Gilhuly

Sunday NYT article/release

Yeah, in many cases its better than a service manual for the experience challenged. He sounds like he's probably between the ages of 17 and 22 (not a general slam against the younger) and his ignorance and "learning experiences" always seem to be somebody elses fault. To be more constructive, you can look at any number of brake job tutorials and see pretty much the same thing. The caliper bolts on the back of the caliper can definitely be tough. Patience and PB Blaster will pay dividends. If you would like a sure fire fix, get a piece of 15" or so muffler pipe from the bin at Autozone that will slide over the end of your breaker bar. This will give you a surprising improvement in leverage. With PB on those bolts and the cheater bar no brake caliper bolt on earth will stand in your way. Good luck

Sounds like you're pretty far down the line at this point. I don't recommend people to buy these cars unless they're willing to turn a wrech and continue their education in the automotive world. With some basic/moderate skills you could easily have shaved at least $500 out of the shocks/struts and brakes, but its a choice. Hey, big picture, If I knew out front that all that stuff would need to be done, including the cat and 02 and somebody offered me that car for free I'd take it in a second. Nothings free. Conversly, you could definitely sell it for 4k if it runs well and you have less than 2k in it. I think your free car expectations were too high maybe. quote name='DC-10 Captain' date='Sep 20 2006, 11:01 PM' post='759692'] I was on my third 240, when my sister offered to give me her 1995 850 sedan for free. Naturally, I accepted. The 240 had 218K miles; even though it was in excellent condition, I figured I couldn't turn down a much newer, seemingly more reliable car. *well* Here are how things have unfolded so far: Camshaft Position sensor -- $200 Motor mounts -- $200 Alternator and battery -- $300 Breaks/rotors -- $550 Shocks/struts -- $500 And now, the car can barely put out any power. The exhaust pipe sounds like hell, so I'm thinking it may just need a catalytic converter and/or O2 sensors. The dashboard lights also mysteriously went out, even though fuse #35 is recieving power. This is all excluding maintenance items, such as the timing belt, tune-ups, etc. The car has only 102K. I have two questions: 1) Any idea why the dashlights wouldn't work, even though the fuse outlet is fine? 2) Should I sell this car? The car has been in an accident, so the title is reconstructed. I really don't know what to do. Yeah, it's fun to drive (5spd manual) and it's safe, but it's a real money pit. At the same time, I don't see why anyone would want to buy it. Has anyone else had trouble with 850s, or is this just a bad year? Thanks for any input!

Definitely do the water pump. The downside to doing it it a relatively cheap part cost and the downside to not doing it is a new boat anchor in the form of your old engine.