this car was totally not worth the $2600. since the 2 months i've had it, the drive axle still needs replacement, tires changed, speedometer still doesnt work, filthy interior (when i bought it), still no a/c, and it had just over 105k (107k now). Today, my temporary license plate expired. still nothing in the mail. and now i need a new clutch. WTF?! im on such a tight budget right now. i try not to drive it much and i've babied this car as much as i could. oil changes every 2,000 mi. (yes, just to be on the safe side), and expensive mobil1 synthetic oil, weekly basic maintenence checks, a car wash every 4 days! my insurance is 320 a month, i've got into 1 minor accident and got 2 speeding tickets. i swear, somethings goin on man...my family has bad luck with cars. a deer just decided to hit my dads buick last month and the insurance company STILL hasn't fully supported his claim. he's still gotta walk.
right now i just wanna push my car off a cliff or something. but so much money has gone into it. im thinking, after i get all the obvious flaws done, (speedometer, clutch) i'll sell it and buy an mx-3 or something. sorry for the ranting...im just stressed right now.

by the way, does anyone know how much a new clutch would cost? like the whole nine yards, with labor and everything. average?

 

I paid 10 grand, for me it's been MORE than worth it!

i got my clutch from a member here, but the labor will depend on the shop/dealer. The dealer specifies 4.5 hours. So give or take $85 an hour, that equals $396 at the stealer. If possible have the seals looked at, but this will also require an oilpan gasket.

 

i'm guessing like $300-500? of course i could be totally off base?

 

I hear ya man... I had a toyota celica before having my 323, and I had a rebuild put into it, and a some other stuff, tires, battery, rad, electrical system, lights module, new exhaust system. I wasn't gonna sell it but then my master cylinder busted, my brake lines were finished, some other stuff... It would of cost another 900$ to put it on the road again. I put 3600$ total in that car, and I sold 450$ for pieces. I had the car for a year, and it spent 6 months in the garage, on and off. A real peace of ****.
Anyways, Best of luck dude. Later

 

The dealer wants like $800 for a new clutch to be put in my 323. Thats a stock clutch and labor included. The guy there said he cut me a deal, I was like thanks...

 

$300-$500 eh? looks like im screwed there. i picked up the haynes repair manual at auto zone a few days ago, and looked into fixing it myself. looks like a difficult task. however, it doesnt look impossible. so now its either, fix it myself, or spend 500 bucks on a $2,600 car that'll be worth like 900 bucks if i were to sell it. OR...i can sell it fer parts or something...*rubs chin*

 

Hmmmm parts eh? well hopefully you'll get your car fixed man but in the even that you were to sell it for pts would you sell anything off it?

 

if you have any mechanical abilities at all, grab a friend and install the clutch yourself. its not that hard of a process. the Haynes/Chilton's manuals cover the procedures pretty thoroughly. i installed a clutch in my old Celica by myself in 3 hours. that includes dropping the tranny, cleaning everything, installing the clutch, lightened flywheel, throw-out bearing, and reinstalling the tranny. im no mechanic, but installing a clutch is not that hard.

 

Yea the cluch is easy to install just takes alot of time combo of me and my dad got it done in a day..

 

and your running synthetic oil on such a high mileage engine, can i ask why?

 

cone filter, custom intake tube, 2.25 pacesetter piping, dtm muffler, and the red carpeting, floor mats, shift boot, ****, pedals etc. pm for prices. im still gonna keep the car...stock, daily beater.
but i think i'll do the clutch with a willing friend. i went to a couple of junkyards today but couldnt find any proteges i could get the clutch from. just a matter of time. i still need the required tools though.

for maximum protection and resistance.

 

just a thought: are there any aftermarket clutches for my pro? would corksport have it? i just had second thoughts about a secondhand used clutch from a different car. doesnt seem like a good idea.

 

yeah, but you're not supposed to switch over to synthetics on a high mileage engine... it can do more harm than good. Something to do with the oil actually removing some of the deposits in the engine and thus allowing for blow by on the piston rings (I think that was the case). I know that this was talked about on this board and I have also seen it mentioned in car mags and the like. You might want to try both a search on the board and a search on the web.

[EDIT]: I am now no longer sure that the info I gave above is correct... the more I look for supporting data the more I am coming up with nothing... for the time being I'm gonna put what I said above as a myth until I can find more authoritative proof...

sorry for the waste of bandwidth.

 

No worries, not a waste, there definetly was a discussion about this. But our search engine isn't really working