What's the furthest you've driven in a day? What failures have you had on the road?

[Vovchandr]

Two questions:

 

What's the furthest you've gone in the day? 

 

Also what failures have you experienced on the road? (at any time)

 

So far my furthest has been driving down to NJMP for the 7s day from upstate NY before I had a trailer. About 4.5 hours and 280 miles. 

This was a one way trip because the car had to be towed back. 

Drove it with aeroscreen mostly on the highway. Was an okay drive accept being caught by a single storm cloud over head in one location and then my throttle being stuck and car starting to overheat while being in traffic. Definitely not pleasant.

 

Otherwise failures on the road: Battery cable coming loose at night on the highway. Took a minute to troubleshoot. Throttle cable being stuck. Overheating. Plastic hose joint snapping in half. Exhaust shield clamp failing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 14, 2022 by Vovchandr

[Anker]

280 miles. From my home in Stow to Lime Rock Park and back. The trip went well except for one issue that I was prepared for. I knew that my clutch master cylinder was slowly failing. I needed to top up the reservoir every now and then. As insurance I brought all the fluids. On the return trip, 20 miles from home, I had to stop at a stoplight and I was not able to get the car into 1st gear without pumping the clutch pedal. I pulled into a parking lot, filled up the reservoir and made it home with no further incident.

 

The next day I ordered a new clutch master cylinder.

 

Anker

[John B]

Furthest drive: About 150 miles.

 

Failures on the road:

A bolt holding the alternator fell off, causing the belt to go slack. The car ultimately died as it wasn't charging and ran the battery down. Trailered home.

The Heim joint that locates the rear De Dion tube broke causing some odd handling. Limped home very carefully. Replaced all with higher grade fittings from McMaster-Carr.

The rubber mount holding the exhaust up by the rear wheel broke causing the muffler to drop and drag on the road. Jury-rigged fix on the road with a piece of wire I found. Replaced and rearranged to be in compression rather than in tension.  

The turn indicator relay gets loose about every 5 miles. requiring me to push it back in. I need to do something about that.

These are mostly vibration related issues I think. It needs a good nut and bolt check periodically. Especially before and after a track day. 

Edited February 14, 2022 by John B

[scannon]

 

390 miles, Grand Junction, CO to St. George, Utah.  60 miles into this section of the trip a coil pack failed.  A friend in Grand Junction towed me on a rope behind his truck.  The temp was 102F that summer day.  I picked up a new coil pack at Flyin Miata and installed it and headed out again the next morning.  No other problems on the round trip from Erie, CO to St. George with an overnight stop each way in Grand Junction.  The total for the round trip was just over 1,300 miles.

 

The bolt holding the muffler to the body failed on the Bear Creek Highway in Wyoming on a Se7ens trip.  I drove to the next stop with a gloved hand on the muffler.  Got some bolts and nuts and fixed it.

 

On the GBB (Grizzly Bear Blat) during an overnight stop in a Canadian town I was parked on the street waiting for a friend to gas up to do a side trip.  I started smelling gas fumes thinking it was a spill in the gas station and got out of the car to see where the fumes were coming from.  Before I got into the station I realized as I walked past the front of the car that the fumes were coming from the louvers in the hood.  I took off the hood and discovered the rubber fuel line between the hard line from the tank to the fuel rail had surface cracks all over it and was seeping fuel.  The hose was marked for fuel injection and only a few years old.  There happened to be a NAPA parts store about 5 blocks away.  I picked up some new fuel injection line and back to the hotel.  Had it fixed in 15 minutes and was on the way to the side trip.

Edited February 14, 2022 by scannon
Move picture to the bottom.

[JohnCh]

Longest solo was ~750 miles (Portola Valley, CA to Centralia, WA) after buying my original Westfield.  The plan was to make it another 90 miles to reach home, but I discovered the headlights were dead and it was getting dark.

 

Longest with a passenger was ~640 miles (Lafayette, CA to Vancouver, WA) on the way back from USA2005.  Would have tried the remaining 180 miles to home, but it started raining pretty heavily when we reached Portland.

 

I can only recall getting stuck 3 times in over 20 years of se7en driving:

• Alternator pulley on the crossflow self-destructed while on my morning commute, which stopped the water pump from pumping.  It's the only time I've ever had a car overheat in 40F degree weather while driving 70mph.  
• Shortly after returning from USA2005 the alternator bracket broke.
• Throttle cable broke while in stop and go traffic. It fell down, shorting against the alternator's 12V+ connection while part of it was still touching the oil impregnated air filter. For those wondering, that combination does turn the air filter into a flaming torch.  

-John

[Croc]

Longest drives?

 

450miles going to Home Depot a couple of states away.  I took the long way.

 

Same car, with its new owner, ended up driving from the Holland Tunnel in NYC to Juneau Alaska.  4000 miles in 5 days.  He did at least one 1000+ mile day.

 

As for breakdowns, only ever one in a se7en where I ended up on the back of a truck, in the same car as above.  No photo but it looked EXACTLY like Vlad's first photo with green oozing out everywhere.

 

 

 

[bball7754]

520 miles, St. Louis to Birmingham AL for LOG 29 in 2009.  Rained for the first 3-4 hours, so started out with the full hood on.  Other than that, no real excitement going or returning.  
 

Furthest drive for a track day was St. Louis to Hallet, 430 miles.  I did loose a bolt on the alternator bracket, but a trip to Home Depot solved that.

 

Knock on wood, I’ve never been stranded.

[jeffs]

1100 miles in two days.  NJ to FL.  Got caught in a huge downpour in PA and the windows fogged so bad I couldn't see... only time I regretted not reconnecting those heated windscreen wires.  

[IamScotticus]

262 miles from Dallas to Houston Tx.

Had to make about four stops to let a rain shower stay ahead of us.

 

Only failure Ive had was the clutch cable slackening, which isn't really a failure but I wasn't prepared to adjust it so it was my failure.   Not on a long trip then.

Edited February 16, 2022 by IamScotticus

[Dave W]

680 miles from South Lyon MI. to Rochester MN. about 13.5 hrs of seat time.

Failures; blow off a heater hose and ventated an engine block, both close to home.

[Kitcat]

1200 miles round trip from Cincy to LOG 30 in Gettysburg PA and back, with a side trip to Summit Point for a track day.

 

No mechanical problems, but I did fall in with a bad crowd there(Croc and Yellow SS), and have been suffering the consequences ever since:).

[Croc]

47 minutes ago, Kitcat said:

1200 miles round trip from Cincy to LOG 30 in Gettysburg PA and back, with a side trip to Summit Point for a track day.

 

No mechanical problems, but I did fall in with a bad crowd there(Croc and Yellow SS), and have been suffering the consequences ever since:).

 

You did about 500 miles in the one day though from memory.  

 

Damn good LOG meeting - I laughed my head off all weekend with some great people.  Would never have had a sevens track event if it were not for that LOG.

[Kitcat]

It gave this Forum a shot in the arm as well, since we 3 have stuck around and added our bits of enthusiastic blather on a semi-regular basis.

 

My trip there was around 500 miles. All back roads. And I could only go about 100 miles before both the car (gas) and I needed a break (heat exhaustion, noise exhaustion, vibration exhaustion). So there were frequent stops.

 

My car did develop a strange self-steering trait that i was able to sort before the track day(TG). The carbs occasionally needed high RPM’s to clear a combo cough/hesitation. But that was it

 

 I got profoundly lost in the pitch dark in the mountains of Eastern KY on the way home.

 

All part of the fun!

 

 

[BirkinBernie]

Longest distance in one day was about 400 miles during the USA 2005 Tour.  That was enough for one day... 

 

I have had one wiring failure, two clutch failures, and one ball joint issue on the road, all many years ago.  The underlying issues were addressed and the little car has been very reliable the last few years.  I've had it over 21 years now and it still puts a smile on my face....

 

 

[Black Hole]

250 miles in the pouring rain from CT to the USA7s event in NJ. It took two days for my shoes to dry out. Minimal water intrusion from the top, maximal water intrusion through the footwell.

[MoBoost]

Drove from Jamestown, NY to Boston, MA in three segments for a Sevens Owners Gathering. The liquid refreshments at Faneuil Hall were much appreciated. Passenger was reminded that a $20 bill goes out the car fast if you don’t hold on tight. 
Detroit to Corning, NY for LOG in one shot; that was 448 miles. Shipped my stuff and helmet since there were two of us in the car. Working to make it trustworthy for more trips!

[TurboWood]

I did Califlorio in 2020 which was about 260mi one way (rally went one direction away from home). A buddy and I took two days to complete it. The rally was in November and just happened to be one of the few “bad” weather days in CA. We started with the hood on, but eventually braved some snow with it off. At one point we waited for the Miata and a C4 vette to put their tops on!

 

The only failure so far (knock on wood), was the fuel feed connection at the fuel tank (out of pump). By complete fortune it happened the morning I was headed to my most wrench capable friend who happened to have the right fuel line clamp. 5min later no more dripping fuel.

 

The other close-ish call was the steering shaft connection joint near the firewall coming a little lose. It basically shifted by about 10deg which was obviously concerning. That happened on Califlorio, found the root cause at the stop that night and fixed it.

I suppose that means we did a little over 300mi in the first day (rally + drive to hotel). Oh, that reminds me, the battery went flat for that rally too. I had it on a tender and it fired up when we left home, but wouldn’t restart after breakfast with the group. Discovered that if I let the car sit more than 20-30 min then it would not restart. Spent the day getting jumps and then eventually discovered how easy it is to push start (with a friend). Had to do it in the hotel parking lot the next morning.

 

Daniel

Edited February 20, 2022 by TurboWood