The third member of the North American legs of our road trip is our little red Pontiac Firefly, Derby (suitably named by the previous owners, the Kinchs). He is a pretty big member of our team, not only transporting us around, but also on occasion, defining how we spend our time, so we figured he deserved his own page. We will include a bit of information about the car, as well as a running history of issues we have run to along this trip (and possibly an epitaph).
First, a bit about the car. It is a 1985 Pontiac Firefly, which is a rebrand of the Suzuki Forsa, and is also the same as the Chevy Sprint of the same year. It has a tiny 1.0 litre 3 cylinder engine which is pretty fuel efficient (we were getting about 6liters/100km before we loaded down for the trip), but also pretty underpowered. Fortunately it is a 5 speed standard and we are able to coax the car up to highway speeds (as long as there aren't any hills). It is a pretty nice flat red color mixed with sweet white strips along the side panels, and here and there touched with rust coloured rust. Probably the aesthetic highlight is the flaming seat covers which at one time could flash in time with the radio (it seems that we were broken into at some point and someone thought those electronics were worse some money?).
Now for the problems we have encountered along our journey thus far:
September 1st, 2010 - We started with two problems, a significant wobble at high speeds and the car would overheat (or the temperature would not remain consistent). We did not have the temperature issue looked at, though we bought a thermostat to install when we had time. Our trusty mechanics in Vancouver, John and Murray, took a look at the car for us and repaired a few things, including doing some welding on the muffler to patch a few bad spots, tightening the nut which held in our wheel bearing on our passenger side, front wheel and replacing a part of our suspension which was slightly worn out. With that they gave us the promising comment that we might make it all the way across to Newfoundland, or we the car might die in Chilliwack.
The vehicle still wobbles at high speeds and over heats.
September 8th, 2010 - Temperature gauge no longer works (shows temperature as always too cold).
September 18th, 2010 - Engine dies just outside Atikokan. It ends up being the distributor, but takes three days to get us back on the road due to being so remote and having the breakdown on Saturday night.
September 27th, 2010 - Replaced Thermostat and Temperature Gauge Sensor in the parking lot of the Canadian Tire (evidently reliving a family tradition) in Owen Sound. The temperature gauge now works, but the engine still overheats.
September 29th, 2010 - Rotated rear tires to the front and replaced old front tires with new all seasons from Canadian Tire (The front tires were really worn out). With the new tires the high speed wobble is gone and we are able to go faster than 93km/h again! This was done in Owen Sound.
September 30th, 2010 - After we walk around the city of Guelph we are unable to start the car. Some sort of relay clicks, but the starter motor does not turn. We are able to push start the car (a couple of times, as soon as the engine cooled down we couldn't start it again) and get it to a Canadian tire parking lot the next day where I am unable to reproduce the problem after fixing the positive terminal connector cable which is starting to fall out of the connector. We have the mechanics do an "AVR" test anyway which indicates everything in the charging system seems good as does the battery. We'll see if the problem crops up again.
October 1st, 2010 - Exhaust pipe broke off from catalytic converter (towards resonator) when one of the bolts holding up the muffler rattled free (possibly because of all of the bumpy/dirt roads in Quetico and then Owen Sound.) putting too much torque on the pipe. Were able to fix it in the small town of Norwood.
Variable dates - Forth gear is officially gone. Bounces out of gear even if we hold it in there, straining our little biceps to the max. Our left front brake caliper is seized, though we need to wait for parts as Derby isn't kept in stock, surprise, surprise.
November 6th, 2010 - We leave Halifax for the south part of Nova Scotia. It's raining. It's cold. Derby's doing his job. We hit a big puddle, he sputters, he dies. We pull over. It's game over. The engine just doesn't want to turn over. No ifs, ands, or butts. Sitting huddled together as the windows fog over, we decided this was it--no taking Derbster to the Dr. this time. The tow truck comes, we head back to Halifax...
