electrical issues are expensive!especially if you cant diagnose it yourself?so many decent cars get scrapped because repair is more than the cars worth,in my job i go to scrap metal places and theres always straight looking complete cars 10 years old plus which aint old in my eyes!,i mentioned to a worker about it,he said most of these come from workshops where the repair out weighs the cars value,#$%*ing shame?
Yeah Dave, the original problem was that the ECU wasn’t reading the signal from the “Smart” keys, so they had to send the keys and ECU to a tech here in Melbourne (car was in Bairnsdale) who provided 2 new key transmitters, keyed to my ECU. The gas converter was leaking both LPG and coolant (they run coolant through them to stop the gas from freezing) so a new one was still sitting on the shelf at the garage that do my car roadworthy inspections, retail is $1200 for the unit (you can still buy reconditioned ones for around $750, but I’d prefer new) so he installed it for $950 total, which was good. You can’t buy ball joints for them, Ford changed it so you have to buy new control arms as well with the ball joints built into them, it had a leaking exhaust, needed new rubber hangers for the exhaust, the transmission cooler pipes were leaking, etc etc etc.
He’s not a bad guy, but as you said, last time I was there he had probably a dozen cars that had been left there by their owners because they couldn’t afford the repairs, so as all the land is being sold off, he sent them to the wreckers. It is a shame to see them crushed with only minor repairs required, but parts and labor is so expensive, sometimes you’re better off walking away from them. I wish I could do that with bikes….
