Worst or most problematic car you've owned?

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We have owned a bunch of cars, and most have been ultra-reliable.

Two exceptions, an '86 Toyota Van which was pretty bad (my best vehicles were Toyotas though which offset it a little)

The worst was an '04 Audi A4 1.8T CVT

We should have sold it sooner. The original transmission failed before 12K, it was replaced under warranty. That should have been a sign.I suspect that when the tranny was replaced a lot of stuff was done wrong.

All the interior trim was covered in this rubbery coating that wore off. The dealer replaced all of it eventually under warranty, including the door controls, radio, A/C controls, floor vents, etc. The good news about this was that the interior was brand new when we did sell it.

When we bought the car, I thought it was cool that it monitored each light bulb and would warn you when it burned out. I later realized this was required due to the frequency that all the bulbs burned out. I ended up keeping a stock of every single bulb. Except for the Xenon headlights, they never quit.

The front brakes stopped working around 30K, the dealer replaced the ABS pump and claimed it fixed. We said it wasn't and they then chamfered the rear pad leading edge for some reason. My estimate is that the fronts then had about 10% braking power - the rotors would get warm after a hard stop, but not hot enough to burn your finger. The good news was that we never had to replace a front pad, the bad news was that we couldn't stop very fast and we went through rear pads and rotors like crazy. And the back wheels were always black with brake dust, front stayed clean.

The car cruised through its warranty period without any more major failures, but lots of dealer visits. The front of the engine was always covered in oil, but not a huge amount. Three different dealers convinced us it was normal for the cam seals to leak. I continued to let the dealer do the oil changes to make sure we didn't lose the 80K engine (sludge) warranty

Shortly after the base warranty the monthly repairs started to exceed a car payment.

At around 40K there was a major PCV failure, a check valve stuck or leaked and turbo boost was fed into the crankcase, melting a number of the inline check valves and blowing oil out of pretty much every engine seal and the dipstick. This was well over $1,000 to repair. When the dealer did this, they only replaced the failed components and did not replace some of the seals that still leaked including the cam seals. They did do the valve cover gasket though. After this repair I started doing my own repairs to this car, it was now out of warranty and we had no goodwill at the dealer (The dealer we used most of the time was in Melbourne and was honestly pretty good)

shortly afterwards the actual PCV valve located below the intake manifold broke (cracked) at the base and required removing the intake manifold to access well enough to get the broken pieces out. That was a pleasure. /sarcasm



By 45K the engine leaked so much oil, every time I drove it I kind of expected it to catch fire and burn to the ground - which would not have bothered me. everything under the hood was constantly coated in oil and there were drops hanging off all the low points. I had never before or after had a car that leaked oil and was having a hard time swallowing the constant burning smell, etc.

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at around 47K we had an inner CV joint fail which seemed strange to me at such a low mileage, but it was a surprisingly easy job compared to other cars I have done. I only use OE parts, so it was stupidly expensive.

Shortly after that we had a coilpack go bad. I new they were troublesome already so I did all 4 and changed the plugs and valve cover gasket for the second time. Not a big deal. a second engine cover clip broke, so I stopped putting the plastic engine cover back on.

Then the end broke off the dipstick one day while I was checking the oil. Not cool - but not a big deal. New dipstick w/ a new O-ring. Next time I checked the oil, the dispick tube broke off near the base of the engine. That was a bit more painful.

around 55K there was another PCV problem, one of the check valves that the dealer did not replace failed - wouldn't have been a big deal except that every piece of hose that I touched crumbled or cracked. I ended up replacing every check valve, jet pump, all the hoses and T's except for the recently replaced main valve that I had replaced 10K earlier. That was about $800 in misc parts - and now the valve cover gasket was leaking again and the rear cam chain tensioner was making noise. The front seals still leaked.


around 58K there was this horrible banging/clattering noise coming from the front of the engine. I traced it to the accessory belt. I could see the tensioner jumping around and the idler pulley had been making noise for a while. I replace the idler/tensioner assembly thinking that was the problem - it wasn't. It turned out to be the clutched pulley in the alternator that was bad. This was another - easiest if you take off the intake manifold fix. I took it to the shop for this one. I didn't have the tools to pull the pulley off and didn't want to deal with it. $800 later I got the car home. Popped the hood to see what had been done, the cable mount broke at the latch. I had to use a 4 foot screwdriver from under the car to release the hood. Once I had the hood open I looked at my $800 pulley and rigged the hood release so it would work without me having to buy a whole new assembly.

http://youtu.be/oZM21-dK1Es


at about 60K I did the valve cover again and saw that the timing belt was totally covered in oil. I looked in the service manual and saw that to do the timing belt you had to put the car in 'service mode' which meant pulling off the entire front clip and moving the radiator and condenser. I took it to an indy shop to have the cam seals done, the rear tensioner/guides replaced and the belt replaced. It was only a little over $1,000 which I thought was completely reasonable. This would be about the 4th time the valve cover had been off in 60K.

At 63K I realized that the car no longer leaked oil, everything worked and looked perfect and I took it to carmax.

When we sold the car it looked like this:
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The car looked great and drove great. Based on looks and the way it drove we would buy another one in a heartbeat, but we definitely had a lemon. We had an A8 previously with almost no issues.
 
Wow, that sucks! That's a beautiful car and you obviously tried your best.

One of my friends had an Audi TT that was nothing but major problems, but it was abused and neglected, so it couldn't all be blamed on the car. At one time it was sinking into my front yard for weeks and mud was starting to collect at the bottom of the wheels.
 
Yeah, it was lame. Loved the car, but it soured me on the brand. At least owning one - a lease or 2 year ownership would be ok. I just hate to pay that depreciation and not drive it long enough to make the cost per mile reasonable.

I still look at the new ones, they are beautiful. We have never leased a car, but I am still drawn to them and would consider leasing a new one and then giving it back at the end of the term.

It just seems like with the lease you are committing to having a car payment for ever, and at the end you have nothing. Even if the money works out the same, the perception is that you don't have the asset.

We have never gotten rid of a car with so few miles on it before that. We typically at least double or triple it.
 
My friend's wife had and loved her Audi A4. When it was stolen, she bought an A6. BIG mistake! The result was a never-ending stream of electrical problems, including but not limited to windows that went up and down by themselves, a sunroof that got stuck (and despite six adjustments, NEVER stopped whistling on the highway), at least four bad ECM's, two ABS pumps, and the stereo changing stations by itself. She dumped it and is VERY happy with her Dodge Charger R/T Road-Track.
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I had a '92 Acura Legend that was very troublesome. I got it in '97 with 50K on it.

It had a 5 speed manual that was extremely notchy. Of course, that didn't show up on the test drive. Sometimes it just wouldn't go into 3rd gear it all. Shame, because in general the engine was very well suited to a manual.

Once I got it home and changed the oil, it immediately started having start up rattle. I could never fix it no matter what filter and what oil that I tried, and I tried a lot of them including OEM filters and just about every OTC oil out there.

At one point it started blowing clouds of white smoke. Raw gas, it turned out. I had a stuck injector. Per my indy Honda/Acura shop, I also had two other injectors that were marginal, so I replaced all three.

When I was trying to troubleshoot, I did a compression check. One cylinder was quite a bit lower than the others. I shrugged it off as I didn't have the money for major engine work. It didn't burn oil, thankfully.

One day the temperature kept creeping up. I turned the heater on to bleed off some of the heat. When I got it home, the radiator top tank had separated from the rest of it. I found a local Modine all metal replacement for less than $150 that worked fine, thankfully.

It started making strange harmonic vibrations at idle. Nobody could figure it out, but most people that rode in the car commented on it.

Oh and the car required premium.

I gave up on it and got my then-wife a new car, and took her well used E30 BMW instead, which ironically was much more reliable.
 
1983 Lincoln Mk VI- unlisted firing order, fuel pump failed, Crank sensor failed, digital dash worked once a month and not always in SAE units, power seats failed, timing chain led to oil starved condition up top, numerous sensors and relays(at least one a month), headlight switch fried, transmission issues(longer you drove car per day, slower it would go), worse MPG than a 460cid, and many other problems.
car was left out front of my house with signed title and keys in ignition with "FREE" on window. No takers. 2 people stopped to look at it and decided they would rather continue walking to work than drive this car. I junked it shortly afterwards.
 
Originally Posted By: SS1970chrysler
1983 Lincoln Mk VI- unlisted firing order, fuel pump failed, Crank sensor failed, digital dash worked once a month and not always in SAE units, power seats failed, timing chain led to oil starved condition up top, numerous sensors and relays(at least one a month), headlight switch fried, transmission issues(longer you drove car per day, slower it would go), worse MPG than a 460cid, and many other problems.
car was left out front of my house with signed title and keys in ignition with "FREE" on window. No takers. 2 people stopped to look at it and decided they would rather continue walking to work than drive this car. I junked it shortly afterwards.


Unlisted firing order? It was a lopo 302, 1-5-4-3-6-2-7-8.

This car had "CFI", and used Duraspark, so it wouldn't have had a "crank sensor".

Explain the "timing chain let to oil starved condition up top" because I'm not sure what you mean here? It's a basic Windsor engine, so it isn't very complex..... However, the lopo engines had nylon gears on the upper timing gear for the timing chain. And with age, these gears would often start to come apart or fail completely, resulting in the engine stopping.
 
This one had a dual ignition control and did have a crank sensor. I changed it twice and remember that it had a SAE and a metric bolt holding it on. Look on Rockauto catalog under ignition. The firing order didn't appear in any manuals for this car and even Champion Ford in Scranton had to look through old service records to find it.
Timing gear debris plugged oil passages and screen leading to oil-starvation up top.
I'm willing to chalk half of it up to poor/uninformed service and repairs by Ford. it's pretty bad that the dealer would call and request our service manuals to borrow for this car.
My '84 CV was actually a wonderful car in comparison.
 
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That's insanity. The engine was just a regular lopo Windsor, Ford only ever used two firing orders:

1. 1-5-4-3-6-2-7-8
2. 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8

#1 is lopo, #2 is HO and 351W.

You are right, it does have a CPS (which is odd, because the later SEFI engines did NOT) it must have to do with the [censored] CFI setup that it was fitted with.

The timing gear debris thing doesn't surprise me in the least. I had a set of those gears come apart on my 300 I6 that stopped the engine on the 401 East-bound. I was not a happy camper. Truck got a 302HO swap after that. My Townie got the HO double-roller from the factory (some of them did) so it was never at risk for that issue.

Your last comment rings true. CFI was a very short-lived system for Ford on the 5.0L V8. The Mustang only had it for one year, and only with an Automatic transmission. The manual car got a 4bbl. It was needlessly complex, dog slow, and was very quickly replaced by EEC-IV SEFI in passenger car applications.
 
A lady I worked with had a horrible car, but with a good ending.

She bought a new Thunderbird V8 in the mid 90's. From day one it had all kinds of issues, one of which was that sometimes it just would not start. It would crank, but not fire. The dealership could not replicate or fix the problem.

One day the car was stolen from the front of our office building where she had left the keys in it with it running while she ran in to get some paperwork.

The guys who stole the car used it in a robbery and, alas, it wouldn't start when they tried to leave. She was informed that her car had been impounded and was full of bullet holes. Once she heard the whole story she literally collapsed on the ground laughing. It ended up being totaled and she bought an Accord.

The irony was that the T-bird replaced a Fairmont that was relatively troublefree.
 
1988 Ford Ranger. 4 cylinder, 5 speed manual trans, not much on options ( no A/C) That poor truck just was falling apart within a year of purchase. Thankfully it was under warranty but it had major problems all over. The ignition switch in the steering column, the catalytic convertor crumbled apart inside and clogged up the exhaust, the engine burned oil badly and was dealer "rebuilt", the power steering pump gave up and sadly, all of this was under 35K miles. Needless to say, I stuck with full size trucks after that from both GM and Ford and never had any large issues with either.
 
It really is amazing that there are such good and bad examples of any specific car.

Except for the original LS400 - never heard anything bad about them from anyone other than people saying that Japan would never be able to build a real luxury car.
 
bought a new 1984 ply fury. the intake manifold had a crack in the bottom, from the factory. letting exhaust gasses in to the intake side. the plugs looked like they were in the exhaust manifold. the rest of the car was only fair.
 
05 Chevy Trailblazer. Transmission problems (severe), engine problems (moderate), paint problems, fuel tank sending unit problems. This vehicle seemed to always have a problem. Trans was rebuilt under warrantee. then the valve body was replaced under warrantee. Engine coils failed multiple times. Engine valve seats a known problem with this engine, requiring a head replacement.
 
2008 Jeep Wrangler Ruicon. Typical Chrysler garbage.

Electronic Axle Locks never worked (or would randomly lock while driving)
Electronic Swaybar disconnect never worked
Engine never ran right
Engine started burning oil and knocking at 30k.

Gotta give the 3.8 credit, it's been knocking for 30k now and still goes down the road.

Stock, it can't pull 6th gear on the flat. Foot to the floor, it just can't do it.


My Ford Taurus was a close second. Car was GREAT, just everything rusted. Severely. Had to retire it at 75k
- Unibody "frame" was rusted through and missing in may spots causing the doors to not work because there was no structure left
- Subframe mounts on the unibody frame rotted away ... there was very little holding the front suspension to the car
- Front control arms were close to popping off from rust, alignment couldn't be done
- Metal heater core pipe was rotted so bad I'd go through 1/2 gallon of water a day
- Jackpoints rotted off
- Rear springs broke
- Rear struts punched through the strut mounts ( no way to replace)
- 2 sets of front springs rusted and broke.
 
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Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Originally Posted By: SS1970chrysler
1983 Lincoln Mk VI- unlisted firing order, fuel pump failed, Crank sensor failed, digital dash worked once a month and not always in SAE units, power seats failed, timing chain led to oil starved condition up top, numerous sensors and relays(at least one a month), headlight switch fried, transmission issues(longer you drove car per day, slower it would go), worse MPG than a 460cid, and many other problems.
car was left out front of my house with signed title and keys in ignition with "FREE" on window. No takers. 2 people stopped to look at it and decided they would rather continue walking to work than drive this car. I junked it shortly afterwards.


Unlisted firing order? It was a lopo 302, 1-5-4-3-6-2-7-8.

This car had "CFI", and used Duraspark, so it wouldn't have had a "crank sensor".

Explain the "timing chain let to oil starved condition up top" because I'm not sure what you mean here? It's a basic Windsor engine, so it isn't very complex..... However, the lopo engines had nylon gears on the upper timing gear for the timing chain. And with age, these gears would often start to come apart or fail completely, resulting in the engine stopping.

confused.gif

I had a CFI 302. 1985 Mustang LX 5.0. but mine was "High Output" and used a Thick Film ignition. Overall it was pretty darn reliable. It was badly designed, the engine would run out of power before the transmission would upshift leaving about a 500-750 rpm "dead-zone" but I cannot fault it for any durability issues
 
Look at my signature below and it will be easy to tell.

I've had my Sonata for just over one year and 20k miles. The car had 60k miles when I bought it and now has 82k miles.

In that year it's had the following problems:
-Lots of ABS/ESC warning lights. Dealer eventually told me it needed a new ABS pump for $2000. I haven't replaced it.
-Frequent check engine lights from a failed oil control valve. I replaced it myself.
-The fuel tank sometimes overflows when fueling. I haven't been able to track this down yet.
-The ABS warning light just started coming on this week. I have a few things to check before I pay the dealer $107 to scan it.
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I definitely have not been satisfied with this car. I really wish I would have paid more for a higher-quality vehicle. If I had to do it over I definitely would not have bought this car.

This has been the most unreliable car I've owned in 13 years of driving. It's even less reliable than the 2000 VW Beetle my girlfriend drives, and those have lots of problems.
 
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Originally Posted By: Spazdog
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Originally Posted By: SS1970chrysler
1983 Lincoln Mk VI- unlisted firing order, fuel pump failed, Crank sensor failed, digital dash worked once a month and not always in SAE units, power seats failed, timing chain led to oil starved condition up top, numerous sensors and relays(at least one a month), headlight switch fried, transmission issues(longer you drove car per day, slower it would go), worse MPG than a 460cid, and many other problems.
car was left out front of my house with signed title and keys in ignition with "FREE" on window. No takers. 2 people stopped to look at it and decided they would rather continue walking to work than drive this car. I junked it shortly afterwards.


Unlisted firing order? It was a lopo 302, 1-5-4-3-6-2-7-8.

This car had "CFI", and used Duraspark, so it wouldn't have had a "crank sensor".

Explain the "timing chain let to oil starved condition up top" because I'm not sure what you mean here? It's a basic Windsor engine, so it isn't very complex..... However, the lopo engines had nylon gears on the upper timing gear for the timing chain. And with age, these gears would often start to come apart or fail completely, resulting in the engine stopping.

confused.gif

I had a CFI 302. 1985 Mustang LX 5.0. but mine was "High Output" and used a Thick Film ignition. Overall it was pretty darn reliable. It was badly designed, the engine would run out of power before the transmission would upshift leaving about a 500-750 rpm "dead-zone" but I cannot fault it for any durability issues


The HO had a different firing order (1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8, I know that one off the top of my head... LOL!) but yes, saddling it with CFI essentially turned it into an epic turd.
 
Once you figured out the automatic '85 5.0 LX/GT you could actually go pretty quickly. You had to lift off at about 4500-4750 to force an upshift and then slam the pedal back down. If you do it right, you get a single upshift and it doesn't kick back down. Watch the carbureted 305 Camarobird fade in the rearview.

It's just so counterintuitive to lift off in an automatic when you are dragracing. Especially if you get holed.

The TPI 305s were dead above 5000rpm too. They were just better sorted for it than the one year wonder that was the H.O. CFI Mustang. IIRC the IROC-Z tach read yellow at 4500rpm and redline was 5000.

In my opinion, the H.O. CFI 5.0 Mustang had the badly sorted transmission shift point. One flaw. The rest of the car was as reliable as any other Fox 5.0. So it doesn't make my worst list. It's on my lengthy, "Why did Ford do that?" list.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Originally Posted By: Spazdog
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Originally Posted By: SS1970chrysler
1983 Lincoln Mk VI- unlisted firing order, fuel pump failed, Crank sensor failed, digital dash worked once a month and not always in SAE units, power seats failed, timing chain led to oil starved condition up top, numerous sensors and relays(at least one a month), headlight switch fried, transmission issues(longer you drove car per day, slower it would go), worse MPG than a 460cid, and many other problems.
car was left out front of my house with signed title and keys in ignition with "FREE" on window. No takers. 2 people stopped to look at it and decided they would rather continue walking to work than drive this car. I junked it shortly afterwards.


Unlisted firing order? It was a lopo 302, 1-5-4-3-6-2-7-8.

This car had "CFI", and used Duraspark, so it wouldn't have had a "crank sensor".

Explain the "timing chain let to oil starved condition up top" because I'm not sure what you mean here? It's a basic Windsor engine, so it isn't very complex..... However, the lopo engines had nylon gears on the upper timing gear for the timing chain. And with age, these gears would often start to come apart or fail completely, resulting in the engine stopping.

confused.gif

I had a CFI 302. 1985 Mustang LX 5.0. but mine was "High Output" and used a Thick Film ignition. Overall it was pretty darn reliable. It was badly designed, the engine would run out of power before the transmission would upshift leaving about a 500-750 rpm "dead-zone" but I cannot fault it for any durability issues


The HO had a different firing order (1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8, I know that one off the top of my head... LOL!) but yes, saddling it with CFI essentially turned it into an epic turd.


I've let it ride long enough. Still no correct guesses on the '83 MKVI firing order.
wink.gif

The firing order of this particular engine was: 1-3-4-8-6-5-7-2
It also used a weird multi-contact rotor and distributor cap with that order stamped into it. Any other firing order would cause the cats to glow red hot and give lots of misses and backfires. The cylinder numbering was the same so essentially, it fired one side of the engine, then the other. :?
 
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