Google phone saves the day?

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I have made the journey from Boston, MA to Cincinnati, OH with a heavily loaded 1990 Pontiac Bonneville many times. My car has achieved an all-time high score of 30mpg on the Cincinnati to Boston trip once. So I knew it would take about 14 hours and I should leave at about 6am to avoid hitting big cities during rush hour. On Friday, June 26th I actually got started a little late at 7:30am after checking the inflation on my tires (this helps the car get a better score). Two days earlier, I popped the hood to take a "let's make sure everything is in its place" look. I noticed the serpentine belt was a bit worn, so I decided to pick one up from AutoZone before leaving Boston.

Since 630 of the 900 mile drive is on I-90 and 95% of the NY and MA sections are limited access toll roads, fuel and food are limited and over-priced. There is about 20 miles of I-90 around Albany, NY where the turnpike follows I-87. I usually stay on I-90 there so I can make a fuel stop.

Since I had not actually replaced the serpentine belt before leaving Boston, I decided to take a look to see how it was doing when I stopped for fuel. I noticed that the belt was not actually sitting in the grooves on the crankshaft pulley but I didn't have the 18mm socket to turn the belt tensioner out of the way and replace the belt. I figured that it has probably been like that for a while, and that was causing the wear in the belt I noticed two days earlier. I looked at my fancy phone's Google maps for more gas stations. Rt 9 in Greenbush (east of Albany) has plenty to choose from, so I started driving toward that road. After only driving about 3 blocks on Rt 9, my power steering went out. I immediately thought, "There goes the belt!" Since the serpentine belt transmits power from the crankshaft to the A/C compressor, water pump, alternator, and power steering pump, I thought this was a pretty good conclusion. I drove another couple blocks to a Sunoco station before opening the hood to replace the belt.

Unfortunately, the belt came out intact; it had just fallen off the pulleys. I reached in and grabbed the water pump pulley because it looked a little crooked. I guess the rebuilt water pump that I put on the car about 6 years earlier was not very high quality because as I touched it, all of the coolant from my engine leaked out onto the ground.

I again turned to my Google phone to find auto parts stores in the area. I could get the parts (rebuilt quality again) for about $50 from the store 1 mile up the road. Then all I needed was a couple tools and somewhere to work on it. The tools I could buy, rent or borrow from the auto parts store, but as I hung up the phone, thunder clapped and the sky tore open. Without a dry place to work, I resolved that it might be OK to pay a service station for the work. In 10 minutes (with the aid of the Google phone) I had three quotes for the parts and labor for a water pump replacement. I went with Palmer's Auto Service because the rate was good and the mechanic wouldn't use the inferior rebuilt parts from cheap auto parts stores.

The replacement procedure took about two hours. I was back on the road by about 12:45pm. The whole stop set me back about 3 hours, so I hit Buffalo, NY during 5:30 Friday traffic. I finally made it to Cincinnati at about 1am without any other trouble. I have to get another tank of fuel to be sure, but I think my conservative driving and tractor-trailer drafting may have gotten me a new high score of 31mpg!