Mamooguy

I'm planning a road trip with my 944, Toronto to LA to Vancouver to Toronto. It's running well, and I'm about to do the water pump/timing belt job. Everything's tight, no leaks.

But my friends think I'm insane for trying such a long trip with a 20-year-old car.

What do you guys think?

(by the way it's an '87 NA)

Reimu

How many miles do you think, all together? Sounds like quite a trip!

Zporsche944

your not nuts but you will have to change your oil at some point with such a long trip... I would trust my car on a trip like that... 20,000 miles and 3 years as a daily driver

Mamooguy

Ballpark guess is 10-15,000 kilometres (I'm also planning to spend a week volunteering in New Orleans). After that I'll almost certainly restrict my driving to the occasional weekend jaunt.

That's a good tip about the oil change, by the way. Maybe I'll do it halfway, in la-la-land.

Z-man

Well, I've driven my car on the following long trips:

Mid-Ohio (8 hour drive)
VIR (8 hour drive)
Watkins Glen (4 hour drive)
Summit Point (4 hour drive)
Lime Rock (2 hour drive)
Pocono (2 hour drive).

Mind you, all these trips also involved 2-3 days of flogging the car around the racetrack to boot!

In all of those trips, I only had issues once -- I cracked the head of the motor once at Watkins Glen -- fortunately, that time, I was trailering and was able to bring the car back without issues.

So, are you crazy for your planned road trip? Na -- but it would be better if you had a couple of track days thrown in there for good measure!!

-Z-man.

Mamooguy

Actually the way this honey flies on the highway, just chompin' at the bit to break the sound barrier, makes me want to try a track run at least once. I'm just afraid of blowing something!

Pcar944

It sounds like a great trip. Have a good big budget for anything that might occur and you'll be happy.

Mamooguy

Not to mention gas!

KuHL 951

I don't know how long you've owned the car but it would be wise to get 'everything' checked out that might cause you to leave it in Winslow, AZ for lack of parts or a skilled mechanic. I'm leery of any car I haven't owned for at least a year. Change every filter on the car, check/repack all the wheel bearings/CV's very well, and carry a spare DME relay, water hoses, full tool set, and a tire plug kit. Sounds like a great trip. I once drove my 63 Econoline van from San Diego to SF to Flagstaff, AZ and then into Mexico as far south as Puerta Vallarta and back to SD.

Mamooguy

Yeah I'll be bringing tools and some parts ... a DME relay is a good idea, I'll look into that. But things like water hoses shouldn't be hard to find, surely?

I also wanna get the brake pads done ... I'm seriously thinking of investing into an actual full-size spare tire. I hate the thought of depending on that tiny collapsible thing, especially since I don't have an air pump.

Epic2112

My car has been driven:

New York > Boston >New York (several times, one day round trips)
New York > Pittsburgh & back (One way day trips, several times)
Pittsburgh > Canadian Niagara Falls > Pittsburgh (One day road trip)
New York > Phoenix (2.5 days)
Phoneix > L.A. & back (One day each way, several times)
Phoenix > Sacramento & Back (One day each way)
Pittsburgh > Baltimore > Washington D.C. > Annapolis > Pittsburgh (weekend trip)
Phoeinx > Tucson & Back (weekend trips, several times)

It's never left me stranded. Of course now that I said taht I'm not going to make it out of the garage tonight without the car exploding into a ball of flames...

But maybe I'm not the best person to ask; I drove a 67 Mustang from New York to Phoenix a while back, without any idea of maintenece history, and I didn't know anything else about the car either. I changed the oil, changed the brake fluid and front brakes, changed the coolant, sniffed the transmission fluid, and hit the road.

Epic2112

A tire will be a whole lot easier to find than hoses.

Mamooguy

True dat.

But I'd say a flat tire is more likely than a busted coolant hose.

KuHL 951

True dat but you can fix a flat in the middle of nowhere, you can't fix a ruptured hose. Be a good Boy Scout and 'Be Prepared'

Mamooguy

So hoses for a 944 are hard to get? Which ones? Are some more at risk than others? It's not like this car is overflowing with luggage space!

And what's with the focus on coolant hoses? There's lots of other stuff that could potentially go wrong.