Fun with road trips

coreyfyfe · #1 07-18-2009, 08:24 AM

We returned last night from a week-long road trip to Virginia Beach. It started out fun, but for whatever reason I wouldn't let myself be talked out of taking my own car instead of renting, which in the end turned out to be both a blessing and a burden.

Coming off of the New Jersey turnpike into the Clara Barton rest stop, my engine cuts out (2005 Chevrolet Aveo, ~74K miles, two previous warranty repairs). After several tow truck rides and a night spent in Pennsville, we get it taken to the nearest Chevrolet dealer, which is in New Castle, DE. We pickup a rental car there and continue on our way while they diagnose the problem with the car. By the sound of it, the tow truck drivers both estimated the timing belt snapped, which could cost anywhere from a couple hundred to much more if there is valve damage.

OK. Trying not to think about that, just trying to enjoy vacation. Fast forward a few hours, driving somewhere through Delaware or Maryland, we get a call from the mechanic that it was the Idler Pully, which caused the timing belt to jump time and destroyed my engine. Good news was it was still about 900 miles under warranty, bad news was that they refuse to work with my warranty company.

After several hours of phone calls between them, my warranty company, and my road side assistance I get the car towed to another dealer 6 miles down the road which will work with my warranty company.

Engine is toast. Completely. $3000 for a new replacement plus labor. An adjuster has to come take a look at it, but they leave me with the note that if my timing belt hasn't been replaced at 60K like they recommend, they probably won't cover it. After the inspection by the adjuster, they make me wait another day while they "review" the facts.

Going for me - It was a completely mechanical failure, in no way related to the timing belt, nor could it have been avoided with a timing belt replacement. Also, not only did the belt not break, but it was in good condition.

Going against me - the warranty says to keep up with recommended maintenance.

In the end they decide they will pay fully for a replacement used engine (they sourced one from a totaled car with only 5K miles on it), or give me $1950 towards the cost of a new engine.

I ended up going used. I get to drive a rental around for the week then drive back to Delaware on friday (hopefully) to pick up the car.

Here's a pic of my car as it stands right now:

Anyone else have some fun stories of failures on the road?

warwick.hoy · #2 07-18-2009, 10:48 AM

Sorry about your luck. They don't make them like they used to.

A friend, her family and I drove a rattling old '83 Chevy S-10 Blazer 4x4 and an '84 Iroc Z loaded to the gills with personal possessions from Virginia Beach to Spokane Washington. We had zero problems except that the Blazer didn't want to get up through the passes too fast. It was a road trip/move and it was nerve racking at times, but a great experience.

Did you make it to Virginia Beach? If you are still there and get the hungries then go to Malbon Bros. BBQ. If you head south on Pacific and away from the resort strip, crossing over the Rudee inlet,...Pacific turns into General Booth BLVD. Continue south on that street until you come across a Citgo Gas station with a big car wash apparatus. In the gas station is a restaurant that has the best Carolina Style BBQ you in the city. It will be on the left hand side of the intersection and the cross street is Culver/Corporate Landing (You'll be on General Booth).

coreyfyfe · #3 07-18-2009, 12:55 PM

Yeah we ended up making it, but we're back now. I'll keep that place in mind for next year, since we're probably going to make the trip again.

WickedPissah · #4 07-18-2009, 02:42 PM

My 2000th post!

Sartori · #5 07-18-2009, 03:37 PM

My friend and I went down to see Emperor in 2006. They were only playing two US concerts that year, one in New York and one in Los Angeles. So we hopped in my family's '95 Ford T-bird and were on our way. Everything was fine until we hit the grapevine. For those of you who are not from California, "The Grapevine" is the name for the pass through the mountains at the southern end of California's central valley. It's a steep road right before hitting LA. So we hit the grapevine. Then, suddenly, the engine seemed to lose power. This was surprising, as that car had made the same drive at least a dozen times before without breaking a sweat. So we continued on, until the engine cut out entirely. At that point we began to roll backwards. Dear gods, that was terrifying.

So I stomped the break and slammed it into park. Fortunately for us, some truckers pulled up and sort of barricaded the area with their semis and helped push the car to the shoulder. We waited three hours for triple A, ran out of water and were both seriously dehydrated by the time we got picked up and driven to the town up in the middle of the pass, with its one auto place.

Surprisingly, we still made it to the show in time. The car was eventually fixed, but died completely a few months later anyway.

Mike N · #6 07-19-2009, 06:23 AM

Idler pulleys generally don't fail w/o warning. Usually you'll get alot of rubbing noise out of the pulley's bearing before they go. If you noticed that your engine was noisier than normal, that was it. And, unless the valves knocked holes thru the pistons when they got together, I don't see why they couldn't repair the bent valves and stick it back together, or just put a reman head on it and ship it.

Otoh, it is an Aveo we're dealing with...........

tplyons · #7 07-19-2009, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike N

Idler pulleys generally don't fail w/o warning. Usually you'll get alot of rubbing noise out of the pulley's bearing before they go. If you noticed that your engine was noisier than normal, that was it. And, unless the valves knocked holes thru the pistons when they got together, I don't see why they couldn't repair the bent valves and stick it back together, or just put a reman head on it and ship it.

Otoh, it is an Aveo we're dealing with...........

Yep, it's a rebadged Daewoo.

Either way the news really sucks... which warranty company did you use? Hopefully not one like US Fidelis that's generally a scam.

coreyfyfe · #8 07-19-2009, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tplyons

Yep, it's a rebadged Daewoo.

Either way the news really sucks... which warranty company did you use? Hopefully not one like US Fidelis that's generally a scam.

Nope it's one that I bought with the car from the GM dealer. M.Ryan warranties or something like that. The people who I brought the car to the first time just refuse to work with anyone but the GM protection plan because they don't want to wait around for adjusters and such. Whatever, it's all taken care of at this point, just have to wait for the parts then go pick it up.

And as for the car, I wasn't expecting much when I bought it, but it was pretty much the only new car I could afford on my own at 18 and has lasted me 4+ years without having to put in a ton of money for repairs.

LilRay · #9 07-19-2009, 10:48 AM

I got one for ya. My Pop and I were going From Dallas, Tx to Jacksonville Fla and my Pop was driving his bosses 69 Chevy Dump truck loaded with roofing equipment. We got to the other side of Mobile and all the sudden my Pop sees a tire go rolling by him on the two lane highway we were on. I was following behind him and someone called him to tell him to pull over as it was the front tire off the truck he was driving.

The truck was SO loaded down that it lost the front tire and didn't drop.

We were lucky.

God Bless, Ray

Mike N · #10 07-19-2009, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coreyfyfe

Nope it's one that I bought with the car from the GM dealer. M.Ryan warranties or something like that. The people who I brought the car to the first time just refuse to work with anyone but the GM protection plan because they don't want to wait around for adjusters and such. Whatever, it's all taken care of at this point, just have to wait for the parts then go pick it up.

And as for the car, I wasn't expecting much when I bought it, but it was pretty much the only new car I could afford on my own at 18 and has lasted me 4+ years without having to put in a ton of money for repairs.

Problem with alot of warranty companies is they expect the shops to repair the cars with substandard parts so they (the warranty co.) can save money. Also, the warranty companies will tell the shop how much labor time they'll allow for a particular job, and it is rarely enough time to complete the repair in. So the customer gets screwed and so does the shop performing the repairs.

ErebusBass · #11 07-19-2009, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coreyfyfe

And as for the car, I wasn't expecting much when I bought it, but it was pretty much the only new car I could afford on my own at 18 and has lasted me 4+ years without having to put in a ton of money for repairs.

This is exactly why, IMO, it is ALWAYS better to buy a nice used car than a POS new car. Probably would have been cheaper too.

I've been there too though. In 2007 my friends and I made a 2,000 mile journey from WI to CA to see Immortal. The car made it to No Name, Colorado. Yes, that is a real place. Couldn't make that one up.

I had to leave it there. It sucked. I only had the car for three weeks and the dealership totally screwed me. It ended up being cheaper for me to get a different car than to drive out there and tow it back.