Failed smog, burst coolant hose, panic and 12 days in the desert - Burning Man 2016

All packed and on the road

Once again (11th time), I made the journey to the Black Rock Desert to attend the Burning Man festival.  And I took my 1993 VW Eurovan Weekender for the 5th time.

In preparation for my trip, I had to get my EV smogged.  Well, that turned into quite a task.  I realized that I had a small oil leak, a small coolant leak, failed smog cause of NOx, and several other issues.

Ultimately, I had to get a new catalytic converter to pass for NOx and install the "resistor fix".  In the past, I was running rich and out of tune, due to bad timing... therefore the cat was not effective.  During the replacement, the tech noticed that my manifold has a small hairline crack.  He showed me.  Luckily, it was not in an area that would cause a red flag with smog check.  He also pointed out that there was a missing support for the exhaust which could have contributed to the stress on the manifold (which I'll deal with both later).

After getting a new cat, I thought I'd pass smog without any issue.  I received advice about keeping the EV "hot" to burn fuel better and have a better chance of passing.  I ran it over to a 2nd smog check place recommended by the tech, and this time it failed on CO, and by a lot.  The CO numbers didn't even correspond to my first failed test when I failed on NOx... they were much higher.

At this point, I was starting to worry about being able to drive my house on wheels to Burning Man.  I continued my research on smog failures, and oddly enough, now a suggestion from an online EV peer about a "resistor fix" became a real solution.  The idea of making a vehicle hot to burn the fuel more doesn't apply to a Eurovan, per se.  Cause the Eurovan will go into a rich mode if the temp is detected high, which is the case when airflow is limited in a smog check bay as opposed to driving on the street.  You can read up on the "resistor fix" to learn more about the symptoms.

So I dropped my EV off at Paradise Motorsports with a list of items, smog "resistor fix" being number one and the coolant leak number two.  They kind of dropped the ball cause they were so busy at the time, and with one day before my departure they said they had completed the smog and fixed the coolant leak.  They didn't complete the other work I had requested, and I was a bit frustrated with them.  Anyway, I picked up the EV and drove it about 3 miles at which point my coolant light came on and some steam started coming from my hood.

I pulled over and the EV was pissing coolant onto the ground.  I called them, and they said to bring it over first thing in the am.

Luckily, the guys at Paradise Motorsports (formerly VW Paradise) are gearheads.  An S shaped coolant hose had burst, and they couldn't find a local replacement.  So they fabricated one.  Concerned, I drove off and tried to push the EV.  Knowing that I was departing that night, I upgraded my AAA membership to Premier, just in case.