Pre-Road Trip Q's

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old 06-29-2012, 02:12 AM
  #1  
Racer
Thread Starter
 
Dspr_02's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Vancouver, BC Canada
Posts: 328
Received 23 Likes on 19 Posts
Pre-Road Trip Q's

Hey all,

I am going on a 5500KM (~3400mi) road trip in my 01 CL with 234xxx km. The trip will be about 90% highway from Vancouver, BC to Los Angeles and back over about 2 weeks. I expect hills, valleys, flat road and lots of 80mph+. I will be driving about 8hrs a day every other day.

What should I have done to it prior to going? I want to make sure that I return in my CL and not on a last minute flight out of the middle of nowhere (if you know what I mean).
Old 06-29-2012, 08:45 AM
  #2  
Suzuka Master
 
YeuEmMaiMai's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 9,863
Received 435 Likes on 342 Posts
^

change oi
make sure A/C has proper charge
make sure tires are good
clean out car
take extra food, water, coolant, and oil
have a few $$ available if needed
clean out car
The following users liked this post:
Dspr_02 (06-29-2012)
Old 06-29-2012, 01:08 PM
  #3  
Racer
Thread Starter
 
Dspr_02's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Vancouver, BC Canada
Posts: 328
Received 23 Likes on 19 Posts
Originally Posted by YeuEmMaiMai
^

change oi
make sure A/C has proper charge
make sure tires are good
clean out car
take extra food, water, coolant, and oil
have a few $$ available if needed
clean out car
Oil/Coolant will probably be done just prior to leaving or two days after leaving somewhere in Washington or Oregon. (depends if I can convince work to pay me 2 days earlier

Tires I was told have about 60% tread on them however they are winter tires and (up here in Canada) it would cost ~ 1500 to put new tires
Problem is that 1500 is more than my share of the trip cost...that being said, there is no chunks missing from the sidewalls, no nails/screws/bolts logged in the sides, they work as advertised.

What do you mean by clean out car? Like a vacuum and dusting or back seat removal

Have a GTFO fund setup to let me fly outta there or bring the car to a semi-operable state (unless tranny/engine failure).
Old 06-29-2012, 02:18 PM
  #4  
Senior Moderator
Regional Coordinator
(Mid-Atlantic)
iTrader: (6)
 
97BlackAckCL's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: ShitsBurgh
Age: 43
Posts: 92,212
Received 4,469 Likes on 3,063 Posts
He means make sure your tire pressure is good
Old 06-29-2012, 03:12 PM
  #5  
Giant Blue Car
 
Catfisha's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Dallas, TX
Age: 47
Posts: 2,315
Received 161 Likes on 125 Posts
Originally Posted by Dspr_02
Hey all,

I am going on a 5500KM (~3400mi) road trip in my 01 CL with 234xxx km. The trip will be about 90% highway from Vancouver, BC to Los Angeles and back over about 2 weeks. I expect hills, valleys, flat road and lots of 80mph+. I will be driving about 8hrs a day every other day.

What should I have done to it prior to going? I want to make sure that I return in my CL and not on a last minute flight out of the middle of nowhere (if you know what I mean).
WOW! That's a trek, not a trip!
Old 06-29-2012, 05:57 PM
  #6  
Racer
Thread Starter
 
Dspr_02's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Vancouver, BC Canada
Posts: 328
Received 23 Likes on 19 Posts
Originally Posted by Catfisha
WOW! That's a trek, not a trip!
'Tis but a short excursion
Old 06-29-2012, 06:20 PM
  #7  
I Wanna Beer
 
TheWeez's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Age: 42
Posts: 2,149
Received 108 Likes on 88 Posts
By clean out I assume he means take out unneeded stuff. Junk like extra books or random crap that piles up in many people's trunks. It's just added weight that is killing gas mileage.

Make sure to top off the windshield washer fluid.
Old 06-29-2012, 11:20 PM
  #8  
Racer
Thread Starter
 
Dspr_02's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Vancouver, BC Canada
Posts: 328
Received 23 Likes on 19 Posts
Originally Posted by TheWeez
By clean out I assume he means take out unneeded stuff. Junk like extra books or random crap that piles up in many people's trunks. It's just added weight that is killing gas mileage.

Make sure to top off the windshield washer fluid.
My car is empty minus two paper towel rolls, a pack of gum and the owners manual + compact spare.

How full up should I fill the windshield fluid? I have a 1 gal bottle of Rain X fluid in the trunk.
Old 06-30-2012, 07:13 AM
  #9  
Suzuka Master
 
YeuEmMaiMai's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 9,863
Received 435 Likes on 342 Posts
^fill it to the top and put the cap back on

clean car = wash and remove un needed items.

tires good = properly inflated and good tread and no obvious defects

carry one extra bottle of washer fluid, 1 extra gallon of coolant (premixed) or 1 gal coolant with 1 gal water, plus water and food in case you get stranded due to unforseen circumstances. There are some pretty long treks where there are NO facilities. so before you go any long distances bewtween stations, top off ur fuel. You can expect about 29-31mpg or roughly 12-13km per liter of fuel if you keep the speed reasonable at 65-70mph or 100-115km/h
Old 07-01-2012, 04:38 PM
  #10  
Racer
Thread Starter
 
Dspr_02's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Vancouver, BC Canada
Posts: 328
Received 23 Likes on 19 Posts
To catch you guys up...

Originally Posted by Dspr_02
Driving around for the last two days, seems to have trouble auto shifting from 2nd to 3rd and from 3rd to 4th in D5, D4 kinda works and the sport shift is requiring multiple presses upwards to shift up (@ ~2000 rpm).
Continuing...

Tomorrow I will be doing a short 400km round trip to Seattle Premium Outlets. What should I do to thoroughly test the transmission to make sure that it is in fact behaving and not just my paranoia?
Old 07-01-2012, 10:41 PM
  #11  
Racer
Thread Starter
 
Dspr_02's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Vancouver, BC Canada
Posts: 328
Received 23 Likes on 19 Posts
Never mind, put the car through hell and back doing the "Sea to Sky" highway here, tailing some bikes. It seemed to run very well...
Old 07-02-2012, 03:05 AM
  #12  
Advanced
 
YVRCLR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 67
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I'd add RoadStar to your ICBC and get a BCAA membership with CAA Plus then flush 'em when you get back.

Think about mounting a set of new all-seasons in Bellingham after you cross. Take a look at TireRack and compare prices.
Old 07-02-2012, 03:49 AM
  #13  
Racer
Thread Starter
 
Dspr_02's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Vancouver, BC Canada
Posts: 328
Received 23 Likes on 19 Posts
Originally Posted by YVRCLR
I'd add RoadStar to your ICBC and get a BCAA membership with CAA Plus then flush 'em when you get back.

Think about mounting a set of new all-seasons in Bellingham after you cross. Take a look at TireRack and compare prices.
I only have my N so roadstar is not available to me for another 7 years :/
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Froid
2G RDX (2013-2018)
3
09-27-2015 06:16 PM
ThermonMermon
Car Talk
36
09-22-2015 03:36 PM
PortlandRL
Car Talk
2
09-14-2015 12:01 PM
vbgregg
4G TL (2009-2014)
2
09-11-2015 05:38 PM
ostrich
5G TLX (2015-2020)
7
09-11-2015 04:28 PM



Quick Reply: Pre-Road Trip Q's



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:59 PM.