on my sister's 96

i've been telling her to get rid of this car for ages...was doing the brake pads when i noticed that the ball joint does not appear to be connected to the tie rod. see image:



is this normal? she's been driving the car occasionally and i moved it around on the driveway, so i assume that the joint must have popped open while i was lifting the car. i should note that the axle was replaced a few thousand miles ago (and somehow is already completely rusty???) so the car has been lifted and lowered recently.

 

wait, that ain't no steering bit. is that a sway bar endlink or something? do i have to freak out? the steering ball joint is rusty, but functional.

 

Where i live i would call that severe rust and would consider scrapping the car. In new york it might be considered mint, idk.

 

That's just the sway bar end-link. Not to downplay it, but it's not a grave cause for concern like the actual ball joint would be. That could certainly cause some body roll/control issues under heavy/high speed cornering conditions though. I wouldn't want to be in a high speed emergency swerving situation with the end-link unattached. You do want to fix it sooner rather than later obviously.

And holy rust Batman! Where do you live?

 

the struts are totally shot...the sway bar seems like a sort of deck-chairs-on-the-titanic repair

the car is in chicago, where every maxima seems to be made entirely of rust. it's really frustrating how it refuses to give up. i want it to break down catastrophically so she gets rid of it. timing chain failure, cracked oil pan, anything. i always knew it was a POS but after working down there today it seems downright unsafe to me.

 

Maintenance here is lacking for sure. Although it is very rusty, that sway bar end link did not just pop out on its own. That's been there soo long that even the rubber boot that is usually around it is completely disintegrated without a trace. Replace them and she should be good to go.

 

Sway bar link kits are not that expensive, $11 at autozone. Replace both sides.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...26775_10302_0_

The sway bar links will wear out on every car, just like the struts do. This is normal maintenance on an old car.

Since this is a snow belt car, check the front cross member that the radiator sits on. If it is rusting out, that is your catastrophic repair that you are so desperately hoping for. This is something like a $1500 repair that needs to be taken care of before the thing gives way completely as the engine is supported by this cross member.

 

moog on the end links, advanced has them

 

1500? I literally just got my car back from a body shop for the rad support on Wednesday and they only charged me $465

however, different places different prices. that could be your saving grace for your sister to get rid of it, because I know where I live it would have gotten a rejected inspection sticker. My rad support was so bad nobody around me would pass it for inspection.

 

is she going to die driving it with a broken sway bar link? No. And from reading the condition of the car I doubt it will make a noticeable difference in how the car drives if you replace it. How ever in my state that would fail safety inspection and it is a broken part that should be fixed

 

you dont know what an endlink is and you say a 4th gen needs to die? leave

 

easy fix, but it might be like putting lipstick on a pig. is the rest of the car completely trashed (suspension, brakes, aesthetics)?

i too have noticed that basically every 4th gen in chicago is rusting away to nothing. meanwhile mine aren't. it's strange.

 

I have a bottle of rust converter sitting in my trunk if you need some, LOL. But I don't think my one bottle is going to be enough to change all that rustiness into a beautiful black paint-able surfaced after a 24 hour curing time.

But I was surprised how cheap it was, I bought some for the minor rust spots on my car and so far so good. Just got to put in a bit of elbow work and scrub off the loose surface rust.

 

That is a lot of rust. Throw the Moog end links and call it good... at least until something else falls off the car.

 

I dont give a damn where you live, surface rust is fine. You let an end link separate? give up and go home

 

A 17 year old car in the rust belt refuses to give up and you call it a POS? Is every car that has used up its' first set of brake pads a POS also, or do you maintain it and keep driving? You're not the first guy on here to have a separated end link and you won't be the last.

 

for $11 i might just do that, seems simple enough.

the rad support has some rust creeping in around the edges, but it's not rotted through, and i can hit it with some POR-15..might be worth doing. i also read something here about grinding out the rusty parts and welding in a 1/8" plate, which seems like a pretty easy fix if it's rusted on just the bottom.

totally trashed....it wasn't in great shape when she bought it, but i gave it some work and it's been good to use for about 35k miles. for a total investment of ~2200, that ain't bad. these cars are really good cars - they rattle and squeak like a cage full of steel mice, but they really just keep pounding the pavement until the owner decides it's time to let go.

chicago is really bad to cars and i don't think it was until the early 00s that most carmakers solved their rust susceptibility problems - galvanized steel, good basecoats, etc. makes a big difference. you don't see too many cars past that era rusting, except proteges and windstars.

no man, like i said, these maximae are really good cars.

and i mean that, too. since i bought my volvo, every little noise and warning lamp makes my wallet quake with fear. nothing expensive has failed yet, but the list of possibilities is huge: rear main seal, $800 (with labor); throttle module, $500; air conditioning, $1000+ (with labor); turbo oil lines, $900 (with labor); turbo, $500; the list goes on. i only owned my 97 for two years or so, but i don't think i ever spent more than $60 on a part, and there was nothing i felt like i needed a shop to do.