I'm not sure what to do at this point, as the bad luck continues to surface and mess with me/my family... With my Redline broken, I have to drive my truck to work/for errands, blocking any sale, and I don't think I can afford to fix it right now, unless a simple cleaning can unstick the brake hardware, as my wife lost her job unexpectedly... It also means we lost our health coverage, until my work can re-cover my family, and the coverage I had before was crappy at best, so the working on my leg has to be paused for now... In addition, the payment on my wife's car is due, and my ins company asked for an entire six month premium by 07/05 or else they'll drop coverage on my wife's car...which would equal repossession, I think...

Sorry for complaining again, but I feel a little overwhelmed...

 

Repo

I don't believe driving without insurance directly means repossession -- it means driving without insurance. I'm sure one of the contingencies of the loan is that the car remain insured at all times. Key point is they won't repo it if they don't know, and if you keep up on the payments and they inquire you can spin it as changing insurance companies and not currently driving the car. They want the monthly payment. Driving uninsured is your decision to make.

Sorry to hear about your wife's job woes.

Order to address things (my opinion for what it's worth)

Diag the redline, bandaid it if needed, and get it back out on the road. Disc brakes are pretty straightforward. Drums are a pain in the ***. Ask Goalie if they turn out to be an issue.

Test as I described and report back ---ASAP. Crudded up guide pins and mounting pins are more easily replaced than cleaned but it can be done.

At the very least. you can replace any worn pads and drive the car till you can afford to implement the cure instead of just treating the symptoms. The rotor will get hotter than normal but you are dissipating the heat via the air flowing past it while you're driving.

Push brake pedal, car stops. Intended result achieved. Move on.

My nephew drove for 3 years with a caliper that would not retract properly. Listened for the brake pad wear indicator, bought the cheapest Autozone pads there are, swapped em in and back out on the road.

Non ideal, but stops the car when you hit the pedal.

What to pay when:

Car payment first. Miss a payment and they can legally repo as far as I know since you've "defaulted" on the loan. But they don't HAVE to. Check the fine print in the financing agreement you signed. There is likely a 15 day grace period for that. Plus nothing wrecks your credit worse than missed mortgage and car payments.

Insurance

Should be a grace period on the insurance payment unless you have already passed the due date and are into the grace period.
____________________________
Get Ion back on road NOW.
Sell Ranger for what you can get (no choice if your back is up against the wall)
car payment -- if you can make w/o selling Ranger, do it.
insurance payment.

Healthcare

Usually healthcare premiums are paid in advance for the coming month so you should be good for the rest of June, no? TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT.

 

Well, the last I remember, when my mother let her insurance coverage lapse on her ION, the bank called and said we had 48 hours to have it covered again or else they would have a rollback in our driveway... Just assuming from experience

 

wow -- the insurer must have immediately made a call to the financing company. Nasty, unless it's WV law......

Then investigate the grace period thing and the fine print on the loan docs and figure out which one can wait the longest. If the answer is neither, than my advice is to log off the forum and start diagnosing the RL and get it back on the road so that you can sell the ranger........

Have you considered shopping the Ranger around to used car lots, or posting in the classifieds on Ranger forums? Not that I doubt your ability to come up with these ideas --- just that when we are under extreme stress, the mind often does not function clearly

 

Okay... I can breathe again... Did a lot of difficult phone calls and stuff, along with getting the major issue with my Redline patched up(not fixed but working sort of)... I negotiated with the insurance company, and if I pay half by 7/5 and then set up on automatic debit, then I am fine, no more big chunks... Car payment is paid, and we can just almost make that insurance payment... I'm gonna fall back onto my truck for the rest. No, I'm not selling, but using it to make cash... Gonna haul me a load of scrap metal, I think... With prices down, I won't make much, but hopefully it should be just enough...

Also, my wife starts work again today! She asked for her old job back(she worked for Pilot/Flying J before she went to work at the local jail), and the managers are ecstatic to have her back... Granted it'll be a pay cut($9.00/hr instead of $10.89) but it's better than nothing...

The madness is slowing down indeed... Thanks for helping me concentrate and breathe...

 

that's what family is for.

Great to hear about wife's job.

I still say to stick it to her old employer's healthcare plan if it's paid up to month's end. Just be sure the doc/facility you pick accepts the old AND new insurance, of course

 

I missed this.
Life can never be easy. It blows,
But glad to hear she is working again. May not be the money she wants, but something is better than nothing.
I have an 07 Ion that needs to be scrapped. If you pick it up, its yours. Although the travel may not be worth the income.

 

Thanks for the offer, but you are right, the income wouldn't justify the travel... That, and I don't possess a trailer... I sold my little load of scrap today for 6 cents a pound... That means I would get around 100 for an ION with no engine...

 

Man, who said anything about a trailer?
Lets break out the sawsall (sp?), and have some fun cutting that thing up!
Plus, it is legal to burn where I live. So we can have a bonfire afterwards with all the other crap from the car.

 

Actually burning most plastics usually releases carcinogenic or otherwise toxic compounds capable of producing long term side effects---and death for that matter.

This is no joke. (I'm a chemist by trade)

http://www.wecf.eu/cms/download/2004...g_plastics.pdf
The Danger of Burning Plastic
Dioxins & why you dont want to be burning plastic | plasticisrubbish (this one indicates that burning plastic in house fires often kills)
PSA--Burning Plastic Can Kill You. (hydrogen cyanide poisioning in house fires)