How do you guys deal with frustration?

Hey guys,

I must say I am very frustrated with my current vehicle. Now mind you I have a few others that I can use, but this one is a cool little car,and also seats the entire family so it is the one I would like to use the most. Well technically I would like to use my RX-7 the most, but that doesn't work with two kids.

The vehicle I am frustrated with is my new 1990 Mitsubishi van. Soem may know the story with replacing the cylinder head TWICE, but it is beyond that now. Since the head work, the engine (I think) has been making a noise that I originally thought was pinging, but I am not so sure now. I have tried several things and none of them have worked. I thought a fuel injected car would be easier to live with. I was wrong!

Now on top of it I had a coolant hose spring a leak on me last week. I located the leak, and thought I had fixed it with a new piece of heater hose run as the crow flies instead of the fancy molded piece that Mitsubishi used.

I had loaned my cooling system pressure tester out to my brother in law so my only way of testing it was to drive it. Well it seemed all fine over the past couple of days but yesterday I had a puddle under it again. I got my pressure tester back, and plan on tracking it down later tonight, but to be honest I am just so fed up with this thing that even after I fix the coolant leak I know the noise is still there.

My problem I guess is that I don't want to give up as I love the little van, but I am almost at my breaking point. How do you guys deal with such things? I guess it is the price you pay when buying a car cross country without looking at it first. This thing had to have been beat on pretty bad at soem point or just neglected because I am paying for it now.

I have even started looking for a new car, and that isn't something I want to do as I just can't seem to find something odd,old, and unique that checks all the right buttons for me right now. Maybe I am just blessed with having almost no issues with either my REPU which I have owned for 10 years now,and my RX-7 which has been virtually trouble free. Maybe that is a sign that I need another rotary?

Frustrated in J-tin land

I feel you. I am super frustrated by the fact E36 M3 keeps getting in the way of the Challenge car build this summer and by the time I get back to it, it will be close to the Challenge, so I am really worried it won't make it this year

Ditto.

I'm very displeased and frustrated with my MSM, though not for quite as extreme trainwreck reasons as you're having, Chris. I feel for you.

frequent masturbation

Stop, breathe, and calm down. Don't let the situation get a hold of you, get a hold of the situation. You can walk away from a vehicle and come back with a cooler head.

Sometimes it just comes naturally, but sometimes its learned. I have to often times deal with irrational people, and its a totally different situation, but once again, cooler heads prevail. Over time, it becomes natural.

Can't get car straightened out and it's not an emergency? I turn to one of the other projects, whatever I got frustrated with and needed a time-out from last week

The new wall in the basement, the continuing work on expanding the garage, maintenance items on the non-broken vehicles...

Seems like there is never a shortage of projects, and sometimes you get to a point with one project where you just need to not worry about it for a little while if you can arrange it.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: constant masturbation

FTFY

The man never stops.

You've had a lot of difficulties with that van, some frustration is normal and expected. It could be that a break from the project would help, maybe work on another project or clean up the garage or something. I usually do something like that, though often times that ends up with me taking too long of a break and losing motivation.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: frequent masturbation

Ahh, the Ernest Borgnine school of thought.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I_PeLNzxNQ&feature=player_embedded

I typically sell at a big loss, so I'm probably not the best person to ask...

I agree about taking too long of a break and losing motivation. My E30 sat on the lift in my garage for about 9 months while I dickered around with replacing the rocker arms. Only buying my Gt6 and the desire to get it into the garage rekindled my desire to get the BMW back together. Oh... and the $3200 oil change and rear-brake replacement on the TDI I did at the g/f's house.

I"m where you are with my Benz. I always have a list of three things it NEEDS. Then about 5 I want to do (like get A/C when it's 101* and 348% humidity). I get one thing done, one or two take it's place.
I just keep plugging along. Not much else I can do, except say a choice word once in a while.

I throw things. I can't begin to describe how many times I've pulled a recalcitrant part out of a car, and promptly thrown it across the yard. I've probably kited half an ms3 by now.

Keep a junk/parts car around and smash it with a hammer when you get frustrated.

Mazdax605 wrote: I thought a very uncommon Mitsu breadbox van with a reputation for severe cooling problems and difficult maintenance, purchased sight unseen, would be easier to live with. I was wrong!

FTFY. I don't think the fuel injection is really to blame here. I feel your pain, I've been in project hell before, but it sounds like you kind of set yourself up for this one. Just keep plugging away at it until it's nice enough for you to deal with or mask the problems and flip it...

I had a similar situation with my Volvo, similar in that, like you (I presume) it was intended as a main family vehicle. In the end it was smarter to take out a loan for a modern minivan that didn't blow up something new that could only be mailordered every week. Just a though. I know we as a GRM community are all over the BiTurbo with a Hayabusa in the truck, but sometimes it helps to have at least one car that's easy to find parts for and never breaks anyway. If I run out of time or talent and hand over my Minivan to a mechanic, it would be 1 of thousands he's seen just like it. If I did the same for my Volvo, I'd have to write the guy a book about all of the non-stock stuff and even then he's never seen one before.

The van has had it's day, it's DONE ! ! !

You've tried everything that you know and nothing has set it right, it's Sci-Fi cool for sure, but even if you DO get it running right, you know that you could never trust it with the kids in it. Something else is bound to go wrong and leave you stranded, and your youngest would tear the top of his head off if that happened . . . in the dark . . . in the rain . . . if you needed to have him somewhere on time.

A sweet little British sedan from the late fifties or early sixties would be great for you and the lads, maybe a Japanese hatch again or an early Datsun.

Who needs TWO Mom Vans in the family, you've already paid your penance with the one.

You know, if you click Datsun for a spell check, it comes up as "Sundas?" What's THAT all about?

The van isn't done Tom!! I refuse to give up on it! That is how much I like this stupid ass thing! I am not worried about break down because there is always Todd to bail me out or heck I have premium AAA so I am covered.

I am just frustrated and I agree SlickDizzy I brought this on myself, but it doesn't change the facts that I both love and hate this thing.

Tom do you really want me to jump from this box of troubles into a British car? I thought we were friends, man!!??

I thankfully have both my wife's Sienna, and my 04 Suburban for normal vehicles, but I like to have another odd ball that I can haul the family in from time to time. I love the REPU,and RX-7 so much they will never leave, but it is tough having two vehicles that only seat two people. Someone gets left out each time. That was why I had bought my RX-3 SP, Datsun, Sapporo, and the RX-4 over the years with each one either not being what I wanted, or getting totaled within a week of getting it. Maybe I have just been spoiled with two really nice cars, and expect the other to live up to that standard.

So for I haven't had the best luck with that.

Still frustrated.

Some times you gotta realize when you bought a turd and send it packing.

Had a truck like that once, always was fixing "just one more thing"

Well after redoing the whole front suspension, brakes, interior, exterior including a new bed, new exhaust, new turbo, new new injectors, new pump, new heads, new head gaskets, I sold it at a tremendous loss because I could no longer trust it to get me anywhere. Every trip was a disaster.

The thing had been beaten to within an inch of its life, and I was the sucker that bought it. So I did the only smart thing and sent it down the road to some other sucker. The next truck I picked up was stone reliable, needing basic maintenance, but no surprises.

Everyone buys a turd of a used car once in a while but not everyone is smart enough to send it packing right away and get something else. Now, if the car even gives inclinations of being a turd, its gone ASAP and I will get another vehicle.

Had a Mustang II like that. Every time I fixed one thing, something else broke. I finally got sick of working on the damn thing, traded it at a used car lot toward a Plymouth Arrow which was a pretty neat little car.

"The van isn't done Tom!! I refuse to give up on it! "

In THAT case, you'll just have to suffer in silence. You've already run through everyone that you actually know and gotten the same advice, now you're pestering the forum and ignoring any advice contrary to what you want to here.

It's a lemon, Dude! You'll be chasing gremlins until you finally fold and sell the thing. Plus it's another Mom Van, come on, get something fun and interesting that doesn't drive like the box that it was shipped in. LOADS of unusual rides to choose from without getting stuck with that turd ! (Thanks for the perfect term, 93gsx.)

I wasn't asking for advice on what to do with so much as I was asking how you guys deal with frustration. I love the van, and don't care if it is a "Mom Van" as you put it. I hardly call this pestering by the way, but next time I see you I will make sure I pester you. Todd style!!!

You can't silence me man!!!! By the way it doesn't drive like a box. It is actually really fun to drive!!!

Fustration with a project usually means a couple things to me.

First off I am usually off my planed attack

The second thing is i am usually obsessing with it. My current MS project had some moments like this

Third is to put aside for a day or three AND make sure i get enough sleep. I have found that fustration with things is inversly proporshinal to the amount of sleep i get.

I can not offer much more advise than that. My 924s has had its moments over the years. My mustang is the current PITA. I finely get around to replacing the belt the frozen tentioner and the radiator and not two weeks later the electric fan fails while stuck in traffis causing it ti over heat and pop a head gasket.

It is the whole love hate thing with cars.

I deal with frustration by pestering you . . .

That van has no bike racks or gun racks or tire racks or seats removed for hunting equipment or ?

What's it's got is loads of seats and seat belts and stuff that prevents injuries to little kids on their way to hockey or soccer practice. Put on your apron Buddy, 'cause you're driving a Mom Van, like it or not.

How are you gonna pester me "Todd style?" By going in the house and watching millionaires play baseball? Or by turning up the radio and listening to another millionaire describe millionaires playing baseball.

Oh, and believe it, it handles like the box it came in, you got nothin' going on with that thing !

20 year old single malt scotch works wonders for me

I punch holes in a wall. Make sure it in't concrete or block and watch out for studs.

Curmudgeon wrote: Had a Mustang II like that. Every time I fixed one thing, something else broke. I finally got sick of working on the damn thing, traded it at a used car lot toward a Plymouth Arrow which was a pretty neat little car.

Wasn't "frustration" a mandatory option on a Mustang II?