The new daily driver arrives

I've been away from the Mercedes project for a few weeks now. The daily driver Subaru took a turn for the worse and lit a fire under me to get a replacement car sooner rather than later.

I hadn't seen any promising Toyotas or Hondas in a while. I came to my senses and pretty much scratched Volkswagens off the list after I went to see the Jetta that wouldn't start. Pretty much every Volvo I looked at needed a lot of expensive work. I even got to the point where I was considering rear wheel drive Mercedes, just to have something reliable.

Well, as I said, the Legacy kept getting worse. The check engine light was constantly on, and blinking with alarming regularity. Plus, the engine's idling was getting even choppier, and I believe it was using oil at an increasing rate.

Two weeks ago, I saw an ad for yet another potential replacement car - a 1995 Subaru Legacy L... Outback. This was a 2.2L car with an automatic transmission. Based on the ad and a phone conversation with the seller, it sounded like the car was in decent shape. So, that Saturday morning, I packed my wife's car with an assortment of tools and we drove an hour to see the Outback.

It was a first-year Outback and even the same Mica Ruby color as both our other Legacies. It wasn't perfect by any means. It was wearing beat-up alloy wheels and had a green hood from an old fender bender, and had bumps and bruises all over. Plus, it was sitting on an ugly set of beat-up alloy wheels. But, my philosophy is that an old Subaru should look used, much like an old truck. The interior had been cleaned - something I hadn't seen in a used car in quite some time.

The car started right up and sounded pretty good. The test drive went pretty well, so with the seller's permission, I pulled out the spark plugs (old, worn-out, and nearly seized into the cylinder heads) and ran a compression test. Compression was healthy across all four cylinders, so we made a deal and I drove home in my new daily driver.

I spent most of the rest of the weekend swapping parts over from the old car, starting with the correct Mica Ruby hood and my wheels. Then, I put the old car up for sale on Craigslist. Unfortunately, with winter weather and street parking bans, I had to get rid of the old car quickly. In its condition, the only interest I had was from junkyards, and for a lot less than I wanted. But, the car was getting needier by the day. At the last moment, a co-worker who was painfully aware of the car's mechanical condition showed interest and I let him have it for scrap value. He intends to repair or replace the engine. So, the old car will live.

I've been driving the "new" car pretty much every day and handling maintenance and repair items as time allows. New spark plugs are now installed, which is a good thing, as the old ones were worn to twice the recommended gap. I also flushed the transmission, which made a big improvement in the way the car shifted. I'm still trying to properly dial in the fluid level, but it's close now.

Overall, I'm happy with the new car. Once it's caught up on needed repairs, I'm going to move back to the Mercedes project.

When I got it home - green hood and all

The alloy wheels

Rear shot - this car has a factory roof rack

Firsr year Outback - badged with a sticker only

Side shot with my old wheels on it

Complete with correct red hood

The search is on - new daily driver

My last blog post was around Christmas. To recap, the misfire problem on my 1995 Subaru Legacy (which I thought I'd fixed last Spring with a new cylinder head...) returned in late December. Rather than throw parts at the problem again, I opted to cut straight to the heart of the matter and run another compression test.  My P0302 code was caused by low compression in cylinder 2. Cylinders 1, 3, and 4 tested OK.

More accurately, the low compression was causing (over time) carbon buildup in cylinder 2 that in turn interfered with combustion. I bought some Seafoam spray and fogged the engine through the throttle body. I ended up doing this several times. In the end, I probably ran a can and a half through the engine. Just after Christmas, the wife and I took my car to visit my family (200 mile trip). The Legacy made it there without a hiccup, but the CEL came back on while we were there. Thankfully, it didn't blink - it just went on and stayed lit. I had my scanner with me, and once again - P0302.

We made the return trip a few days later. The car drove OK, but I had a few seconds of blinking. Once we got home, I put a can of Techron in with the next gas fill-up, and once again, cleared the codes. I've been driving the car for over two weeks now, and although for some reason the car isn't yet showing readiness, there are no pending trouble codes, and that's in around 1,000 miles of driving. So, in the end, the Seafoam and Techron cleared out the carbon buildup.

The car is perfectly driveable, and I've always known to keep the oil level in check. But, now that I know for a fact the engine is less than 100%, I think it's time for me to move on. The car still has some life in it - a lot of life, probably. But, I want something a bit more hassle-free for the long distance driving I do.

So, I decided to start looking for a new (to me) car. My first choice, obviously, was another EJ22 Subaru Legacy, or perhaps another EJ18 Subaru Impreza. Of course, it didn't take me long to realize that both are an endangered species at this point. There are very few left in the northeast that aren't overpriced high mileage rustbucket. So, I decided to expand the scope of my search for the first time in years to include other makes and models.

My first instinct was to stick with the Japanese cars. So, I started searching for 1990s-era Hondas (Civic and Accord) and Toyotas (Corolla and Camry). Among them, my top choice was the Camry. I quickly learned that most of the for sale by owner ads for the Japanese cars are run by shady small-time car flippers and dealers posing as private sellers. I've been in that situation before - that's how I ended up with my current Legacy.

I test drove a Camry, but it turned out to be a dealer posing as a private seller, so I walked on principle, even though the car seemed OK at first glance (I had reason to suspect hidden problems). Note to that particular dealer - if you want to describe an interior as "mint," take the duct tape off the dashboard first.

I even (against my better judgement), went to check out a 2000 VW Jetta. But, at $1200, it wouldn't even start for a test drive.

I've been keeping an eye out for Toyotas, but a co-worker actually clued me into another car to keep on my radar - 1990s Volvo 850 and V70 station wagons. I've always liked Volvos, but we haven't had a decent one in the family yet. But, I did some reasonably intense research and liked what I saw. The Volvo shot to the top of my list.

I've test driven 2 850s already. I'm still considering the first one, but the second one had too many problems. I have an appointment to test drive a 1998 V70 also, which is essentially a lightly-updated 850.

Even pushing 200,000 miles, these cars feel about 10X more solid than the Subaru Legacy, have a good reputation for reliability (overall, with some well documented problems and fixes), and most importantly, are well within my price range. For the cost of a rusty Legacy, I can get a much nicer Volvo. So, that's what sold me, and that's what I'm looking for.

Of course, if the right Legacy, Impreza, or Camry comes along at the right price, I'll probably jump on it.

Learning when to call it quits...

Well, it looks like this may be the beginning of the end. If you've been following along, you know that I replaced the cylinder head in my 1995 Subaru Legacy daily driver earlier this year, which supposedly cured a misfire issue I;d been having.

As of this past week, the misfire is back, unfortunately. The car threw the same P0302 code again. I did a compression test and verified that I have low compression in cylinder 2. This is the same test I did back in April. I had meant to re-test the car after replacing the cylinder head, but never got around to it. Earlier this year, cylinder 2 clocked in at around 70 PSI. This time, it's showing around 100 psi, which is still bad compared to the other three cylinders, which are showing 165, 165, and 160.

I'm not 100% sure why the misfire took so long to return, but it may be because I cleaned the carbon buildup off the cylinder 2 piston when I replaced the cylinder head. To buy myself some more time, I ran a can of Seafoam through the car this past weekend and replaced the spark plugs. As it is, I think I'll get through the winter (most likely with the check engine light coming on at times). But, come springtime, I'm hoping to be driving the Mercedes project, and hopefully can start looking for a "new" daily driver.

I was hoping for more miles out of this car (I've put around 45,000 very well maintained miles on the car as of now). But, the car has never run quite right for me. I'm guessing that cylinder 2 has been problematic for as long as I've owned the car, most likely due to mistreatment by a previous owner.

Because of the car's overall poor cosmetic condition, including rust, a rear suspension crossmember that's suspect, an aging transmission, an already-patched gas tank, a leaky cooling system, and numerous other issues, it's probably not worth it for me to try and replace the engine, and rebuilding it is out of the question. So, I'm most likely going to end up replacing the car. With what? Time will tell.

I wasn't able to touch the Mercedes for around two weeks. I've been busy, but I'm back to it, and got some more this past weekend. First, I finally finished cleaning out the wheel wells. This isn't so much for OCD cleanliness, but to inspect for rust spots I'll need to touch up or fix.

Wheel well #4 before:

after:

That's about all I could get to on Saturday and didn't have any time on Sunday. I had Monday off work, so I continued by pulling all the accumulated parts out of the car:

Then, I started stripping the interior to make body work easier:

I still need to clean the interior and remove the insulatio/sound-deadening material from the floor. That layer tends to hide rust.

I also spent a good amount of time vacuuming the rest of the debris of the car. There was a lot hidden in the console, dating back to when mice and other creatures roamed freely in the car:

The eventual goal is to get the interior, and the underside of the floors as clean as the wheel wells before I reassemble the car. This weekend, I'll finish cleaning the interior and see if I can fix the bad brake line.

Cleaning the Mercedes... continued

I'm not going to post a very lengthy update, but know that the project continues and I am still cleaning the Mercedes.

In addition to all the oil sprayed in the car to ward off rust, the car is also simply coated in 29 years worth of accumulated dirt and filth. I've finally finished cleaning under the hood:

I'm also almost done cleaning out the wheel wells. There was a lot of thick, dried, caked-on dirt. Here's a before shot, and some after shots:

This week I also painted the battery tray and hold-down clamps:

and picked up a new (used) stereo for the car:

As usual, I'll get back to work next weekend.

My first full-on project car

I made it through the winter of 2006–2007 easily, thanks to the Subaru. Originally, I'd planned to more or less garage the Legacy when spring rolled around and go back to primarily driving the Mercedes 300SD. I did stilll drive the 300SD, and the Vanagon (to a lesser extent), but I found myself putting the most miles on the Legacy. So long as I kept up on the oil changes, the Subaru just kept going, and didn't seem to be showing any signs of mechanical deterioration, aside from wear and tear items such as brake pads. I liked the way it drove, so I just kept throwing more and more miles at it.

I remember one Friday afternoon, in the summer of (I think) 2007, leaving the city in the 300SD on my way home from work. I did still drive the 300SD to work sometimes, especially in the hot weather, as it had a working air conditioner. Anyhow, I was heading through the Fresh Pond area of Cambridge, in stop-and-go rush hour traffic, when I hear a siren. A police cruiser was pushing through the traffic. Very quickly, it was right behind me. There wasn't much I could do. I was already in the right lane, but the cruiser kept blaring its siren and honking. I pulled as close as I could to the curb, just inching along, when I heard a loud POP! I'd torn the right front tire's sidewall on the curb.

I inched the 300SD around the corner, cursing the loss of a relatively new tire, and got my spare and jack out of the trunk. After fighting with severely overtorqued wheel lug bolts installed (unbenknownst to me) with an impact gun when I'd had my brakes done, I finally got the tire changed. It was just a tire, but from that point on, I realized that if I kept taking the 300SD into the city, it would get destroyed piece by piece. The car was too nice for that. My parents had long expressed an interest in the car, and I decided I'd finally let the car go to them. It would be garaged and well taken-care-of.

This left me with two cars. Granted, that's most than most people have, or can even understand having. Still, my connection to Mercedes diesels wasn't going to fade that qiuckly. Of course, being a car nut I always had my eye on Craigslist (and still do) to see what would pop up. Very soon, I found a 1985 Mercedes 300D advertised as having running problems.

I went to see the car, which was in South Boston, near the airport. The interior was in pretty good shape, but the car needed some bodywork. It did start, but didn't run very well. The car stalled and died just trying to cross a parking lot. The seller's asking price was $1500. In that condition, I offered $500. The seller was motivated and we settled on $750, which included a tow out to Worcester courtesy of the seller's AAA membership.

The car arrived in Worcester and I got to work immediately, replacing tune-up items in hopes of finding the running problem. I don't have a picture to show you, but I tell you - I have NEVER in my life seen an air filter so dirty. Just replacing it and the fuel filters made a big difference. The car's top speed went from around ten to seventy-five or eighty.

Although the AC was broken, I loved driving that car. The W123's handling is unmatched, and this was the first one I'd driven with an OM617 turbo engine. The huge sunroof made up for the lack of AC.

The car passed inspection, and I drove it as I worked on it. First up was all the mechanical stuff. I replaced most of the filters and fluids, including the transmission fluid and filter (made a big difference in the way the car shifted). After that, I did a valve adjustment, which was a new thing for me. This restored the car's performance to like-new. The last remaining item was the fuel lines. The injector leak lines actually failed on me one day - spectacularly, I might add. Quick sidebar on that - I'd taken a vacation day from work to do some work around the house. While out to lunch, I noticed diesel pooling under the car. The injector leak lines were badly rotted. I called around and found that the only place with the proper lines (locally) was the Mercedes dealership five miles away.

Luckily I got there, got home and replaced the lines, and had just enough time to wash up before heading out to the premiere of the Simpsons movie.

Once all the mechanical items were done, I cleaned the car up and did the bodywork. Then, a funny thing happened - I realized that I'd ended up with a car worth a lot more than the $750 I'd spent. Even with parts and materials, I was in for less than $1500 total. It was then that I got the wacky idea to see if I could sell the car for a quick profit.

As always, it was time to go back to Craigslist. I'd only had the car for two months, and I really did love it, but a quick profit was irresistable. I listed the car at $3500 and a few days later sold the 300D for $3200. Sometimes I still do miss the 300D, but I knew, even then, that it wouldn't be my last Mercedes.

This past winter, I found this car on Craigslist for sale again. Apparently, I did a good (enough) job fixing it up, as it's still on the road nearly four years later.

A bit about myself... and why you might be reading this

So, I really think that in order to get the ball rolling properly, I need to explain a bit about myself and what got me to where I am now, shouting out into the oblivion that is the internet.

As you may have guessed, I have a number of cars and I do all my own work these days. My wife, upon seeing my first blog post the other day, suggested that I change the blog description to read "four" cars, as technically, her car is in my name, and I do all the repairs and maintenance on her car, too. You may be guessing that I'm a mechanic by trade. That is, you may be guessing wrong.

The fact of the matter is that I work in publishing, and the whole car thing (which for some reason I've never completely figured out, is near and dear to my heart) happened sort of by accident. In the interest of not boring you to the point where your brain drops out your nostrils and makes a run for it, I'll try and make the story as brief as possible.

For every car guy, there's a beginning to the story. For some, it starts with some unforgettable car experience in early childhood. While it's true that some of my favorite forms of entertainment in my formative years included the Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, and Herbie the Love Bug, these fictional cars were entirely removed from my real-world interaction with cars. The one possible exception to this was family VW buses, which I was always fond of.

No, for me, the whole car thing happened fifteen years ago, the summer I graduated high school. Unlike most kids my age, I actually had no interest in getting my driver's license. In fact, I avoided it. I'd always considered myself not so much accident-prone, but bad luck-prone, and was convinced that if placed behind the wheel of a car, that I'd get into an accident that would either kill me, or that I'd be paying off for around 20 years. I preferred to get around town by bike, and left high school with only a learner's permit. My parents, determined not to be my chauffeurs for the rest of my life, insisted I get the license, and then did something that altered the trajectory of my life forever. They bought me a car.

I didn't have a license yet, and couldn't park the car on campus until my junior year of college, but seeing the car there, waiting for me, was motivation enough for me to complete my driving training. I knew that when I was ready, I'd be climbing behind the wheel of a 1982 Mercedes-Benz 240D. Keep in mind that Mercedes or not, this was an old car, even in 1996.

Keep in mind, this photo was taken a couple of years AFTER I'd gotten the car. I'd long since lovingly buffed out the dull paint, had fixed numerous broken items, and had swapped out the factory steel wheels and hubcaps for factory alloy wheels.

Although it's currently in vogue to dismiss the Mercedes W123 chassis as little more than a European taxicab, most people that have driven one will tell you that the experience is unique and fantastic. Nearly 35 years after they first debuted, many of these cars are still on the road, due to their tough-as-nails engineering and construction, and the driving experience rivals many brand-new cars even today.

I fell in love with the car for its looks and handling (acceleration, while it never bothered me, is NOT this car's strong point), and bit-by-bit, over the years, starting doing some of my own work on it. The miles and memories I accumulated in this car were nearly innumerable. The trips to the drive-in, the fast food runs with friends, the trips to the beach - I remember them all vividly and fondly. The car eventually followed me to college, and then into the professional world.

In 2005, after a move away from my home and my trusted mechanic, the Mercedes developed some symptoms that I didn't recognize, but knew weren't good. I tried several local mechanics here in Massachusetts, all of whom swore on a stack of bibles that they knew how to work on the car. The car left each on in worse condition, and my wallet left lighter. Sadly, in June 2005, after nine years, I reluctantly made the decision to sell the car and find something in better condition. I just wasn't a good enough mechnic to save the Mercedes myself, and didn't have the time, space or money to devote to it.

I ended up selling the car to someone who didn't seem worried about the problems, and who planned to convert the car to run on vegetable oil. I ended up scoring an unbelieveable deal on a near-mint 1985 Mercedes 300SD as my new daily driver:

So, I moved on, but I never forgot. My final months with the 240D inspired me to learn how to do all of my own work (when possible), as I could no longer fully trust any mechnic. Over the past six years, I've frequented mechnics with decreasing frequency. The last time I took one of my own cars in was four years ago now. I'm now at the point where few, if any, jobs scare me off.

As for the 240D, it popped up on Craigslist again in 2008, still alive and kicking. I wanted to buy it back, but was knee-deep in a project car at the time (another Mercedes 240D - more on IT later) so I passed on it. This spring I ran the original 240D's VIN through a VIN checker, and it appears that even in 2011, the car appears to be on the road somewhere in Rockland, Maine. Who knows... maybe I'll get a chance to own it again someday.

So, that's what got me started. So, I apologize - the story was a little longer than I intended. However, I promise (threaten?) that it could have been longer.