Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 16:58:34 -0800
Reply-To: Mark Dorm <mark_hb@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mark Dorm <mark_hb@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Carat - Fair price?/ Carat History
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
I bought my 1991 White Carat with 89,000 miles on it for 3,800 - the sliding
door needed to be replaced, the wheel wells needed some cosmetic attention,
one head gasket had been done not that long ago.... I now have 175,000 miles
on it and counting, started to sell it when it had 130,000... but nothing
happened... the other head gasket is corroded and I wonder if its because I
used texaco coolant for a while, says, thats its safe for aluminum engines,
but I was too tired to think to myself, 'that doesn't mean that its
phosphate free'. Mechanic had put in 76 coolant and said it was phosphate
free. But when I went to find some for sale, all the 76's had some other
brand and I was afraid to buy it... so I reasoned, if they'll trust 76 then
why not Texaco... thing is I had to match green for green because of the
prohibition on mixing colors of coolant... I wish they had just stuck with
VW coolant or the orange stuff... (by havoline isn't it...)
The only problems I've had are:
1. atf cooler broke causing coolant and tranny oil to intermix (175,000)
2. belt broke because the plates for the water pump (pulleys?) were on
backwards - this caused the battery light to go on and then the coolant
light went on with corresponding rise in temperature (was still less than
100,000 miles)
3. wheel bearing went bad on rear passenger side - there was a little bit of
play in the wheel itself, not much, and when you spun the wheel around you
could hear a noise from the where the axle joins the diff, apparently the
noise was traveling up the axle from the bearings (175K)
4. ran out of gas once, thought it was something else because the guage
floats a bit, so I got towed for nothing, ... guage probably floats because
the gas tank has a kink in it from a contact sport, and so the baffles
inside may not work as well
5. tires were slashed by some random whomever in a place where I knew no one
while I was eating dinner, two tires on one side
6. fear about the corrosion on the head gasket - time spent fooling around
with moroso, and ruining the bleeder on the radiator in the process, now
covered with epoxy putty from a truck stop - stuff seems to help/work though
7. while fooling with moroso changed some coolant clamps and this improved
the performance of the cooling system... and helped me realize that the
mechanics (2) who told me that my radiator had a leak and needed replacing
for a lot of money were both wrong
8. driving through the desert of nevada or utah one of the braided hoses in
the engine compartment developed a pinhole leak - replaced with non braided
hose - not sure if there is an advantage to the braided type
9. shortly after a second braided hose had to be replaced
10. the clamps that I added in 7, 8, 9 had to be tightened after they went
lose and started spraying coolant everywhere...
11. temp sensor had to be repaced (II?) when the van developed this
stalling-upon-start-up-while-stopping-at-the-first-stop-sign tendancy..
12. changes of: oil, filters, atf, atf screen, coolant, sparks, leads
rotor, cap, light bulbs, shocks (bilsteins), tires (used cheaps), o-ring on
the oil cooler, gasket for atf pan
13. ignition was replaced when it seemed a bit weak
14. water pump has been replaced
15. vapor return hose of gas tank had to be fixed... gas would spill out
when I went around a bend - think thats what happened - anyway you could
smell the fume
16. lost two gas caps so far - didn't want to walk inside the gas station
with a smelly gas cap - guess I should have waited to unlock it
17. oil light went on, seems it was a short, was raining hard, I moved the
wire a bit, no problems since
18. atf spit up from torque converter onto engine block - subsided when
screen and atf were changed (seems theres a lot of pressure in the atf - 90
lbs where the atf cooler is... what I was told...)
19. had the thermostat changed to a cooler one of I think 80 degrees?? with
a matched fan switch...
20. use one and one/half bottles of water wetter in the coolant
21. had the rear heater core removed when the white turn thing spit itself
off and coolant pissed out enough to wet the carpet, had to drive a little
bit at a time to get to my destination... cause the coolant temp would go
red...
22. parking tickets in new york (their meter was broke, but they fixed it
and wrote me a ticket), another in new york, one in philly at a meter by
Rhitenhouse Park, one in costa mesa for parking where you can't park all
night, one in LA where the meter maid asked me to not leave so she could
finish writing the ticket (if I had left, LAPD would have swarmed down on
me... )... a moving violation in Pasadena in Old Town on Colorado for
turning left where it says not too (but their signs are smaller than any
you'd see in orange county, and they hang in the shadows not being lit at
all), but overall less problems with police than with all the other cars
I've owned...
I guess my luck hasn't been all bad... would be nice to own a second one, so
I could take advantage of some of the stupid little things I've had to
learn.
>
>Hi Tom,
>
>I just bought my '90 Carat last August here in SC for $5700.00 (they were
>asking $6800.00 for it at a little used car lot, so factor that in). It had
>95K miles and was maybe a little bit better cosmetically than yours (not
>much), BUT it is not the Wolfy/Carat, so the color is the dark blue met.,
>and the seats are standard fabric.They heads were just redone as well. I
>don't know if that helps at all, but I don't think you are too far off on
>your asking price.
>
>Good luck! Why you would be selling your baby is beyond me, but "one man's
>junk...(sorry, list!!) as they say, right?
>
>Scott
>88 Westy
>90 Carat
>82 Fiat
>00 A4 Avant
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Tom Shanley" <tom.m.shanley@LMCO.COM>
>To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
>Sent: Saturday, February 22, 2003 10:19 AM
>Subject: 1989 Carat - Fair price?
>
>
> > All,
> > I have a 1989 Wolfsburg Carat for sale. It's in very nice shape, just
>had
> > the heads done and I'm asking $4900.(was $5500) Does this sound like a
>fair
> > price? I'm in Denver and I'm getting ready to put it up for sale in the
> > paper. Pictures can be seen at www.coresponsor.com/vanagon/carat.html
>Any
> > feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks!
> >
> > Tom
> >
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