Albuquerque, New Mexico to Bismark, North Dakota (archive)

Well, maybe not quite that bad but I did have a generous number of mechanical problems along the way. Once a year my wife needs to make here annual migration to her homeland so I suggested we take the bimmer instead of her (gulp/ugh!) mini-van. All went well until reaching the the Black Hills. The temperature gauge started climbing just before Sturgis, just short of the red zone. I pulled over to check things out, fluids were up, no leaks, didn't smell or seem hot so denial & knowing I was hundreds of miles from a shop which knows anything about bimmers, let me believe the sending unit might be bad & since it wasn't in the red I kept driving & mulled over other possibilities. It was in the upper 70's outside & turning off the a/c & turning the heat up brought it down to the 3/4 point, but I had an eye on the gauge the rest of the trip. It had circulation so I ruled out a bad water pump. That leaves a closed thermostat or clogged radiator. The exhaust pulse was robust so I ruled out a clogged cat. We made it just 10 miles short of Bismark & I noticed smoke in the rearview mirror & thought: swell, my pristine motor which doesn't use a drop of oil just fried the rings or blew a head gasket. While easing off of the throttle, now the transmission slips -- great, a sick motor & now a shot tranny. It lost all gears so had no choice but to coast to a stop. Oil from front to back & a broad trail on the road. Popped the hood & quickly saw tranny fluid pouring out of the rubber coolant hoses just prior to the radiator. Both of them were split wide open on the underside. Several good Samaritans stopped to assist & i got a ride into town. He knows a shop which might still be open on a Saturday evening. They only had heater hose & wouldn't sell me a used air compressor hose, so we went to Wal-mart & bought a coil of air compressor hose & 12 quarts of Dexron III & a few hose clamps & returned & stretched 3/8" hoses onto the 1/2" metal lines. It took 6 quarts of fluid to get back within range & I decided to take a chance on driving it the rest of the way vs. calling up a flatbed. It ran o.k. so made it to the folks & parked it.

Thanks to Hedahl's Parts & Machine, I had new hydraulic hoses properly swagged onto the lines. As for the overheating, I started with the thermostat & took it out & boiled it in a pan of water, sure enough it was stuck closed. I gutted it to retain the o-ring capture & put it back in & drove the hell out of it on the interstate, couldn't get it out of the blue, that was the culprit. I UPS'd red a new one & bingo, right back at 12 o'clock. I continued with flushing the tranny & radiator a few more times for the return trip. Whose's the sick ba$tard that spec'd a plastic drain plug? It snapped the head off after the final flush. I cross-drilled a bolt for a safety wire used a face seal gasket & lots of Permatex Ultra Copper to seal it for the return trip.

We took a 180 mile side trip & all is well again, shifts are smooth & tight & temp needle doesn't budge off of the midpoint. Now I'm waiting for the other shoe to fall on the return trip. Will it be a rock in the windshield? a deer on the hood? I did pick up a nail in the left rear on the way back, outside of Spearfish Montana, rather than messing with it, I dumped a can of Fix-a-Flat into it. But wait, that's not all, my son's facination with buttons precipitated the infamous "seat-back twist" 100 miles into the trip.

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

Grateful to be back home, thanks for letting me vent.

gale
92 735i
147k

Follow Ups:

Re: Albuquerque, New Mexico to Bismark, North Dako the other dennis 21:41 6/03/2001 (0)

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