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Just win a lottery jackpot. People do it all the time. Just nobody I know. Not me, because I can't afford to buy a ticket. But it could be you. We have all been there. You have a car that you don't want to lose, but you are throwing more money at it than it is actually worth. Now you're in the hole. You will never get out of it, what you're putting into it. It's like a bad relationship. You don't want to let it go, but can't afford to hold onto it. Your car can be fixed. Today's modern vehicles, almost everything can be diagnosed and corrected. The right technician, with proper diagnostic equipment, could pinpoint all of the car's issues. And as you already know, most of the time, it's just changing parts. Every part on the car can be changed for a new one. But at what cost? You just put a over a thousand into this car. I don't even want to think about how many thousands you have put into it over the years. I've done the same myself. I put over $10,000 (little by little, over many years) into an old rust bucket Jeep, until I figured out that I could have spent that money on a new car. Like you, a thousand here, five hundred there, and 10 years later, it added up. Your car's KBB value may only be in the $2,000 - $4,000 range. It may be time to figure out what your budget allows for car payments, and to talk to a lender about financing. The math is not in favor of putting more money into the car.

Hello forum. New here. NOT new to Transits. I have a 2010 Transit Connect. I bought it used in 2012 with 35K miles on it. Last Friday it rolled over 275,000 miles. As you can see, I drive a lot. Its name is Sexy Beast. He and I have been places. There is nothing in my life I depend on more than my Transit, and nothing causes me more aggravation. It has had lots of work done but maybe no more than is to be expected of a car with high mileage. It lives with three persistent dash indicators : check engine light (see below), the traction control light (never figured out why on that one), and the tire pressure light. Can I tell you my current problems? Any input is appreciated. Sexy Beast got the death sentence last fall. It was throwing codes left and right and kept blowing up the spark plug and coil in cylinder 2. The local Ford dealer finally said, you need a new engine. Low compression on #2 . I said, not happening, have kept driving on it. The marvelous thing about the situation, AT IDLE, cylinder #2 takes a vacation. We have literally pulled the whole plug out while it's idling, and nothing happens. It just idles away merrily. When you add some RPMs #2 wakes up and works totally fine. See, it has taught itself to be MORE EFFICIENT! Genius! I am very familiar with what it feels like to drive a car with an inoperable sparkplug, and it does not do this. The only prevailing problem is it idles too low. RPMs are around 750 at idle, they go up to about 1000 if it's in park or neutral, sometimes it dips below 750 and tries to sputter out. When you put it in drive and take your foot off the brake to switch to accelerator, it really goes low and has even died a few times on me. So question numero uno, is there a way to raise the resting idle RPMs? More immediate problem, mainly why I am here to vent. Last week Transit was in the shop for new inner and outer tie rods on both front wheels ($550). The day after I got four new tires ($390). Drove to my parents' for the weekend. AC had gradually gotten warmer over the past few months, so we bought a charging kit from the auto parts store ($50), after doing that, AC back to nice and cold. Most difficult part was finding the low pressure tube...those sneaky devils at Ford... During the AC venture, my dad got to witness first hand how much oil the car was leaking, which has been going on for months. Ford dealer couldn't pinpoint it last week while it was in the shop, and frankly, I was out of money to throw at it. My dad ended up taking it to a shop on Monday, and they replaced the oil sending unit which 100% fixed the leak, so yay, and kudos to dad, who paid for it ($500). So add that up, $1500+ in work last week. After all that, Sexy drove like a superstar. Until today. Just now I go to run some errands. Warm car up like always, turn AC on medium, take off. I get about 2 miles down the road, realize AC is blowing hot then instantly observe that temp gauge is on HIGH. NO BUENO. I pull over and turn the car off. F me!!!!!!!! After about ten minutes I fire it back up, turn off AC, drive home. I let it idle in the driveway with the AC on low. As I'm standing at the front of the car listening for the AC compressor (shoulda popped the hood but you know, key's in the ignition), the car very peacefully dies. F ME!!!!! Let it sit for about 20 minutes. Take it on another test drive. Drove about 3 miles with AC off. All fine. I drive home with AC on low. Fine. As I pull onto my street, I put the AC on medium. As I pull into my driveway, the car peacefully dies again. No change in temp gauge. At this point I call Dad crying, he has me turn the car on and idle, change from park to neutral to drive, it's actually idling at about 1000 so doing OK, turn AC on and off, nothing changes, it's all OK. It's during this time I realize that the coolant in the white reservoir is really low. Minimum line is halfway up the reservoir, there's only about a quarter inch of coolant at the bottom. How did I not notice this before. Dad says let the car cool down completely, like tomorrow morning, add water. So are today's weird problems because I was low on coolant and it was freaking out (and how did myself, my dad, and three different car shops all miss that in the past week), or is my AC all screwed up now after being charged and that is causing the problem? Why does this stuff happen all at once? Why can't I find a big pile of money and just go buy a new car?????? Thanks for listening. And hopefully sympathizing. And hopefully empathizing, so you can give me advice. --Anney in Florida