Ok, I'm thinking of taking my car on a 12 hour trip (each way) this summer. Before I do, I want to make it as reliable as possible.

Here's my plan, tell me if I've left anything out

Hoses
Belt (at least have a new one bought)
Water pump (no idea how old the one in there is)
Fuel pump (again, no idea how old the one in there is)
Check grease in rear end

I need to pull the distributor so change an o-ring at the base, so I was thinking about changing the pick up coil while I was in there. What else should I change while it is out? Ignition module?

the cap/rotor, plugs and wires are already new.
Battery is new
Clutch is new
Alternator is new enough
Starter is new
tires are like new

What else can I change to reduce the risk of being stranded? I'm drawing a blank on what else I can do

 

Sounds like you've got it covered. I wouldn't worry about the fuel pump or water pump, if they go they go.

I drove my car to Los Angeles and back 11 hours one way from Salt Lake city and never had any issues.

I carry a spare belt in my trunk along with a smal ltool box with the small toolls I may need, specifically the harder to find torx bits, small sockets and the like if I need to change or adjust something that isn't a normal fix. Make sure you get your brakes checked and your alignment done before you go.

 

the water pump I'm not really worried about.. those tend to go slow enough I wouldn't get stranded. The reason I might change it is because I'm thinking about putting all new aluminum brackets on the front of my car, and as long as I'm changing those, I might as well put on a fresh pump (It would look better too)

My car has over 200k miles on it, and I have no idea when a lot of this stuff was changed

Brakes I'm doing before the end of the year... Alignment was done when I bought tires


thanks!

 

Cool! going through some boxes I found a brand new fuel pump I bought back in 2010. A friend is going to help me install it (because I've never done one before)

My first third gen left me stranded one time with a bad fuel pump. It's one thing that always makes me a little nervous about fuel injected cars.

 

In what condition are your injectors and fuel pressure regulator. I had a 4 hour trip cut short because of low ohm'd injectors and leaking FPR. Had to limp the Bird home.

 

you know, I've never had the injectors replaced, but I did replace the caps on each one of them a couple of years ago. I hate to buy more for the 2.8 because I plan on going 3.4 eventually. I wonder if the 3.4 injectors would cause a problem in the 2.8?

I think the FPR is fine... it's never given me a day's problem. Are they prone to problems on the v6 cars? I did have a V6 that didn't want to start when it was warm. I think it was a FPR problem

 

I had already replaced the fuel pump on my '91 3.1 V6 MPFI. It would start on the first try or would have extended cranking time, poor gas mileage, and you could smell fuel on start. The FPR is an easy check. Just pull the vacuum line from the FPR, start the engine and give it a couple of minutes to see if fuel starts to flow out of it. Ohming the injectors will at least give you an idea of their condition. I didn't do mine until after I started having problems and found two of the six out of specs. Good luck.

 

I checked all of mine a couple of years ago, and they were all fine. I'll check them again when I have the plenum off to get to the dizzy.

 

Changed the front brakes today, and the canister filter. I have a pickup coil on order, as well as an ignition module.

I realized I have an extra belt already, so as easy as they are to change, I'm going to not touch that (the one on there is about 3 years old)

Just collecting parts before I tear apart the top half of my engine. I have so much has to come off before I can change the valve covers (installing fiero covers)

 

12 hrs of driving is about 1½ weeks of my work commute.

I OPEN THE HOOD of my vehicle (has right at 150,000 miles on it) about ONCE EVERY TWO WEEKS, at most.

I realize that you're not me, and maybe you don't drive your car all that much all the time, and such as that; but that's not much of a trip to get all concerned about. Especially not for somebody in a place like you, where the distances between any 2 significant things are ... enormous ... to begin with. Somebody in Boston or NJ, I could almost understand; but not out West.

Just the same, in all honesty and not to be a jerk but only to tell it like it is: if I either didn't know how to, lacked the resources to, or otherwise was unable or unwilling to maintain a car to the point where that little bit of use wasn't a risk and I couldn't just at any given instant hop in it and drive it for a full day, I believe I'd find a new hobby.

Drive your car. Be at peace. No need to stress over it. Do the common ordinary basics; make sure its fluids are all full, any running gear problems (wheel bearings, brakes, U-joints, etc.) are attended to; beyond that, not much to it.

I'd leave things like changing valve covers alone, unless they're defective NOW. No point in twiddling around with something that has NO up-side to offer, but instead only carries risk.

 

I drive my car every day. That's why it has over 200K on it. It's being out in the middle of nowhere and breaking down that concerns me. It's one thing to have a breakdown when you are 15 minutes away from your garage and a jack. It's another to be half way in between Tuscaloosa and Meridian and be at the Whim and mercy of a whatever garage the tow truck driver decides to haul you to. I'm not sure where you live, but I don't think people in certain parts of the country can fathom the vast distances there are between major cities in the south, and the west.

Around town, sure... that's why I have towing insurance, a garage, a jack, and a full set of tools. It's a very different story out on the road

there's no harm in Changing things that are designed to wear out, that's why I'm constructing a check list.

As for the valve covers, I've had the fiero valve covers for a couple of years now, waiting for a reason to put them on. The easiest way to pull the distributor is to remove the upper plenum. As long as I have it off, I might as well remove the lower plenum as well, and that will allow me to change the valve covers.


Do me a favor, if you aren't going to be helpful (you rarely are anything but condescending to v6 people) just ignore anything I post.

 

Nobody is "condescending" to anybody, least of all me.

I lived in Mississippi for some time, as well as Memphis. I have relatives in the Huntsville area. I also have lived in California and various places in the Midwest (Illinois & Ohio), as well as around the South. I've travelled in every state of the Union except Alaska, the Dakotas, and Maine, and driven coast-to-coast a few times each way. While you didn't mention anything about exactly where you are going before, I'm familiar in exquisite detail with the roads around Tuscaloosa (Univ of Alabama) and Meridian; and apart from the occasional "y'ain't frum around hyeeer are ye boy?" syndrome, it's not the kind of place to be worried about driving through. Your signature says "Mesquite, Texas", which of course, is pretty much isolated from the rest of the world. Living in such a place, one would automatically HAVE TO drive hours to get to anything resembling a "major" city; operating a car until it reached equilibrium, should be a matter of routine. Which of course, is EXACTLY what I just got through telling YOU; I KNOW that.

In my opinion, you're worrying about something that doesn't need to be worried about, if the car is used regularly, and is properly maintained. THIMK... how often does your car "break down" now? (in terms of, breakdowns per x hours or operation) Why would it be any different this time?

Point being, if you take care of the car on a regular basis, what you're talking about doing is no more of a stretch than driving to work for a couple of weeks without a failure. All you have to do, is make sure the things that DO require occasional attention, like the water in the rad, air in the tires, and so on, get some fresh attention before you start out. I'm going to assume that you replace things like belts and hoses when they start showing signs of wear-out; since that occurs over MUCH longer time frames than any 12 hours, then if you've been on top of them, there should be no surprises.

If your valve covers seal now, and all the rest of those other parts work right, there's no point in disturbing them right before hitting the road, especially if you're worried about "risk". Not the time to be dinking with "aluminum brackets" unless the ones of whatever composition you have now, are failure-prone. (not bloody likely) Stick with what you KNOW works. Don't poke the bear.

I had no clue about 6-cyl, although now that I go back and read all the other posts, I see you mentioned it somewhere up there. (I basically responded to the very first and very last posts at the time I was typing) Sorry you've got some kind of chip on your shoulder about your {whatever} being so small. That didn't enter into the matter in any manner way shape or form and is not relevant to the matter at hand. As far as I'm aware, those are no more, or less, reliable, than any other kind of motor, in this regard.

 

just stop

You've always been a condescending jerk. Just stop. I already explained why I am concerned about the trip vs every day driving around town. If that's not good enough for you, move on.

By the way, Mesquite is a suburb of Dallas. Maybe you've heard of it.

and the trip isn't for months. I wouldn't tear apart the top side of my engine right before a trip unless I had to

 

Stop what?

Glad to be able to help.

Yes I've heard of those places too.

If the "trip" isn't for "months", then you've got some time to check the fluids, fill the tires, etc. No real urgency.

But as the time gets near, don't go "fixing" things that aren't broke.

 

Just got a major part of my check list done

replaced the ignition module. the old one was a generic hong kong POS. put a delco in there, hopefully it was worth the money

Changed the dizzy o-ring. the old one was flat and hard as a rock. wouldn't have caused a breakdown, but was causing an oil leak

Changed the Pick up coil. Looked like it still had the original one in there. Wires were brittle and a lot of the insulation was gone.

Here's the weird part. Two years ago I put a brand new MSD cap and rotor on there, and they were already bad. The cap had a major part of it that just disintegrated. The center post underneath was burned and nasty. Any idea what could cause this? It would have failed a lot sooner than I expected it to. I'm so glad that I didn't listen to Sofa and leave well enough alone.

Preventative maintenance is ALWAYS a good idea

 

I had a the same thing happen to me. 2 year old MSD cap & rotor fried the center post. I replaced mine with a Delco cap & rotor, we'll see if it holds up any better.

And it is always good to double check some things before a big trip. I mean, if you break down around the corner of your house, worst case scenario you have to tow it home, whats the bill gonna be? $100? But if it breaks down 12 hours from home, you are either going to pay a small fortune to have it towed home or pay a small fortune to have a local shop fix it.

Some people on the internet are just not nice. Its up to each individual to take advice from reliable sources and ignore the sources that should be ignored.

Now there is a lot of crap in this thread and I don't feel like reading thru it all, but I'll give you the basic rundown of what I do before any extended roadtrip (more than a hundred miles or so)

Check every fluid in the car, oil, trans, coolant, brakes, rear end, for fullness, color, odor, contamination, ect. Visual inspection of brakes, including ALL brake lines. I can't think of anything that would suck more than blowing a line a few hundred miles from home. And while you're looking at the brake lines may as well visually inspect fuel lines.

Visual inspection of all rubber bits like suspension bushings. Inspect ball joints & steering linkage & joints. Pull a spark plug to check the condition of that, can't hurt anything.

Check for any play in U-joints.

Check every exterior light bulb.

That should just about cover it. There are still many things that go wrong, but there is always the slight chance of something breaking, its an old car. If you have the space, last time I made a long trip I took every tool I could think of along with a floor jack and 2 jack stands with the intention that if I had a non-catastrophic failure on the side of the road I was going to fix it right where it broke.

 

awesome post. you da man

 

predicting the future about when working parts will fail, new or old, theres only so much you can do.
Like sofa said, if it aint broke, dont fix it.

Replacing a perfectly working part with a new part yields the same risk, Period. You have absolutely no idea how the new part will work. If you think all new parts work better than old parts, your mistaken.

If your worried, buy extra hoses, buy extra belts, etc etc... and bring them and some tools. If nothing goes wrong on the trip, voila, return them and have a nice day.

 

I'll take my chances with a Delco part brand new out of the box (with 5 months of fun in time before a big trip) over:

a 25 year old part with 200K on it

or

a made in hong kong crap version that somebody threw on who knows how long ago.

As far as belts and hoses, anything that can be changed easily on the side of the road like that does go in the back of the car before a trip. I'll probably change the belt before I go, and keep the old one as a backup, same for the hoses

 

Well, you see, the problem is that even Delco parts are made in China nowadays...

Which means that their failure rate is comparable to X, Y, and Z brands.

What I would carry in the car is the following:
Spare bulbs (1156, 1157, 194)
Spare belt
Spare hoses if you want
Gallon of coolant
Couple quarts oil
Power Steering fluid
Brake Fluid
Fix-A-Flat
Jumper Cables
Couple good ignition wires (not really needed but you never know)
Couple spare spark plugs
and an ignition module. I know of guys that carry one in their glove boxes because they never know when the SOB is going to go the way of the dinosaurs.

 

good thread, thanks fellas

 

Update to this thread. I' ve done almost everything I wanted to for the car, except change the fuel pump. I guess I'll just have to hope that in the first 21 of 25 years of the car's existence before I owned it, somebody else already changed it at least once. Not knowing how old it is makes me nervous.

I changed upper and lower hoses (lower one was still the original hose, and needed changing, so glad I did)
rebuilt the distributor with all new Delco parts
Water pump
new alternator


Here's something interesting. I decided to go ahead and change the lube in the rear end today instead of just checking it. I pull the cover off, and was surprised at what I found.

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that's pretty clean for 25 years old! It's probably been gone into before from the look of the gasket, but either way< what's done is done and it only cost me $18 for fresh lube and a new gasket. Better safe than sorry

 

Always a good idea to change out the lube. That's one of those things that should be high on everybody's maintenance check list.

Glad its innards held no ... surprises.

 

While I understand that changing the fuel pump can be a pain, i have followed a comment I found somewhere on this site...If you haven't done it, it hasn't been done. Of the three 'Birds that I've picked up in the past three years two of then, the '91 Base and the '88 have had the fuel pump go out on me. Luckily the '91 left me stranded in town and when I replaced it the strainer had disintegrated and clogged up the fuel pump. I'm pretty sure it had not been replaced. I am, as we speak (text), currently replacing the fuel pump on my '88 (pulled down the gas tank tonight). This 'Bird took my daughter to the deserts of New Mexico and back to College Station without any problems. But, on a simple trip to Houston and back the fuel pump went out right as she got back. Had to tow it home. As soon as I can get my '88 back up I will be changing out the fuel pump on my '91 Formula. I know it's a matter of time and I'd rather do it on my terms than see where it leaves me. On course, your decision based on your priorities, but I would include a chunk of cash in case it does go out. Good luck.

 

I have a friend that has offered to do the labor for me, and I already own the pump, but I'm at the mercy of his schedule. I hate to pay a shop $400-500 for something that my friend will do for free once his schedule frees up. I am nervous about it though.