Hey everyone,
I've got a 96 LX450 with 286,000 miles. It's been in the family for its whole life. My Mom gave it to me when she got a new GX. I LOVE my 450. LOVE IT. To the point where I don't even mind the lack of AC, the sunroof sticking, the poor gas mileage, and barely any remaining lights on the dash and stereo. She drives like a champ and I can take her anywhere.
UNTIL YESTERDAY
Now what's happening is that when I come to a stop light or a stop sign, she idles really hard and almost feels like she is going to stall out. She hasn't yet but I've resorted to keeping her in neutral when I come to a stop and keeping the engine revved up some. She drives smooth as silk otherwise. On my way to a mechanic the check engine light came on. The mechanic is telling me that I have a "failure on one" and that I have coolant leaking into my cylinder which is causing the engine to misfire. He said because of the high mileage on the the car he said if he replaces the head gasket it would be hard for the rings to seal and I could end up with a "mosquito fogger". He said I could get a new engine for a few grand but doesn't think I should put that much into a 12 year old car with almost 300,000 miles on her. I don't think he is trying to rip me off because he is recommending that I just let it go and look for a new car. He's clearly never owned a LX450 and had that bond though. Does any of this sound right? Is it the headers? Is it really not worth fixing? I find it hard to let go, but I also don't want to keep pumping money into repairs. To date I've spent really very little on repairs so I've had an amazing run. But the AC has a freon leak from the evaporator core and needs a new compressor (which I just took the belt off of and let it go). The power steering belts need to be replaced. The hood is rusting like crazy under the paint which is bubbling up. What do I do?
Thoughts?
Thanks
