get under those cars

[yesterdaylight]

Good Point here. I was on my way back from work today and I hear a pretty loud clink and some metal hitting the road immediately followed by a ting ting ting every time my driveshaft went around. I checked underneath and sure enough one of the M10 bolts for the guibo had fallen out and the guibo was hitting... something (didn't quite see what because it's dark under there). Fortunately I was on my way to Lowes and was able to pick up another M10 to hold me over... M10 1.5 X 55-60 FYI

so i checked the other 5 bolts... all loose! whatever numb nuts installed the exhaust before i bought the car forgot to tighten them back up... thats my best guess. I'll be getting a new guibo and hardware asap.

[pkbinplano]

had to go check mine. LOL all ok. Hit all those linkages with pen lube for good measure.

[HarryPR]

Good point Blunt. This is what happened to me last week on the freeway. Big clank and thought driveshaft or tranny busted. But after towing home haft shaft screws backed out. Luckily the IE exhaust held it up.

Same thing happened the first time I took my '02 to the office after restoring it. I was able to coast to the highway median and then it started raining in buckets. I felt like the dumbest guy in the world when the car was loaded on a flatbed and I saw what had caused the car to stop running.....

[tbrduc]

the bitch clip gone from the brake booster pivot mechanism and the pin has

Uhh...bitch clip?

[jgerry2002]

Always check and recheck everything.

Last summer, I felt the steering "give" more than usual when I was parallel parking it.

Did not think much of it. Kept driving it, went to O'fest, came back, a week or two later when I was parallel parking my steering nearly gave out completely. I tore that rubber donut in the steering column.

The old one is on the left.. the new one was a IE urethane piece. No more worries there...

[f1reverb]

About 15 years ago I was driving from L.A. to Portland, OR via US 101. I was just about to enter (northbound) Eureka, CA at about midnight (this is in my Golf '74) and when I hit the brakes doing about 85, the pedal went to the floor. No traffic so no problem slowing and stopping. I checked the brakes to find that the right front had dumped the fluid, luckily not on the paint but inside the wheel well. I found that the bolt that held the metal lines to the strut had backed out about 1/4", allowing the metal lines to vibrate and the vibration cracked one of the lines which broke when I hit the brakes. Not good. I decided that I didn't want to be in Eureka, nor that I'd find the part even in the daytime there, so I drove with no brakes (other than the handbrake) from Eureka all the way to Portland, getting there about 5am. There was no traffic at all other than the occasional truck, and even over the mountains from Crescent City to Grants Pass, only one car came up behind me and I pulled over and let him pass. I went to the junkyard and got another line for two bucks. Check those bolts.

The next year on my L.A. to Portland run again I had a problem, though this time it was on I5 just after fueling in Grants Pass. I was on the road north for about ten minutes when my speedo stopped working. No biggie as that's a normal '02 problem. I glanced in my rearview doing, again, about 85, to see clouds of smoke pouring out. Not a good sign, so I shut it down and rolled off the next exit which was only about a 1/2 mile ahead. I have way too many tools and parts with me, which paid off. I saw that the speedo drive cable was hanging loose, so I figured the bolt fell out, and I had a ton of bolts and nuts with me, and tranny fluid, a floor jack and jackstands. I always expect trouble. I went to match the bolt to find out that the previous owner (and the original owner to boot) had had a mechanic do something on it and he had stripped the threads out of the hole that the bolt goes into to hold the speedo cable. Nice. I didn't want to ruin the case any more than it was by using a larger bolt, and so I had a case of too small or too big a bolt. I thought about it for a minute and, since I had some plumbers teflon thread sealing tape, I wrapped it around the small bolt and pounded that into the hole to hold the speedo cable. That bolt is still holding the cable in to this day with the teflon tape seal still intact. When I have to do a clutch someday, or pull the trans for some reason, then I'll fix it properly. I'm real easy on clutches.

No matter what you prepare for, no matter what you check before a trip, something can happen anyway. You need to be prepared to mickey mouse something with whatever you can scrounge up or have with you.

Back in the mid-70s I was coming back from Laguna Seca after the IMSA race in my '69 1600-2 heading south on US101, maybe 20 miles south of Soledad. All of a sudden the exhaust gets real loud and I pull over to find that my welded downpipe to center muffler had broken, with the pipe hanging low. I stared at the nightmare and just happened to be next to a telephone pole, which had those metal strips around it for rodents or whatever. I decided to yank a strip of metal off the pole, wrapped it around the broken junction and used a hose clamp (always keep spares in the trunk) to hold it in place. Worked perfectly all the way home.

Another time back in the '70s I was heading north on US101 going to the IMSA race at Laguna Seca. As I pull up to stop at the old light at State St. in Santa Barbara I push in the clutch pedal, there's a crack, and the pedal stays on the floor. Now my 1600-2 was turboized, with the stripes, spoilers and flares, and so I rolled into the grass in the median figuring I'd walk the two blocks to the SB dealer and get the part and fix it there on the median. The clutch thrust rod had snapped in half. As I get out, planning to leave my brother watch the car, a CHP unit pulls up and tells me to move the car as people will crash looking at it. I tell him the situation and what I'm going to do and he says move it now or I'll tow you right now. He wouldn't listen, so I told my brother to get in, I stuck it in first with the engine off, started it up in gear and cut off the traffic on 101 and drove with the key over to the dealer those couple of blocks. I just ran the stop signs I came across. Dammit if the dealer did not have the thrust rod in stock. Now my car looked good with the turbo stuff, American Libre 13x7 wheels and 235/60/13 Pirelli CN36s, so the parts guy called the dealer in San Luis Obispo and they had the part. One of the mechanics welded my broken rod back together, good enought to get me to SLO without a problem, and I completed my Laguna trip without a hitch.

Those were the days when dealers were friends, not enemies.

[BillWilliams]

In 2002 when several of us drove to Colorado, I worked on the yellow car to make it road worthy:

Replaced a tii fuel pump a week before the trip, it failed two days before the trip, cost me a bundle to get another before the trip.

Also, replaced the alternator with a rebuilt one. In KC, the charge light came on. Found a loaner one from a fellow 2002 there. Replaced it, by then the VR and battery had taken dumps. Started replacing VR and the battery at various stops across the midwest. By the time we reached Colorado, the car was running fine. Thankfully, and with the help of friends, the car never stranded me.

Found out that a piece of solder had dropped on the stater.

[Mike Self]

Dave Hoovler had alternator problems all the way across Kansas and Colorado...but it held together well enough to get him to Keystone where he could replace it with another unit. And his was a recently rebuilt one, too...

That's where caravaning can be sooooo helpful.

I never leave home without my toolbox and my TRSK (trip reserve spares kit)--enhanced with extra stuff if the trip is a long one...

mike