Date: 02 Oct 2001 20:52:37 GMT From: davehinznopsamcop.net Subject: Re: Toyota in top five again (JD Power....)
In alt.autos.saab Emanuel Brown <epbrown01nopsamnet> wrote: > On 02 Oct 2001 18:11:42 GMT, davehinznopsamcop.net wrote: >>> I can imagine the skew that Rolls-Royce gets, for instance. Mine >>> died on the road recently and I had a devil of the time convincing the >>> tow service it was an actual Rolls-Royce because "those *never* break >>> down!" (though the official RR term is "fail to proceed"); I had to >>> explain that it was driver error, which it was. >> >>What kind of 'driver error', if I may ask? >> > Pretty much all of them. The AC compressor in the car seized and > stopped turning, eventually causing the belts to wear through and > break. The same belts drive the alternator, so the battery stopped > charging. Flat battery = bad. > I bought the Rolls-Royce in March of this year from an estate - it > hadn't been driven in 8 years when I got it. > My errors were the following: > When I replaced the belts while bringing the car back into service, > I didn't save the old ones as spares and keep them in the trunk. Must keep old belts. And plugs, maybe a fuel pump or two, and so on. On my old Saabs, the spares kit consists of: Generator/water pump (yes, same unit) Electric fuel pump & filter belt (singular...) Spark plugs - 2 sets, just in case Flexy-hose (although, all the hoses are new) Several of each light bulb type on the car Box-o-fuses (all 8-amp circuits) duct tape (obviously) Distributor cap/wires/rotor (for moisture reasons) Voltage regulator Thermostat Photocopy of service manual (I'm not going to haul an original around!). > Always a good idea. Spares are good. Often, you need tools to use them, but at least if you have the parts, you can find someone with tools. > I smelled burning rubber at the last fill-up and didn't > investigate. It was the belts rubbing against the non-moving AC > compressor, of course. There were chunks on the wheel of it when I > opened the hood. Ugh... > I set out on a 500-mile round trip in a 35 year-old car with no > tools. I'd taken the Rolls-Royce kit out of the car for polishing up, > my Porsche kit was incompatible, and my Sears Craftsman stuff too > heavy to bother with. > The belts broke 100 miles on the way there. I drove another 150 > miles there with the alternator light on, and another 145 *back* the > same way. I passed an Autozone TWICE will in Indianapolis and didn't > stop in. An adjustable wrench and two GM Matchmaker belts model 36201 > would have solved things, or even one emergency belt looped between > the fan and alternator. Well, at least it wasn't raining... > I had the windows down (hey, no AC and it was a warm day). When the > battery finally gave out 5 miles from home, I couldn't raise the > electric windows. There was a cloudburst within SECONDS of the car > dying. I've just finished drying the interior :-) Ah. So much for not raining... > The only things I didn't do was take along a box of nails to > sprinkle around the car when I parked it, or play the radio to wear > the battery down sooner. Other than that, I was pretty much Forrest > Gump's dimmer brother... Could have been worse; does it feel better to have shared the story? At least you had a classy car to be broken down in, so that's always a plus. > The real irony - I didn't take the Porsche, which I usually use for > road trips, because I figured there'd be lots of RRs there. There was > only ONE, a later Silver Cloud. The majority were MGBs, though I saw > some fantastic MGAs, Austin-Healy Sprites, 3000s and 100/4s, and a few > Jaguar E-types. But overall, the show was a bust for me... Not to mention the trip there/home... Dave
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