With that said...this is the story of Neville. The 1991 Honda Civic Wagon that got it's name when it crested 100+ mph on the historic Bonneville Salt Flats. It wasn't all historic location and smiles though and that's where the story will start.
Day 1 6/30/15
Caitlin and I were supposed to both arrive in Sacramento at 9:30, meet the seller at 10:30, do the deal and leave at around 6 am the following day. I got delayed for 3 hours in Seattle so that plan fell apart as the minutes ticked by. A new plan formed and we were going to meet the seller at 8:30 am the next morning and go from there. The seller was great, his family was great, and the smell of a 4th gen Honda in the morning was great. We went over the details of the car, went for a test drive and the sealed the deal. We were on the road by 10:00am!
A quick note about this cars history. The seller had bought the car 2 weeks prior from a board member on civicwagons.com but then found out he was having another kid and decided he had to sell the wagon only weeks after owning it. I was in touch with both the current and previous owner prior to the sale and felt good about picking it up. Back to the story...
Day 1 was a quick jaunt from Sacramento to SLC. A 9 hour, 650 mile ride. We headed out and before we knew it we were climbing into the Tahoe National Forest and hit the Donner Pass summit at right about 7,000 feet. From there is was a decline and 80 mph on I-80 into SLC. Although we were told that the oil had been recently changed I checked it on our first fill up and it was 1/2 way between the dots on the dip stick and black as night. It looked like it hadn't been changed in a year. That put me on alert and I checked the coolant too which looked like they took the other 1/2 quart of black oil and dumped it in. A stop in Reno at a Jiffy Lube cost $197 for a coolant flush and oil change. (Current total extra cost $200...we'll keep an eye on this through the story) We stopped at the Salt Flats on our way out just as the sun was setting. Took some amazing photos and took Neville on his first high speed run, cresting 100 mph out on the flats.
We had a great time out on the flats and after a quick fill up at the local gas station we started our last short leg into SLC. Unfortunately luck was not on our side and as we were coming into SLC the tachometer blinked out (my first thought was distributor) and then the rest of the dash started to dim and as we coasted to the corner of 400 W, 600 So....the car died.
I spent forever trying to find a flatbed to come pick us up (4WD y0!) and 2 hours later the car was being towed to the hotel parking lot...8 blocks away.
Current total extra cost $300.
I tested the battery and found it at 11.4vdc so I knew it was dead. It was either the rectifier in the alternator (no battery light on the dash) or a bad battery. After getting to the hotel 2 hours later, the water pressure died after I got done with my shower and luckily there was a shower down in the 24h pool area so Caitlin showered and we took a dip in the pool. So ends day 1.
Day 2
I got up 5 hours later, grabbed the battery, got a cab (total extra cost $320) and headed to Autozone. The guys there said that the battery would take 2 hours to charge if it was good, or I could wait 30m and find out if the battery was good or not. As the battery was nearing 4 years old and I didn't have 30m-2h to wait (at this point were about 6 hours behind on the trip) I bought a new battery ( total extra cost $440). Cab ride back to the hotel and the car started up and was showing 14.4v! Bonus, the alternator is good. But a free check at Autozone would be worth the 10m drive. I pulled into Autozone and rechecked the battery and it was at 12.4v. Boooo....the rectifier was bad. The only good thing was that as long as the revs were above 1.1k the alternator put out 14.4v, so neutral at stop lights, keep driving, and disconnect the battery overnight and we were good to go! Before I left Autozone I thought that I should do plugs and wires as the rest of the car maintenance seemed to be lacking in a bad way. (total extra cost $500) Well as I pulled out the first plug I noticed that there was some oil on the plug and it looked fouled. #1 and #3 both had oil present, and #2 looked like there was oil there at some point.
A valve cover gasket kit later and we were in business. (total extra cost $530) We left SLC 6 hours behind schedule but the car was running better than it had up to this point. We aimed East and started climbing into the Rockies. I'll say this...a 1.6L motor which had 108hp when it left the factory 25 years ago doesn't do so well at 11,000 ft. We hit the summit and dropped 6,000 feet down to Denver and hit town around 10:30 and had a nice late dinner at the Stout Street Social ( http://www.stoutstsocial.com/ ). We walked to our hotel downtown from the restaurant and crashed for 6 hours getting back on the road at 6 am for our final day.
Day 3
Ahhh...day 3. 14 hours of planned driving which turned into a 20 hour day. We planned on this to be the blerg day and it was. Denver to Whitewater in one go. We did well enough, stopping at some roadside attractions along the way and ending up in Omaha around dinner time. Caitlin found the most amazing last minute place to eat: Modern Love ( http://www.modernloveomaha.com/ ) a vegan restaurant headed by a chef who started in NY, went to Portland had some books and a TV show along the way and ended up in Omaha. We were lucky to get to sit at a window bar for 2 which they keep open for walk ins. They were booked from about 5-8:30 so getting these seats really made the experience the highlight of the day. Homemade soda, amazing food and a desert later and we were back on the road.
We hit the largest truck stop in the world (aka indoor fast food and all the made in China knickknacks you could ever dream of) on the way through Iowa and powered our way home getting in at 2am Saturday morning.
So that's the story of how we got Neville to his new home. The next post's will mainly be about progress on the car and adventures to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment