We've finally gotten an official answer on what the problem is with the 2002 Impala that was mine, then Bill's, then Otter's, then ours. Bill's been driving in since it stranded her on the side of the road in October. Everything that he's wondered about and our neighbor (who is a part-time mechanic) has wondered about have been related to the thermostat. Bill talked to the repair shop we've used and they were also stumped. They wondered about the cooling fans, but Bill replaced those a while back. It was a logical guess, given the way it was acting. They never actually saw it for the issues it was having, beyond "burping" the radiator - which it probably did need. It acted fine for a while after that, then it started acting like it was overheating and having some other related troubles. That's when we traded cars with Otter, she got the 2008 and we took the 2002 back. We didn't take it back to the repair shop at that point because Bill kept thinking it was minor and then he finally just decided to take it to Chevy - but the repair shop would probably have had no trouble diagnosing the problem, we just never took it back there. So I'm not complaining about them! We have used them when we needed to and will continue to. It may be a while, the El Camino hasn't been driven much since it's last oil change and the '15 can go much further between oil changes than cars used to. Otter's car has brand new tires, the repair shop put them on when it was my car last summer. I don't remember how old the El Camino tires are but I don't think they are too old.
Bill took the 2002 to Chevy last Friday. He asked them to do the oil change it needed and they also were able to do the recall issue - unlike the first Chevy dealership! In hindsight, we probably could have skipped the oil change although it wasn't terribly expensive and it isn't really a big deal. But I do wish Bill had not stopped at the gas station on the way home from Chevy on Friday!
The problem turned out to be fairly serious. And fairly expensive. It has a cracked head gasket. Which is probably due entirely to normal age and wear. It's a 2002 and it's well over 100,000 miles - I think it may be closer to (or over) 150,000 miles. The repair estimate is just under $3,000.00. The car itself is probably worth about half that, or maybe less. So, since Otter has a safe car (the 2008), I have the new car and Bill has the El Camino to drive, we've decided it's time to tell the '02 goodbye. I think we're probably going to take care of that this week, we know someone who has an auction for used cars and that's probably our best bet.
It's been a good car and we very much feel like we got our money's worth out of it. Otter learned to drive in it and I enjoyed it when it was my car, then Bill drove it for a few years so we've gotten a lot of use out of it. It's just not worth spending that much on it.
The El Camino did have an issue, the part was hard to find because it's a 1976 vehicle but Bill was able to fix it himself. We usually park the El Camino through the winter because it is basically like a giant sled when the weather is icy. We may still get another used car for Bill, but not at the moment. We'll worry about that later on.
In the meantime, at least now we know and we don't have to worry about it.
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