Routine Car Maintenance

Life Cars & Motorcycles
1

I’ve been driving a '92 Ford Telstar for the last six months and so far have had no mechanical problems at all. However, since the car has over 255,000km I am a bit concerned about potential future problems. In six months, I’ve changed the oil once, patched a flat tire, refilled the brake and cooling fluid but have done nothing else.

I will admit my knowledge of cars is basically nothing. Reading a thread about routine scooter maintenance and seeing people discuss the need to change spark plugs, transmission fluid and a host of other things quite regularly made me wonder if there are similar things that need to be done on a car. The previous owner took excellent care of it; he has given me his repair log. But I’m wondering:

Is there any other routine maintenance I should be performing on such an old car?

Apologies if this has been discussed before, but thanks in advance for any advice.

2

[quote=“barfomcgee”]I’ve been driving a '92 Ford Telstar for the last six months and so far have had no mechanical problems at all. However, since the car has over 255,000km I am a bit concerned about potential future problems. In six months, I’ve changed the oil once, patched a flat tire, refilled the brake and cooling fluid but have done nothing else.

I will admit my knowledge of cars is basically nothing. Reading a thread about routine scooter maintenance and seeing people discuss the need to change spark plugs, transmission fluid and a host of other things quite regularly made me wonder if there are similar things that need to be done on a car. The previous owner took excellent care of it; he has given me his repair log. But I’m wondering:

Is there any other routine maintenance I should be performing on such an old car?

Apologies if this has been discussed before, but thanks in advance for any advice.[/quote]

Well, change your oil every 5000km at least. Spark plugs (platinum bosch) can last 50,000 km or more, up to 100,000km. Tranny fluid should be changed every 50,000km or so , Radiators flushed once a year or so. Battery lasts bout 2 to 3 years or so. Tires last bout 40,000 to 50,000 miles. Shocks can last up to 100,000km (maybe). Air filters last bout 50,000 km. Gasoline filters change once a year. The rest basically when it goes kaput?

MY Dec 87 Telstar 1.8GL lasted me 11 years and 450,000KM. Went thru 9 sets of tires, 5 sets of shocks, 3 radiators, 3 timing belts, 10 of the other belts, all sorts of suspension bits and pieces, 3 new exhaust mufflers, aircon repaired countless times.

Most problems occurred after five years of ownership and bout 250,000kM.

The more you drive the more repairs you will have to make.

3

450,000km! That’s amazing. Makes me feel better about my Telstar. According to the previous owner’s repair logs, he was dropping around US$1,000 a year for repairs - including quite a bit on the A/C, which as broken again!

Thanks for the tips, though. I only drive about 1,000km per month so I guess I won’t be needing any of the things you mentioned. However, I was told by the previous owner that the oil needed to be changed every 8,000km. Like him, I used Mobile Synthetic.

4

[quote=“barfomcgee”][quote=“tommy525”]
MY Dec 87 Telstar 1.8GL lasted me 11 years and 450,000KM. Went thru 9 sets of tires, 5 sets of shocks, 3 radiators, 3 timing belts, 10 of the other belts, all sorts of suspension bits and pieces, 3 new exhaust mufflers, aircon repaired countless times.

Most problems occurred after five years of ownership and bout 250,000kM.
[/quote]
450,000km! That’s amazing. Makes me feel better about my Telstar. According to the previous owner’s repair logs, he was dropping around US$1,000 a year for repairs - including quite a bit on the A/C, which as broken again!

Thanks for the tips, though. I only drive about 1,000km per month so I guess I won’t be needing any of the things you mentioned. However, I was told by the previous owner that the oil needed to be changed every 8,000km. Like him, I used Mobile Synthetic.[/quote]

8000km on mobil 1 fully syn is ok. I did 5000km. But use 15/50 (even though 5/50 makes the engine run faster) because the gasket tends to leak if you use 5/50.

I spent about 550,000 buying the thing. And in 11 years I spent about another 300,000nt. Or bout 50,000nt a year in repairs and maintenance in the later years. But I drove bout 40,000km per year.

30,000nt/year in repairs for bout 12,000km a year of driving seems fair. Yes the stupid aircon is a nagging and recurring problem. Get it fixed at the dealer. The outside peeps all seem to frick it up. IT will work for a month or two and then problems again.

5

Actually my car has recently developed a bit of a problem. Whenever I drive over 100km per hour, the car starts shaking - not too much, but it’s pretty noticeable. It doesn’t shake while I’m accelerating, but only after I let go of the pedal. The problem developed just after I got my car stuck in some rather deep mud and had to have it towed out. The friend who was with me at the time thinks that the lead weight on one of the wheels must have fallen off while the car was stuck in the mud and towed out. I really have no idea.

Does anyone have any idea what it might be?

6

This problem sounds suspiciously like wheel imbalance. If it has been in mud then check that the wheels are free of any mud clumps which can throw off the balance. Baring mud clumps, you can check to see if your wheel lead weights are still in place.

They might look something like this:

They are also sometimes stuck to the inner side of the wheel and they can come off at times albeit rarely. Off roading or spinning wheels in mud puddles can do it though.

7

Thanks, Sulavaca. The lead weights are on the inside of the hubcap, so I’m not really sure how to check if they are there or not. Actually, the friend who suggested it was the lead weights was also the previous owner of the car. He said he had a similar problem before, and he had the wheels aligned thinking that would solve it. It didn’t, and only then did he realize that a lead weight had somehow come off one of the tires.

I’ll check for mud clumps and see if that makes it any better. Thanks again for the tip.

8

I hope its just a simple imbalance problem. Its quite easily solved with a visit to a tyre centre. Glad to be of any assistance.