I am going on a trip across Pennsylvania, approximately 375 miles one way. I plan on checking all the fluids, but is there any thing else I should consider. My camaro has 150k, and it runs great.

 

Duct tape!

 

Tire pressures, bulb operation, and a quick check of the exhaust for imminent rupture wouldn't go amiss.

 

check,tires ,test battery and alt,take a flashlight,camera,batteries,emerrgency tools like a rachet set,screwdrivers,cannel locks ,trailmix ,enough water for you and the car,beef jerky,brakes,do a visual of hoses and belts,tire chains.............empty 5 gallon gas tank if it fits and if not at least a 2 gallon.Extra bottles of oil,tranny,radiator ,brake,fluids.1st aid kit,cell phone.........
maps of areas your going

 

tell me how it goes my car has 150 too. check your tires,oil,tranny oil, exhaust, fuel pressure. one time i was coming back home with my girl and she had to be home about 1hr and my fuel pump went dead. check or replace your fuel filter, battery, alt, drinks, and a cell phone and beef jerky is a must huh knightrider? and get enough sleep.

 

375 miles is not a long trip. If I'm only going that little bit, I don't even toss an extra bottle of oil into the car. For most of us, that's about 10 round trips to and from work, or somewhere near there; if you can't maintain your car to where it can go 10 days on a regular basis without something screwing up, you shouldn't be working on it yourself. You should just pay a pro.

If you don't run your car out of gas all the time, your fuel pump will probably be OK. Ever wonder how it is that all those stupid little grocery carts you see running around that nobody ever works on, don't require fuel pumps as much as alot of people's thirdgens? It's because they keep their tanks full. Driving a FI car around with less than ¼ tank all the time is extremely stressful on the pump. You can't fix that (except by changing the pump..... yuck) right before a trip though, it's a habit and a way of life, and like most bad lifestyle decisions, the results are long in coming and impossible to avoid and VERY unpleasant. Fill the tank, not put $2 in it.

As said, tire pressure is CRITICAL; you can run up an enormous tab in tire wear, that you might not realize until later, by not keeping up with that. Fill the tires to near their max (probably 35-36 psi front and 33-34 rear would be good) when stone cold, like within the first ½ mile of driving; DO NOT "bleed off" pressure when they get hot, check them only when stone cold. Check the pressure in the spare. Make sure the fluids are topped off - oil, water, trans, PS, washer fluid, rear end, gasoline; although you shouldn't even have to do that, because your maintenance program keeps them at the right level all the time, right? Get some sleep. Check the headlight adjustment if you're going to be driving at night, and make sure the wipers work as well as possible. Clean the inside of your windows with glass cleaner.

 

If youre running a serpentine setup carrying an extra belt is a must. If that one belt goes you're toast. And bring an upper and a lower radiator hose. When everything is being stressed for long periods of time things like that happen. ALso get satellite radio or bring lots of cd's

 

i'm 17, and i left from st louis, mo, to jacksonville, florida all by myself, the first of january.

It was a 15 hour straight drive, and iwas all by myself. I brough 3 quarts of oil with my, radiator fluid, sinc ei was moving i already had all my toold and belonings.


really just took it as another day of driving. The car did quit on me on the free way for some odd reason, the battery seemed dead and everything wouldn't crank over after that, so i waited and it suddenly had enough juice to turn over and whammo back on the road, kept a good look at my voltage after thatt.

make sure you keep looking at your temp and opil pressure like its the fuel guage. They are just as important if not more. ....



you should be fine.

 

well I got there and only one problem. Everything was running good till I went to turn off my heater, my voltage spiked and the stalled momentarily. The voltage gauge was going up and down for the remainder of the trip, but with in running limits. I don't know if its a bad regulator or a short? When I went to start it recently, I had trouble getting it to turn over, if I didn't keep on the gas it would stall. Voltage was dancing again, but when I turned on my lights, it bounced back to normal. Then I drove a little bit than decided to turn on the heat, stall. All of these events have the heater in common, but I don't know what was causing the fluctuations in the voltage.