Fixing my car up - what's most important?

Question

I have an '89 Ford Laser Hatchback with the following problems but not a lot of money. Which one do you think is the most important to fix/replace? Thank you!

Clutch
CV Joints
Gears crunching (might need new bushes?)
One (maybe two) seat belts need replacing
Leaking Water

I don't have the option of buying a new car at the moment, otherwise I would. :-(

The water leak isn't from the water pump (that was replaced awhile ago) but is from the seals. It only leaks water when it rains.

Answer 1

All depends on what is causing that "gears crunching" sound. Could be the fact that 1) clutch is worn out and not fully disengaging the engine from the transmission or 2) bushings in the shifter linkage are missing or worn out or 3) the syncronizers in the transmission are gone. Get the car to a trustworthy shop that can tell you 1) yep, you need clutch replacement 2) you need new bushings or 3) you need a transmission.....or another possibility 4) yep, the car is old, yep it grinds sometimes when you put it in gear, but it will run a long time like that so just live with it.

Some of the above mentioned tranny repairs can be quite expensive, so that is why I say get to the bottom of that first.

If you decide to get the tranny repair(s)- whatever that may be- I would recommend find out about the coolant leak. No sence in fixing the tranny in a car that is going to cook the engine soon after.

Then the CV joints come next... that is if they did not replace them while installing a new clutch.

BUT, before you drive the car on the road for any length of time, get some seatbelts! The thought of "gee, I should have had some seatbelts installed" is not a good thought to have as you go flying through the windshield.

Answer 2

The money you spend fixing these problems could be spent better buying a different car...not too many options, I know but all the repairs are pretty necessary...if you fix one or two, the rest might give you problems anyway and make the car undriveable except for the belts but that's not safe. At best, I would say fix the clutch and C/V first and try to baby the shifting for a while but find out how bad the water leak is. Failure of any of these is a car that's not going anywhere. so be careful.

Answer 3

Start with the water leak, that should be relatively cheap to start with, the clutch is the reason for the gears crunching, you may be able to have the clutch adjusted and wait till later for that. CV joints, while annoying, will go a long way without service but can cause a lot of damage if they actually do fail. Seatbelts can be picked up for your car at any junkyard, CHEAP. dont bother getting these from a dealer unless you just can't fix it yourself or find someone who can for you.
Good Luck.

Answer 4

I say... Can the car and look into something else. Something more reliable. If you don't do the work yourself, you're looking at a $2000-$3000 job! Mechanics charge not only excessively on parts, but also charge anwhere between $80-$120/hour for labor. Your leaking water because of a bad water pump. Really, the book value of the car is not worth the money you'll spend to get it back on the road. If you insist, fix the gears first. If you don't it will advance into more complicated and expensive problems in the very near future. Best of luck.

Answer 5

new bushings(?) for gear crunching might be wishful thinking,
however when CV joints are worn they make a grinding or loud clicking noise while turning, might that be your gear crunch? are your CV joints worn or just have riped boots? often
a re manufactured axle assembly is not to much, replacing
boots can be labor intensive. a good tech will not only diagnose, but prioritize which repairs need to be done now and which can be put off for a while, also be having the same
tech diagnose and perform the repairs he should feel obligated to help trim some $$$ off should he miss diagnose. some times when there is more than one concern
its difficult to tell whats what until you address the what believed to be the causal concern. GOOD LUCK!

Answer 6

Leaking water and seatbelts should be at the top of your list.

After that, clutch (if it's slipping) adjustment or replacement, then depending on how bad the CV joints and Gear noise is, one or both of those.

"Crunching" is more than likely the synchro rings -- you can get away with that by upshifting a bit more slowly. For smooth downshifting, you'd need to "double-clutch", which involves putting the gearshift in neutral and "blipping" the throttle to spin up the gears to help them to mesh.

Answer 7

Seatbelts, safety should always come first.
The second thing should be the water leak, the other issues should be fixed according to how severe their problems are.

Answer 8

I would go for either the clutch, leaking water, or the gears that are crunching.

Answer 9

wiped out suspension will merely reason bumpy journey and doubtless choppy tire positioned on simply by fact the suspension will sag greater and inflicting the alignment to be off a splash. the place did you bypass to spend 800$ on bakes you acquire robbed huge time. Suspesion is for coping with and journey convenience. not a brilliant subject he's particularly attempting to rack in greater dough for the business enterprise fix it once you experience the journey is getting annoyingly bumpy.

Answer 10

I would say clutch, then gears (it's bushings), then cv joints then water, then seatbelts