How to maintain your Delorean for less than $500 a year and put 10,000 miles on it

[David T]

Typically to test a radiator (and the rest of the cooling system) you put a cooling system pressure tester (basically it's a hand pump with the proper adapter to attach to the neck where the pressure caps fits and a pressure gauge), you can buy or rent them. You pressurize the cooling system to 15 psi and look for leaks. A radiator shop will place the whole radiator into a tank of water and with the proper plugs and adapters pressurize the radiator to 15 psi with air to test and find leaks. If you have the original rad with the plastic tanks and aluminum core don't even waste time testing it. You can't properly test a rad with a shop vac. Good luck finding a rad shop. It is getting harder and harder to find one, the newer rads are not repairable and most of them have gone out of business. There are still a few staying alive because big rigs have repairable/rebuildable radiators. If you have ANY doubts about the radiator the best advice is to just replace it. If you blow the radiator you *could* overheat the motor and the cost of the rad is going to look cheap compared to what you have to do if you cook the motor!
David Teitelbaum

[uhhair]

I don't mean to rain on your parade, but one year of sub $500 maintenance doesn't mean that you've succeeded. The cars are old yes, and some years will be worse than others, but I think it averages out to way more than $500 a year. You might be able to get by for a few years doing minimal work, but the one year something major comes up you have to replace (clutch, kjet issues, ect) it just gets averaged in with those lighter years where all you may need is some fuses, a belt, and a taillight bulb.

Also, on your $500 a year budget, if you don't factor in the cost of cosmetics, yes the car will be mechanically fine, but who wants to drive around in a delorean that looks like it's falling apart?

However, I have no doubt that for one year, barring some major mechanical failure, $500 is easily obtainable. If you could do it for 10 years straight, I'd be extremely impressed though.

[WelmoedJ]

If I use another mechanic for an engine swap I will be sure to include the labor.

Honestly, I love 16510 and according to Facebook I am married to it. I consider driving and working on it to be a pleasure. Would you let another man please your wife?

Oh and as far as disclosing issues, I already have some unexpected stuff to disclose that really sucks. Last night I discovered I have a radiator leak. If have to replace it i could possibly go over $500 for the year. Time will tell.



And log 10,000 miles?

Yep, can be done: only an air and oilfilter plus oil (well, 6.5k miles only), but yes it's possible (not counting the speeding ticket's as that's not maintenance ).

[David T]

A lot depends on how much work you can do yourself. Just figuring struts every couple of years, tires every 7 years, a battery every 5, door seals once in a while, brakes etc, it can be hard to average $500 a year. Especially if anything major goes poof like the A/C or a water pump. If all you are doing is Preventive Maintenance (PM) like changing fluids and filters, greasing and such, you can do it for under $500. Just doing a clutch will blow this budget! If you are using a used car and not making payments you have to allow for some money to be spent keeping the car going. My guess is on a well taken care of car you will probably average year-to-year closer to $1,000 not counting cosmetic work or operating expenses (gas, insurance, registration fees). Some years you will spend almost nothing and others you may spend more than $1K.
David Teitelbaum

[sean]

Good idea. I will follow this thread.

Great idea....I would like to see how your (annual) MPG comes out too.

Great idea. I too will follow this thread.

Guys, we need to simmer down now. It seems all this bashing has upset Steve's sensitive internets persona.

[stevedmc]

Guys, we need to simmer down now. It seems all this bashing has upset Steve's sensitive internets persona.

Nah. I just decided to shut up before this turns into another Bill thread. I'm just going to ignore the haters for now and will only post when I have something to report.

I find it ridiculous how people are willing to bash my idea and say it isn't possible when many people don't even drive their silly little cars. I hear people brag all the time saying stuff like, "I just completed a 50 mile trip for the first time and it did great". Crap like that disturbs me when people say stuff like you have to spend tons of money to maintain a car, yet they never drive the dang thing.

It isn't uncommon for me to put anywhere between 70 to 200 miles on my car IN ONE DAY when I take it out on the road.

People can say all the shit they want, but when the year is over I WILL HAVE LOGGED another 10k miles on the car and I will have a record of every maintenance expense, documented on this thread. If it goes over $500 then so be it. But I plan on only fixing stuff as needed, and am not going to replace a part if it can reliably be repaired.

I've had 16510 for a little over two years now. It had 22k miles on the odometer when I got it. The odometer stayed broke for a few months during that time and amazingly I have already driven at least 20k miles in less than 2 years. Not to mention 4 months of that my car wasn't even on the road accumulating miles because it was in the shop waiting for an engine swap.

People can say all the crap they want. But I love/hate my car and I'm going to give real world data for a car that gets driven and doesn't sit in a garage most of its life.

Honestly, I don't think data for a car thats only logged 15k miles in 9 years is very relevant. I could log 15k miles just one year if I wanted to but I chose to drive another car ONLY TO SAVE ON GAS. My other car gets 50 mpg. My Delorean gets between 17 - 28 mpg based on how I drive the sucker. Most of the time I get 25ish mpg.

Anyway, thats enough for my rant. The radiator is at a shop being repaired, and I picked up some anti freeze and distilled water today. I still have my receipt and the total cost for the work will be posted when it is done.

[thirdmanj]

It's a shame that your data will only be valid for DeLoreans that have undergone the carb mod. Otherwise I'd be most interested in following.

Not that there is anything wrong with that, just thought I'd point it out.

[stevedmc]

It's a shame that your data will only be valid for DeLoreans that have undergone the carb mod. Otherwise I'd be most interested in following.

Not that there is anything wrong with that, just thought I'd point it out.

Whatever. If you want to maintain your car for $500 become white trash like me and put a carb on it. I thought it was pretty obvious to everyone that my car is carbureted since I mention it next to my vin number in the avatar thingie.

[DMC5180]

Back to your Radiator. Your initial test is valid. Any positive air pressure will find a way out if there is one. Yes it should be fully tested at 15 psi. The damaged area seen in the photo appears to be superficial. You might be able to pull the bent aluminum frame back down somewhat by using a slide hammer connected to the mounting stud. Did the Fan shroud get broken by the impact?

[SamHill]

It's also fair game to mitigate your expenses from parts you don't use anymore, if you still have 'em.