As the title reads, I got some possibly unfortunate news from my mechanic on Monday. Last weekend, I was installing my new winch on my 1/4 pounder and I noticed some drips on my garage floor. To my surprise, I found an accumulation of oil around a gasket. As I started looking around, I also noticed that the radiator was almost bone dry, with just a little fluid in the overfill and possibly some within the radiator itself. Oil seemed a little over a quart low. I believe oil was changed around 3,500k miles ago, and radiator color and level seemed fine around that millage as well. No overheating or indicators lights on the dash for low coolant.
Brought it in to check on both issues. My mechanic ran a pressure test on the radiator and there were no external leaks. He came back to me with the following issues though:
- Oil Leak, Rear Main Oil Seal
- Coolant Loss, Internal Engine
- R/F Coil Spring Broken
- 2 Front Axle U Joint, On their last legs
- Engine Light, Catalytic Convertor O2 Sensors or Cats themselves (knew about this, just never bothered to get fixed yet)
So the quick background, I am a recent graduate with a new job, I have a 08 JKU now with 168k miles (my first, and only car which has a lot of sentimental value). I commute to work via train so I rarely drive except on the weekends now, and we have other cars in the family. It is the most financially smart move to sell my car, although, I always had a dream of keeping this girl going forever and one day rebuilding it with the build it deserves.
Body is in great condition, it has some decent modifications and lots of new parts on it. Other than the O2 sensor issue, everything has been exceptionally maintained. Mechanic noted he thought it would not be worth fixing because once he started to break down the engine things could start to snowball on cost.
So, I am asking the opinion of the forums. I love the car, and wanted to keep it as a second ride. Not in the position to buy something new. She runs, always felt like a very strong engine. Never has left me stranded. Is it time to ditch it before the value tanks and I sink a ton into it?
As of right now, I made him do an oil change, top off the coolant, and clean up around the leak. Going to drive it around a few hundred miles and see what my levels are at to see what an estimate of loss/mile range would be.
To make clear, this is my DD, although I have options of other vehicles to drive for the time being. The engine is currently NOT blown and running fine. I guess we just do not know for how long??
