Clacky 2015

[Grumpy Bear]

Said like 300K is something special. Here's a list it took 2 minutes to find of 22 MILLION Mile motors.

https://carbuzz.com/features/highest-mileage-cars

[7milesout]

I've never seen or been in a vehicle with 300k+ miles. In that respect, I think a 300k mile car is special.

I had an '84 Toyota Celica GT. It made it to 296k miles, running good, and was involved in a crash. 300k miles in a car might not be all that outstanding though ... unless it did with no major drivetrain repairs.

[Grumpy Bear]

I've never seen or been in a vehicle with 300k+ miles. In that respect, I think a 300k mile car is special.

I had an '84 Toyota Celica GT. It made it to 296k miles, running good, and was involved in a crash. 300k miles in a car might not be all that outstanding though ... unless it did with no major drivetrain repairs.

I learned from family. Uncle had a 36 Ford 239 Flathead he bought in 38 he ran to a million miles plus with one valve job. A second Uncle with an Isuzu that passed 1 million and second at 800K when he retired. My father, 750K miles on a 66 Ford 390. 700K on an Iron 4.3 Chevy Cheyene. My brother-in-law has a Bonneville 3800 with 400K that still looks new; my dad maintains it and it uses no oil. I've had a Toyota Paseo go 300K. A 98 Honda HX I ran to 200K and sold to a neighbor whose kid blew it up a few months later drifting it. Pulled that one down like Clacky I except the pistons looked nearly new. When I sold it, leak down was under 5%, still had new compression and used zero oil.

The Uncle with the Isuzu and myself use boutique oils and slightly longer OCI's, 5 to 7.5K, than the rest of the family. The remainer use Conventional at 1-2K OCI's or Full Synthetic at 2.5-3K OCI's. All of us are anal in maintenance.

Dad services the 66 Ford long after he sold it and when it was wrecked at 750K we took that one down. Clean as a whistle inside. Yea, pistons too. 1K OCI's on Phillips Trop-Artic 10W30 Conventional. That thing even lost an oil pump driveshaft one winter about 18 miles from home when it had about 100K on it and drove home on splash. Pan pulled, pump replaced, bearings inspected and down the road it went. A few water pumps, one fuel pump and lots of tune-ups. And another 650K.

The Flathead survived about a dozen vehicles and ended its life in a test stand in the bus garage for shop classes.

In my father's lifetime swapping a motor from one vehicle another was an afternoon exercise. Not true during the latter half of my life. I sent many a perfect motor to the scrapper in bodies rusted out or cars totaled. I'm getting better. Pepper has 178K on her 10 year old body and is MINT. Barring a deer or thief...who knows now that I have unlocked the secret to keeping one alive.

I think 300K is...well....meh. But hey, keep buying those cars and trucks. Mary Barra needs a new Vett.



We done peeing down each others leg yet?

[sunbeam]

Said like 300K is something special. Here's a list it took 2 minutes to find of 22 MILLION Mile motors.

https://carbuzz.com/features/highest-mileage-cars

This is my first car, the family used to always lease cars.

Longest we ever had a car was a toyota matrix xr at 180,000km on return.

Would be thrilled to go 300,000km+ with this car.

That being said, mechanic has a toyota tercel (1998) with 550,000km, a toyota 4runner with 750,000km and a volkswagen golf with 500,000km.

This frames what is possible for me with this car, and of course @Fummins, @Stevedmc and the purplewon show 600k+ examples of the mirage.


Calculated if I can get the mirage to 160,000km without a major repair this is the breakeven point financially.
Anything past 160,000km the car becomes so inexpensive to run per km it would be amazing.

Hoping to get the car to year 7 of age at which point it will be paid off.



Feeling like this is a doable number, expect that crashing or others crashing me or wildlife strikes are more likely to end this car rather than mechanical problems.

Based on my current driving load it will take me 9+ years to get past 300k.

[Fummins]

I opened up the 524k engine. I was surprised. Sorry, no soup for you. Til later...

[7milesout]

Feeling like this is a doable number, expect that crashing or others crashing me or wildlife strikes are more likely to end this car rather than mechanical problems.

I have to believe that too.

If it hadn't been for a car pulling out in front of my old '84 Celica GT, I think I would still have it. I loved that car. I probably wouldn't daily drive it, but I was completely in love with it. Loved everything about it. Cept I would have like to had more power and less oversteer.

[7milesout]

Uncle had a 36 Ford 239 Flathead he bought in 38 he ran to a million miles plus with one valve job.

I would love to have seen them old machines toodling down the road. I'd like to hear (read) about what year those cars lasted, until they came off the road (body & engine). Really cool stuff.

We done peeing down each others leg yet?

I doubt it...

[inuvik]

I think 300k+ miles is awesome in any car, let alone a econobox like the Mirage. The overwhelming majority of vehicle owners in general do not do their own maintenance because they don't know how nor do they have the appropriate space to maintain their vehicles on their own. Most vehicle owners take their vehicles to either dealerships, quick lube shops, or a local mechanic. There isn't going to be any discussion about high shear viscosity or flash points. That being said I do think it's a interesting field of study for sure.

The average Mirage owner will not do maintenance unless something tells them to it (wrench symbol, sticker on your windshield, flashing gear indicator, wheel falling off etc.). These little cars get the crap beat out of them by their owners and yet they keep on chugging away. If you ask the average vehicle owner what type of oil they are running they are going to say "whatever the shop uses". If the Mirage can hold up to fleet usage where they get the snot ran out of them every single day, I'd say that is a true testament of their longevity and not so much what flavor of oil you are running.

The key is to just change the oil and filter with reasonable OCI's and I think you're gonna be just fine regardless of synthetic, non-synthetic dino lube. Anyway, I'm not saying you're incorrect GrumpyBear, it's just that for the average Mirage owner it's never gonna register. Now this same discussion on BITOG would generate a whole lot of technical interaction.

[sunbeam]

I think 300k+ miles is awesome in any car, let alone a econobox like the Mirage. The overwhelming majority of vehicle owners in general do not do their own maintenance because they don't know how nor do they have the appropriate space to maintain their vehicles on their own. Most vehicle owners take their vehicles to either dealerships, quick lube shops, or a local mechanic. There isn't going to be any discussion about high shear viscosity or flash points. That being said I do think it's a interesting field of study for sure.

The average Mirage owner will not do maintenance unless something tells them to it (wrench symbol, sticker on your windshield, flashing gear indicator, wheel falling off etc.). These little cars get the crap beat out of them by their owners and yet they keep on chugging away. If you ask the average vehicle owner what type of oil they are running they are going to say "whatever the shop uses". If the Mirage can hold up to fleet usage where they get the snot ran out of them every single day, I'd say that is a true testament of their longevity and not so much what flavor of oil you are running.

The key is to just change the oil and filter with reasonable OCI's and I think you're gonna be just fine regardless of synthetic, non-synthetic dino lube. Anyway, I'm not saying you're incorrect GrumpyBear, it's just that for the average Mirage owner it's never gonna register. Now this same discussion on BITOG would generate a whole lot of technical interaction.

Well also need to stay on top of the coolant to avoid that dreaded clogged core.

I get that @Fummins and others have industrial uses for these cars ie. delivery, customer usage etc. but for me, I do not see the additional need to beat on the car.

Feels like mitsubishi made it to be serviced.
My mechanic is nice enough to teach me how to service the car myself.

Next up is upgrading the plugs to ruthenium spark plugs and trying an on the ground gear oil change. And of course adding cruise control, new fog lights, and led reflector upgrade.

[Fummins]

Here's something to ponder.
(Assuming same filter is used...)
Walmart oil $5.60/qt/L=$17/oil change
Redline $ 18/qt/L =$54/oil change
Liqui Moly $ 10/qt/L =$30/oil change
If I used walmart oil(and did 6000km interval oil changes) in the latest two cars that I replaced the engines in, 458k km and 528k km they would have had 76 and 88 oil changes.

458k car would have cost: walmart oil-$1292, using redline $4100. $2808 difference. That's 65 tanks of fuel for me ($1.44/L) or 2 months worth of beer.
528k car would have cost walmart oil-$1496, using redline $4752. $3256 difference. That's 75 tanks of fuel. 30L at $1.44/L. Or 3 months worth of beer.

I bought the engine for my current car for around $800 with 10k kms(yes mileage is legit). At the time engines with higher miles were listed for as low as $200...
I would charge less than $1000 to install one.
Buy cheap oil, drive 458k kms, blow up the engine, and bring it to me to replace the engine. Rinse, repeat. You'll $1000 every 458k kms! Everybody wins.