dammit grumbler

I got off work a little early yesterday, and was heading down to Apollo to ride the course and refresh my memory. Since I had to replace the water pump, thermostat, hoses, and radiator, the Grumbler has been flawless. No overheating, and no complaints. And I it should have been flawless. Everything related to the cooling system was brand new.

I paid my $1.25 for the privilege of using a hiway for 10 miles, (that's an absurd toll. I'm sorry but it is.) and continued on my way. I had been grumbling for about an hour. Suddenly the idiot light came on and informed me that the grumbler had overheated. I pulled off the road immediately and killed the engine.

With the hood popped, I walked around to see what was wrong. Before I even looked at the engine, I could hear the coolant boiling.

Sure enough, it was boiling, and the overflow bottle was packed full of the antifreeze. I stuck my head under the hood and poked around. Not finding anything out of the ordinary, I stepped back to think. Not 30 seconds more than I had stepped away, something exploded in a hiss of boiling antifreeze and steam. A gallon of the stuff blew up all over everything.

I pulled the brackets off the radiator, thinking that one of the hoses I couldn't see had sprung a leak. Instead I was greeted by a three inch crack right down the side of the radiator. The thing had literally exploded.

I hate cheap plastic garbage. There were no more than 500 miles on that stupid thing. NAPA autosharts better take it back.

Just another reason why cars suck. I ride to school, but work is still to far away to bike commute (45 hilly miles one way. I've tried it. It's hard.) So at this point, I'm still grumbler dependant. Somebody else in town better have a radiator that doesn't blow up.

From Drop Box

(Yup. There's my problem. J.B.water weld is holding the split together. I can't even say how much of that stuff I've used in the last couple of months. I should hit them up for a sponsorship.)