I left Colorado around 8am and had an absolutely spectacular drive through the mountains. The views were spectacular and the car was running great. Decided to bypass the Eisenhower tunnel and went for a rip up the Loveland pass. About half way up the car started bucking and misfiring again. So, literally on the continental divide, I changed two more coil packs and went on my way bombing down the other side. So worth the extra few minutes to skip the tunnel if youre out this way.
Heading up!
Panorama
Post coil change
The views were spectacular and were nothing my phone could come close to capturing. I would do this drive over and over and over again.
Shortly after that, around Vail it started acting up again. I pulled into a walmart and the remaining two coils had popped and were arching all over the place. SHIT. I saw a walmart at an exit and turned off. I bought some quick dry epoxy and covered the absolute shit out of each one of them since the issue was stress cracks all over them. I figure excessive use, alot of heat and the extreme altitude did them in, they were quite old. While I was working a nice guy stopped by who also had an e30 (not with him), he offered to help and we shot the shit for a bit. It wad fun and the epoxy solved the issue and I was on my way again.
I hit Utah which intitially bored me to tears. Mild scenery at first, lots of heat and very little cell phone service...but holy shit was it a surprise. The landscape was other worldly! I could barely believe some of it.
Then it got boring again. Mostly flat, some hills and lots of damn wind which isn't normally an issue unless you have two bikes on the roof. Finally hit the end of route 70 and started on 15S which runs into the LA area
It got insanely hot again and was sort of just the same stuff I'd been seeing for hours. Had zero cell service for hundreds of miles then hit a few small towns just before Arizona. Filled up before the trek to Vegas and hit the road again. Then the fun began. About 20 miles outside a town called St George, Utah and just into Arizona I smell the distinct smell of burning rubber. Thinking it's a truck or something I didn't bother much. Then I hear a load POP and my dash lights up. FUCK. I pulled over immediately and found my idler pulley had seized and R3V'ed itself to pieces and shredded the belt. Extra fuck. So I call AAA and barely have cell service, a nice cop pulls up and calls it in direct to a friend of his. Dude shows up and was super cool and real helpful. Loaded the car up and headed back to the St. George.
We get chatting on the way back and got along real well. While heading back I was texting my friend back home whos shop I did my swap in. He looked up the parts at the local napa and got me part numbers to call in in the AM. The tow driver was even nice enough to drive near NAPA to try and get a hotel so I can hopefully fix my car today or latest tomorrow. The hotel I ended up is literally DIRECTLY across the street from NAPA. Couldn't be any more perfect.
So here I am, stuck in a random mormon town and know no one. If anyone local cares to help shoot me a message. Otherwise I'll be slaving away tomorrow. I'm not letting this break my excitement. Shit happens and this will make for a good story down the road!
Leave a comment: