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200,000 Miles and More – How to get there.

This is my Mom’s 1997 Toyota Tercel. She purchased the car new and named it Alice. The two live in Burlington, VT and my Mom brings Alice over for oil changes based on visits to Colebrook instead of the mileage due.

Many times over the years Mom would bring in Alice for an oil change several thousand miles over due and low on oil. One time we pulled the drain plug and only a cup of oil came out of the engine. Not long after, Alice started to burn oil and as time went on it became worse. Then came the check engine light, along with a diagnosis that led to an expensive catalytic converter replacement, likely due to the oil that was running through the exhaust. A few months later Mom called and said every time she gassed up, Alice also needed a quart of oil, so I recommended she come over to Colebrook so we could look into it. When Mom drove here, she did not think they were even going make it to Colebrook. We checked the engine and found only one out of four cylinders had compression. We knew the history of extended time between oil changes, and along with other issues, we decided to do an engine flush. This service removes sludge in the oil pan and burns excess buildup from the piston rings. On the way back to Burlington, Mom called and didn’t think Alice was going to make it. I told her to just keep going and finish out the tank which had an additive mixed in the gas. By the time she got to Burlington Alice was running like a top. During Mom’s next trip to Colebrook we checked the compression and it had come back in all four cylinders plus the fuel mileage significantly increased. That was 25,000 miles ago and Alice is still running. Alice was named after the Alice in Wonderland and was brought back to life by a seemingly magic potion from Wonderland. We learned that when used for maintenance this potion will keep your car running good throughout its life and costs only pennies compared to dollars wasted otherwise. Alice’s story is also a reminder to us all of how important it is to change your oil on time.

Written on Thursday, July 10, 2014 by Permalink | Comments: 0 | Comments RSS

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