looking after a high mileage vehicle

a vehicle with 200,000 kilometres on it can have a lot of life left, and whether it does depends less on the number than on what has been done to it.

what actually changes past 150,000

rubber, everywhere. hoses, belts, bushings, engine and transmission mounts. rubber ages on a calendar rather than an odometer, and this is where most of the wear on an older vehicle actually is.

fluids that were "lifetime". transmission fluid, differential oil, transfer case fluid, brake fluid. lifetime meant the warranty period. at this mileage they are old, and changing them is cheap against what they protect.

seals and gaskets. weeping rather than leaking, at first. valve cover gaskets, oil pan gaskets, the front and rear main seals.

sensors. oxygen sensors are a wear item. so are wheel speed sensors and thermostats.

suspension. shocks and struts wear so gradually that nobody notices, and a tired set costs you braking distance as well as comfort.

what to do about it

change the oil on time, and do not stretch a long interval on an engine that is using a little. older engines are less tolerant of tired oil.

do the fluids nobody did. if there is no record of the transmission fluid being changed, that is the one to do.

fix the small leaks. a weeping gasket is cheap. the same gasket after it has dripped onto a belt or a mount for two years is not.

keep it clean underneath, especially in salt country. rust ends more Ontario vehicles than mechanical failure does.

the honest bit

at some point the arithmetic changes and the repairs stop being worth it. a good shop tells you when you are approaching that, rather than taking the work.

if you are deciding whether to keep a vehicle or replace it, we will tell you what it needs and roughly what it will need next, and you can weigh that against what a replacement costs. sometimes the answer is to keep it, and we would rather say so.