Kinda at a crossroads with my Aurora - opinions please

[Deleted]

Hey all,

Looking for some advice here. I've got my 2001 Aurora 4.0 with about 149,000 miles on it. Its paid off, and other than a few small issues, and some cosmetic blemishes, its been a great daily driver, and gets me where I need to be comfortably and I enjoy driving it.

However, its starting to leak oil pretty bad, and upon looking underneath her, it appears it might be the rear main seal, maybe the oil pan seal as well, not really sure as there is oil everywhere. Now I don't have the tools, experience, etc. to do this type of job myself, so I'd be looking to take it to a shop, and I'm hearing (not quotes, just hearing from friends) its a pretty spendy repair since you have to pull the motor and tranny apart. Not to mention I guarantee once its taken apart, there will be something that will be found that will need replacing while they're in there, just due to its age, etc.

Anyways, I'm at a point where I don't know if I should spend the money to get the job done, or just keep driving it, and filling up the oil reservoir until the car eventually just quits working or something. I'm really not in the position to buy a new car, and looking at what the Aurora is worth, in "fair" condition according to KBB is only worth about $1800 trade in, $3000 private party. However, with a small dent, cracked windshield, scratches on my bumper, the oil leak etc. I'd be lucky to get someone to pay $2k for it private party and I know a dealer would prob only offer me $1k.

Now luckily we do have three vehicles in our household, so if it did blow up on me tomorrow I could always drive my truck, but my commute is 50 miles round trip and my 3/4 ton diesel doesn't exactly get the best mileage out there so that would be a temporary solution, where I would likely look for a older used economy car that I could pay cash for until the truck is paid off (2.5 more years) and we chose to buy our next newer car.

So what do you all think? I know this is a site for Oldsmobile enthusiasts, but in my situation, without a lot of money on hand right now, would it be worth dumping close to the value of the car to get it fixed up at the mileage it has? Should I unload it now while its still running and figure something else out? Or just limp it along, refilling it with oil all the time (not the most environmentally friendly solution)??

Thanks for the input!

[Paulaurora]

The leak can be valve cover gaskets. if it is leaking from the oil pan i had that issue. "proper" way is to remove the engine but my shop cut the pipe on the way out change the gaskets and welded the pipe back. cost me 400$. If its leaking from the middle of the 2 parts of the engine then you need to take out the engine and that can cost some $.

[Deleted]

Sept 29, 2014 15:18:23 GMT -6 Paulaurora said:

The leak can be valve cover gaskets. if it is leaking from the oil pan i had that issue. "proper" way is to remove the engine but my shop cut the pipe on the way out change the gaskets and welded the pipe back. cost me 400$. If its leaking from the middle of the 2 parts of the engine then you need to take out the engine and that can cost some $.

Thanks for the quick input as always Paulaurora. Maybe I need to take it to a shop for an estimate and go from there? I wouldn't have any issues dropping $400 to fix it thats for sure. But like you said, it just depends where its coming from.

[Paulaurora]

Good luck let the shop see where its coming from and you go from there.

[plato442]

Mine was leaking from the mid block oil diversion plate, which required a lot more work involved in fixing.

[Toronado3800]

West1134, you are in a great position with the truck in your family also. IMO get the oil leak diagnosed and go from there.

If it is bad news take out an ad on Craigslist for 2grand. A nice one with good pictures of your clean car someplace with an attractive background and an honest description. Then wait until the right mechanically adventurous fella to come along. If it is manageable you just don't NEED to sell it.

Whatever you do, don't let a dealership rip you off on the trade in.

[rorafan]

I'll second what toronado said - get it diagnosed to know what's really leaking. Even valve cover leaks can make a mess, and those don't usually cost crazy money to have a shop fix.

If manageable, I'd just live with it (keep oil on hand, drip pan on the garage floor, etc). Have you tried high mileage oil? Maybe try that before anything major - you can buy a lot of oil for what a block reseal could run you.

Good luck whichever way you decide!

[Deleted]

Hey everyone thank you for the responses! So I took it to the shop I trust nearby, and the news isn't good.

Leaking oil pan seal, transmission pan seal, rear main seal, and valve cover gasket leaking as well. Couple those issues, with the "Service Stability System" error I've been seeing randomly on the DIC that will appear, and then upon restarting the car disappear, the ISS clunking, some power steering pump issues, where it'll sometimes act as though I don't have power steering, then work fine for awhile, and the fact that I need new tires; at the end of the day there is just too much money to spend on this vehicle to bring it up to snuff than its worth / what I'm willing to put into it.

Thankfully I do have my truck, so I'm not in a bad place as far as getting around town. So I threw it up on Craigslist, and we'll go from there. Right now my wife and I need to focus our funds on paying off some other bills before adding a new car payment, and with winter coming, I won't mind driving my truck anyways. Hopefully it'll sell and I can take the proceeds to aid in paying bills off to put ourselves in a better position to buy a new rig sometime next year.

Again, thank you all for all your input, and this forum for the help I've received over the years in taking care of the Aurora.

While an amazingly comfortable, powerful, and fun car to drive, I would be lying if I said I'm going to be sad to see her go, as its been somewhat of a money pit and/or pain in my ass over the years with having to deal with issues that in all honestly should have been figured out per-production (most blatant of which is the gas gauge jumping issue, where some genius chose to use a component on the mechanism that sits inside the gas tank, that corrodes in gasoline!!!! I mean seriously WTF?! LOL but that's what happens when this vehicle was a hail Mary to save Oldsmobile before they closed the doors). But seriously its been a pleasure everyone, thank you!

[Paulaurora]

The issues that aurora has so is other cars same year BMW Toyota Nissan infinity etc . Gas sensor stops working on bmw and others. BMW even now has lots of oil leaks issue plus burning oil even when car has only 20-30k miles . There is no 12 years old car will have less issue maybe even more then aurora. And I have hard to believe that it leaks from everything at same time . Good luck with ur sale.

[plato442]

I'll still chose my Olds over a new car payment OR someone else's used car with hidden issues

[Toronado3800]

That is alot going on at once. I might just go the route you are going with a different vehicle.

Somethings to consider though.

For what, $2500, $3,000 in two weeks you can have a vehicle that seemingly works. What would you spend on a different vehicle? $8,000 gets a fairly new used car that SHOULD work. I usually spend less on one that I have a good feeling about.

The cheapest of the leases seem to run in the low $200's a month. We'll call the higher insurance of a leased vehicle vs higher projected fuel economy a wash. So for 3 years of leasing that's $3,600. In three years you will probably either have an Aurora that probably drives but needs another $2,500 of work or be giving up your lease car. But that leased car has next to no maintenance cost over the 3 years.

I think what decides it for me is I want to drive something "neat". I have a MarkVIII, and Aurora and an old Mustang. It would cramp my style if I was dumping $400 a month on a new Mustang or something where with my current fleet I more or less get to choose when each car costs me a payment worth of repairs lol.

[plato442]

It's all in what you want to invest in

[Deleted]

Thanks again for the opinions guys.

Plato442 - I agree I'd rather keep the Olds vs having a new payment, but at the end of the day I'd rather not spend more money on it now, knowing its a 13yr old car and only going to have more issues arise sooner vs. later. And I agree too that for $3000-$9000 I could be buying a used vehicle that has someone else' issues, which is why for now I'll just drive my truck for awhile (especially since I've only put 15k miles on it in the past three years, so it'll be nice to use it) and then pull the trigger on a year or two old vehicle sometime later next year.

Paulaurora - Just to be clear, I'm not bashing on the Aurora. When I bought it, it was because my Dad had leased one back in 2001 when they were new, and I really liked it. So years later when I was looking for a car and found the Aurora I was stoked. There are definitely a lot of cars out there that also have dumb problems, that engineers could've thought through better, and yes any 12+ year old car will have issues, I was merely stating that some of the issues I've encountered with this vehicle are due to some oversight in my opinion. It has still been a good car for me, and I will miss the comfort and ride for sure.

Toronado3800 - Yeah too many issues that I'm not willing to deal with. If this car was newer, and/or worth more I would definitely consider getting it back on the road, but these repairs coupled with the other issues I know it has that weren't part of my list and the fact that it needs new tires ($700) I just can't justify it. I'm just hoping someone on Craigslist will pick it up for $1500-2000 and go from there. But as I said above, I don't plan on buying a different vehicle anytime soon, and when I do, it won't be an older used car, but rather a year or two old one, to hopefully stay away from mileage issues, but still get the better interest rates on a loan, manufacturer warranty, etc.

[Paulaurora]

I know what u saying and we all know that somethings were dumb but the reason is cuz some parts are were build cheap for chevy and olds used some of the parts from cheap Chevy cars and the Fuel sensor is one of them. And we all know if the car new cost 14-18k its not going to be build from good parts that will last long esp back than. I do get pissed my self time to time with my Aurora like now i have a coolant leak that i need to find where need new tiers and maybe new coolant tank so its about 1k to spend and i trust only one shop to do the job and its 40 miles away from me and they open sun-thur. I do want new car but like everyone here i dont want payments.

[Deleted]

paulaurora - I hear ya! I def don't want new/more payments, but would really like a new ride. We financed our truck for 6 yrs, and at the time I was like "oh ya that should be fine" and while I still absolutely love our truck, don't cringe every month when the payment goes through, and have no regrets on the purchase, the next time around, I'm going for a shorter term!! We have been paying more than the minimum of course, so in the end it won't take the full 6 yrs, and our interest rate is at 2.25% so didn't get killed on interest either, but still a long time to be paying on something.

[Paulaurora]

Well i know what you mean . My wife gave away her Aurora and we got her 2014 volvo S60 3 year lease.Even if i wanted new car we cant afford pay another payment . I mean we can but if one of us will lose a job then we wont be able to afford it. And if i get new car i want volvo s80 or xc60 and finance and it be 400-600 a month plus her volvo and insurance .

[human]

I had similar leakage issues with the '97 Cadillac Deville I had after my first Aurora. The upper rear oil pan seal went and repairing it would have required pulling the engine. It's a common problem with the 4.6L Northstar. I'm not sure if it is as common with the 4.0L Aurora engine. The entire repair called for 21 hours' labor. I didn't have that kind of money to put into the car, so I sold it and bought a '95 Bonneville for less than the estimated cost of repairing the Caddy--a financial no-brainer if there ever was one.

For the past year or so, the age and frequency of repairs on my two cars have had me debating whether it's time move up to something newer for a daily driver. A confluence of recent events--an unexpected breakdown of my '97 LSS and the opportunity to acquire my parents' 2011 Chevy Impala--have pushed me over the edge in favor of upgrading. I'll pick the car up in a week and for the first time in my life, I'll have a 21st century car. I sold the LSS today, so the Aurora will be my daily driver for a few days until I bring the Impala home, then it will go into semi-retirement as a weekend toy. It's actually been on the inactive reserve list since early July because the air conditioner won't hold refrigerant. The weather has only recently cooled off enough that it's comfortable to drive it again. The cruise control also doesn't work, but that's comparatively minor.

Daily Driver: 2011 Impala LT
Weekend Toy: 1995 Aurora