Replaced tie rod ends at around 150,000.
Overheated and had fan motor replaced at around 170,000.
At 187,000 started knocking extremely bad. car died on me. I am auto student at local community college. I pulled the head, found that valve seat on intake of #4cylinder had came out. had to replace seat and valve and also the piston. this did not fix the knocking! I am still investigating this. the timing is fine. there is oil on #4 cylinder. going to do manual oil pressure check and possibly take head back off.
Until recent problem the car has been great.
I am single mom going to school full time and the car was excellent on gas.
Handled well.
Sufficient power. I mean its not a v8 but it got me where I needed to go.
I think that you should be counting your lucky stars!!! It is an old car with a pile of miles on it. Consider what you purchased this car for and what you got out of it, and I think that it has certainly served its purpose. No doubt though, it is unfortunate that your trusty little bomb has died, I am not disputing that, but I have the same kind of car, approximately the same amount of miles and the car's brake lines need replacing, tie rod ends and the radio stopped working (its the cheap old radio deck which is OK, getting a new Panasonic). I am happy and will willingly repair all that is wrong, the key is to find a junk yard or somewhere where you can get parts cheap. the dealerships WILL rob you! Good luck!
A few years back when I went back to school I bought an old '79 Pinto with 180,000 miles on it for $300. All I had to do was replace the valve cover gasket. I drove it 3 years and sold it for twice what I paid for it. Like the last commenter pointed out, finding a good salvage yard and buying used parts can help keep it going for a while, however I'd be tempted to just find another old car that ran for 3 or 4 hundred bucks to get you thru school. Just be sure to get something cheap to fix, preferably with rear drive if you can find it, and steer clear of imports. Repairs on them cost 5 times as much.
I own a '94 Escort and I have written my Love & troubles in this web (I'm IN LOVE WITH THIS CAR) and I have to agree with the above statements, But, invest at least a $1000 dollars and ask for repair records!
Sounds like you dropped a valve. That's a $700-$800 repair assuming you go to an independent shop that doesn't outsource jobs like this. Same thing happened to my moms 1992 Escort. Two of the valves went affecting two of the cylinders (which meant she was getting only 1/2 of the normal power).
She got this fixed because her car is in excellent condition and recently got it repainted.
You should only fix this if your Escort is in good overall condition. If it's rusted or there are other issues, it makes more sense to dump it and buy another Escort for $1500.
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