So, everyone knows my cars always has problems, not due to lack of maintenance, because I am religious about maintenance and upkeep, but because I drive my TT G35 hard, especially at the track.

I drove to California about a week or so ago, in my move to Monterey, thanks to the USMC. Not that I mind Monterey, it is beautiful, but there are some folks I will miss in Colorado. Anyways, cafr is fine the whole 1000+ mile trip to Monterey. I get there, pull into the driveway of my new house, stop the car, and go inside and unpack the car. Once I am done unpacking, I open the garage and try and start the car to move it into the garage.

Notice I said try.

It wouldn't start. I decided just to be nice, and leave it to sit for a while. I go inside, and start setting up house, with the limited things I could fit in my car. Air mattress goes up, and I am ready to camp out in my empty house. Movers won't get here until the next Friday (which was two days ago, by the way)

I go out and try to start the car again. No go. This time, though, I notice my fuel pressure gauge reads zero. As in, no fuel, no start. Bummer.

So I pull up the service manual on my laptop, and start checking out the troubleshooting steps. At this point my entire tool supply consists of the large leatherman pliers I keep in my glove box and the small leatherman pliers on my keychain. Remember, the movers had not come yet, and they have all my tools.

So, I troubleshoot with my limited tool supply. Fues all look good, fusible links all good, still no pressure. I switch some fuses around just to make sure it wasn't a fuse that looked good but was still bad.

No go.

Bummer.

So I call around for local dealerships. I don't have internet access, all my neighbors have secure networks (damn security!!!) and I don't feel like breaking into any of their secure networks. So I have to call information for the location of the nearest Infiniti dealership. The nearest one is in San Jose!!! 60 miles away!!! My roadside assistance won't pay to tow me that far, so I call the nearest Nissan dealership (going to go hang out with the peasant rabble at a Nissan dealership.... ) and tell them I am getting my poor, broken, bug splattered (remember, I just drove 1000+ miles) G35 to their dealership. They say sure, no problem, we'll work on Infiniti's as well.

I get there, and the service advisor then decides to tell me that for any warranty work, I will have to go to the Infiniti dealership (60 miles away) I say, don't worry, my warranty was gone long ago due to my TT kit.

So, since I am dealing with the peasants at a Nissan dealership , no loaner car. Bummer. They do take me to the nearest Enterprise rental, and I get the cheapest they have. Lucky me.

That afternoon, the dealership calls and tells me that yes, it's the fuel pump. Given that I have no tools, I opt to tell the dealer to replace it. Of course, they replace it with a stocker fuel pump, and I had a Walbro 190 lph pump as part of the JWT TT kit. No choice, though, they won't do an aftermarket pump for me. Bummer. Oh, did I mention I would have to pay to get it towed back to my (empty) house, which still has no tools, if I wanted to do it myself. I did some quick math, and the cost of waiting (~$40 per day rental car, plus cost of the tow) came out to be slightly more than just having the dealership put in a stocker. Which they did.

I got my G back, and could not drive it at more thanabout 1/2 throttle without it leaning out dangerously, due to loss of fuel pressure, since the stocker pump could not keep up with the hungry JWT's. Oh well.

I order a Walbro 255 (time to upgrade anyway), and it got here yesterday, and I installed it today. Half my tools are still in various boxes, 3/4 of my house is still in boxes, but I got the important tools out, and was able to install the Walbro. Went out for a test drive, and once I got it warm, boosted. AFRs are good, no fuel pressure loss, idle is good.

Everything is good, now, and I am happy.

Of course, now I have to figure out why my old fuel pump crapped out in my driveway, after I had already made it to my destination. There are so many worse places it oculd have happened, like on the freeway, or worse, at the hotel in BFE California that I stayed at on my drive here. Weird.

Anyways, all is good now. See all you all at Miller next weekend, or maybe somewhere else when I return to Colorado in hopefully two years

Dave

 

damn man, at least you are up and running again though.

 

Have fun out there in California. And as bad as the fuel pump issue sounds, atleast you have your baby with you. Mine is in storage while I am out here in Okinawa.

Semper Fi Sir!

 

Geez Dave, you have the worst luck and the best attitude.

 

Yeah, well, what can you do?

Besides, it's all better now, probably even better than it was.

 

Great story and even better attitude for a crappy situation! Hope you continue posting on the SW forums and let us know what new adventures you are up (or down) to!

 

Wow Dave, sorry to hear about that, but it’s a really good thing that this happened in your driveway, and not in the middle of the desert during your drive (not that you didn’t already know that).

And I’ll echo what others have said – your positive attitude and ability to deal with problems like this in quick fashion (without letting them seem to bother you at all) are amazing and inspirational.

I’ll see you in Utah – congrats on getting everything up and running! Have a safe drive out.

And like David said – don’t be a stranger in the Southwest forum…please keep us updated on how things are going!

 

Meh, no-one is shooting at me, no bombs going off, so it's all good. These things are just little things.

And don't worry, I'll be giving full reports on all the tracks out here, in the Southwest forum, just to make you guys jealous!

Dave