Pretty much the worst day ever...

[phines]

So, in preparation for my Moab trip I spent the afternoon over at a friends garage installing the super flexy IFS kit. It didn't exactly go smoothly, but we did get it installed and I was really excited to try it out in Moab. Well, on the way home, I ran into a freak hail storm with larger-than-golf-ball-sized hail. I wasn't too worried because my VX isn't exactly pristine, but nonetheless is was scary. At this same time I started to hear some scraping/gridning noises which I was convinced was the drive shaft rubbing part of the IFS kit I had just installed (we had to install it a little off-center). About 1/2 a mile later, I found out that noise was the engine... out of oil... completely seized up... dead. Ugghh, the sick feeling was overwhelming. ;puke:

With Lauren back in Virginia already, I didn't have anyone nearby to come pick me up. It was 3 or 4 miles to the house, it was pitch black outside except for the lightning flashes and the rain was coming down hard. I figured I had to punish myself for letting the VX run out of oil so I walked home. Not fun, but I did make it home an hour and a half later. To my delight I found that hail hit here even harder... my dodge magnum has about 75-100 impressive hail dents and Lauren's jetta about the same. So within minutes of each other all of our vehicles got trashed... Oh, and two of the skylights in the house got complete smahed in. All of this, the night before I'm leaving for Moab. Does life get any better? :madb::upsetgray

[VX1032]

Damn, just damn.

[VX crazy]

OMG I am so sorry, thats like a quadruple wammie! Geez louise! Sounds like you need a xanax or two!

[VX KAT]

Man, that's terrible to hear Paul, so sorry:(

[Marlin]

WOW!!! What did you do in your past life? That is some vicious karma right there. I hope you have insurance...:cyro:

Probably not a great time to ask you about the IFS kit, I ordered mine in Friday.

[technocoy]

Sorry to hear that man. Really crap circumstance. Breathe deep, call the insurance company. First things first, one thing at a time.

[vt_maverick]

Terrible bad luck, but at least you're looking on the bright side of things. Body panels are plentiful for Magnum's and Jetta's but not so for the VX, so hopefully the engine will be all you'll need to fix/replace. Now if only insurance covered the engine...

And look at it this way, by getting a decade's worth of bad luck up front, you should be good to go for awhile! :)

[IRONVIKING]

Bummer sorry to hear about your woes.
They say bad luck comes in threes, sounds like you got you fill for sure.
Hopefully thats all you get as far as bad luck.

[Triathlete]

That freakin sucks!!!!!!
I think that pretty much sums it up:yesy:

[Scott Larson]

Surely sounds like the day (evening) from hell! Sorry to hear about your run of bad luck...It's got to get better from here, right?? Best of luck on all your claims, your insuarance agent is gonna love you.

[Mile High VX]

Keep your head up Paul...it will all work out for the best (but getting there will likely be a painful road).

Wishing you the best...:yesy::yeso::yesb::yesgray:

[ZEUS]

That IS a pretty tough day! Sorry you have to deal with all this. I guess when it rains it pours... oh, I get it now! ;)

[Ascinder]

About 1/2 a mile later, I found out that noise was the engine... out of oil... completely seized up... dead.

So do you know yet if it's totally fried yet or did you get away with just having to add oil? That's a hell of an awful run of luck. Hopefully it changes soon. If you need a new engine, hit me up, I'm prepared to let mine go cheap, I need the space in the garage.

[pbkid]

oh man paul... thats absolutely terrible!!!

however, i do know the feeling, it sucks when you hear that awful sound out of your VX motor :(

sorry buddy, things will get better soon.

[Scott Harness]

That freakin sucks!!!!!!
I think that pretty much sums it up:yesy:

X2...So sorry Paul...It can only get better!

[samneil2000]

Keep your head up. No where to go from the bottom but up.

[Gussie2000]

Wow.

That's more than enough bad luck for someone. I'm deeply sorry to read your misfortune paul.

Thankfully no one got hurt and all was just material damages,but it feels terrible how all your hardworking efforts is destroyed in matter of seconds.

Keep your chin up buddy,soon all will be ok with you,one step at the time and ypu'll get there.

Keep us posted.

[MSHardeman]

So sorry to hear about your string of bad luck. That just means that there is a lot of good luck waiting for you around the corner.

Let us know if there is anything that we can do.

[nfpgasmask]

Wow man, sorry to hear this. Hail is scary. I've seen what it can do. Last night here in Reno we had one of the most violent t-storms I have witnessed here since I moved. I was worried about the Impulse and the Trooper the whole time.

Bart

[Scott Harness]

A bad hail storm came through Dallas about ten years ago and did damage somewhere in the Billion $ range. 1000s of brand new cars at the dealerships destroyed.:(

[vt_maverick]

A bad hail storm came through Dallas about ten years ago and did damage somewhere in the Billion $ range. 1000s of brand new cars at the dealerships destroyed.:(

Sounds like what they needed was one of these bad boys. Nissan has one at their plant in Mississippi to protect cars fresh off the line from hail.

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/Hail_Cannons.html

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/47john_lear/04images/Weather/Hail_Cannon_05a.jpg

[circmand]

Let them total your VX (dont mention the motor) buy back and keep for parts and buy a new VX

[Ascinder]

Sounds like what they needed was one of these bad boys. Nissan has one at their plant in Mississippi to protect cars fresh off the line from hail.

Powered by 100% pure refined high grade enriched condensed USDA approved snake oil:rolly: If they wanted to get rid of hail with sound waves the best way is obviously:

















http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100621205047/streetfighter/images/d/dd/Guile's_Sonic_Boom.gif

[Marlin]

Powered by 100% pure refined high grade enriched condensed USDA approved snake oil:rolly: If they wanted to get rid of hail with sound waves the best way is obviously:

















http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100621205047/streetfighter/images/d/dd/Guile's_Sonic_Boom.gif

:bgwb:nice, what a ridiculous idea, sounds like Nissan bought something from some local redneck to keep the local population happy. Maybe they meant the bunker, not the actual cannon. Nothing inside the bunker has ever been damaged by hail, therefore the contraption must work!!

[circmand]

Powered by 100% pure refined high grade enriched condensed USDA approved snake oil:rolly: If they wanted to get rid of hail with sound waves the best way is obviously:
[/IMG]

and more cowbell

[nfpgasmask]

SONIC BOOM!

I always sucked at Street Fighter.

Bart

[BigMeatVX]

Paul, sorry to hear of all the bad luck... Sounds like one hell of a day...Let me know if I can help in any way?

[vt_maverick]

If anything the people living in the area around the plant despise the thing. Apparently it makes a ridiculously loud sound when it goes off, which must be pretty frequently. Do a Google search and you'll find links to local news channel reports.

I think one of the articles said that there are at least 70 of these things in North America, most of which are placed in the middle of fields to protect crops from hail damage. From what I read they should work in theory, but you're right there's no evidence that they actually work, other than that the Nissan factory hasn't been hit once by hail since they installed it. ;)

I imagine if I had $10 million in inventory sitting in an unprotected parking lot I'd be willing to throw a few hundred K around on snake oil too. :)

And nice SF reference. :thumbup:

[nocturnalVX]

Sorry to hear such a sad story. More so that you had to go through all that... Hope you get back to normality fast.

[CowboyErik]

Seen a new block on ebay, cheap!

[RickOKC]

Wow, sorry to hear about all your misfortune. Just... heartbreaking.

[navistar]

Wait a minute. How exactly did the oil level get so low that the engine locked up? Ah...just curious. :confused:

[phines]

Thanks for all the support guys & girls... I appreciate it. I'm sure everything will work out eventually. I certainly hope none of you ever experience a day like that!

[phines]

Wait a minute. How exactly did the oil level get so low that the engine locked up? Ah...just curious. :confused:

Good question and a mystery I would love to solve. I topped off the oil exactly 3 weeks before this happened. I had been driving it a little more than usual to get it ready for Moab, but just locally. I did take it to Firestone to have the transmission flushed, new filter, etc. I just can't explain how the VX used 5 qts of oil in 3 weeks. Any ideas?

[phines]

So do you know yet if it's totally fried yet or did you get away with just having to add oil? That's a hell of an awful run of luck. Hopefully it changes soon. If you need a new engine, hit me up, I'm prepared to let mine go cheap, I need the space in the garage.

Thanks. Sending you a PM now...

[ZEUS]

It's not like this is the first report of a 3.5 doing this. Jack swears he had a full crankcase of oil... and then... all gone! It has been a discussion among VXers for a while. Joe Black calls it a rumor while others fear it will happen to them. People have claimed to have discovered the problem and cure - I'm skeptical on that one. There is even a poll here asking which model year VX has gone boom... more than half were '99's. The Moab checklist even lists a case of oil as an inside joke amongst VXers! It sucks it happen(s)(ed) but I don't really find it surprising at this point. It is even one of the fears that convinced me to sell my VX.
Oh, I drive a Jeep and own a few Chevys right now... I know that's important to know.

[vt_maverick]

Probably best advice I've heard is to check the oil at every fill-up, that way you're guaranteed to be looking every week or two, though it sounds like that may have not fixed your problem. Also good to be in the habit of looking under your VX every time you walk up to it to make sure nothing's leaking. If you lost 5 quarts in 3 weeks you would think that it had to puddle somewhere along the way.

Please don't feel like I'm lecturing; even though I know all those things to do, I rarely remember to do them myself. :o

[Ascinder]

Seems like something like oh, I don't know, a low oil pressure light or a low oil level switch could be installed/upgraded to actually warn of impending doom. You'd think some clever car manufacturer would come out with something like that:rollo:

[nfpgasmask]

Seems like something like oh, I don't know, a low oil pressure light or a low oil level switch could be installed/upgraded to actually warn of impending doom. You'd think some clever car manufacturer would come out with something like that:rollo:

Linda's Porsche has an oil level light in the dash. Everytime you start the car, you turn the key without starting and the dash lights up and you wait like 3 seconds and it shows the oil level. Kinda cool....leave it to German Engineering. :rolleyes:

Bart

[pbkid]

sorry, not to jack your thread paul-

when my VX motor went, i had checked the oil level that morning and completely topped it off at the gas station before i drove up and over the mountains. (it was about a 1/4 of a quart low as it was every other gas fill usually)

then, drove up to the mountains, snowboarded all day, drove home, and right before i hit the summit i heard a loud banging/clicking sound... checked the oil immediately and was 1.5 quarts low.... topped it off, and 1/2 mile later it was 3 quarts low again....i knew it was done at that point, and had it towed to a denver isuzu specialist.
mine cracked a rod bearing....i had the motor replaced with a new block, but re-used all the external parts... cost me $4,800..... with R&R..

[VX KAT]

This has me a little bit wigged as I'm about to set out on a 3700 mile solo trip next week! My experience has been it consumes about 1/4 qt when driving 8 hrs highway (it's happened to/from Moab a few times...but not always:confused:) and none in any other instance in my 22 months of ownership. I thought I'd carry 3-4 qts...now I'm thinking I should carry more.:eek:

Jack or Paul, were you able to tell if it left a trail of oil shortly before it seized?

I'll be in and out of the car frequently so I'll sure be looking.

Also, just curious..what mileage were yours' at? I know there's a poll on model yr, but I don't recall mileage. Paul I'm not trying to t/j, just wanted to know.

[nfpgasmask]

Yeah, this leaves me wondering to. Jack, if you lost that much oil in that short a period, there must have been a big puddle under your VX.

This makes me think that some of these VX motors that failed, failed because of frequent running of the motor with too low oil. Basically, the damage was done before you topped off your oil, know what I mean?

Bart

[phines]

Jack or Paul, were you able to tell if it left a trail of oil shortly before it seized?

I'll be in and out of the car frequently so I'll sure be looking.

Also, just curious..what mileage were yours' at? I know there's a poll on model yr, but I don't recall mileage. Paul I'm not trying to t/j, just wanted to know.

I didn't get a chance to look for an oil trail; it seized up in the middle of that hail storm. There was about 4 inches of hail and water on the road that I was plowing my way through (craziest thing I've ever seen). I don't think it dumped the oil all at once... it's more likely that it just started using/leaking oil faster than I was used to. Over the past six months, with all the repairs and replaced parts I had been doing, it started to use less and less oil. As a result, I got out of the habit of checking the oil level everytime I filled up the gas tank. It was kinda nice... almost like having a normal vehicle. Oh well.

As for the mileage, I had just hit 151k a few days before...

[vt_maverick]

Sue, I just took my VX to Wisconsin and back this summer (and took a detour through Michigan for the Borbets) and burned about 2-3 quarts on the complete round trip. I was at about 55K-ish at that time though. I believe the trip was around 3K miles give or take, so I would probably plan on taking 5 quarts, since you could always buy more on the trip if you need.

I think as long as you check the oil each morning before you set out, at each stop, and at night before you head into the hotel you should be fine. If anything happens, well, I guess you just have to chalk it up as inevitable/fate.

[circmand]

I did an oil change myself. A few weeks later driving to work I noticed smoke coming out from under the hood. I took it to a shop near where I work. Apparently the oil cap blew off and a lot of oil with it. I was fortunate I was so close to work as a long trip would have caused the engine to seize. Anyone else had this issue?

[VX KAT]

Sue, I just took my VX to Wisconsin and back this summer (and took a detour through Michigan for the Borbets) and burned about 2-3 quarts on the complete round trip. I was at about 55K-ish at that time though. I believe the trip was around 3K miles give or take, so I would probably plan on taking 5 quarts, since you could always buy more on the trip if you need.

Thanks Mav, that's a real good example/estimate. Is highway driving the only time yours consumes oil?

[vt_maverick]

Thanks Mav, that's a real good example/estimate. Is highway driving the only time yours consumes oil?

Can't say for sure, 90% or more of my miles are highway so I don't really have the ability to compare. But I do get the sense that the longer the engine is running (e.g. 12 hour days on the way to Wisconsin) the more oil I lose. Not an earth-shattering conclusion I know. :)

[SlowPro48]

Man that's some seriously bad juju right there.... sounds like all hail broke loose! Sorry - couldn't resist. Insurance will take care of the other two cars and the skylights but you're SOL with the VX engine. Hope you find another engine (or rebuild) and get that zuzu back on the road soon.



...topped it off, and 1/2 mile later it was 3 quarts low again....

The catalytic converter will mask oil burning - but not 6qts/mile. That VX would have looked like a mosquito truck going down the road if it had been burning oil at that rate. Had to be a leak. After reading the thread about IndianaVx's spinning cam seal I wonder if some of these catastrophic failures aren't from sudden leakage. What I don't understand is why no flashing check engine light before things get crunchy. I mean c'mon - even my $300 pressure washer knows when the oil level is too low to operate safely....

[vt_maverick]

Don't suppose this is you is it?

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/pts/1994644740.html

[ZubrAZ]

this is me

[BigMeatVX]

My 1st engine toasted after losing all the oil from a rear main seal failure....I lost my 2nd engine from haveing a big DENT in the bottom of the oil pan....:p which was smashing the oil pickup screen....strarving the engine of oil preasure at high RPMs...


Paul....?????:o

[Cobrajet]

You don't happen to have a Fumoto valve (http://www.fumotousa.com/)on your oil pan? Maybe a mean-asp hail stone knocked the valve open? (Just a wild shot in the dark.)

[Marlin]

You don't happen to have a Fumoto valve (http://www.fumotousa.com/)on your oil pan? Maybe a mean-asp hail stone knocked the valve open? (Just a wild shot in the dark.)

That thing looks like a great idea, but it sticks out way too far. If you had the kilby plates...I would be in for sure.

[vt_maverick]

That thing looks like a great idea, but it sticks out way too far. If you had the kilby plates...I would be in for sure.

A buddy of mine makes those things the first mod for every car he buys. They do work great, much less messy than those screw-on rubber hose things you can buy at Advance/AutoZone/PepBoys. And not very expensive as a one-time purchase either.

[VX KAT]

Paul- you get your ride back yet?

[phines]

Yep, my VX is running again. Thanks for asking Sue!

I only have about 250 miles on the new engine, so I'm in the break-in phase. Keeping it under 3500rpm and no 80mph driving. It's due for its second oil change once I hit 500 miles. The first oil change was immediately after the install and letting it idle for 4+ hours. After this next oil change it will be back on a normal schedule.

So far, no obvious oil burning, but it's too early to really know that for sure. :)

[VX KAT]

:thumbup: Great to hear! :thumbup:
Now ya can just blot that dark rainy night outta yer memory 4ever!

[Mile High VX]

Hopefully everything with the house is back to normal as well...:yesy::yesgray:

[Marlin]

Glad to hear you are up and running again, time to get some pics of that IFS kit in action...you have to beat me to it! Thanks again for emailing me the install instructions, got it all on there today, just gotta tighten everything up.

[Ldub]

Hopefully everything with the house is back to normal as well...:yesy::yesgray:


Glad to hear you are up and running again, time to get some pics of that IFS kit in action...

X-2...:yes:

X-2...:yesgray:

[Triathlete]

Glad to hear your VX is back to 100% awesomeness! You still thinking about making the trip next weekend? Would be cool to see the SFIFS in person!:yesy:

[vt_maverick]

Congrats on getting her back on the road! :thumbup:

[tomdietrying]

Paul,
I haven't been on the boards much in the last several months. I'm so sorry to hear of all your bad luck..............with that said I'm also glad you got your VX up and running again.
Peace.
Tom

[Triathlete]

Paul,
I haven't been on the boards much in the last several months.Peace.
Tom

Slacker! With that said...how ya been?:bwgy:

[phines]

Hopefully everything with the house is back to normal as well...:yesy::yesgray:

Yep, it took a while for the roofing guys to get out to my house because so many people had damage, but the new skylights were put in last week. Just in time for the sub-freezing temps!

Still trying to get the damage repaired on the Magnum. One thing at a time I guess.


Glad to hear you are up and running again, time to get some pics of that IFS kit in action...you have to beat me to it! Thanks again for emailing me the install instructions, got it all on there today, just gotta tighten everything up.

Hopefully this coming weekend, I'll get to test it out!


Glad to hear your VX is back to 100% awesomeness! You still thinking about making the trip next weekend? Would be cool to see the SFIFS in person!:yesy:

Thanks Billy. I'm still planning to make this trip. Can you post or send me more info about locations, times, etc.? What kind of weather are you expecting? Not sure I'll be up for low-temp camping after the past few weeks (long story).


Congrats on getting her back on the road! :thumbup:

Thanks! Hopefully she'll make the drive back to VT-land in January with no problems.


Paul,
I haven't been on the boards much in the last several months. I'm so sorry to hear of all your bad luck..............with that said I'm also glad you got your VX up and running again.
Peace.
Tom

Thanks Tom. Great to have the VX back on (and off) the road.

Was that too many quotes for one post???? :bwgy:

[Triathlete]

Thanks Billy. I'm still planning to make this trip. Can you post or send me more info about locations, times, etc.? What kind of weather are you expecting?

Check your PM's:bwgy: