Jacqstern

Oro

Any car can have issues at almost any time; how much more likely it is with your car depends upon maintenance history.

Ours has 290k on it and I would drive it to Boston tomorrow if I had to; no worries as I maintain it very carefully and replace or rebuild everything as it shows signs of wearing out. But I have a code reader, keep a spare plug coil or two in the back, as well as the old belts (this is a good plan on any car). Those in my mind are some of the most common things that can flare up and stop you unexpectedly w/o warning. Those, and oil control valves - have you ever changed yours?

1,000 highway miles is not really that hard on a car. I read an engineering white paper recently that estimated 5,000 highway miles would equal about 800 "local" miles in town and suburbs, for example.

I did that exact move in the other direction c. 1983, btw.

heidihidin

what is you proactive maintenance regiment by mileage?

Slowguy

Oro

Sorry I didn't answer this faster; I have been a bit busy the last few days.

I have a regimen that works off 7,500 mi intervals. That is four to six months so not at all taxing. It is not hard, but just requires you know what you are looking at. So:

every 7,500k, the oil is changed and the tires rotated. I use M1 10w-30 HM, along with 10 ozs Lubegard Blue/biotech, which is good oil change interval for that mileage and oil. If you want to use lesser quality oil, reduce the interval. Being over/under the car and the wheels off, I look around everything hard for signs of leaks, wear, worn hoses, vacuum lines, suspension items, brake pads, etc. I use a flashlight both above and under the car. This takes very little time - BUT - you have to really look and not just "glance around." If you don't know what you are looking at, then you have to go slow, think, and learn to identify what you are looking at, what it does, how it wears and why, etc.

At 15,000k, I do the above but: a) flush the engine. Sometimes I put in some kerosene or diesel, sometimes 1/2 bottle of B12 or Seafoam. I do this as I change the filter only every 15k miles, because I use a Fram Ultra (XG3614). On my SUV, which is hard on oil and runs dirtier, I flush every 5k/oil change. The 1mz is not so demanding. As the Fram Ultra, It is actually good for 20k miles or more, but I pull it then when I dilute the oil with the flush (the flush is running it at idle 20 mins). I do again the same 7,500k tire rotation and inspection.

everything else still works off multiples of 7.5k. At 30k (~2 years in our usage):

a) check both air filters
b) drain transmission and refill with TIV/compatible (NOT LV!!!) fluid and 9 of the 10 ozs in a bottle of Lubegard Red.
c) drain PS reservoir and refill with 1 oz of the Lubegard, ATF, and bleed brakes.

At 30k, reset the pattern and repeat. This doesn't mean you can ignore the major services - plugs at 120k with iridium, timing belt + water pump and tensioner (never neglect that; they fail). Also cleaning MAF, etc.

Once a year, I go over as much rubber as I can with Sil Glyde. Smear it thinly on door seals, window seals, trunk seals, engine hoses, suspension bushings if you crawl under and do it. I TRY to do this annually but it is more like every other year.

I run the climate control in "auto" all the time as the more it runs the a/c compressor, the longer that system lives. Forget whatever small mileage penalty is involved, do you really want to change the a/c compressor instead? No. The fastest thing to kill an ac system is not running it weekly and spreading the lubricant around the system seals. In ours, 300k and it works like new; I did have to add a few ounces of freon to the system about 2 years ago. That's all in 16 years. The a/c in our car will put out 48F at the vent today. My dad has a 2007 Chevy van and had to spend a weekend and $400 rebuilding the a/c system because he runs it only rarely (despite my advice otherwise). Run your a/c at least weekly, year-round.

Between 200k and 300k lots of normal wear parts will go, most suspension parts, front wheel bearings, alternators, PS pump, oil control valves, etc. This is just wear and tear and the routine above will let you find some of those problems but others just present themselves and you deal with it. It is valuable to learn to diagnose a suspension by jacking and rocking/spinning the wheel. Rock the wheel 3-to-9 and 6-to-12, spin the wheel and grasp the springs. Google this for more detail. This will tell you A LOT. Never buy a used car w/o doing this, btw.

I keep an excel speadsheet on the cars and every thing I do, I put in a line with the date and mileage. At the bottom of the sheet, future mileage services. It takes about 1 minute to update the sheet after a service, so virtually nothing given a 20 minute oil change or full-day timing belt job, etc. This is a valuable tool for recording observations and keeping you on schedule, and recording new things you find and need to address.

This may all sound like a lot or overwhelming, but it's really minutes extra every time you do a service.

Hope that helps and I'm tired, got to sleep!

Jacqstern

Thank you for your input. I will mention those things to my mechanic-I am getting a deep review of everything next month before our trip. I love this car so fingers crossed, I am not ready to give it up. Thanks!

acarapella

I've put much though into this. Your worst case would be either ship it home for $600ish if you brake down, or rent a Tahoe for about $45 per day, then go straight to U-Haul and rent a flat bed car trailer and tow your car the rest of the way. I have thought much about this because we have a higher mileage minivan and are committed to drive it to death. We HOPE that's on the way to the grocery store on a sunny day that's not to hot, rather than in a blizzard half way to florida.

Just food for though. As for the car it self, two lexus that I know if have cracked 1,000,000 on a long road trip....

crwys

I took my 99 on a 7,500 round trip in the summer. I changed the water pump, timing belt because they were long over due. Put synthetic oil and oil stabilizer in. Only problem I had was a wheel bearing starting to go out. I still haven't changed the bearing till this day about 40k miles later, I do need to though. But that trip i had 220k on the car.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

When my 2001 had 240k miles, I was still making weekly 600 mile round trips without hesitation. I'd consider less the miles, and think more about how you've kept up the car. You know the car better than anyone else, especially after driving it for that many miles, so if it hasn't given you any reason to worry and you've maintained it for all this time, I don't see why not.

PFB

Just in Case, If you don't have a membership already, sign up for AAA. Well worth it. Even for just a flat tire.

Phil

Oro

That's a good idea to remember. But I worry:

a) would uhaul let you put a trailer on a rental vehicle,
b) while the rental Tahoe should come with a modern hitch, I don't think it would have an RV WITH trailer brake controller.

I would worry Uhaul wouldn't rent you a trailer w/o it having a brake controller. Most states require trailer brakes at 3,000lbs - unless the Uhaul trailers have some inertial system and break-away safety that meet this? Have you looked into that/

acarapella