The Upside of having an older car is that they you usually don't have a car payment. The downside is that sometimes they develop mechanical problems. 

Expensive mechanical problems. Vexing mechanical problems

This article is a story of one such mechanical problem. I drive a 1999 Hyundai Elantra. It looks pretty good and usually works pretty well. Unfortunately, I developed an overheating problem. 

A veteran of overheating cars, I probably look at my engine heat guage more often than most drivers. One day, it got a little hot. 

I didn't act immediately. I grimmaced. I hate dealing with overheating. 

Over the next week, I kept an eye on the temperature. It would get higher than normal, but never technically overheated. Then one day as I approached work, the engine started misfiring. It sputtered. 

I typed "mechanic" into my phone and charted a course immediately to Folsom AutoTech. I'd never been there before.

I told them about the misfiring and the overheating. In an hour, they had a diagnosis: Bad spark plug and a broken cooling fan.  

That sounded great to me. Two problems knocked down in one visit! They fixed them both.


But as I returned to pick up my car, they gave me a caveat, the car wasn't running quite right yet. It was cooler, but it probably needed a new thermostat as well. I told them I'd test it and come back if I had any problem. 

Nope! The car was fine. It purred right along home at the proper temperature.

It was fixed... for a while. 

The summer continued and my problem resurfaced. It started running hot and then genuinely overheating. I could go 30 miles, but further than that was an exercise in heat management. 


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When you drive an older car, your car breaks. The repairs are expensive and hard to predict... but when are the repairs too much? When does it become cheaper to ditch the old car and jump into a new one?

This spring and summer, I was faced with a vexing overheating problem. I drew it out a bit, trying to pace my financial outlay, but it was an arduous, expensive journey. 

The short story:
Car started overheating and engine skipped.
Had spark plugs, wires replaced, plus one engine cooling fan. $525. 
Started overheating again, burned my hand trying to add water. Got a new thermostat installed $129.
That repair did nothing. Took it back and they couldn't help me. Second round of diagnoses for no charge, sent me home without a resolution.
Immediately returned to the shop nearest to my home. They replaced the thermostat with a Hyundai original equipment replacement. $160.
This worked for about one month... with varied success. 
I replaced the thermostat again myself $40.
I brought it back to the shop where they replaced the thermostat for long enough to realize that it wasn't the thermostat causing the problem. Replaced the water pump. 
Replaced the timing belt while they were in up in there. $589.