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Highway Drivability...Plz read


OldsmoBeast

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Okay guys I know I haven't been around for a while, and I'm sorry...Work+School is a bad combo. Anyway, heres the situation.

 

Theres this party tonight in Toronto, about an hour on the 401 from where I live. The weather here is a little wet, but nothing serious. Our family was supposed to go but my parents want to relax a little. I still want to go, and my dad won't let me take the Lexus because its running on bald tires. I wanted to take the Cutty right from the start because I'm more comfortable driving that thing on the 401...I can afford to walk away from it if something happens! My Dad is just worried that something will go wrong while I'm out there...even though Toronto is only 100 kms away, parents will be parents :roll: and I want to prove to him that nothing can go wrong. Does anyone have some tests we can do on the car to demonstrate the car's reliability for this kind of highway run?

 

Thanks everyone!

 

YK

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glad to see you again man!

 

heres a test, rev it up (in neutral) to the rev limiter and trhen slam it into gear with your foot all the way down and untill the tires stop spinning and then bring it all the way up to 90, if it survives through that id say thats more than enough proof to drive it an hour there and back. no im just kidding dont do that!

 

just take it out and drive it around for a few minutes, dont take it easy, just get tough on the gas alot and then bring it home and open the hood (while its running) and tell him to listen to it and that its still running fine and there wont be any problems with it, thats what i would do, and make sure hes with you, or better yet, let him drive and tell him to get on it and do whatever he wants with it, i did that with my dad when i wanted to go to fargo and i told him to get on it and he said it wasnt half bad acceleration wise for a small v6, he let me go too, just say youll have your cell and its all charged up and maybe take a friend too

 

good to see ya again, hope this helps!

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You know your car... or you should.

 

Does it leak fluid like a stuck pig?

Idle rough?

Pull to either side?

Brakes grind or pull?

Does it shudder?

Does it back-fire?

Does the engine make noises it shouldn't?

Tires wearing unevenly?

 

The only way you will be able to tell if the car would make it is if you and you dad took the trip now.

 

Other than that... take it to a reputable garage and let them look it over. Most places around here offer a used-car buyer's inspection for about 20 bucks and they give you a list of everything they find and the estimate to repair. You would be amazed at how detailed some of them are.

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Sweet ideas...well my dad went out shopping or something, but I know that the only problems my car has is an exhaust leak at the back of the engine, but what he doesn't know is that i've driven it all across Ontario on the highways and backroads and stuff...(I can't tell him that because then he'd find out that I skipped school to take road trips with buddies :lol: ) but I think we worked out a deal. I'll take a couple of friends, like Phantom said, and i'll just caravan with as many other people that are going as I can find. I got my dad to talk to his friends who are going and they agreed to meet up with me in front of our house this afternoon, and we'll divide up all the people between cars and travel together. That way he can rest his brain, and I can go have some fun! Now all we need are some CB radios or something for communication :wink:

Thanks guys!

 

PS: Seriously, though, I'm kind of considering buying a mobile CB and a K40 whip antenna and mounting them in the Cutlass...has anyone done this before? Problems, suggestions, hints, tips, ideas? anything?

 

thanks again everyone! :wink:

 

YK

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Its an hour away. How bad can driving your car be for an hour?

Ive driven my POS truck longer than that and it has no rear brakes, gets 11 mpg, has unbalanced wheels, kinda bald rear tires, shakes at low rpm's sometimes, is rusty and beat, blows oil and stinks like oil and a bunch of other problems. It did 75-85 on the highway with no trouble on a trip I took to a car show an hour and a half away and I drove back the same night.

Hell Ive put 9k miles on the truck.

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Sweet ideas...well my dad went out shopping or something, but I know that the only problems my car has is an exhaust leak at the back of the engine, but what he doesn't know is that i've driven it all across Ontario on the highways and backroads and stuff...(I can't tell him that because then he'd find out that I skipped school to take road trips with buddies :lol: ) but I think we worked out a deal. I'll take a couple of friends, like Phantom said, and i'll just caravan with as many other people that are going as I can find. I got my dad to talk to his friends who are going and they agreed to meet up with me in front of our house this afternoon, and we'll divide up all the people between cars and travel together. That way he can rest his brain, and I can go have some fun! Now all we need are some CB radios or something for communication :wink:

Thanks guys!

 

The whole cb radio thing is exactly what me and my buddies are doing. It's pretty neat because one of them has a tower at his house that we all bounce off of and get like a 100 mile range out of these mediocor cb's

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My sister used to have a '92 Olds 88. It had over 190,000 miles on it and she used to drive from Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH) to home (Holt, MI) every other weekend for 4 months (she worked at Cedar Point), and IIRC it is something like 250 miles or so. I think you will be fine.

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Last year I drove mine from Ottawa to Toronto, and I don't think I went slower than 125km/h. And mine wasn't running in tip to shape either but it went down and back fine. Mine's an 88. Yours should be fine for an hour. Man as if your dad is worried about AN HOUR drive! :shock:

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glad to see you again man!

 

heres a test, rev it up (in neutral) to the rev limiter and trhen slam it into gear with your foot all the way down and untill the tires stop spinning and then bring it all the way up to 90, if it survives through that id say thats more than enough proof to drive it an hour there and back. no im just kidding dont do that!

 

just take it out and drive it around for a few minutes, dont take it easy, just get tough on the gas alot and then bring it home and open the hood (while its running) and tell him to listen to it and that its still running fine and there wont be any problems with it, thats what i would do, and make sure hes with you, or better yet, let him drive and tell him to get on it and do whatever he wants with it, i did that with my dad when i wanted to go to fargo and i told him to get on it and he said it wasnt half bad acceleration wise for a small v6, he let me go too, just say youll have your cell and its all charged up and maybe take a friend too

 

good to see ya again, hope this helps!

 

YOUR CRAZY!!! thats asking for a transmisson problem. but i guess if its going to die its going to die.

 

w-bodys have been proven time and time again to be highway roadworthy IMO. The only problems i would see with yoru cutty is suspension try weaving threw some cones in a empty parking long see what your limitations are at different speeds

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what's the point in owning a car if you can't even drive it for an hour without worrying about it breaking down? There have been many occasions that I have put on more than 400km's in a day without having any problems. These are good highway cars!

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hey dbtk2 how many miles does your TGP have on it?
i think it has like 112k miles if i remember correctly. Correct me if im wrong dbtk2.

 

Yup, thats right. Now it actually has 113,000 on it, but its the same thing. Runs great, has no lowend and doesn't idle worth a crap all because of the wonderful crossover, but once you are running 1500+ rpms it runs good. But what can you expect from a $1500 winter beater.

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yeah i KNEW it could make the trip at least 4 or 5 times continuously without a problem at all...but the issue was not whether or not it could make the trip...it was convincing my father that it would make the trip. He believes that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong at the least convenient time possible. Examples:1. back when we had an old V8 malibu, it crapped out while we were at the cottage and nobody could diagnose the trouble...2. Back when we had our old Volvo 240 DL, we lost a tire (also at the cottage :lol: ) and had it patched and managed to lose it again that day.... :roll: ...3. When the cutty was still only like 3 years old, we went to Pearson airport (45 minute drive) to drop my dad off and while cruising in downtown Toronto, about 15 minutes from getting off the highway, the PS pump went!....theres more but i probably proved the point. Thats not to say that the car wouldn't make the trip, hell my friend's 290,000 KM Volvo 740 Turbo wagon (GOD I LOVE THAT THING...drives awesome) makes it to Toronto in 30 minutes averaging 180-190 km/h the whole way there and doesn't complain at all...come to think of it, I was really really close to buying that Volvo off my friend but my dad talked/yelled some sense into me, and my buddy traded it in on a Volvo S60 T5R or something...swedes... :roll:

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He believes that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong at the least convenient time possible

 

seems that this is a common occurance for most w-body owners! It is for me anyways!

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