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Road Trip to Bring Joe's car back to NJ


tulaweb

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Tomorrow I'm going to NC to bring Joe's (JunktionFET) 505 STI diesel back to NJ. The engine should be identical to my hydrolocked engine so eventually the two cars will become one. I'm taking the bus down, so I can bring 50 lbs of tools with me. I first put in what I thought would be most useful and it weighed 57 lbs. I took out the clutch and transmission shop manual, keeping the engine and electrical manuals. I also removed some large sockets, and an impact wrench, and got it down to 46 lbs. I've got my bus tickets and license plates. I'll put my camera, GPS, and laptop in my carry-on. It's supposed to rain all the way back so we'll see how much I can do to document the trip, but hopefully all will go smoothly.

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Steffen Moller is in Richmond - he's a diesel head as well, so good to have contact info for him regardless of the trip or not.

Between Joe being the seller, and it being a diesel I think you'll have no worries what so ever. I'm most curious to hear what kind of fuel economy it gets on the way home. :)

Rabin

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Made it to NYC in plenty of time. Hauling a suitcase full of tools from Penn Station to the Port Authority Bus Terminal was a chore. No more of those Peugeot cabs they had once upon a time, and it's only 10 blocks, so walking was the easiest way. The bus is less than half full and I've got the exit row to myself so I've got plenty of leg and elbow room. They have Electrical outlets at each seat and wifi as well. It's not a Peugeot seat but not bad.

09172012087a.jpg

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They did weigh my suitcase with the tools. At home it weighed 49 lbs 5oz. The guy behind me got charged $20 extra for checking a bag over 50 lbs. No charge for me. Of course I've got a ball peen hammer and an LED work light in my carry-on, which they didn't weigh. I don't think that hammer would have gotten through a TSA inspection. I got several hours sleep on the bus from NY to Richmond. Wasn't exactly the most comfortable "bed" I've ever slept in but any sleep is better than no sleep. Got into Richmond about 50 minutes early, so I had to wait about 2 hours for the connecting bus to Raleigh. Left right on time at 4:10 AM so I'm due in at 7:00 AM. Both buses have been less than half full so I'm able to spread out. Nobody behind me on this one, so I don't feel guilty putting the seat back. Hopefully if I get a little more sleep I'll be good for driving straight back, but I won't be shy about stopping if I'm too sleepy.

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So far so good. I'm in Virginia now. Joe left me with most of a tank of fuel, but I stopped and topped it off so I could calculate the milage. I forgot my cup holder so I got a new one for something like $1.98. Otherwise all is going smooth. I did disover that the cruse control doesn't disengage when you hit the brake.

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I love technology! These play by play updates are awesome. It's always nice to see a plan come together even when it's not my plan. Cruise disengaging should be an easy fix - likely the contact switch on the brake or something easy.

Rabin

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I just got back. Round trip door to door 29 hours. Much of Maryland, Washington DC, Delaware, and New Jersey were under Tornado and Flash Flood watches as I drove through. Given how I got into this boat in the first place, you can imagine that didn't make me very happy. Around Baltimore I had stop and go traffic for about an hour which turned out to be a car fire. As soon as I passed the burned out car and all the emergency vehicles, that traffic cleared right out. For a while the rain was so heavy that most everyone was driving about 30 MPH with their flashers on. By the time I got to New Jersey the drivers side mirror was hanging by a thread and the other one wouldn't stay in a useful position but otherwise the car did fine. In the torrential rain there was a limit to how much fiddling I could do with the mirrors so I just had to look over my shoulders carefully. I'll document the trip a little more after I get something to eat and maybe a little sleep.

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I'm most curious to hear what kind of fuel economy it gets on the way home.

It came out to 30.8 mpg but I notice that the speedometer reads different than the GPS. When the speedometer read 70 the GPS said 63 so I think the mileage actualy comes out to 34.2. A hour of stop and go didn't help either.

Though I didn't make it all the way home on one tank, I did get back to NJ before filling up.

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That's pretty darn good once I remember that you guys us the smaller 3.8L US gallon and I convert it to L/100km. 6.88L/100km is exactly what I got in my 86 TD wagon when I drove it back 750 km home. :)

Another thought also made me smile... Most people have no crazy car trip stories - but Peugeot owners tend to often have really enjoyable stories of crazy adventures. Few people would understand the rational to spend 29 hours to retrieve a $500 car - but here it's followed with interest and totally respected... :D Hell - even my stories that had bizarre issues occur with ridiculous hours and time spent to recover cars STILL make awesome stories. (I've got many - not one regret either!)

Rabin

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So glad you made it safe and sound, despite the downpour. Sounds like the side view mirrors finally had it with the constant wind and rain hitting them :( That sucks.

I calculated fuel economy twice on that car (since I only really burned through a handful of tanks), and it was all city driving and/or commuting. Both times I got high 20s, which I thought was pretty alright. If you crested 30mpg, that's amazing.

What's amazing is what the EPA figures for the 2.5 automatic were. Note that these are "revised" using today's formula. Notice how far off the mark they are from what the car actually gets:

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=356

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That's pretty darn good once I remember that you guys us the smaller 3.8L US gallon and I convert it to L/100km. 6.88L/100km is exactly what I got in my 86 TD wagon when I drove it back 750 km home.

Rabin

The EPA says your station wagon with the 4sp auto should do better than the sedan with a 3sp auto, and my 5sp should of course do better still. The EPA isn't in the ball park on any of them but I guess you can just use their numbers for relative comparison.

I calculated fuel economy twice on that car (since I only really burned through a handful of tanks), and it was all city driving and/or commuting. Both times I got high 20s, which I thought was pretty alright. If you crested 30mpg, that's amazing.

I generally expect around 30 on a diesel and this one seems to be running particularly smoothly. Besides, the speedometer was cheating you out of a few MPG. The speedometer on my blue car (I'll have to come up with a naming convention now that I have 2 1985 TD sedans) has been right on the money compared to the GPS, but the Grey car's is significantly off. I wonder why. We've of course speculated that the instrument cluster might have been changed, given the extremely low miles on the odometer, but then there is some evidence in the service records that it might have only been driven a couple of thousand miles a year for a while so extrapolating that out, I guess it's possible those are original miles. Then that raises the question of how it got so (as Joe puts it) "crusty".

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The EPA says your station wagon with the 4sp auto should do better than the sedan with a 3sp auto, and my 5sp should of course do better still. The EPA isn't in the ball park on any of them but I guess you can just use their numbers for relative comparison.

After getting my car back to Regina and had gone though it - I was astonished the car made it back with such good fuel economy. The Injection pump was completely loose - I had no idea but thought it odd that it shook so much when I was looking at the car. What likely got me such good fuel economy was that the kick down cable was disconnected and the transmission and it was upshifting to 4th pretty much immediately. With being in 4th there was no exhaust energy to build boost - so it was tremendously slow. Add to this that the car would mysteriously cut out at 110 kph.

I found out once returning to Regina (few blocks from my house) that the cut out I was experiencing was the throttle cable grounding the fuel solenoid wire to the IP momentarily. On the trip it would die for a few seconds and then regain so I was forced to hypermile it in a way. Wire finally welded to the cable that last time and sadly burned the harness all the way back to the ignition switch.

I do think I can push low 6.*L/100KM once tuned up and running optimally and hypermiling - but with the transmission shifting properly now with kick down adjusted, throttle pivot adjusted, and boost coming on properly the car is "spritely" in performance and no longer getting such good economy. :D

Rabin

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