So the motor in the black car finally bit the biscuit. For the record, if needed you can coast all the way from the look-out point to squamish on the 99 (heading home from whistler). That’s a good who-knows-how many kilometers…but 5-10min of coasting at 80+kph.

The rad-fan sensor died, so the rad fan didn’t come on…the temperature warning light lit up, but I figured it was just low on coolant (rad was dripping, went low on every drive). Oops! that wasn’t it. Car over-heated, I warped the head and cylinder #3 (which wasn’t doing well anyways) decided to spin the rings again and just blow oil. (more…)

You try to train them across the country…but sometimes they just get excited and can’t hold it in…

Apparently I’ll be pulling a radiator tomorrow, and then spend some time figuring out how I’m getting it to a rad repair shop. I wonder if Squamish even HAS a rad repair shop!?!

-Dave

One of the reasons I thought this was a good place to move was the garage out back. It’s about 2.5 cars small, and wired. What else could I ask for?

When I got here, it was a little tight… With four of us and all our gear, plus the prep for a few road trips and a rally it got even tighter. Last week, just before leaving for california I had trouble figuring out where I was going to put my bike box. It got that tight.

Now, I’ll admit I’m not the most organized of individuals usually. Most of the time I feel like I’ve got too much gear for the space involved…and this garage was feeling like it was bursting at the seams. Knowing that I had to do some work to the cars I was determined to make enough space to pull a car in.

I started yesterday, and moved stuff around until I got the red car in and did the repairs needed. But, after getting wickedly frustrated with the car (long story…maybe another blog post) I got to thinking…my grandfather could do it, why can’t I?

(more…)

Today started at 9am, half an hour late because I somehow hit “dismiss” instead of snooze for my alarm on the blackberry. No worries, though, plenty of time to get everything done. Warwick and I are check-pointing at the Thunderbird Rally this weekend, which means getting both cars ready to drive tones of miles on rally roads.

Warwick just had a new light bar built for the car at Rocket Rally, but the lights hadn’t been wired yet. He also decided that he’d get around to mounting up the rally computer…which meant wiring that up too. In this household, if it’s electrical and automotive related…there is one guy for the job.

Starting Warwicks car was fairly easy, but the job had a certain twist to it. The light bar and lights are being featured in Subiesport Magazine, which means all the wiring has to be as factory and ‘magazine attractive’ as possible. The job took about seven hours to complete, but the finished product looks killer. You can’t see any of the wiring for the lights, unless I specifically wanted it visible for the magazine shoot. It really is killer. Also killer, however, was the toll it took on my hands. Keeping things factory, with the time-limit we had, also meant not tearing the whole dash out to get lots of room to work on the car. Both hands are thoroughly cut and bruised up, the cost of jamming size 11 hands into size-japanese dashboard catacombs.

By the end of the job I was thoroughly spent. It wasn’t cold outside (by Ontario standards) but was cold enough that my body had been working hard to generate heat all day. The job is a stressful mental one, because I’m constantly ‘drawing’ new wiring diagrams in my head, making sure they work (in theory) before I cut wires and then going back to track down any gremlins before the job is complete. By the time I finished up the wiring on the rally computer and the headlights, I just wanted to sleep on the couch for an hour before driving 3 hours to Merrit. Alas, it was not to be.

The speedometer isn’t working correctly in my car, so I had planned on taking a quick look to see if I could solve it. Next to the hiding of multiple wire strands in a street Subaru, this was going to be a cake-walk. Run two wires (anywhere) and just strap ‘em on to see if things work. Things didn’t work, so I knew the problem was beyond a quick fix before leaving. I cleaned up the garage, backed the car up and that’s when the real hell began…

The driveway has a bunch of new spots on it now. A quick test using my finger identified one new spot as oil, but neither car leaking. No problem, it might be from the work Shaum’s was doing on his truck the other day. The other spot was a serious issue…fuel. One of either Warwick or I had a fuel leak…not something you can drive the car with. 5 min later we had identified the problem as my car, which was spraying down a 4” patch in about 30 seconds. Oie.

My first thought was to grab the black Audi, and just take that…but, no. Two problems – 1) the engine is sort of half blown (which we knew about) but 2) the rad, yes the rad, blew up for the MILLIONTH TIME today when we were doing a parts run!! I thought we dealt with this darned problem on the drive across the country!?!

With both cars out, I had to fix one. I’m sure the red car is just getting back at me for the towing incident, but it’s not good timing! After a few parts runs, and some jerry-rigging, I was able to by-pass the fuel pressure accumulator and just run the car straight off the filter to the engine bay. It starts a little harder in the morning, but otherwise runs perfectly fine.

Thinking that was the end of it all, I headed inside to shower. About halfway through the shower suddenly my arms and the back of my neck went from “ahhhhh” to “AHHHHH!!!!!” I broke out in a wicked red-blotchy rash, which is either from the garage floor or from getting too much fuel on my skin. GRRRR!!

The car, however, is running…but what a crappy day!

-Dave

When you purchase cars at the investment level that I do, you gain a unique perspective on the joys of vehicle ownership that the average driver fails to experience. Consider, for the moment, that I am in the habit of purchasing an entire vehicle for less then the average person pays in a single monthly car payment. Consider also, that I’ve purchased cars in the past for less then the average person pays for an oil change. Indeed, I hold the unique pleasure of knowing I’ve spent more on a single bottle of wine then I did to purchase my last car.

My joy for all things automotive was passed down from my dad, something that arguably might be genetic. I have slides of all my grandfather’s VW Beetles, including the one he pin-striped himself. My uncle Mark, for as long as I can remember, has always owned a TR6 or other rare collector car. For a while, the daily driver’s were swapped so quickly on his driveway it was hard to remember what car he was driving. My uncle Paul, while less into the buy-and-sell aspect of cars taught me that once you find the car you love, keep it. He’s owned the same Mustang since I was five years old (maybe longer). And then, there’s my Dad… (more…)

Currently lying on Chad’s floor doing my best to try and avoid getting up. I’m not looking forward to putting on the same jeans and sweatshirt I’ve been wearing for four(?) Days now. I ve already ruined them with Coolant and Oil, so I might as well wear them for one more day.

The black stallion’s starting issues are getting worse. It simply won’t start with the key when hot. The starter turns and cranks the engine…but it just cranks and cranks. Here’s the weird part…if we push it and bump start it, ir fires right up. I’m a little stumped on that one.

In other news, the Dakar rally has started…which means a whole month of crazy rally action on Speedvision.

-Dave

So I got the rad out at 12:30, got it to a rad shop and had it repaired…all for the low sum of $30 and a day in edmonton. The car is back together, and ready to go early tomorrow morning. That’s the short story…the day has been much better then just running around for a radiator.

When we were having breakfast, and while the car was dropping all its coolant on the ground, Warwick and I started by calling Chad to talk to him about possible Volkswagen parts suppliers who might have a radiator. I gave Andrew a call, since he’s formerly an Edmonton native. After sorting out the options Warwick and I raced back to Chad’s to pull the rad out.

I had intended on meeting Chad’s girlfriend Matti, but not while I was elbows deep in coolant. She’s definitely a keeper for Chad, as she didn’t even bat an eye at the fact that we were ripping the radiator out of the car. I figured she was probably used to this sort of thing, Chad drives an orange golf rally car, and she drives a lime green BMW 2002. No, that’s not the year of the car. Hit google and go see what a 2002 is. While I was busy ripping the radiator out, Matti’s dad came over to see what was going on. He just jumped right in there and assisted with the radiator pull, and then offered to give us a lift in his Volvo. Now, normally I wouldn’t mention the fact that it was a Volvo, unless there was a good reason for doing so…and let me tell you, there is. His winter car is a 1967 Volvo station wagon. To give you an idea on how classic this car is, in 1967 there were front seat-belts only. In the family there are four Volvo station wagons, and Matti’s 2002. But it gets better. We chatted cars a little bit on our way to the rad shop and back, the Volvo’s weren’t the only thing that needed to be checked out…

In the garage, next to the old bike and a set of tires is his 1959 Porsche 356A. My jaw hit the floor, this car is INCREDIBLE. But, to make it even better, he doesn’t believe in “fully restored cars you can’t drive”. He’s fixed it up, and takes it out and drives it when he feels like it. He dropped a 1953 engine in it, which is incredibly rare.

I checked…he’s not currently looking to adopt a new son

So, after checking out the Porsche it was off to breakfast with Chad, Matti and Warwick. Breakfast…at one-thirty in the afternoon. Chad has just insured his rally car again, so after breakfast we went for a quick romp out to pick up the rad. I helped Chad get the car across the border from the U.S. (not easy with a caged race car!), but have never had a ride in it. His golf makes the inside of my Audi seem silent. Both of us agreed that it was quite strange, and a little surreal, to be tooling around Edmonton in his rally car together.

I’ve just come inside, the radiator has been installed in the car and tested…no leaks. The radiator shop did, however, strip the bleed-screw bolt so the system wouldn’t hold any pressure! Perhaps that’s why when I picked up the radiator he only charged me $30 instead of the $90 quoted? A quick walk back over to Matti’s house and soon Chad, Matti’s dad and I were sorting through the boxes of random nuts and bolts. A solution was found, and the car has been fixed.

Since the radiator is now fixed, I should note that the bearing in the power-steering pump is howling…does it EVER end with these cars!?!

All in all, I’ve had a great day in Edmonton. It was awesome getting to spend some time with Chad, and soon I’ll get in a few hours nap to help make tomorrows drive go easier. As they say, somethings happen for a reason…

Photos from yesterday, sorry no photos from today:

Ernie is already for day three of the road trip. Camera? check. Candy? check. Tim Hortons? Check.

The fog literally froze to the cars. Each car built up crystals of ice formations. My hella lights…are hella frozen. (yuk yuk yuk)

This is how the whole adventure started…the first green puddle of coolant…

Warwick and I are hammering across edmonton to get the radiator pulled from the car. At our breakfast stop the car ditcvhed all its coolanrt into the parking lot.

If I get the rad pulled by 12:30 we can have it repaired for 90 bucks. If not, a used rad is 250…a new rad is 400. Yikes!

Warwick and I are hammering across edmonton to get the radiator pulled from the car. At our breakfast stop the car ditcvhed all its coolanrt into the parking lot.

If I get the rad pulled by 12:30 we can have it repaired for 90 bucks. If not, a used rad is 250…a new rad is 400. Yikes!

No coolant loss, no puddle at the gas station.

My stereo or amp has given up the ghost though…no tunes for Dave.

We are going to haul all the way to edmonton, seven hours from where we are now.

Let’s hope we stay problem free!

-D