Ya'll Crazy!

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Ya'll Crazy!

Postby Teatang » Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:23 pm

When I was five years old, my family bought our first new car, a silver 1984 Dodge Aires wagon with a red interior. Although I have many fond memories in that car, sitting for hours every other weekend on trips to see family, I think my most clear memories are being broken down on the side of the road, the cloth headliner dangling in my hair, or being burnt by the vinyl seats on sunny days. We went through a lot of head gaskets under warranty and we probably should have used the lemon law. My parent's didn't have a lot of money and my father did everything in his power to keep it running. We put a junk yard motor in at 40,000 miles and again at 60,000. That last engine lasted another 40,000 miles, until my newly licensed sister finally blew the engine up in 1993. When I see a K-car running around these days, I say to myself, "How is this even possible?"

A website dedicated to this car? Ya'll crazy!
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Re: Ya'll Crazy!

Postby Club President » Sat Jan 03, 2009 9:43 pm

Well, I guess I'll take that as a compliment. Yes, some of the K-cars had their issues. Most of us here though have never had as many issues as your family had. I mean, I got my K-car at 52,000 and it now has 130,000 on the original engine. In fact, many K-cars have been driven well over 200,000 miles. You must have been stuck with some really incompetent technicians. An engine should last longer than 20,000 miles.
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Re: Ya'll Crazy!

Postby Baron » Sun Jan 04, 2009 1:15 am

Yes, things like that happen. For example, some friends of ours had the exact sister car to ours- a 2002 Intrepid with the same engine, etc. They were so exact, in fact, that even the paint color was the same (it was a strange coincidence we both ended up with cars that exactly alike, but a coincidence, nonetheless). They have over 200,000 miles, maybe by now, even 300,000 miles on their car, and its still going. On the other hand, the water pump went out on ours, overheated and blew the engine at 90,000. I think the contrast is such that there is no way that the entire car model/line itself can be judged by such circumstances.
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Re: Ya'll Crazy!

Postby 1of10K » Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:14 am

I bought a new 1981 Reliant Custom sedan in 1981. It was a great little car except for the Automatic transmission. Every so often, I would be driving around and when taking off from a stop sign or light, the car would stay in first gear and absolutely nothing would get it to shift, except for putting the car in neutral, turning off and turning right back on. I kept going back and forth to the dealer, but when the car was turned off, the problem went away, the mechanic would drive it and say it was fine. Finally, it did it again one day, and I right away limped to the dealer stuck in first gear and out shouted the service advisor who wanted me to turn it off. I wouldn't leave until the mechanic went for a ride and right away verified with me that indeed it did have a problem. But then he pulled it in the service department, turned it off, and later when he looked at it, what do you know, the problem was gone!! I had 13-14 trips to the dealer, they couldn't figure it out and wouldn't replace my "perfectly working transmission". My great first new car, which I had plans of driving forever, was turning out to be a big dissapointment and was traded in on a new Datsun in 1983. All these years I have been never forgot my first new car, even though I was really disapointed by my first K experience. But I still wanted a Reliant, and finally got my current '81, which i am almost done restoring to like new condition. Lets try it again!!! So far, no mystery illnesses that can't be fixed, maybe this one is the true survivor!
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Re: Ya'll Crazy!

Postby Baron » Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:46 am

My Dynasty did something like that a time or two (only I think it was 2nd gear it went into and stayed). Turns out it was going into a "Self-Protect" mode that it was programmed to do whenever it detected a potential problem that could be detrimental to the transmission if the car was allowed to continue operating at normal speeds- and the problem could be anything from low fluid to something more serious. I think the first time it was low fluid (my fault) and filling it solved the problem. The second time- at about 50,000+ miles ended up being something more serious and the transmission was rebuilt under warranty. Your problem was probably something different- but it does make me wonder if it could have been the same thing and your dealer just wasn't "with-it" in regard to what was happening.
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Re: Ya'll Crazy!

Postby 88 aries » Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:43 am

K-cars do have mind of their own i swear, my 86 reliant when i first got it hestated in Reverse and stalled, and when it was all restored on the outside and an oil change it hasnt done that since.
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Re: Ya'll Crazy!

Postby Johnny » Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:48 pm

It also depends what engine it had.
The 2.6 Mitsu was not as good as the later 2.2 and 2.5 engines.
And if you use a mopar performance head gasket and new head bolts
on the 2.2 and 2.5, they usually last seemingly forever.

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Re: Ya'll Crazy!

Postby MoparDan » Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:33 pm

My mother had an '81 Relient 4 door Tan in and out, very striped down, automatic, engine unknown, they told me it would always stall every time they stopped at a stop sign or light :shock: they brought it every repare place they could find but could fix it. all my parnets seen to know about the engine was that it was 4 cyl. and very underpowerd given the problems I'd say it was the 2.6
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Re: Ya'll Crazy!

Postby 88 aries » Thu Jul 23, 2009 2:34 am

Johnny wrote:It also depends what engine it had.
The 2.6 Mitsu was not as good as the later 2.2 and 2.5 engines.
And if you use a mopar performance head gasket and new head bolts
on the 2.2 and 2.5, they usually last seemingly forever.

Johnny
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81-85 2.2 carbs can be a good engine also but i do agree the TBI engines are better for people who dont know how to work a carb
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