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In the post below.
You seem willing to deal with uncertainty and have confidence to deal with the non-major component failures you're most likely to face. If you were afraid to work on the car I'd tell you to jump at the warranty -if for nothing else, then peace of mind.
In my opinion, it's very unlikely that your tranny will fail. The Asin-Warner's are what Toyota & Lexus put in their vehicles and if you look around you'll find Toyota & Lexus have about the best reputation for transmission reliability of any of the car manufacturers. Your frame of reference it the 9000 and the 900 so I can understand you concern. They had problems -especially the C900.
It's also unlikely you'll experience major engine failure as well. I bought my '99 with 56K miles on it -it now has 97K. Over that timespan I've replaced a DI Cassette, and Turbo (just finished installing that today). Everything else would fall under the category of standard maintenance & wear (shocks, pulleys, belt, tires, brakes, oil...) which wouldn't be covered by an extended warranty.
So, I've got $850 invested in parts, and some DIY time in the car for 40K miles service. And of that, only the $300 I spent on the DIC would have been covered under the warranty you are considering.
However, looking back at warranty work that was performed, there was a new SID put in at 36K, a new muffler and exhaust pipe at 36K miles, and a new throttle housing at 37K miles. Most of those repairs related to early model issues and campaigns that I don't expect you to have in your '01.
Since 56K miles I've done two trans fluid changes. Each replaced 3 quarts, and I used M1 fully synthetic ATF.
I don't recall whether I had to remove the fender liner to do the serpentine belt & pulley replacement, but that amounts to about 4 screws and 5 minutes... The difficulty in replacing belt pulleys was figuring out how to get the mounting bolt back in the center pulley (it was the single most miserable job I've done on my car, but now that I know how, it wouldn't be that bad next time).
The 'O1 may have had the head bolt torque issue -that's worth checking. Removing the camshaft cover will also tell you if there's a problem with oil sludge -so you might consider that. I think the 8 year extended warranty on the engine only applies to problems stemming from the oil sludge problem.
Hope this helps. I can tell you that I have thoroughly enjoyed my car, and don't regret the decision to buy it. There isn't a better value for the money on the market today.
Allan
posted by 24.236.160...
, Sun, 27 Feb 2005 14:47:39
, Sun, 27 Feb 2005 09:36:52
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