The Tercel standard

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splatterdog
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The Tercel standard

Post by splatterdog »

I frequently find myself comparing newer cars to the old T4 and how the newer stuff doesn't measure up in many ways. Part longevity or ease of repair are my criteria. Today's nightmare was an 06 Mazda 6 for a rad. Took longer than a T4 engine, working without power tools. I had 5 different magnet pans keeping all the fasteners organized.

Just recently I also had to replace a front turn signal bulb on a mid 2000's Cadillac Deville. It looked almost as stripped down as the Mazda did. Only took an hour and a half. Getting close to T4 engine time...
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marlinh
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My tercel:: 'Everett' Blue 87 4WD Wagon (Rocky 86, recently retired)
Location: Kootenays

Re: The Tercel standard

Post by marlinh »

I agree, when I look under the hood of any other vehicle these days I cringe at the thought of having to do anything to it.
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dlb
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My tercel:: '87 sr5, '83 dlx parts car
Location: bc, canada

Re: The Tercel standard

Post by dlb »

that's incredible. an hour and a half to replace a light bulb! since i've gotten into mechanics, i've had a few friends suggest i do it professionally but this is the exact reason i couldn't do it. it would make me hate my new hobby right quick. just tercs and other fun old junk for me, thanks.
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: The Tercel standard

Post by Petros »

The new cars are not designed to be owner maintained. you drive them until they break, you throw it away and get another one. that is what Detroit wants you to do. Can you believe timing chain and tensioner sets costing $900 or more on a new car? That is for the ecoomy 4 cylinder model. And than the manual tells the mechanic to remove the engine to replace the tensioner. So, you have a perfectly good 10 year old car, and they want something like $3000 to install a new timing chain. Than after the stunned look on your face wears off, the service manager gently walks you over to the sales department.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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emmahumpfritter
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My tercel:: 1985 tercel 4wd
Location: St. Cloud Minnesota

Re: The Tercel standard

Post by emmahumpfritter »

I think about this kind of stuff all the time....

It's everywhere. Watch the movie/doc "Zeitgeist" to get a deep understanding to why we live in a world where things aren't built to last. (and many other deep metaphysical insights worth considering)

I've been driving a 97 Suzuki sidekick as a back woods explorer lately, only because it has more ground clearance than the T4wd and frankly doesn't get stuck in the sand as easy--but I'll NEVER part with my 85 T4wd wagon. It's collector plated. It has a roof rack for hauling the canoe. It has a hitch for towing the bass boat (Thanks Splat!) it is still the "if I could only have one car..." vehicle.

Splat is touching upon a deeper topic of, we done gone over the technological edge in our over ripe 1st world culture--or at least that's what I read into it.
260K with no end in sight....
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
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Re: The Tercel standard

Post by Petros »

most companies only respond to what consumers want. You do not like it, do not buy it, so I do not.

the other factor is federal regulations make almost everything we buy a piece of sh*t. the stupid "energy saver" requirements put sensitive electronic controls in normal household appliances like stoves and dishwashers, these controllers are always failing. Unknowingly we bought all new appliances in 2003 for the house we just finished building, within 5 years all have been repaired several times under warranty. After the warranty ran out (five years typically) and it broke again I took it to the land fill and bought an "old" model off craigs list and installed it. No more break downs.

one would think that simple appliances would get better over time, but like most things, when the feds feel the need to make our lives "better", it all goes to crap.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
Jarf
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My tercel:: Currently without
Location: Ontario

Re: The Tercel standard

Post by Jarf »

Petros - I am all too familiar with the appliance "improvements".
Got rid of the 30 yr old Viking that worked flawlessly but was apt size and the wife hated.
Got a 3 yr old stove from a friend that was rebuilding their kitchen.
One day, during a fit of total stupidity on my part, I accidentally grounded the lower element to the frame while the stove was on, poof went the stove.

Started looking for fuses, as we know ALL electrical appliances have fuses, right?
Seems that once they went to really expensive electronic circuit boards they decided there was no longer a requirement to protect the circuits.
So instead of a $5 fuse, it smokes the electronic circuit board, a mere $300 later and the stove is back in business.

Am currently looking for something nice and old, without electronic circuits and no stupid glass top, "stupidest improvement' yet.
Hopefully I will be able to find a stove, equivalent to the Tercel.
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ARCHINSTL
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My tercel:: Goldie is a 1986 SR5 attualmente con Weber/also owned the first T4WD in STL in late '82
Location: Kirkwood, a 'burb of St. Louis

Re: The Tercel standard

Post by ARCHINSTL »

And people wonder why I still use as my "daily driver" my family's GE refrigerator we bought in - July of 1952. The only times it's been off in 61 years is when I annually clean the fins and the motor.
So I have to defrost it every two months and its efficiency is 0.2 - so what? There is only me and no rug rats opening it 50 times a day.
My central AC conked out this AM - the repair guy just left; it was an electromechanical point set that finally gave up the ghost.
Mom and Dad installed it in 1964... It's never been recharged (R22) and is the original motor, etc. I remove the cover and wash the condenser once a year - and that's been it.
Like the fridge, its efficiency hovers around 0.2 - but again, there is only me.
Tom M.

P.S. My backup fridge is a used one I bought when I moved away from home in 1961 - and it, too, is a '52 model, but a Frigidaire. I turn it on once a month or when a storm is forecast to freeze extra ice.
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
Mark Twain
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: The Tercel standard

Post by Petros »

the stupidity of the super high efficiency is they set government mandates (not even goals), with little regard for total life-cycle costs. If you have to replace a $1000 appliance every 5 years, there was no energy savings over a "Less efficient" $400 appliance that lasts 25 years.

It takes energy and resources to manufacture appliances (and cars and other goods), as it does to operate them over their useful life. If their total life-cycle costs for the "high efficiency" appliances are higher, than you wasted resources. Not to mention put a large hole in your budget. This is why I think the current fad in hybrid and electric cars is a huge rip-off, like most other "new" technology in the automotive world.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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splatterdog
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Re: The Tercel standard

Post by splatterdog »

Since digging the rustbucket out recently, I couldn't help bumping this. After a trip to camp getting reacquainted, more like putting on an old pair of shoes, I couldn't help smiling a bit. This poor car left for dead by the previous owner, then pretty much by me right in the driveway, zipping along a week later at 75 like it never happened. Don't ask why I didn't drive it for so long, I don't know. At least I had been diligently trapping mice around the house the whole time. Been rolling in Burbs and lately an Expedition.

Anyway I couldn't help but notice how the old Wagners that came with this car seemed better than any of my SUV's, even with upgraded bulbs. No hazing to blame either. Forgot how much better glass can be than aero lights. Hit a deer for my first time this year in the cavalier, that I also think has marginal lighting. It seems form has been winning over function to some extent and accountants get to pick lens material. I am modernizing the T4 a bit with some Hella conversion housings and Philips Xtremevision red 1157 leds for the back. It will only cost more than the car did!
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ARCHINSTL
Goldie Forever
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My tercel:: Goldie is a 1986 SR5 attualmente con Weber/also owned the first T4WD in STL in late '82
Location: Kirkwood, a 'burb of St. Louis

Re: The Tercel standard

Post by ARCHINSTL »

How true, how true!
Send some info on the new upgrade, with night-time pix if poss!
Thanks!
Tom M.
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Now and then we had a hope that, if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates."
Mark Twain
oldfaithful
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My tercel:: 1984 Tercel 4WD

Re: The Tercel standard

Post by oldfaithful »

Cars today should be all called “Bic” on the trunk lid, because soon as the gas tank runs dry ya throw them in the ditch. I woouldn’t take 10 brand new cars for my ‘84 SR5 Tercel which now has 865,000 kms. I have been driving it for 26 years now and it works ever bit as good if not better then it did in 1984. I say to my wife when we are driving and someone looks at it driving by, “They don’t have enough money to even look at, let alone buy it” :lol:
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: The Tercel standard

Post by Petros »

there are not really any cars I would want more for a daily driver than my T4wd. I have thought about it long and hard, some day it will not be worth fixing and I will just want something to get around in. But there is not a single car I want more as a daily driver. All of the wear and tear items are fixable for far less cost than buying another car.

I even considered the Tercel's short comings, and what it would take to upgrade them, and even paying for some one else to do all of those up grades, it is still cheaper, and I get a car I like even more, than buying a used, newer, car.

some day when I have more time to tinker, I want to build the ultimate Tercel4wd, full tilt: suspension and brakes, EFI twin cam engine, wheels and tires, leather seats, modern sound system, custom paint job, built in GPS, custom instrument cluster...everything I could ever want. And it will still be cheaper than a newer AWD car, and more fun too.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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irowiki
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Re: The Tercel standard

Post by irowiki »

Peter, have you made any progress on your engine swap project?
Former Tercel Enthusiast (not a practical family car anymore but they still have a place in my heart)

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87 Corolla FX16, 105k
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95 Camry Wagon, 170k
97 4runner, 275k
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
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Re: The Tercel standard

Post by Petros »

no, trying to keep the rest of the fleet of daily drivers running. It is sitting in my garage waiting for me.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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