Van Halen is going to need yet more work. The A/C is still leaking out. The tranny was doing that thing in Arkansas with the mountains and heat, but hasn't had a problem since. The idling seems to be acting weird when I put it into gear, and feeling like it wants to die when putting it in reverse. Have been told that is not related to the tranny issue so that might be issue three. Argh. Do I just keep pouring money into the thing? It also gets 15 mpg on the road. Drove her yesterday and gave her a bath and vacuuming. She's all set up and ready.
Could drive and camp out in my little car. But gees it would be tight. Don't think I could sit up without bending my head, that tight. Doable, and gets about 34 mpg, just really cramped and add to the fact I can't get into the back unless I exit the vehicle and get in through the back passenger doors. Sorta kills stealth should I need it. Forget trying to cook in there, as well.
So I have these two vehicles now for different purposes. Van Halen for road tripping and camping. Little Vibe for daily driver that's good on gas. Two vehicles, two sets of insurance, two yearly tags, two vehicles to keep up on maintenance, tires, and repairs.
So then I wondered, should I just sell the two to get something that is in the middle, a minivan? Would serve dual purpose, my road tripper/camper and daily driver. One vehicle to tag, insure, maintain and repair.
A minivan would be more cramped than Van Halen, less cramped than the Vibe. A minivan would get be getting about 25 mpg on the highway, better than the Van, not as good as the Vibe.
This would be a non-issue if Van Halen had no problems, you understand. But dang, don't want to spend more in repairs than I initially bought her for. So anyways, my brain won't shut up about this, so thought I'd put this out there and hopefully the answers will reveal itself. Cheers!!
2 comments:
The throttle body sounds like a good direction to check out for the sputtering/stalling issue since it happens only in particular instances and repeatedly in those instances. Long story short since I lost initial comment---have whomever check the butterfly valve as it sounds like it's worn in such a way that it shifts in those instances and causes the stall. I had it on my old Dodge years ago, right turns would stall it---one expensive engine rebuild later, same problem existed and I found the issue myself since I no longer had faith in "the best shop in town."
The AC issue, the dye may or may not show a leak---I had one that didn't show. Seems like there's a converter, something, we bought at car parts store to convert and then charge up the AC on our vehicles. If I could remember I'd give you the name of it. It was an occasional pretty cheap part of the maintenance schedule after that.
Sounds like you already know what to do about the transmission re. steep hills in the heat. ;)
Only you can decide really what choice to make since you are the one who has to live with it. Perhaps the couple of inexpensive fixes will give you some time to figure it out when not under the pressure of multiple things going "wrong."
Good luck! :D
You're right, going to start with the inexpensive things first to see if that fixes it before throwing a bunch of money at it. I am happy with the vehicle situation right now if things were running right. :)
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