On May 11, 9:32*pm, wrote:
On Sun, 10 May 2009 21:13:41 -0700 (PDT), Pat



wrote:
On May 10, 11:53*pm, (Doug Miller) wrote:
In article , Pat wrote:

On May 9, 11:56=A0pm, (Doug Miller) wrote:
In article =
..com, Pat wrote:

If you find one that was only driven to church by a little old lady,
then you find a car that hasn't really been stressed. =A0The first time
to take it out on the highway at 70, you wipe out at least one ball
joint, probably a tie rod end, and the struts. =A0They are all original
and fine for around town but will break when they hit the highways..
Been there. =A0Done that. =A0Have a tee shirt to prove it.

Utter nonsense.

I had it happen a couple of times.

Over the course of 5 or 6 years, you end up replacing stuff -- ball
joints, tie rod ends, etc. *The little old lady didn't do that because
she never went anywhere. *Then you crank it up to 75 mph on roads like
this and the pot holes knock it all to heck. *You're driving with 5 or
6 year old ball joints, and tie rod ends and shocks. *Something (and
probably a few things) are going to go. *It is inevitable.

Right, but the problem has nothing to do with "not having been stressed", and
*everything* to do with not having been *lubricated* for five years because
the car was only driven ten or twenty miles a week and the owner thought it
wasn't needed. The idea that ball joints and tie rods need to be "stressed" to
keep them from breaking is complete and utter nonsense. You clearly don't
understand what you're talking about.

Most of the parts don't need to be lubricated -- in fact I don't think
any OEM ball joints have a place to lube them -- at least not any I
have owned in the last 20 years.

As for stress, you must not have the reading comprehension to
understand what I meant to I'm make it nice and simple for you. *If
you take a suspension piece -- almost any piece -- and don't do
anything with it, it will last forever. *If you don't hit any bumps or
take any hard turns or accelerate or whatever, thing last a long
time. *Nothing gets replaced because nothing "breaks". *Then you take
that same car and convert it over to highway driving, things gets
stressed. *The joints get pounded. *All of the parts that were never
stressed and were working fine for the little old lady, don't stand up
to the new levels of stress and something is bound to give -- often 3
or 4 things. *The forces of 20 mph around town on good roads is VERY
different than the forces hitting the pot holes at 70 mph on the
expressway.

Before I bought my last two cars, I took them to my mechanic and had
them gone over. *Both passed. *Within two months, both needed front-
end repairs. *Thing that hold together at 20 mph don't necessarily do
so at 70 mph.

It's not because parts need to be stressed or whatever you said. *It
is because the parts weren't stressed and therefore held together --
but when the old parts are stressed, they broke.

If the car has 15000 miles on it over 8 years with a little old lady
or 1 year on the highway, what's the difference as far as wear goes?
Which one will fail first????

According to your theory the little old lady's car would fail first.

I say you are wrong.

That's not what I said at all. If you keep a car for 8 years, it
might run fine forever if you only put 2000 easy miles per year on
it. But if you take the same car at 15,000 miles and suddenly put it
on the highway (and around here, highways are very rough), all of the
rubber parts that were perfectly fine before, are going to deteriorate
fast. Other pieces are also going to wear out quickly because they
are 8 years old and never replaced. Around here, tie rod ends and
ball joints are routine maintenance items, not big repairs, so if they
haven't been done in 8 years, you'll need to do them when you hit the
highway.