Remember the Volvo owner in USA who has covered 3 million ? Miles . Apparently he has recently passed away and his parting shot was to look under the bonnet once a week even though you are not a trained mechanic.

Find myself shaking my head at some of the recent threads re engine failures, cars sometimes covered many thousands of miles since a service and no one thought to even dip the engine oil let alone wonder if the car might benefit from an extra change due to abusive short hop use, feel quite sorry for some of these poor cars which never had a fighting chance and in some cases might be getting reputations they don't really deserve.

One might wonder if white goods type car choices (not a derogatory term just the typical makes and models chosen as runarounds and no interest taken in maintaining) are at a disadvantage compared to more niche offerings, arguably a Subaru buyer, new or used, is likely to more interested in the engineering of the car, hence more likely to keep oil and other levels monitored more than say a high selling hatchback? i have no evidence for this of course just surmising.

Edited by gordonbennet on 28/08/2020 at 10:10

To be strictly truthful the 3 million mile Volvo P1800s engine did get rebuilt a couple of times. Over the years, he rebuilt the engine twice. The first time was at 680,000 miles—the dealer said the car didn't need it, but Gordon insisted. "Like they said, there was nothing wrong," Gordon told Wired. "I learned my lesson." The second rebuild, in 2009, came after Gordon had some trouble getting the car up the steep grades of the Rocky Mountains.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/a25165860/irv-gordon-million-mile-volvo-p1800-obituary/

Edited by focussed on 28/08/2020 at 10:36

Weekly check oil, coolant and fuid levels takes no time whatsoever. If you're doing a long journey, check before you set off. Walk round and check the tyres look okay before even getting in the car. How hard can it be??

I've stuck to this routine, even with cars that I've run for 100,000 miles and I know that they dont use oil or water.

Exactly that. If it starts to lose oil, brake fluid or coolant you'll know before it's critical. Regular coolant checks disclosed the pin hole in my car's oil cooler that was passing oil into the cooling circuit.

It also helps to keep your lugs pinned back for odd noises. Noticed our original (2005) Berlingo making a tick, tick noise varying with speed. A nail in a tyre? Then realised it was related to engine speed rather than road speed. Beyond my skills so off to the garage it went.

Turned out one of the idlers on the cambelt's route had distorted and was forcing the belt outwards causing it to rub on the crank pulley and fraying it. The tick tick was the frayed end contacting the belt cover.....

Well done gb for saving your engine. But do you really need to buy a replacement cambelt cover? I would have resorted to my fibreglass repair kit!

Chap says he might have a second hand one kicking about, but he also says they tend to warp a bit over time, a new one won't be stupidly expensive anyway as its only the centre section of a three part cover and i do not want to risk anything possibly coming adrift and fouling that belt, or the auxilliary belts on the outside which run realy close to the cover, i doubt it will cost more than £50 for a new cover section even at Subaru's prices.

The quote for the whole job is very reasonable and the car is in such good overall condition its worth doing properly.

Well done chaps, yourself and Bromp, for saving otherwise seriously expensive failures by keeping an ear out and an eye open.

VW's in particular can have some odd cambelt arrangements, the 2.4 6 cyl Diesel LT van engine, as found in our Volvo 940 estate had two belts, the main belt at least not having a Woodruf key to set the pully in place on the camshaft, but merely held on the taper by friction of the pulley bolt, meaning either you had to be seriously accurate in pre marking the existing belt before removal, or had to find a source of the gold dust locking kit to change the belt yourself, first time i'd ever come across a pulley belt without Woodruf key.

By the way JohnF, re stainless exhausts we discussed earlier and i know you have the company bookmarked for the future, chap on Subaru forum needs a new exhaust on his Outback, its quite large bore single to the centre with one silencer then splits into a twin pipe system with two further silencers one each side at the rear, place we discussed has quoted £445 with £500 worse case if the cat section doesn't survive, chap's delighted as his previous quote was over double the worse case figure.

Edited by gordonbennet on 28/08/2020 at 12:28

"

Weekly check oil, coolant and fuid levels takes no time whatsoever. If you're doing a long journey, check before you set off. Walk round and check the tyres look okay before even getting in the car. How hard can it be??

I've stuck to this routine, even with cars that I've run for 100,000 miles and I know that they dont use oil or water.

Almost never see anyone take a brief once around the car, just dive in start up and off they go, the thing could be sat on bricks or the nearside be ripped out by a passing lorry for all the attention they paid.

If the parking area is safe, ie home or my work car park, i start the engine (luckily foot on brake not needed, no clutch pedal anyway) sort me bits and pieces out then take a walk around to check bodywork and tyres, 30 seconds at most and you know alls well.

Always had a spare on subsequent cars after that, fitted the new one when I had time and kept the old as a spare in the boot.

Since polyV belts became standard i don't think i've had a single auxilliary belt failure, but yes i shall be poking the about to be replaced alternator/power steering pump belt into a space in the spare wheel well just in case.

Edited by gordonbennet on 28/08/2020 at 15:26

Reminds me of the time I arrived home to hear a rhythmic ticking from under bonnet (MK3 Cortina IIRC). Lifted the lid to see a frayed fan belt flapping around before it parted completely and gave me a hearty slap around the face.

That must be why people refuse to look under the bonnet of their motors! Fearful of the mechanical revenge. I can just see John Cleese whacking it with some shrubbery.