corvair kid
Well-Known Member
My drive home from SoCal vintage on Sunday ended prematurely (but only 18 miles from home, could have been worse driving from LA to Oakland!) with the apparent death of my electrical system.
First sign of trouble, in retrospect, was when the radio speakers abruptly started crackling loudly. Turned the radio off and my copilot noticed that the detachable faceplate was hot. The rest of the drama began to unfold about 5 minutes later. My headlights, which tend to dim and brighten a bit, dimmed all the way off. As soon as I realized this, I began signaling to pull to the right (the running lights were still on), hoping to make it to the next exit. The turn signal seemed to set of a cacophony of popping sounds, smoke coming out of the A/C grille (the A/C doesn't work and wasn't on), and my passenger noticed smoke inside the instrument cluster—before the dash lights went out, along with all other lights. By the time we made it to the shoulder, giving up on making it to an exit, I didn't even have brake lights.
I managed to run over something on the shoulder, too, puncturing my right rear tire. When it rains it pours, I guess.
We got a tow the rest of the way home, so now I have a dead Bavaria sitting on the street in front of my house.
I haven't had a chance to take a good look yet, and I'm not sure what to look for. I called my mechanic (Bill Arnold in San Rafael) who said that this might require swapping out the dash wiring from a parts car...a process I'm not sure I have the inclination for, probably don't have the budget for, and definitely don't have the space for.
I guess my questions are these:
First sign of trouble, in retrospect, was when the radio speakers abruptly started crackling loudly. Turned the radio off and my copilot noticed that the detachable faceplate was hot. The rest of the drama began to unfold about 5 minutes later. My headlights, which tend to dim and brighten a bit, dimmed all the way off. As soon as I realized this, I began signaling to pull to the right (the running lights were still on), hoping to make it to the next exit. The turn signal seemed to set of a cacophony of popping sounds, smoke coming out of the A/C grille (the A/C doesn't work and wasn't on), and my passenger noticed smoke inside the instrument cluster—before the dash lights went out, along with all other lights. By the time we made it to the shoulder, giving up on making it to an exit, I didn't even have brake lights.
I managed to run over something on the shoulder, too, puncturing my right rear tire. When it rains it pours, I guess.
We got a tow the rest of the way home, so now I have a dead Bavaria sitting on the street in front of my house.
I haven't had a chance to take a good look yet, and I'm not sure what to look for. I called my mechanic (Bill Arnold in San Rafael) who said that this might require swapping out the dash wiring from a parts car...a process I'm not sure I have the inclination for, probably don't have the budget for, and definitely don't have the space for.
I guess my questions are these:
- Has anyone else experienced this? What was the cause/remedy? What kind of cost might I be looking at here?
- What should I (assume I'm a total lay person) look for as I probe the insides of my dashboard/under the hood?
- If worst comes to worst, what would an electrically fried but otherwise fairly nice driver-quality Bavaria, that was running great, be worth? Do I have a total albatross on my hands? I don't necessarily want it to come to this, but my budget only goes so far and while I have the luxury of not needing to drive every day (and my SO has another car), this is my primary driver and I do need a car I can drive.