Hear Now Childrens, Homey's Tale Of Woe...

[M.Rad.]

Well, now... Last weekend, I took the family to Fort Worth to see some friends, and some well deserved drunkenness and debauchery. All that went well. We ate, drank, drank,(did I mention drank?), and were merry... :D

On Monday, we decided to all go to see the King Tut exhibit in Dallas. So Homey gets up and ai'nt feelin' right. Homey chalks it up to hangover-but no! By mid-day homey gots the fever, pounding headache and the queasies :o Homey soldiers on through the exhibit, we say bye to our friends and make our way to the parking lot.

We get to the car (our beautiful burgundy 97 SC400) only to see that some DOUCHEBAG (can I say douchebag ?) has caved in the driver's side rear quarter, ahead of the tail light (about 18" x 18").

Of course no-one saw nothin' (including the lot attendant who took our $20 parking fee), and douchebag (I mean hot water bottle) didn't leave a note. Cowardly !Removed!. So we file a report with the police and are on our way.

About 20 minutes into the drive, the 4-lane hwy is being funnelled down to 2 ln for construction. We are stuck in stop-n-go traffic for about 7-8 min.s when suddenly the car starts missing and running rough. It's bucking and has lost almost all power (this has been the smoothest running car I've ever had up till that point)

I pull off at the next exit (about a mile and another 5-6 min.s) and pull into a gas station. When I raise the hood, there is smoke coming from near the firewall, and the engine is shaking visibly. I turned it off. When I checked the trans fluid it was starting to turn burnt (nice fresh red before the trip).

We ended up renting a 16' Penske truck and car trailer, and made it back to Austin close to 10pm. My wife helped me into the house, pulled my boots off, and I crashed for 14 hours. At least the fever and chills are gone...

The car is now at my favorite mechanic's (honest guys, good work), and I'm waiting to hear from them and the Ins Co. From what I've read on this forum and others, I'm leaning toward a bad coil, triggering limp mode. Still can't see why trans would overheat as well. <_< Any ideas?

Happy New Year, everyone!

Regards,

M.R.

[LexSC400328]

well im sorry to hear that..i think it was you who posted in my own thread about this same thing happening to me at a gas station...i actually put into effect the plan of stealing a traffic cone and putting it in the spot next to me and so far its worked well...im not sure what could be going wrong with your engine but that sure sounds like a rough day... <_<

[UCF3]

Agreed. It sounds like an awful first day into 2009. If it is your transmission fluid that's going bad it should be related to when you flushed it. something must be clogged. I was leaning towards bad fuel, but what did your Mechanic say?

[rekit]

I just lost a coil on my 93 400. 5 am on a sunday AM, in a bad part of town, and it started with a slight miss and then lost 4 cyl. Could barely get to 45 mph but made it home-25 miles. No smoke at the firewall though, so I didn't check the fluid. I WAS worried about all that fuel going into the cats-I've heard of them glowing red hot. Anyway the next day I checked for codes and nothing. So I bought 2 coils (start with the cheapest part) and that was it. So there was no limp home mode in my case, just made it home because of the double ignition systems on the cars. There wired like 2 four bangers as far as spark goes. 2 distributors, 2 coils, 2 ignitors ($).

[M.Rad.]

Thanks for the support guys. After a day like that....

UCF3- I'm not sure what's up with the trans. I didn't flush it recently, I only checked the level and condition of tyhe fluid before the trip. Level was fine and tyhe color and smell were "as new". I'm not sure if I have two seperate issues (engine perf. and trans failure) or if the engine problems caused the trans to act up. The mech. has not called yet (new year and all...).

LexSC400328- looks like we're in the same boat, eh? What the hell is it with all the morons around anyway?

Any advice gladly considered.

Regards.

M.Rad.