The adventure started with a blissfully quick and painless trip to the DMV to transfer title, register the car and order plates (the Oregon "Share the Road" plates, natch). Before the trip, I'd noticed a bit of fuel leaking from the top of the tank, now that the tank was full, so my next stop was the auto parts store to purchase a couple large gas cans. I figured I may need to drain the gas and drop the tank to fix the leak.
Upon leaving the store, the car wouldn't start; it was flooded. I ran the battery down trying to start it without success. I had to get back to work, so out of desperation, I roll-started it, and it sputtered back to life. It seemed to be running fine, though a little rough, so I headed for home.
On the way up the big hill near my house, I heard a BANG, and suddenly the engine sounded louder. The car behind me backed off a bit. A backfire, okay, not a big surprise given the flooding, car still running okay, so I drove the last few blocks home and into the driveway. Upon closer inspection, I found that the muffler had exploded!
Though an odd coincidence, but unrelated, I also narrowed down the source of the gasoline odor. It's a leak somewhere at the top of the gas tank where the cap and pipe run through the trunk (the fuel intake is behind the rear license plate), as evidenced by the pool of gas in the trunk. So basically, I was driving a Molotov cocktail. Yikes. Seriously. YIKES!
I now have a few more items for my To-Do list:
- Repair fuel tank leak
- Replace muffler
- Tune up/determine why gas mixture is too rich
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