to be honest it is starting to be more trouble than its worth. We paid $5000Aus for the car, and I reckon I've spent nearly as much in the last 2 years keeping it on the road. When we were in the market to buy a 164, looking at $10k cars seemed to be the same standard or worse than the one we ended up choosing.
Aside from some cosmetic issues (a recent car park knock on the bumper - I'm about to replace it with a bumper I bought off ebay), it is the little things that make it irritating to drive. I have replaced the indicator stalk once already, and the secondhand unit is already floppy again. Does anyone have a cure for this? I am reluctant to spend $400Aus on a NOS replacement. Every bump the car goes over, the indicator switch drops and turns it on. ANNOYING!
I recently had the engine mounts replaced, and this made a huge difference to the handling. They were absolutely shot. But the car still feels "loose" - it creaks and moans over speed bumps, and still clunks around a bit on rough surfaces. I plan on getting it on the hoist to check all the bushings shortly, but I'm getting concerned its actually the struts as well that are on their way out.
Then there's the engine. We had a lot of issues with stalling on idle which in the end traced back to the coil and the high tension lead between the distributor and the coil. Recently though, when starting cold the engine runs very rough for about 20 seconds until it settles down. Half the time it stalls while doing this. And just in the last week, I've noticed the car "stutters" a bit when taking off at the traffic lights. Not all the time, but it does it enough to be concerned about it. I'm starting to think it might be head gasket time, because its using a lot of coolant and it isn't leaking anywhere externally. The engine is also sounding rather "tappety" - adjustment of valve clearances is also on the agenda.
Aircon works well, but the climate control doesn't. The stepper gears have finally given up, so we've just installed a heater tap as a temporary fix. I'm NOT looking forward to taking the dashboard out to fix the stepper motors!
So I'm not sure what to do - persevere with the problems and get things fixed as and when I can or move on? My wife prefers auto, and I'm reluctant to replace it with a 4 cylinder auto. I'm tempted to look at a 156 selespeed with its semi auto box, but the $3000 actuator that often fails scares me! What to do? Move on, or buy something more modern? Either option is going to cost decent money. A new car isn't really an option for us just at the moment.
Just looking for some suggestions or ideas...
~Benjamin
The last of the 164's must be over 10 years old at least now, my wife and I have a '91 12V auto model and to be honest it is starting to be more trouble than its worth. We paid $5000Aus for the car, and I reckon I've spent nearly as much in the last 2 years keeping it on the road. When we were in the market to buy a 164, looking at $10k cars seemed to be the same standard or worse than the one we ended up choosing.
Aside from some cosmetic issues (a recent car park knock on the bumper - I'm about to replace it with a bumper I bought off ebay), it is the little things that make it irritating to drive. I have replaced the indicator stalk once already, and the secondhand unit is already floppy again. Does anyone have a cure for this? I am reluctant to spend $400Aus on a NOS replacement. Every bump the car goes over, the indicator switch drops and turns it on. ANNOYING!
I recently had the engine mounts replaced, and this made a huge difference to the handling. They were absolutely shot. But the car still feels "loose" - it creaks and moans over speed bumps, and still clunks around a bit on rough surfaces. I plan on getting it on the hoist to check all the bushings shortly, but I'm getting concerned its actually the struts as well that are on their way out.
Then there's the engine. We had a lot of issues with stalling on idle which in the end traced back to the coil and the high tension lead between the distributor and the coil. Recently though, when starting cold the engine runs very rough for about 20 seconds until it settles down. Half the time it stalls while doing this. And just in the last week, I've noticed the car "stutters" a bit when taking off at the traffic lights. Not all the time, but it does it enough to be concerned about it. I'm starting to think it might be head gasket time, because its using a lot of coolant and it isn't leaking anywhere externally. The engine is also sounding rather "tappety" - adjustment of valve clearances is also on the agenda.
Aircon works well, but the climate control doesn't. The stepper gears have finally given up, so we've just installed a heater tap as a temporary fix. I'm NOT looking forward to taking the dashboard out to fix the stepper motors!
So I'm not sure what to do - persevere with the problems and get things fixed as and when I can or move on? My wife prefers auto, and I'm reluctant to replace it with a 4 cylinder auto. I'm tempted to look at a 156 selespeed with its semi auto box, but the $3000 actuator that often fails scares me! What to do? Move on, or buy something more modern? Either option is going to cost decent money. A new car isn't really an option for us just at the moment.
Just looking for some suggestions or ideas...
~Benjamin