Well, where should I start?

Here is how it ended.....



I have had Millie since 1998. She has always been pretty reliable. After tearing her down in Dec 09 and doing sheet metal and paint followed by minor upgrades and refreshes she is back on the road, legally, this year. I have driven around town many times recently without any problems. Cool. Fluids are all fresh, clean and topped up. I have a very minor tranny seep/leak at the speedometer cable, but nothing huge.

So… The Atlantic Nationals were July 7-10 in Moncton, NB. About 275km/175miles trip one way on 110kph/70mph highways. Not worried right?

So we pack up. We have luggage, a kid’s wagon, car care stuff, simple tools and supplies and are ready to go. My wife, almost 4 year old son and I hit the road.

At the two hour mark we stop for some lunch. Everything is fine. A little war inside the car due to no air conditioning, but we are doing well. We have about an hour left. We are taking our time and enjoying the trip.
Shortly after we hit the road again I notice a slight haze/smoke in the rear view mirror. I pull over and stop but left the car idle. Smoke can be seen coming from the passenger side wheel well.

I get out and have a look. Oil is dripping off my oil filter onto my nice new headers. It is dripping at a rate of 1 drip every 45seconds. I get a cloth from the trunk and reach up to tighten the filter. It is snug. I slip a bit and put a nice 3 inch square 2nd degree burn on my forearm. Ouch!
I keep trying to see where the oil is coming from. It is seeping out from between the engine block and oil filter adapter/block. Great! We only have about 20minutes left before we get to the hotel. Let’s keep going.

We get to the hotel and check in. Unload our bags. My wife and son are hanging in the room when I head down to move the car to reserved section of the parking garage for the Nationals registered cars.

I turn the key and nothing! I have 13.6v on the voltmeter. I have dash and interior lights. Crap! My OEM starter is heat soaked. I have had headers on the car since I bought and never had this happen. My new headers don’t touch but must be a bit closer. Wait 30 minutes and she fires up again.

I buy some 10w40 to throw in and thicken up the 5w20 I have been running. I will nurse her home and deal with the leak later.
We enjoy the rest of the weekend with any issues, but my mind is always thinking of the two problems Millie has.

Sunday we head home. Another 275k or 175m and we will be home. Half way home, coming up a long, high hill and I can see the smoke is getting heavy. We pull over and I jump out, engine idling because I am scared of the starter sticking. I look under and fluid is just pouring out over the exhaust. I yell and my wife shuts it off.

Wait a minute. The fluid is not nice amber fresh oil. It’s red. ****, it is tranny fluid leaking in the same area as the oil leak. It is pouring from between the line and fitting that screws into the transmission for the cooler in the radiator.

We are in the middle of a toll road, 17km from the toll booth and no where’s near a garage. I decide to try to make farther. Try to leave and the starter is stuck! Wait longer. She fires up and we creep along. Slowly up the hills and coasting in neutral down the hills we make it to the tolls.

It’s now 23km to next town where help could be.

We head off with our fingers crossed. I see a gas station sign at the first off ramp. No mechanical service in sight I buy the last four liters of tranny fluid they have head for Truro, the next town.

White knuckled we make to the parking lot of Canadian Tire at 5:03pm. They close at 5:00pm. The transmission is starting to slip. 4 liters in ~30km. We have 100km to go. I am not trying to drive. There is a guy at the door of Canadian Tire waiting for the rest of the employees to leave and lock up. I start explaining my problem and ask if I can leave the car in a bay overnight and pay them to fix it in the morning. The guy says "I can’t do anything now, I’ll talk to you in the morning." He goes inside and closes the door.

I am NOT leaving my car in the middle of a parking lot in the middle of B-F nowhere an hour from home. This Canadian Tire will not see a penny of my money.

My wife calls her parents to say we are going to be later than we thought and they offer to come get us. At least that was good news.

I call 8 different tow companies before finding someone who can make the trip tonight with a flatbed instead of a wrecker.
$250 plus taxes later and Millie is home in the garage.

Well that sucks.



On Monday I jack her up and see the damage. There is tranny fluid everywhere. In ~40km I blew out over 8 liters of fluid. Most of it seems to be dripping out of the rear bumper. The trunk lid is covered too.
The line looks clean and not rusty. So I try to tighten. It is tight. So I pull the line and find that the line is cracked so much that the flare at the end is almost broken off. I cut the line and re-flare it. Start the engine. No more leak. If only I had my flare set with me.

Now for the next task. Pull the oil filter housing/block off. I try to source a gasket. The best I can do is $3 for the gasket $15 to get it to my local NAPA store one week later. So I make one from a roll of filter paper. A quick sanding on the housing make sure it is flush and bolt it back on. All is good.



In the back of my mind I do not trust the transmission cooler lines. They look good, but were on the car in 1998 when I bought it. For $18.00 I
bought even new 5/16 line and new fittings to replace both lines. Done.
No leaks. Pheeeew!



So the car repair bill for the week end.

$15 for "top up" engine oil
$38 for 4 liter of gas station transmission fluid
$287.50 for the tow ride home
$23 for a 5 liter jug of transmission fluid
$18 for new lines and fittings.

Here is the culprit, the 1 1/2 inch of transmission cooler line that cracked and made the day very exciting.





Wow!

Do you know what the kicker is? While I had the car up in stands I decided to change my rear end oil too. It has not been changed in a long time. That went without any problems. But, while still up in the air I let her idle to get the transmission fluid hot and check levels. All my leaks stayed nice and dry. I notice and new puddle forming under the back seat on the driver’s side. That seems strange. There is nothing under the back seat that holds fluid. I do not smell gas so it is not that. I look a little closer. It is water dripping out of my left muffler. There is a 1/16 of inch hole rotted through the casing. Now I know why she seems a bit louder on the highway than I expected. I guess my Pypes kit will be coming sooner than next year? Maybe. I am going to try the muffler cement fix and hope it holds so Santa can bring me the new exhaust kit. He brought me the Hookers last Christmas.

Now all that is left is to get a nice high torque mini starter to fix the heat soaking issue and all is good. Millie got a tranny flush, undercoated, new lines, 2 liters of new oil added to a 500 mile old oil change, rear diff oil change, and quickened plans for the new exhaust kit.

Now for a funny additional story. I was at my uncle’s funeral on the Friday following the show and met another person who went to the Atlantic Nationals. He too had mechanical problem driving home in his Chevelle. IIRC one of the bolts holding the alternator snapped and the belts got tangled in the fan and tore stuff up. He got to the same Canadian Tire, but while they were still open. After talking to the service desk he had his car towed home to repair it. I guess the owner of the Chevy told the guy at desk what he wanted to do. Canadian Tire wanted to repair it a different way and would not listen to the owner. At least the tow companies are getting lots of business. The sad thing is Canadian Tire was one of the major sponsors of the Atlantic Nationals.

Happy driving to all.

By the way, thanks to Max, my almost 4 year old, for taking pictures of me and Millie getting put on the flatbed. He was fine throughtout the weekend and break down even when daddy's paitence was zero.

 

I have never seen a line crack like that. I'm glad it turned out OK, but what a mess.

 

Good thing nothing is damaged and you guys made it ok in the end.

I have learned to avoid Canadian Tire as much as possible... not that you had a choice at the time.

I've had Can Tire guys tell me some pretty stupid things, and I've even had to teach parts desk guys about cars in order to get the part I want... ugh.

A buddy of mine had a job interview there and they asked him what department he'd like to work in. He said anywhere but automotive because he knew nothing about cars... guess where he ended up? The parts desk!!

 

Sorry to hear Millie experienced some hiccups.

Could have been worse.

At least it happened on the way home,you were able to enjoy the weekend.

Sounds like Millie is back on the road with minor repairs.

Wishing you better luck on your next road trip.

 

+1.

Wow.

Glad the solution was simple in the end.

- Eric

 

Ive cancelled all my future trips!

 

Everytime i see threads with titles like this I cringe... I expect to see a wreck or something. However, I am so glad when I dont!
Yep, this was a freak thing for sure. Recon the line was pulled to tight or something? Motor mounts too loose at one time to have fatigued it?
I am glad the only pain was the burn on the arm and hope that is doing better.
Glad everyone is back home, safe and sound.

I might want to look at my cooler lines now!

 

You Canadians, you have the best beer, free health insurance, and your Santa brings you hookers!?!?

 

What a bummer of a road trip! I am glad you didnt damage anything beyond repair and were able to get it fixed. I have had transmission leaks before but have never seen a line crack like that. Very weird. Boy does trans fluid make a mess under the car huh?

 

Glad you all made it home safely with all those problems! Glad to hear you have her all fixed now also. I'm afraid of things like that, so I stay close to home! You just never know.....

 

just another instance of the adventures of owning and operating a classic motor vehicle.

 

Hi,

Randy and Eric, I have never seen one crack like that either. I have an aftermarker tranny cooler and the radiator in series. The cooler lines come from the transmission, over the header and one line goes into the rad the other goes to the cooler and then there is a short "jumper" line from the rad to cooler. The long lines were unsupported and while idling they would shake side to side about 2 inches with the engine/tranny vibrations. I am thinking that the flexing like that over the 12+ years life installed this way caused the metal to fatigue enought to crack like that. I have temp brace sit up know until I can mount a braket to reduce the vibrations.

Sorry I scared you Rob, how about a picture or two of my Grand Am or Cavalier from a couple of years ago...







Here is my first and only "Brand New" car.











and regarding Santa bringing me Hookers for Christmas. My FaceBook friends when my status said "Adam Rodenhiser got a nice pair of Hookers for Christmas."

After everything was over I could only laugh about the the whole situation. One leak was bad enough, but three failures in one weekend was crazy. No one was hurt, less a burn, I did not have to use the 2 1/2lbs ABC fire extinguisher. Cheap to repair. I can't really complain. That's the FU in the FUn of having a 40+ year old car. I now have a great story for my first Atlantic Nationals.

 

One thing I've learned after 12 years playing with old cars...a triple A membership will pay for it's self sooner or later...

 

Holy crap Adam! What is the stories of the two wrecks above? Glad they were not classics, but still!!! Would make good wreckedexotics material.
The leg stitches sent a chill down my own legs...
Sorry about the misfortunes!

 

Wow! Adam... Your story tops my experience going to the show in Lansing this past June.

It just shows us all... these cars need to be driven! You don't know what trouble could be lurking, unless you take it out of the garage.

I still remember what my mechanic said to me last year after we first installed the spare engine from the parts car, "Don't go too far."

You have drive 'em to shake the bugs loose.

BTW... I also had a bad experience at Canadian Tire last year.


Jaybird

 

Well, I'll try to keep it short.

The EX 2002 Pontiac Grand Am SE was not in any accident or collision. It had just reached 200K and it was very clean underneath. I the csar was in great shape so I had it "oil sprayed" or undercoasted. It is a thick waxy/oily slime that is misted by compressed air and painted on the under carrige or your car. There must have been a little too much overspray on the exhaust and it caught fire about 5 minutes drive from the shop. Insurance covered everything without questions. I got a cash payment that I used to buy my current '03 Grand Am GT. No one hurt but lots of cool Halloween night stories probably got started by seeing this.

The Cavalier was my first and only brand new car. I was driving between service calls between Stratford, ON and Hamilton, ON when I got caught in a snow squal/blowing snow blowing across the two lane highway. A 10 ton solid body transport truck (as it was described to me, I never saw what hit me ) failed to notice the bend in the road and crossed the centerline and bang! Near perfect headon with a 2000 Chevy Cavalier.

I was hurt almost as bad as the car :

- Fractured right ankle
- Broken Right Femur (thigh), this was a "radial" break. My thigh did not snap, it twisted/rotated so fast it snapped because it was over twisted. Think of jamming a drill bit and having it snap off. My thigh bone was the drill bit.
-Broken left collar bone.
-Compressed left lung. Basically it got squished in my ribcage by the seat belt.

My repairs includes:

-Cast on ankle - 6 weeks
-Titainium rod from top of hip to back of knee INSIDE my femur/thigh bone. Held in place by two screws at the knee and one in the hip. They had to cut the second incision so they could hold my bones inline to insert the rod the way down. Glad I was out.
- 58 staples putting my right knee together after the dash was pushed into me.
-6 months of physio to relearn to walk without crutches or a cane and strength training.

Total cost to me? $35 for crutches. I wanted to buy them new instead of using the "return to hospital" ones.

The cars have been reborn as other cars or maybe a fork, and I am fine, for the most part. A few aches and pains but I am not complaining.


Drive Safe

 

Adam, you are one tough cookie to have gone through all that - I almost felt the pain reading about it. Geez... Glad you made it though!!

 

Sorry to hear about your uncle but glad you resolved your car problems. I avoid Canadian Tire as well...but then, there are no Canadian Tire stores in the Chicago area.

 

I realize there are as many opinions about type of oil as there are mouths, but I would be careful about running 5W-20 in the summer and especially any long distance like that unless you have a newer transplanted engine in it.

 

 

Hey Cutlassjoe: I had bad vibrations on my way to Lansing. I thought it could be the tires or the drive shaft. I turned out to be two bad Firestone FireHawks. I replaced all 4, after being towed home from Brighton, MI.

Jaybird