Crap Cans

[black roadster]

Here is a crap can-

1972 Gremlin, 150k miles. Hadn't been used regularly for 6mo (lawn art) or so when I got it as a first car. No A/C, no power nothing. Light blue paint turning to rust. Fouled its plugs so I was constantly running on 5 until I could clean them. Had a electrical short for a while where I could only run the headlights for 30-45 sec or so until they would overheat. Backfired/barfed once up thru the carburetor once so bad that is started a fire under the hood, resulting in an emergency evacuation of all 5 people in the car at the time (that is alot in a Gremlin). I spent at least equal time fixing all these things as actually driving it. It did beat a newish (back then) base Mustang in a drag race, to the everlasting shame of one of my friends. Finally sold for basically scrap value after a wreck.

Had to borrow money for my next car, but I upgraded to a 77 Plymouth Fury with right at 100k miles!

Sooo..... your Gremlin had gremlins. Are you surprised?

[SirHustlerEsq]

Out of the 16 cars ive had never really had any "crappy cars" but my 1972 Chevelle broke down on a regular basis thanks to it being 30 yrs old at the time and a retarded 17 yr old(obviously me) that was driving it.

My 04 SRT-4 i also had a fair amount of problems.
1)When i first purchased it, it was only making 10psi instead of the 14 psi which i contributed more then likely to vacuum leak(s) or wastegate and it turned out to be several coroded vacuum lines that went to the factory "boost controller".

2)Then the first time it rained i had about two inches of water in the passenger side floor board which over the 11 months i had i slowly tracked down the leak to a combination of the sunroof and windshield and slowed the leak to where it only made the carpet on front passenger area damp.(water leaking was a common problem on the 99-05 neon chasis, stupid, cheap, profit hungry american car manufacturers)

3)Then timing belt broke at about 69,xxx miles(over $1200 to fix, thankfully had breakdown coverage on it that covered it all but $100 deductible)

4)....and the same day i got it out of the shop about 4 miles down the road the car when trying to go into 2nd gear when leaving a stop light it wanted to die each time i let off the clutch..turns out 4th gear welded itself to the mainshaft of the transmission w/o any discoloration or signs of overheating and that cost over $4k but all but a couple hundred was covered but warranty. All the rest of the time it ran like a raped ape! As far as performance it was the best FWD i ever had.

I've always wanted one of those turbo neons.

[FilthyMonkeyRacing]

the 04-05 srt4's are awesome!(only left out 03 since it had no factory LSD..can you say torque steer ) Truely one of the best FWD's cars i have ever driven or owned. They are affordable,bottom end that can handle 500hp, factory quaife LSD, responds really well to upgrades and exhibits very little understeer for a FWD, four door, decent MPG's, cheap insurance and sound REALLY good for a 4 cylinder,probably one of the best sounding next to subaru's boxer motors. This is what i had done to mine:
Modern Performance Intercooler (24x12x3.5, good for approx. 550hp) and crash bar
Modern Performance oil catch can
Modern Performance high strength motor mount bolts
AGP dog bone motor mounts and transmission mount
AGP upper hard pipe w/ Turbo XS RFL(Really F****ing Loud....it sure was) bov and screw in air temp. sensor( that wouldnt blow out and create a boost leak like the grommet type)
AGP billet adjustable wastegate w/ 14 psi spring set at 15 psi
Injen Short ram intake
NGK iridium plugs gapped @ 0.032
Royal Purple oil and K n N filter
Booger bushings for transmission linkage(also have the two for the shifter)
Gates Racing timing belt(also replace tensioner, idler pulley, water pump, cam seals)
DC Sports front and rear strut bars
Carbon fiber SRT-4 "spark plug cover"
Clutch Masters Stage 4 clutch(6 puck) w/ steel flywheel
3'' side exit exhaust w/ Magnaflow resonator(from cat)

Just with those upgrades the car probably put down approx. 275-290 whp and over 300lbs. Here is a link of some pics:

http://s21.beta.photobucket.com/user/superhonda02/library/04%20srt4

[Rectilinear]

I think most every car that I have ever owned has been a crap can in one way or another. Volvos have biodegradable wiring harnesses, my Cavalier had self loosening lug nuts...but I usually had older cars that I bought to fix up so I guess some issues were to be expected.
However, the one that stands out in my mind was a '96 Neon. Back when Autonation had their 30 day guarantee, I used it! In the month I had it, two of those weeks it was stuck in their shop for brake and transmission repairs and it only had 36K miles on it! Turned it back in and picked out a '94 Altima to replace it. Now that was a good car, boring, but good.

[eliandi]

Sooo..... your Gremlin had gremlins. Are you surprised?

No, it was a POS. It did make me like AMC. Not because they made great cars, but because they were the underdog.

But they did make

[boisking]

My 1979 Porsche 924 was pretty crappy. The mechanical Bosch CIS (can it start) fuel injection made the engine look like Medusa with all the fuel lines going everywhere. the pop-up headlights didn't always pop up. The oil leaked. The exhaust literally fell off once. The tail lights would work, then not work, depending on how hard I slammed the hatch. I had to rev the engine until it warmed up in winter (the only time of year it didn't overheat). The floors got super hot. The heater, defroster, and ac were all inoperable. The removable roof panel leaked. The rear hatch leaked. I had to remove the carpet because of the moldy smell, which made the floors hotter.


It did handle well, though. I don't really miss it too much.

[Jiggerachi]

Hahaha, someone gave my mom a '73 Gremlin for me when I got my license. I guess I got lucky cause my mom lived 2 hrs away and we never got the car to even start. It turned out to be a rust bucket and a rats nest. Never would have made the trip so it went to someone's pasture to rust away. Some how I loved the car, call it a quirky fascination with a goofy as hell underdog, but....well I was a retarded 15 y/o.. so.

When I was 17 my brother and I went half in on a 87 Civic hatch for $500, and I think it was a ripoff at that price.
Loved that civic for some reason, drove the shit out of it, had a bitchin sound system, a ghetto rigged set of cheap 12's in the back, haha. Sounded great though. I put the 'Gremlin' emblem I kept on the front of it, hahahah I remember now my super religious step mom thought the gremlin emblem was satanic and always told me to take it off.
The one time the cd player wiring started smoking and I had to drive without loud music, I was terrified with all the horrible noises the car actually made. Made me really nervous until I got the music working again, volume to back to 11 and everything was gravy.
Car had automatic oil changing system. Had to keep a crate of oil in the backseat. One day I put a quart in leaving highschool and drove to church, the engine was clattering by the time I pulled in 15 miles down the road... Few weeks later something seized and sheared the cam gear off the cam, took it to a shop that screwed me out of a bunch of $$ and the engine never ran right after that. Finally the engine busted a rod or something very loud and completely seized shortly after with the odometer reading 187,000. Looking back that car was a cursed shit box from day one...still loved it though and it made it through a few road trips...somehow.

After the cursed civic, my dad let me drive his backup van. Oh man, this van was given to my dad post electrical fire. My dad and I completely rewired a new electrical harness. It was a late 80's Dodge panel van shaggin wagon. Never got me any shaggin to say the least. It had a cool feature in that it would crank in drive or reverse. My dad ran out of gas once driving up a hill, didn't want to push it, he remembered this wonderful feature, and, I shit you not he cranked the damn thing all-the-way up that hill and to the gas station at the top, ahahaha, still cracks me up thinking about it.
Another time the radio fell out of the dash into my lap and at the same time the wiring arced and caught fire, almost made me swerve into oncoming traffic. I remember when I worked at parks mall I had to drive up the long hill on I20 heading into arlington, I had to floor it and it wouldn't even make 50mph.

Those two cars were probably the biggest single factor that drove me to strive for a decent career. The memories with them are what drove me back to College when I got laid off. Good memories to keep me from being lazy in life, haha.