My 2022 road trip

[kjclow]

Starts as a longish story but will summarize for those that don't want to go through it all. Put over 2800 miles on the JSW over the last three weeks. Measured the efficiency and compared to preEPA fix, I've dropped around 5 mpg for the same (similar) trip from before the fix. Averaging around 35 on the interstate where I used to sit right around 40.

Long story:
Loaded up the Ram EcoDiesel for our run from NC to Iowa for RAGBRAI. Got about 300 miles into the 1200+ trip out when the cel, mil, and evic all lite up telling me that I had an electronic throttle failure. This was also after having driven through some torrential rainfall on I75. Pulled into Louisville by a big Dodge dealer on Sunday night. Hotel was close enough to bike to. Called the dealer the next morning and they said they couldn't look at it until July 28. This was the 17th. Decided to limp back home with limited power. No turbo and truck could not hold 65 on the KY/TN hills. We decided to bag the trip. Truck is currently at my local dealer waiting for the news.

On Wednesday, we saw the forecast for Iowa was low to mid 80s for the area the ride was following. Next thing I knew, she was getting the oil and filters changed on the JSW. We loaded up and took off but this time straight up I77 into Ohio. Longer way to go but less mountains. After getting to my sister's in central Iowa, we decided to skip RAGBRAI and spend more time with my 89 year old mother. Still managed to put on over 350 miles on the bikes around the Des Moines area. There are a lot of wonderful bike trails all over central Iowa. Headed back home on Aug 3. Our plans were to stop and ride a few times on the way back. Mother nature had other plans. We drove through torrential rains in every state. Took us over an hour to get out of Columbus on Friday morning due to the rain and accidents. Stopped in Wytheville, VA to grab lunch and ended up parking closer to the curb than I thought. As I backed out, I pulled the front bumper almost all the way off. Managed to push and pull it mostly back into place without getting to soaked and continued the remaining 200+ miles home. Will find out how much this trip is going to cost me once I get the truck back.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

My son is having a similar experience. Left Thursday on vacation with his wife and 2 year old son. Stopped to visit family in PA, but just before he got there the belly pan came loose on his '15 Passat. He re-fastened it and continued on to PA. Friday he's headed through Princeton NJ on his way to Baltimore, and the low coolant light came on. There's a leak, looks like a radiator hose or the radiator. Buys some coolant but doesn't get very far, clearly the leak is getting worse. Checks into a hotel in Princeton. Local dealers won't look at the car until the end of this week. We reached out to Mike Hevner at M&M auto in Montague NJ and he'll take the car. Have it towed up there Saturday (who knows what that cost, 94 miles and no AAA Plus, which is a story for another time), rents a car and proceeds on to Baltimore and DC.

It is the radiator. Not terribly common for a '15 Passat with the CVCA engine, but I found one this AM and it'll be delivered to Mike tomorrow. I hope that's the only problem.