blew the head gasket. Cost more than the little toyota was worth. Sold it to a scrap yard for 360 bucks.
Ah yeah that was it. At least its parts are helping keep other old toyotas on the road. This is a dumb article. http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/02/03/02032104/
I goes beyond just an irritating view of things, the author spews bs facts to support his/her argument. "The chance the car could catch on fire after being rear-ended drove a lot of departments to get rid of the cars. And eventually Ford decided to just stop making them." The fire problem didn't really bother most departments, and the ones that it did bother could option their cars with the fire suppresion system, problem solved. Most of them didn't even care to do that, because it was a rather pricey option. The fire problem also had nothing to do with why ford decided to stop making the car. The platform was discontinued beause it was outdated and sales were starting to dwindle. The way I see it is, in most cars you don't have a reason to worry about a fire after you get rear ended at 75mph because you're dead. :|Gah, no one here cares, this article just pisses me off with the way it tries to slander crown vics as fiery deathtraps.
I wonder who they were payed by. The crown vic is hardly a pinto. I wonder if they could fix the issue by putting insulation around the fuel tank or welding a bit of metal behind it to help protect it a little.
There isn't really a whole lot you can do about it. The fuel tank is situated behind and slightly above the rear axle. In hard rear end impacts it gets pushed into the rear axle and punctured. But the risk of a fire was greatly multiplied by police departments drilling through the top of the gas tank on accident when they were mounting stuff in the trunk, and sharp metal objects facing forward. All police interceptors came with a sticker under the trunk release on the dash that told you to align sharp objects laterally in the trunk, mainly to void ford of any liability I'd say.There was also a kevlar trunk organizer thing that was offered for the Police Interceptors. It was claimed to keep stuff from piercing the wall of the trunk and, subsequently the gas tank, but there were some tests done and it didn't do much. I think they also put a metal plate to act as a shield above the fuel tank in the later models to keep it from getting drilled through during the installation of police equipment, which is partially what you suggested.
And also there's probably not much they're *willing* to do when the car has been out of production for years now.
Meanwhile in Australia, coppas in an unmarked truck. Can you say "Revenue Raiser"? (Cheers Wolf for sharing this on Facebook) - - - Updated - - - Also thanks a lot America. Im trying to find info on this and when I search "Unmarked truck" I just get unmarked pickups & SUVs. Why do you guys have to make everything so difficult?
I think it boils down to "just don't get rear ended at highway speed". I honestly highly doubt that the position of the fuel tank is a design flaw, as pretty much all vehicles aren't built to take collisions in the rear at that sort of speed.
I wouldn't really call it a design flaw. There's nowhere else it could be. Move it forward and its in the passenger compartment, move it back and its more susceptible to rear end impacts.The fire problem was greatly over exaggerated by mass media and lawyers looking for a buck, too. After the news broke about it, tests and research were conducted and it was concluded as one of the safest vehicles on the road in which to be rear ended at highway speed, including the factor of a fire starting in that statement.
Rented a car for a week to Florida, 2015 Camry SE. 2.5l four, 6 speed slushbox, etc. Not too bad of a car really. Here's some pics out of the 30ish I took.
It may be an Auto, but something I've always liked about the Camry are the shift points. It'll go all the way up to redline before shifting, unlike most other autos.
It didn't seem to go fully to redline, as the "sport" mode let it rev about 500-750 rpm higher in each gear WOT.
Even my mom's RAV4 will do that. Granted, the redline isn't very high. (Something like 6.5k. I dunno what the limiter is.) And I haven't floored it in any other auto so I dunno how it compares.
Crown vic will take it almost all the way to the redline, which is just under 6k. WOT kickdowns to 1st are the best thing about this transmission by far though.
My truck will go up to about 4,800 RPM before shifts. Not quite redline which is something like 5,500 or 5,600 RPM (Yay pushrods!).
Audi [ow-dee] adj. Of or pertaining to a permanent state of disrepair, especially when maintained meticulously. See money pit and entropy (order and disorder). First time I've ever broken a car while vacuuming it. I usually spend a lot of time hoovering the boot carpets and spare wheel well, so I unplugged the boot pontoon bulbs like I've done dozens of times before because it was sunny, and to stop them from overheating. There was a click, all the interior lights went out, and the central locking crapped itself. Checked the harness for shorts, all fuses were intact, and VAGCOM (OBD) showed nothing out of the ordinary. This will be a challenge. Stupid Audi.
Was down at Lygon Street for lunch (Sloane Street of Melbourne), and came across some very nice spots (imported from here) (imported from here) (imported from here) (imported from here) (imported from here) (imported from here)