I was getting tired of constantly searching for a 4×4, so yesterday evening I decided to try looking for a Previa again. The listing at the top was a ’91 Toyota Previa, and when I clicked it I was excited to find out that it was actually a 5 speed<\/strong>. I grabbed my phone and called the guy, after giving him an inquisition about the details on the car, I eventually decided to go for it. I asked him to drive down.<\/p>\n Body wise, the car was a little bit more beat up than I imagined but I didn’t really care. It drove and handled fine. After the test drive, we heard a sound that was initially passed off as a nearby sprinkler. Upon inspecting the floor, however, it was gravely obvious that there was a big leak in one of the coolant hoses. We were able to find out the location of the leak, it was coming from a steel coolant pipe at an elbow. Despite the leak, I still decided to buy it.<\/p>\n Some negotiating and ultimately $1250 later, I had this round thing sitting in front of my house.<\/p>\n Paint is oxidized on the roof and there’s a couple big dents on the rear hatch, which I think I can push out…<\/p>\n This morning I tried to fix the leak. It was either going to be the clamp holding on the coolant hose at the elbow, or the actual elbow is leaking. I bought a new c-clamp and tightened it down, started the car… and after a few minutes the leak started pouring out again.<\/p>\n No good, I decided to skip this step for now and handle the next item on the list – smog. The engine temperature actually started rising as I was driving, but luckily there was a gas station at the next block. All the coolant actually leaked away, but after topping it off with some water, the temperatures remained steady.<\/p>\n Once the smog test was over, the car failed. This definitely had me down, and I even impulsively put the car back for sale when I got home. I had some free time, so I drove it over to a nearby auto shop just to have a second opinion on the coolant leak.<\/p>\n A bit of a rough start when your car is on a lift on the first day of ownership.<\/p>\n The problem was identified to be the actual coolant pipe that was leaking. The welds around the elbow were rusted beyond repair. The general condition of the undercarriage wasn’t bad, but the exhaust system stood out since all the bolts on it were completely rusted to the flanges.<\/p>\n I went back home, grabbed some tools, and journeyed to the local Pick ‘N Pull junkyard.<\/p>\n Donor vehicle found.<\/p>\n Some dirty wrenching later while rolling in coolant fluid that was splashing everywhere, I pulled off the pipe.<\/p>\n Here’s a view of what it looked like underneath, that gap is where the pipe went.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/grandmighty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/previa.jpg\" "\\"previa\\"")
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