Between being busy at the office and at home getting the Blue Bullet II ready for the next road trip, I haven't had a chance to make a post to the BB Blog but...here we go:
First, let me say that I appreciated "Kelly J.'s" willingness to help out, but I decided I could get my local dealer to address the issue without asking Chevy Customer Service for assistance and, as I had expected, Graham Chevrolet in Santa Barbara, California addressed all my outstanding warranty issues.
They replaced the HVAC evaporator core. Upon disassembly, there was evidence that the core had been leaking. Graham had put a dye in the compressor lubricant the first time I went in with the problem and, upon partial disassembly of the passenger side of the interior, they found dye residue on the bottom of the evaporator core housing. I looked at the old part and, while there is no visible crack or dye residue, I'm sure, if I had the old part pressure tested, it would leak. Why was there no dye residue on the core itself? I'm told that the dye is water soluble and, because there is moisture in the interior of the evaporator housing, the dye gets diluted and washed away down the moisture drain. That's why Graham's guys found it on the outside of the evap. housing and not in the inside
They also replaced the two stripped wheel studs on the right rear hub.
Graham even advised me of a TSB on an exterior plastic part at the base of the windshield that needed to be replaced.
The day I picked up the car from Graham after the HVAC repairs a quick road test proved the HVAC was nice and
. But, on the way home, the coolant pump started making noise and, this time, kept doing it. I know that sounds dumb but, from time to time for the list few months, I'd hear a noise–sort of a whirring–coming from the front of the engine. It would come and go and I knew it was coming from either the belt tensioner or the coolant pump. Twice I heard it and thought, when I get home to the shop, I'm going to get my stethoscope and listen. I'd get back to the shop and the noise has stopped.
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Well, this time it didn't stop. I rolled the car in the shop, ran over to the closet where I have all the diagnostic tools and grabbed my KD Stethoscope and, sure enough, the coolant pump bearing was howling like some kind of wounded animal. I headed right back to Graham, gave 'em my 'scope and said, "Quick listen to it."
They did and agreed. The coolant pump bearing was toast.
Only problem was, there were no LS7 water pumps in the western U.S. Graham had to order one from MI and have it FedEx'ed overnight it to CA. It arrived Friday morning, Graham replaced it that day and we left on our road trip Sunday morning at oh-dark-thirty.
Also last week, because I figured this road trip would take us to places where we'd get rained on, I took the Pilot Sport Cups off and replaced them with tires having full treads...good choice as you'll see in a bit. I did that Thursday before taking the car back to Graham Chevy for the coolant pump replacement. I pulled the wheels myself because I'm always nervous about those carbon/ceramic brake discs...even with the factory rotor protectors I have, and took them to Woolever's Tire Shop for mounting/balancing.
As for the road trip?
The first part was a vacation run from Goleta down to Corpus Christi, Texas for the "Vettes and Jets on the Lex" show. This is a benefit car show for the "Wounded Warrior Project". The "Vettes and Jets on the Lex" organization, the Corvette Club of South Texas with the non-profit which owns the U.S.S. Lexington (the second "Lex", a late WW2/Korean War era, decommissioned Essex Class aircraft carrier) get together and hoist 300 or so Corvettes onto the Lex's flight deck for a two day car show. My Wife, the Fairest Sandra the Red, Duchess of Goleta has been wanting to do "Vettes on the Lex" for a number of years. Joining us for the trip were another couple from our Corvette Club in a Silver '08 Coupe.
The second part of the trip is the "PreRun4" trip where my Wife and I are running part of the 2014 Caravan route in reverse from Amarillo TX back to California. We'll makes stops to do Caravan organizing and planning work in Adrian TX, Albuquerque NM and Williams AZ.
The first day of the trip took us from Santa Barbara, to Tucson AZ and we stayed at a great hotel called the "Lodge on the Desert". It was a great hotel with reasonable rates, great rooms and really good service. On the way down to Tucson we got rained on for most of the last part of the trip, but...the serious rain came the next day, on the way to Fort Stockton TX. We were on a secondary road near the Guadalupe Mountains when we got into heavy rain. Good thing I switched tires, that's for sure!
We had originally planned to drive a scenic loop in Guadalupe Mountains National Park but by the time we got there, it was too late for that, so we went south on TX SR54 headed back to I-10. About 30 miles south of the junction between US180 and TX54, we were in the rain, running about 70mph and figuring we were just on the leading edge of the storm.
Wrong!
The mountains to our right were really getting rain and some of the ditches or gulches or whatever carries the "flash flood" run off were pretty deep in water.
We found one which was about four inches deep. Oops.:eek
My pal, Bob, in the other car was leading and he disappeared in a huge splash of muddy water and steam. No way could I stop. There was just enough time for me to step on the brake, feel ABS working and say to Sandy, "Hope he didn't stop". Well–we half surfed and half hydroplaned across the flowing water in a huge splash. As I came out of the spray I saw Bob ahead of me in the same place he was before. Guess we were lucky. When we got down to I-10 we stopped for gas. I opened the hood to find dried mud residue on top of the engine and everywhere under the hood
I know you waxers are probably cringing but...I buy these cars to drive them. As far as the mud? That's why i own a pressure blaster. Guess what I'll be doing when I get back to CA? Clean up a big mess.
We overnighted in Ft. Stockton TX which is not a very attractive town unless you are a cattle rancher or an oil man. From the looks of the amount of shuttered businesses there, though in general the Texas economy is doing well, the area around Ft. Stockton might be suffering a bit.
But, believe it or not, Ft. Stockton Texas has a very important place in Corvette history. On March 2 1990, a 1990 Corvette ZR-1, driven by a team of seven drivers and fielded by Morrison Development, set the 24-hour speed record at 175.885 mph. The car was stock except for open exhaust, a calibration chip tuned for a non-emissions open exhaust application, removal of the rear stabilizer bar, installation of 3.07 rear gears, special Goodyear Racing Eagle tires on Dymag wheels, a roll cage and several hundred pounds of spare parts. For more information on the ZR-1 Record Run s
Why Ft. Stockton? Well, west of the town Firestone (now owned by Bridgestone) had a massive tire testing facility with an 8-mile, low-banked oval track. Back in the early 90s it was one of the few places in North America where a record attempt for speed over 24-hours could be staged.
The record stood for ten years. Interestingly, Volkswagen now holds the "24" at a little over 200-mph but the VW folks could use any car they actually make to set it. VWs record is held by a prototype race car which was built specifically for setting the 24-hour speed record. For more information on the ZR-1 Record Run see:
ZR-1 NET Registry > Information > Performance Records > World Records
After a night in Ft. Stockton, we're now in San Antonio for two days of eating, drinking an hanging out at one of our favorite spots, the San Antonio River Walk. It's a wonderful collection of good hotels, great places to eat and fun places to drink.
Last night, we were sucking up beers at Dick's Last Resort (
Dick’s Last Resort) which is just a great club if you like to drink a lot and have tons of fun. Dick's is within easy walking distance of our hotel. Also, last night, we had tickets for "Taste of the River Walk" which is one of those gigs where you go around to a bunch of different restaurants and bars to sample their food and drink. Standouts, in my opinion, were Dick's Last Resort (great pulled pork sliders), Howl at the Moon (interesting red and blue drinks and great music) and the Iron Cactus, (great gourmet tacos and drinks).
We finished the night at the bar in the basement of the Drury Inn adjacent to the River Walk, talking with some Texas locals about 11 Sept 2001 and where we all were that fateful day. We all had a toast...
...to the nearly 3000 innocent people and all the first responders who were killed in that Islamic Terrorist attack a dozen years ago, yesterday. I still cry every time I see the people in New York City reading all those names on each anniversary of the attack.
What's next on our road trip?
Tomorrow we leave for Corpus Christi. We'll be there for the Vettes on the Lex and then, on Monday, we head up to Austin, another one of my favorite drinking and eating towns in TX. Finally, we drive to Amarillo where the Caravan business part of the trip starts.
otfl
