Engine failure poll?

[Buffy]

Alright, well, it looks like the stealership is gonna give me a grand for her. I hate to see my baby go, but given the givens it is probably for the best.
My only advice, is advice I've read elsewhere.
CHECK THE OIL every time you fill the gas tank.
I only wish I'd read that earlier.

Anyhow, Take care VXers.

Somebody around here would give you a grand for it. If I wasn't up to my eyes in a rebuild I would come get it from ya.

[vt_maverick]

Somebody around here would give you a grand for it. If I wasn't up to my eyes in a rebuild I would come get it from ya.

No kidding. You could probably part it out for that much. Don't suppose you have any mods on it do you?

[mrtew]

Yep I set my phone's alarm to check my oil every week and add oil probably every other. I would like to have my VX forever. Sure am sorry to hear about your loss :-[

[phines]

I just got quoted $7150 for the repair on mine. That included parts and labor. The engine comes with a 3-year, unlimited miles warranty too, which is pretty sweet.

[phines]

For $8900 plus labor, they are obviously quoting all new parts from Isuzu. That's definitely not the way to go...

[vt_maverick]

I'll have to ask my Dad what his shop charges to do this. I thought he said a replacement engine from Jasper was only like $4K, so it's hard to believe you'd have another $3K in labor on top of that. Of course his shop is in rural North Carolina where labor rates are not nearly as high...

[phines]

I'll have to ask my Dad what his shop charges to do this. I thought he said a replacement engine from Jasper was only like $4K, so it's hard to believe you'd have another $3K in labor on top of that. Of course his shop is in rural North Carolina where labor rates are not nearly as high...

Yeah, the labor is only $1730 (high, but not horrible). The engine and all related parts came in around $4800. The rest of the cost was tax and towing. I can definitely do all of this much cheaper back in VA, but if insurance is covering it, I'll let them handle it.

[Junster]

Just an extra 2cents. Besides the fact that reading this thread has seriously bummed me out about buying a VX. A failure of 600 in 6000 is 10% not 1%.

[mrtew]

Just an extra 2cents. Besides the fact that reading this thread has seriously bummed me out about buying a VX. A failure of 600 in 6000 is 10% not 1%.

Where did you get the 600 number?

[vt_maverick]

Make yourself feel better by comparing the replacement costs against buying a brand new car for $30K+.

Don't get discouraged!

[vt_maverick]

He's quoting you:

The failures are horrible and everytime someone posts here I get that "there but for the grace of God, go I" feeling, but so far this thread documents 38/6000 of VX engines going bye-bye. Obviously there must be some that didn't get posted here, but a 1% failure rate would be over 600 engines. It looks like we have somewhere between a one-in-a-hundred and one-in-a-thousand chance of problems with a VX which is not enough to justify either that feeling of dread that I get when my oil is a touch low or brown, or the feeling that others get that maybe they shouldn't buy a used one. Right? What are the figures for other cars?

[mrtew]

He's quoting you:

Whew! I thought he was quoting an actual engine failure statistic, not my own reverse bad math from 4 years ago.

[Scott Larson]

It's a good thing that I'm a "Doubting Thomas", ( Well, make that a "Suspicious Scott." )
'cuz if I would have believed everything I heard about the VX, I wouldn't be the happy owner of one now! Hell, I've got a '98 Explorer with 150,000 miles on it (The same as my VX, by the way.) and it was supposed to blow up a loooooong time ago!!

[jhigareda]

Not complete failure though, but white smoke at initial start up. I took for engine done....

[Junster]

Thanks for a clear and detailed reply. It helped a lot. It's killing me trying to be patient cause I can't fund buying one for myself till March. I bookmarked and DL your link also.