100,000 miles in 10 months Update been 1 year

When I started my job on July 5, 2010, my 95 had 140, 948 miles on it. As of right now, the odometer reads 239, 148. Sometime this weekend I will pass 100,000 miles in 10 months. In that time it's had:

4 water pumps
2 heater cores
1 radiator
1 blower motor
several wp drive seals
2 opti seals
intake gasket
oil pan gasket
2 oil filter adapter seals
low oil level sending unit
3 sets of brake pads
2 sets of tires ( needs another set now)
3 fuel filters
plugs and wires
cap and rotor
opti from my parts car
msd coil
numerous headlight bulbs; I use silverstars and they only last about 3 months since they burn 8 - 10 hours a night
a lot of wiper blades

I've changed the oil approx every 7,500 miles so A LOT of oil and filters, air filters, and pcv valves. Once I got all the oil leaks resolved it uses 1/2 quart between changes. I changed the fluid in the rear end last summer when I started. I've added almost a quart of atf over that time. I should probably service the trans but the fluid still looks good.

I've seen a worst of 15 MPG and a best of 25.5 MPG. At least I'm in the upper range now since gas was 2.49/gal when I started and now it's 3.89/gal.

The car has missed one night of work when a shop I tried managed to bend the shaft on my opti and there wasn't time that day to replace it. That night I drove my wife's LDM. It has come home under it's own power every day. One wp went out on the road and a good friend/fair mechanic came and got me and then went back the next morning and changed the wp and brought the car home.

I try to drive it nice but it has got stopped twice for speeding. Both times in small towns so it wasn't flying. Luckily no tickets. I have wound it up to 100 mph or so a couple times when I hoped no one was watching. Only for a few miles and just to clean the plugs, of course. (btw Tim, one time when I did this I passed a Prius, I wonder if he literally blew off the road)

Other than hitting the deer, the car looks as good as it did the day I started this job. One day I'll get that fixed.

One part of me hates putting this many miles on the car but what else would be as comfortable, fun to drive, and have this much room? It's nice to not have to straighten out my back every time I get out of the car. Unless something changes, hopefully I'll be updating this to 340,000 in 10 more months!

Jon

Great read Jon and do you have to fill out a lof book?Just kidding but I am curious,what the
hell do you do for a living and do you have to pay for all of your gas?I bought my 91 OCC
this month in 2004 and it had 54000 actual miles and it now has 70234 miles.Wow I need
to get out more and drive a little more often!
Take Care
Jon
Jim Gordon

Wow that is a lot of mileage. Obviously, you're involved in delivering something.

A friend of mine has about 50 taxicabs in Boston. When they were using LT1 cars, he told me those engines would go 550K EASY. That was the good news, the transmissions, as we know, gave him problems. He did say though, they failed because they were taxis.

Tom C.

Jim - I do keep a log, the irs would really have a ball with me if I couldn't prove my mileage deduction

Tom - I run drugs Actually, it's medical deliveries to retirement homes and assisted living homes.

Jon

Jon,

YOUR NUTS!!!! I am dying with 3-4,000 a month. How do you have time to get ANY work done on your car!!. I would need two cars and a pit crew to keep up with you!!!

I AM NOT WORTHY!!!

Staying just south of High Point for a couple of nights later this month. Will have some free time in the AM's. LMK how close you might be.

Tim

Wow. 7 years of miles (and maintenance) in just 10 months. Just... Wow.

I bow to you...

How many water pumps....?

I sure hope you don't have the engine driven fan......

Tim High Point is a couple hours away. I live right of 95. LMK when you're headed home if you come this way and have a minute to stop.

Mike I still have the engine driven fan. I have 2 sets of electric fans just haven't got around to converting it.

There was a guy over on ISSF that delivered med supplies in his wagon, it had close to 500K on it when he tagged a Jersey barrier and ripped the driver side off it (he was fine).
I recall him wanting to rebuild the car as he loved it so much. It was a TBI car (92 and red if I recall correctly).

THat is some serious driving.....I thought I was doing alot when I put 30K on in 6 months working for FEMA.....

Sprocket wrote:

There was a guy over on ISSF that delivered med supplies in his wagon, it had close to 500K on it when he tagged a Jersey barrier and ripped the driver side off it (he was fine).
I recall him wanting to rebuild the car as he loved it so much. It was a TBI car (92 and red if I recall correctly).

THat is some serious driving.....I thought I was doing alot when I put 30K on in 6 months working for FEMA.....

That was my boss. He still has the car, he bought a parts car because he was going to fix it but a lot more damage than he thought. It still has a lot of good parts, though and most of them would go for free to other b-bodys. I talked him into another one, he bought a nice 93 Caprice wagon with 70k miles on it but he doesn't drive it on a route.

Sprocket, you coming to Raleigh again this year? If you do and have some time I'll take you over there.

Jon

94X2 wrote:

Sprocket wrote:

There was a guy over on ISSF that delivered med supplies in his wagon, it had close to 500K on it when he tagged a Jersey barrier and ripped the driver side off it (he was fine).
I recall him wanting to rebuild the car as he loved it so much. It was a TBI car (92 and red if I recall correctly).

THat is some serious driving.....I thought I was doing alot when I put 30K on in 6 months working for FEMA.....

That was my boss. He still has the car, he bought a parts car because he was going to fix it but a lot more damage than he thought. It still has a lot of good parts, though and most of them would go for free to other b-bodys. I talked him into another one, he bought a nice 93 Caprice wagon with 70k miles on it but he doesn't drive it on a route.

Sprocket, you coming to Raleigh again this year? If you do and have some time I'll take you over there.

Jon

your gig sounded way to similar to his. Sorry, no Raleigh this year its Atlanta (and the next 2) for my Memorial Day gig.
I have this darn pkg in my garage still......I need to tape it up and get it to the darn post office. I just found it AGAIN yesterday.
I did have it in the living room to motivate me to send, got shoved in the garage before company came over and........I swear it's coming, lol.

I don't have an annual count, but from June 2001 to July 2003, I drove 21 different cabs for four different companies and ran 211,842 miles. The most on one vehicle, I took a '98 CVPI, Yellow Y-265, from 177K to 256K. 79K on one cab. It still isn't quite as much as you've done.

Then there's the courier work I did. Put about 45K on a Geo Metro, 68K on one Dodge Dynasty and 29K on another, about 40K among three Aerostars owned by the courier service, 12K on a Datsun wagon, and about 60K across a Diplomat, Tercel, Impala wagon (a '78 2-seat with no air I got for $160), a $100 eBay Dodge Shadow, a Sentra, a Civic, and an Escort. That was about 3 years' worth up in Ohio. Then once down here in Texas I put 9K on an Aspire, 12K on a Colt Vista, 12K on one Buick Century, 9K on another Century, and 46K on the third Buick Century, 27K on an Aerostar all two and a half years doing more deliveries. So all together that's 369,000 miles as a courier and closing in on 600K in vehicle-based jobs as a whole.

Deliveries are HARD on a vehicle. The domestic mid-size sedans did the best, Dynastys and Centurys. I would absolutely use one of those again if I needed a delivery job. A 2.2 liter Century wagon, 93-96, would be perfect and give me more room than the sedans ever had.

It's been exactly 1 year. The odometer now reads 258,264. Just short of 118k in 1 year. I wonder if Cadillac needs a short term high mileage test on a CTS-V wagon......

Jon

Are you doing your own work on the car or a hired mechanic?

Nick

phantom 309 wrote:

Are you doing your own work on the car or a hired mechanic?

Nick

Both, I do most of my own work. I have a friend who's a pretty decent mechanic who will come help me when I get in a bind. I took it to a shop once when I didn't have the time to work on it and had a bad experience.

Jon

ok,. i was just curious about all the duplicate replacement parts,. seals, water pumps, heater cores etc,.
usually they don't fail that quick,.

Nick

Wow, that's a lot in a short time! My sister put on 22k in 10 months, and I thought that was crazy. So I take it you like your new job? Even if I add up all the driving I did since I got my license, it only comes to about 140k ~ 150k. It helps I only work a few miles from home. You couldn't have picked a better car to put the miles on with, nothing so far that I've found beats a Roadmaster seat for long drives. base Caprice seat, not so much.
So I have a two questions: Do you use new or rebuilt water pumps, and do you think the first heater core you put in was defective? I would think (hope) the replacements would last as long as the factory one did. I'm just now replacing the 19 year old one in my OCC.

I was buying rebuilt water pumps. I've actually only bought one. The rest were replaced under warrenty. I also had my mechanic friend write out an invoice a couple times and did labor claims with advance. One of the pumps developed a hole in the casting. Each time I replaced a pump I did the seal, too. The first heater core was used.

Jon

94X2 wrote:

I was buying rebuilt water pumps. I've actually only bought one. The rest were replaced under warrenty. I also had my mechanic friend write out an invoice a couple times and did labor claims with advance. One of the pumps developed a hole in the casting. Each time I replaced a pump I did the seal, too. The first heater core was used.

Jon

A hole in the casting? Wow that's odd. I didn't know Advance would reimburse for a professional's labor. And hopefully your new heater core will last a long time... I hope mine does as well.

That is alot of driving Jon! I thought I was a road warrior when I was doing the FEMA gig (37k in 8 months)......

They bust my chops for putting down a lot of miles..... I AM NOT WORTHY!!! Thou art king of the Warriors of thy road!!!!

Woah....congrats on the miles! That is impressive!!

ask mike(scoob) about the guy named Ski in our local car club, he has his own company. h travels the country selling transient surge protectors. he has nearly 300k on the one he currently drives and the one he just sold for parts had an official 498,000 ( we told him he should have put the other 2k on it to even it out!) he buys TBI cars though!