What's wrong with this van?
Nothing, right? Looks like a 1996 Grand Caravan in reasonable shape, but there are problems. Two big problems under the hood.
I didn't know what a shock tower was until I had two mechanics in the last year tell me that the rust is really bad on this van and that I should really consider getting rid of it "in the next year." What?
I figured these guys were not used to seeing Ohio rust. But this was an exceptional rust job! The shock towers house the shocks and springs. The shock is bolted to the top of the tower and the whole weight of the van rests on the shocks and the springs. Of course, the shocks are supposed to absorb the impact of uneven roads and along the help of the springs.
So anyway, the rust is eating away at the top of the towers. This, as you can imagine will be problematic soon as eventually, the steel will give way, the springs will pop through the top of the tower, and the van will be crippled, probably worthless.
So we made an upgrade. Remembering our experience with a certain Previa that got us to 352,000 miles, we went back to Toyota, with the purchase of a Sienna (sorry, no picture!)
