1994 E150 Club Wagon, E4OD 232,000 miles
I am going to go ahead with replacing the leaf springs on my poor 94 club wagon with 232,000 miles on her.

I bought new springs a while ago and its going to cost me roughly $400 for the labor and hardware.
I had a hard start issue when it was hot last week but started after 5 tries or so, and today it felt like it wanted to stall when I came to a stop. Other then those 2 issues its has been starting and running fine for a long time now due to keeping all the basic things changed out and up to date.
I was kinda questioning whether I should spend more money on a van with this many miles on it and it is up for smog in one year, although its always passed smog, I hear what might be an exaust leak.

The spring do need replaced due to one being broken in half on the drivers side, been like that for a while.

 

To me mileage and age on a vehicle is nothing. If I like the vehicle there is no reason to move on to something else. Repairing an older vehicle is usually still cheaper then buying a newer one. Buying a newer vehicle doesn't guarantee anything. I know plenty of people that got rid of a pretty reliable older vehicle only to have a complete nightmare of issues with their newer "better" vehicle. Most of my vehicles have over 200,000 miles on them when I buy them. Just keep up the maintenance on it. And do the repairs as needed. The most expensive part on your van will be the E4OD. When that craps out then I would think long and hard about dumping the van or fixing it. But that really depends on the over all condition of your van and how you feel about it.

I do all the work on my vehicles myself. But if you have someone that will replace your rear springs for $400. That's money well spent. I've done this job on a number of different vehicles. Some have been a breeze to do. Everything came loose and came apart with out any issues. Then there are the ones that are a complete nightmare. They fight you every step of the way. The nuts on the U-bolts won't break loose.And when they do , they turn hard the whole way off. Then you have the spring hanger/shackle bolts that don't want to break loose or are seized in the bushing sleeves. Now I usually just cut the U-bolts and hanger bolts right from the start to save time and hassle. But I'm in Minnesota so all our hardware likes to rust. It's different depending on where you are located.

If it's starting hard, I would check for codes. And check the fuel pressure & replace the fuel filter and check the condition of the distributor cap and rotor. If they need to be replaced and if it's been a while since the spark plugs and wires were changed. That's not a bad idea to change them also.

 

Ive already had the E4OD rebuilt maybe a year ago or so? Plugs, wires, cap, coil, fuel filter .. some other stuff less than a year ago.
I am having my mechanic do the springs, I did the springs on my jeep (dont have anymore) but have nowhere to work on the van, only very minor stuff. Should be an easy job, just surface rust if that and I am going to soak all the nuts and bolt with PB blaster for a few days before I take it in.
My main concern is that shortly after this something else will show its ugly head
Like this no start thingy that happened out of nowhere
I am thinking of having the FPR replace before it goes bad, its the factory original.
Thanks Fordman.

 

That's good news on the E4OD. That's one less thing to worry about. Mine has been making noise ever since I bought the van. I've been expecting it to crap out for the last 8 or 9 years now. When it does, a manual transmission is going in mine to replace it.

What I usually do a few days before swapping springs is to take a wire brush and clean up all the exposed threads on the mounting hardware. Then spray it all down with Aerokroil or PB blaster.


A vehicle is a mechanical/electrical item. So break downs and part failures happen. But it hasn't been uncommon for my high mileage vehicles to go years without a break down. Then there have been others that seemed like they constantly were breaking down ( not a Ford ) . When I was younger my dad use to own a VW diesel Rabbit that literally broke down every Thursday for almost a year! Man I grew to hate that car and Thursdays!! My thinking on the vans is, as much as it may suck. Each repair that is done should be one less thing to have to worry about. Say you decide to get the springs installed in your van and then sell it, to get one with less miles. There is a very good chance all that stuff you have already done to your van will need to be done to your newer one too. It may be the week after you buy it or it may be a years down the road. And a newer van will be more complicated, so there's going to be more stuff that can fail. And some of those extra/more complicated parts can be more expensive. So replacing your van, could be great or could be as bad or worse then the one you have now.

It's really how you feel about it. If you like what you have, keep it. If you would prefer something newer, sell your van and get something newer.

 

Think of it this way ….. if you buy a brand new van, you will spend THOUSANDS of dollars just on SALES TAX !!! Yikes !! Older=simpler=better.

 

 

If you buy new (or almost new) you know you'll have cash flowing out every month for a long time. Repairing a vehicle that you enjoy should be less expensive and occasional. Try to buy good parts at the best price and do the job right. Each thing you repair should not be a returning problem if you use OEM grade parts and practice quality work .

 

My E350 is 22 years old, and it doesn't feel elderly to me at all. Age isn't a major factor to me if the vehicle's been cared for and properly maintained all its' life. In my case, the van was used pretty sparingly from new until I got it in '13. It had just rolled 100k when I bought it. The original owner kept it in a garage for all its' life and it shows. Really clean and fresh still for its' age. When the fuel pump went out, I considered not fixing it and getting a newer Expedition so I could have 4wd and still enough power and room. But in the price range I wanted to be in, every single one I looked at (between 2003 and 2007) were just roasted. Either they were severely rotting, or they had some ugly repairs looming. My budget was set at around $6k. A few of them had only ~100k on them, yet they were junk. So, I realized I still had a worthy beast already home and paid for, and it got fixed. It runs so great I have no problem continuing to put in maintenance money. It's much cheaper to keep it on the road than replace it.

Just my thoughts, but I don't think you're crazy at all.

 

For most of us here it seems this "old is crap, new is better......" mentality is the real craziness. Those advocating ditching something due its age alone would probably bellyache six ways to Sunday if they themselves were replaced employment-wise with a newer and shinier thing right?

I'll be switched if I'd buy brand new and be bound to a dealership due the warranty terms. Sure they'd fix it without costing me but the hassles of dealing with that system, waiting for them to get around to it as they feel appropriate doesn't help me one bit. Unless the dealership would provide some sort of loaner vehicle at no cost additional hassles of getting back and forth delivering the vehicle then that too is a huge consideration---for maybe just me? Odd that monthly payments don't pause without penalty while its at the dealership right?

Typically by 100K miles most vehicles built in the past 25 years have already experienced what most of us would call major problems; engine, transmission, cooling system, A/C system, all those things that would be high cost and ground it for a time.

ANY vehicle properly maintained costs money in one way or another--that's completely unavoidable. Individually we have to choose whether we maintain them according to recommended schedules and replace/repair everyday wear items as we seem them in need. Doing it on our schedule seems to be the preference of most here---me included in that group. We see by the years represented in these forums not too many of us are driving the latest vehicles which doesn't seem to be a problem for most of us.

Or we drive something for a bit and discard it at some arbitrary point with the fear its old and worn out, that repairs will become daily activities and we'll always be without its use. Besides most of us seem to enjoy DIY'ing whatever we drive---the satisfaction of work well done AND sticking it to the man by NOT paying for work we can do ourselves---priceless!

So where's the smart money then?

 

I fall right in the middle, curiously enough. While I always have my own personal oldies that I prefer to drive, my wife has always preferred the peace of mind of a new vehicle on a regular cycle. So, we've had something fresh pretty much constantly over the last 25 years. In fact, this year's 'fresh' vehicle was a 2018 Pacifica Limited. Quite a nice vehicle... lots of tech, lots of whizzbang and gee-whiz. (I'm fortunate to have a friend quite high up at FCA that slips me super-discounts whenever I ask, so it hurts a little less to get a new vehicle). We would still have it, but when we saw how poorly it towed our pontoon boat, we decided it was pretty much dead money so we sold it. We're now down to a pair that's 11 and 22 years old, respectively. And with both of them running smooth as silk, paid for, and both capable of towing plus hauling the whole family, we've decided to get out of the new car game for a while. I'm actually ecstatic about that right now.

I may cycle in new vehicles for the wife when she insists, but I always prefer to drive my own old boys. Being an Econoline fan since the 70's, I'm firmly glued to Bubba and have no plans to be without an Econoline for as long as possible. Hopefully, this current one. And I've also had my 07 Hemi Durango for years, with absolutely no plans on getting rid of that, either. Terminal rust is about the only thing now that will make me think of replacing one.

 

I buy older vans due to the cost of newer wheelchair accessible vans. Even accessible vans ten years old are too expensive for me to afford. I've been able to find vans which need a little mechanical work with good quality wheelchair conversions done to them.

Last month I bought a decked out '85 E150 with Ricon lift gear, and remote keyless entry for $2,700. Needs paint, transmission work, tires, and a choke. All the adaptive equipment other than the hand throttle work great. I'm able to use my legs so no hand controls needed.

In 2012 I bough an '86 Dodge Caravan LE with a ramp and a gull wing door where the sliding door used to be for $3,500. I needed to replace the rack and pinion, the carburetor, and the gull wing door motor. It's my current daily driver. It runs great though could use some replacement power window parts which I can't find.

Before the Caravan I had an '83 Chateau, which was a gift in 2004, sadly I rolled it over in 2012, other than a burned out electronic ignition module and a weird fuse issue with the heater blower that was a reliable van.

Before the van I rolled over I bought a 1979 E150 in 1996 and a friend of mine and I turned it in to an accessible van in nine weeks. I loved that van but in 2003 it blew an engine and I couldn't afford to replace it. I'd already replaced the transmission and rear end. I think it lived a hard life before I bought it. I paid $1,800 for the van, and paid it off in less than a year. I already had the lift equipment in storage. I paid about $600 to convert it.

Before that van I bought a wheelchair accessible 1975 Econoline in 1979 for $2,500 with a Golden Boy lift in it. I drove that van until 1996. It was destroyed in a parking lot by a distracted driver.

So I haven't had a car payment since 1997 and that pleases me to no end.

Even though I can't fix cars myself I have friends who can and a good repair shop a few blocks away. There's also a performance shop a block away, maybe I'll take the '85 Ford there to have my old Edelbrock intake, and Dynomax headers from my '79 Econoline and a custom exhaust system put on there after I take care of the must do projects on it. I kept all that stuff from my white van in the hopes of transplanting it to another 351w in the future.

So, now that it's too late to make a long story short, I don't think you're the least bit crazy. I know others who feel the same way.

A buddy of mine has a 21 year old 1 tone Ford F350 duely as his daily driver. My father-in-law has a two year old Kia but prefers to drive his '86 Firebird Transam. A co-worker is restoring a twenty something Jeep. My boss drives a 30 year old pickup and a twenty year old Honda. A friend of mine in Seattle drives a 19 year old VW station wagon though she can afford a new car.

I love new cars, I'd love to buy a wheelchair accessible Dodge Promaster but they're just too crazy expensive. I couldn't afford to change a headlight in one of those.

 

 

^^^^^^ I agree wholeheartedly with the above statement, because people need to be aware of the commitment an old vehicle requires.
I have saved old wrecks and salvage cars for over 40 years, and it has been a labor of love along with a combination of limited funds. Now that I am older and retired, my physical condition and my "labor of love" mentality have diminished to the point where it is no longer enjoyable for me to struggle with a really old, very poor condition vehicle, however, I remember the feeling of accomplishment and pride in saving old vehicles, and encourage people to experience this hobby if they feel the attraction to it. I do try and give them some warning as to the extensive amount of time/labor/money that is usually involved with bringing a 20-30-40-50 year-old vehicle back to operable condition, but as long as they understand that, (and usually have a newer daily driver), they can have a positive experience. I still really enjoy watching others transform an old vehicle back to operating condition, and sometimes into a "show-winning" condition.

 

Well, I love my well maintained 96, and that's good enough for me.

 

Thanks for the replies.

I do not want to buy a new vehicle at all and Ive always have had old vehicles
and have done most of the work myself (except for major stuff). Getting older and not having somewere to do the work now, is frustrating.
Except for something like a bad head gasket or some major repair with the engine, I am going to keep driving it and fixing things as they break/go bad, just as I have been doing for the last 8 years or so.

This new minor rough idle that showed up is pissing me off though aarrrggg, feels like a vacuum leak, again.