Stuck on the NJ turnpike.

Some people wouldn't think of taking a 1,300 mile road trip in a 18 year old car with 144,000 miles on the clock but not me. See I try to maintain Mila in proper running condition so that she's ready to go anywhere, anytime.


The girls back together again!
However sometimes even the best maintained car will have something go wrong.

I choose the underpass so I could hide behind the bridge supports.
Mila had a hard coolant line crack (about 3/4 away around the circumference) and begin to leak out precious fluid. It would have been nice if the leaking coolant could have steamed off something and loudly announced that there was a problem but no and that's why we like temperature gauges and hate silly temperature idiot lights.

Anyway, I had to wait about 2 hours for a tow on the NJTP (you haven't really broke down until you've broke down on the NJTP during evening rush) and when I suggested being taken 55 miles back to Westchester the driver about choked on his chaw. The driver called into the office and they came back with $550 + tolls to take Mila home. He could have just said that they won't tow a car to that far instead off trying to see if I would buy them a new iPhone. So I ended up shelling out $110 (cash only my friend) for a 3 mile tow to the nearest parts store.

By then Mila had cooled off enough to get a good look at the failure point and the leak rate which was, with the engine cool, about a drop every 5 seconds. I decided to load up with 3 gallons of nasty green stuff and head home with all the cooling fans on and very slowly (no boost).

The offending part.

Can you see the crack? It's there, trust me.
Turns out the part that has failed is not available anywhere, for any price. The part simply isn't made. Some people suggested JB weld and others brazing but the crack seemed too large for me to trust either that JB stuff or my brazing skills. So I cut out the cracked area including the mounting bracket and slipped on a bit of fuel line.

Don't lose sleep Keith!
While not a proper fix it has held for 1,400 miles in some very hot, high boost driving and hopefully will keep going till I can find a replacement part.