According to MANY mechanics I have talked to, the people at AutoZone, and the local Dodge dealer, this part no longer exists at all. This means this car cannot be fixed except with another engine or another car. Even junkyards will not sell the part if they have one, except on another motor. Yeah, it feels bad to do this, especially when there are so many people out there whose needs far exceed my own. But I am a heart patient. My docs have declared me 100%, permanently disabled. We manage on my disability check and Food Stamps. My wife last worked well over three years ago. For a while, she tried hard to get another job, but she found nothing. Meanwhile her health has also deteriorated to the point that it seems very unlikely to me that she could work if she had a job. She is fighting for her disability but has not yet had any success with that.
We both have doctor appointments we need to get to and to the grocery store. That is pretty much the extent of our going anywhere...we just don’t have the money to go anywhere else. I picked this site because they seemed the most honest and direct to me. They take 5% straight-up and swear to never ask donors for anything.
At the risk of sounding like Bartles & James, “I thank you for your support.”
TRB
Good luck, bud.
ReplyDeleteThanks, D.
DeleteThere's something strange about this story. What plastic part are we talking about? Who puts plastic parts near the bottom of a hot engine? Could it be a leak coming from the water pump or elsewhere in the cooling circuit? Did you check eBay for the part?
ReplyDeleteA friend once asked me to change the timing belt in a Neon. I looked into it, and it was more difficult that it should be. Bad engineering. I decided not to ever buy a Neon after that experience.
Hey Hugh. All I know is that I was told by several different people that it was a plastic part. No, several mechanics have looked at it and told me that the problem is not any of the usual culprits in water or coolant leakage. When I was looking into trying to get the part I had a part number, long since forgotten, and the people at Autozone and the local Dodge dealer told me the part was no longer available.
DeleteUsually, where there is a will, there is a way. It's one of those things I've learned from working on cars. It's like every problem has a number of solutions. When I hear it can't be done, or the part is no longer available, that's when the disbelief kicks in. Plus, it riles me up to think that a car gets sidelined because of one plastic part!
Delete