Project Boondoggle (or, so I went and bought a Z!)

[charliekwin]

Replaced the hose to the aux air regulator and checked all the others (they look good), and now I'm back on the road.  I think I've bought more coolant in the last two months than I have in the rest of my life combined.

No rubbing with the wheel and tire combination and low-speed steering on the 225 Nexen tires is actually easier than on the super cheap 195 tires that were on there before.  Much better, quieter ride, too.

Other stuff: the plastic cover to the throttle position sensor was somehow lost during yesterday's adventure, so I gotta cobble together something.  Little bits like that make me want to buy a 3D printer.

After watching some more of Chechaflo's videos on Youtube (which are awesome), I've decided to just flock the dash and save the upholstery for some other day.  Flocking materials are on the way.

And have been playing around with some gauge lighting options.  I picked up a pack of 20 4W drop-in LED bulbs on eBay for $7.  Tried different combinations of the green lens, scuffing inside of the enclosure to increase reflectivity and painting them white (interestingly, the various forums dedicated to growing pot have a veritably monopoly on Google searches for surface treatments best for reflecting light!).  The LEDs have a much cooler color temperature than the old incandescents.  Popping out the green lens and painting the cans white was the combination I liked best.

[Zed Head]

12 minutes ago, charliekwin said:

Replaced the hose to the aux air regulator

What's up with the "$51" from your other post?  Is that the hose from the cylinder head to the heater core?  I couldn't eke out the complete story from your cryptic post.  

Why'd you replace the AAR hose?  Not connected to coolant.  Not getting the picture.

 

[charliekwin]

$51 was the cost of the tow to get home

I replaced the hose that connects to the rear-most outlet on the thermostat housing.  I'll admit to having to do some Googling to figure out what it was and may have my parts wrong.  The hose I replaced is what's on the other end of the circled one here:

[Zed Head]

Makes sense now.  I was thinking of the air hose to the top side of the AAR.

Those hoses get overlooked.  And they're hard to get to.  I should replace mine.

 

[charliekwin]

And here I am waiting for a tow. Again. Fuel line ruptured. I think the wheels are cursed.

[Patcon]

Sounds like lots of rotted rubber, be careful, you could start a fire...

[charliekwin]

This one's bad luck. The hose that went is one I replaced less than two years ago. Getting good use of my roadside assistance, at least.

[mentalite]

Dude!  The handwriting is on the wall.  Keep a couple feet of various hoses and associated clamps on hand.

[charliekwin]

So I'm telling myself this is one of those post hoc fallacy type situations, partly because the first time I've broken down (ever, in any car, even) was this past Saturday, and partly because I don't want to be mentally preparing myself for potential disaster every time I take the car out  For now I'm just considering it an interesting coincidence. Like (I presume) most of us here, I do carry around basic tools to hopefully be able to cobblize a fix that's good enough to get me back home if it's really necessary, but waiting 45 minutes for a tow seemed like a better option than hosing down myself and the chamber of commerce parking lot with gasoline and driving my potential fireball two miles home.  I did order a fire extinguisher.  That seemed like a good idea.

[Zed Head]

Hey, so how did this two year old piece of hose fail?  Did it split, or pop off it's barb, or what?  Was it an off-brand or one of the big names?  That's a big deal and seems like we could all learn something.  I've had raw fuel spraying in my engine bay, over the hot exhaust manifold, and never want to experience that feeling of dread again.  That was old original fuel line cracking lengthwise though, not new high pressure fuel hose.

[charliekwin]

A small (~1/4") lengthwise split opened up on a short section of hose that runs from the pressure gauge I installed between the fuel filter and the beginning of the fuel rail.  It was installed when I was going through my smog troubles back in spring of 2015.  Pretty sure I bought it from Napa, so it it should be decent stuff.  The two most likely things I think happened are either simple dumb bad luck getting a bad piece of hose, or my boy (5) poked at something.  He likes to "work" on the car with me and it wouldn't be the first time he's run through something he shouldn't.

Dread is the word to use.  I was cruising along and thought to myself "hmm, smells like gas..." but dismissed it, since it seems like something always smells like gas, but it quickly god worse, and just as I thought I should probably pull over and investigate, I saw splashes on the windshield and noped straight into the parking lot, with visions of this and similar fires dancing through my head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbtL7darPV0

[Captain Obvious]

You didn't use regular fuel line hose to splice in your gauge, did you? You used the fuel injected variety, right? Rated for the higher pressures?

I know, I know... But it's my job to ask.