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Buick blew rod, must Escape.

Started by don_vanecek, March 07, 2013, 09:52:58 PM

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don_vanecek

Coming home last Wednesday from my sister in laws funeral and my wonderful 1995 Buick La sabre blows a rod, what a pita, that was a wonderful car, that Buick 3.8 should have ran forever, it was full of oil, 176k on it but hell that motor should have a easily gone 200k plus, everything worked on the car!  SOoooooo......there goes my dream of getting a Connie, the money is now all invested in a 2013 Ford Escape.  Now I'm not so much a Ford man but since I can buy their products with help from my one brother who is a retired Ford employee it's a deal no one else can beat.  I figure this is sort of a compromise car, not too big, not to small, a station wagon is always useful, moderate economy, sitting up is nicer at my age.  All I got is the very base "S" model, really irritating as all the "testers" say the 2.5 engine base model is just for "fleet" sales, what BS! Ford must be giving them all kickbacks to talk us all into spending the additional 3K or more for other models with ECO boast engines, bet it will be a pita when your turbo bearings go out after you are off warranty! Even this base model has power everything, a few years ago this would have been a very deluxe car.  Good power, sprightly handling, but ask me ten thousand miles from now what I think.

Well, my brother is going to help me in two weeks to work on putting my V back together, sure hope I get it working again.

Here a picture, hopefully I will have a car for many many years! 
     

fret not

#1
Don, those escapes are getting good reports from reviewers.  Supposed to be pretty well built.  But it is NOT a Buick.  May you have many happy miles from it.
Retired, on the downhill slide. . . . . . . . still feels like going uphill!

Rikugun

Congratulations!  :) The styling changes were long overdue. I have a 2002 (purchased new) that I enjoy a love/hate relationship with.  I opted for the 3 liter V6 and have been paying the (gas) price ever since.  :( It's had it's share of recalls - some annoying and some significant safety issues. There are some reoccurring issues with components seemingly ill suited for the demands placed upon them that have needed replacing.

On the plus side it's reasonably comfortable and even rear passengers claim the seats are good. The rear seats fold flat unlike some of it's contemporaries and it's very versatile. It handles and drives well, holds lots of stuff, pulls my utility trailer no problem and is the most stable FWD/AWD platform I've ever driven in snow. Even the roof rack has come in handy. Mine is the XLT so it was fairly well appointed and I have no complaints there. I've had no major failures and only regular maintenance has been required except as noted above. Oh, and it's never left me stranded.  :)

I'm sure by 2013 they've worked out the bugs and you'll probably have a trouble free experience.  :D Have fun with it and enjoy that new car smell.  ;D
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is then to persist in delusion, however satisfying or reassuring.  Carl Sagan

Rick G

I know a fellow who had a rod bearing fail in a 2001 Buick . He had it towed to a Buick /Cadillac dealer and bought  a new top of the line caddy . He paid cash , but then he's a millionare.
Rick G
Go soothingly on the grease mud, as there in lurks the skid demon
'82.5 Yamaha XZ550 RJ  Vision,
'90 Suzuki VX800, 1990 Suzuki DR350.
'74  XL350   Honda , 77 XL350 Honda, 78 XL350 Honda, '82 XT 200 Yamaha, '67 Yamaha YG1TK, 80cc trail bike

don_vanecek

I'd sure like to know why that rod bearing failed, although I did purchase the car with 101k already on it, it had the previous service records and was well cared for, during the time I owned I doubt it ever went more then 4k without a oil change and I had fixed whatever went wrong with it.  Rather maddening, I really expected to get 2-3 more years out of that car and if I had not needed to replace it at once I would have looked for a 4-5 year old used car.   But with my brother's "Z" plan it is just so easy to get a new one (and of course remember, I would not have done this 20 years ago when I was in my mid 40's,  all the vehicles I bought back then were already at 100k and I had 6 kids to feed) 

Well, maybe next year I can recover enough to look for that used "Connie", FJR, ST, NT (I doubt the NT700 well be old enough yet, and I'll bet they don't perform much better then the Vision).

Assuming my "chip off the crank" is a solvable problem I changed hours at my job, lost my car pool, hoping to put quite a few more miles on the Vision this summer, we will see!