Not Happy Jan!!
I can’t remember who jinxed me and said I shouldn’t drive a car it just bought ti Jindy. But I did and now I am stuck at Majura Maccas wanting for my poor suffering parents to come and get me.
The NRMA man (had to join on the side of the road) thinks it is the clutch (mechanic thinks it may even just be hydrolic fluid) and that the car looks good and well cared for and that it may just be a coincidence that i just bought it. But anyway the Canberra mechanic will call me tomorrow after looking it over. I also asked him to give me a report on whether i should send it back or not. It is due for its next service so if he says it is a good car I will get it serviced as well and keep.
But man the universe is seriously trying to tell me i shouldn’t be a weekend warrior!
That sux !!!!! 
Hope you have made it somewhere now??!!!!
that’s gotta suck!! get the person you bought it off 
that was me telling you not too…
unlucky. you arent having much luck with cars are you!
When I bought my pulsar (now sold) within the first week, the tyre fell off the rim lol
i almost made the same mistake once.
bought my rx7 and was meant to take it up to port macquarie, but i couldnt book it in for a service before we left so i left it at home.
Lucky i did cause 3 days after i came home the engine blew up…
Aww that sucks majorly!!
oz that sucks!!! If you need a drink in Canberra I can def recommend some places!!! If you’re still here
Sorry to hear it, Oz. Might just need a bit of TLC. I hope it all works out for you soon. 
i almost made the same mistake once.
bought my rx7 and was meant to take it up to port macquarie, but i couldnt book it in for a service before we left so i left it at home.
Lucky i did cause 3 days after i came home the engine blew up…
thats rotors for you 
don’t get me wrong I will one day own either an FC or FD once I’m over of toyota chasers hahaha
So annoyingly the car didn’t play up at all for the mechanic today :-(
So not sure what to do besides drive it back to Sydney tomorrow.
Can you describe what happened Ozgirl, what made you believe something was wrong?
How many k’s does it have (which service was it up to)?
Before you drove it had it been sitting around for long while it was for sale?
Has it had much freeway use before?
Are you using E10 petrol? Or treating it to 95/98 octane? What fuel did the previous owner use?
Did the mechanic fill the hydraulic liquid and that’s why he didn’t have a problem, maybe it only has this problem with 2-3hr drives?
(I asume it’s manual)
that sucks soooo much, hopefully it all works out
Okay - I am making dinner at the moment… will give the full story later.
Okay here are the events to the best of my ability…. due to the traumatic nature of the experience I can’t remember the exact order…...
Picked up the car and it drove happily in crappy Sydney Friday night traffice for close to 2 hours.
Needed a pee break at Pheasants nest. Went to park the car and had trouble with the clutch but it fixed itself and I shurgged it off.
When I went to leave the car park the car felt sluggish and weird I rung Dad and kind of mentioned my concerns - A this point i did suspect I man have touched the hi/lo range thingy… and asked dad what position it ‘should be” he didn’t have an answer ( not a subbie of 4wd fan)
Left Pheasants nest and about 5 km down the road I was in the far right hand lane (of a freeway with a large median strip) and was on a hill when truck pulled out in front of me making me brake suddenly and need to change down gears. Could not engage a single gear and had to pull off onto the median strip (very scary!)
Rung Dad very shaken and at this point could not find/engage any gear. Played around with the hi/lo thingy (what is that called??) Turned the car off sat for 5 mins (even pulled the drivers seat as far forward as i could thinking maybe i wasn’t using the clutch properly - ie driving with my toes if that makes sense) Anyway after about 10 mins it worked fine and didn’t feel sluggish like I had previously reported.
Car drove fine and I made it to the Madjura turn off. Again could not down change gears And called Dad again. Very stressed.
I tried all the previous tricks and also putting the car in 1st prior to starting it (worked but couldn’t get out of 1st nor drive the car forward)
At this point my brother in law got on the phone having spoken to a friend who used to be a mechanic (now a train driver) and a subbie owner who had me do these “tests” (can’t remember the exact details of this test as I was a bit distraught) At this point NRMA showed without me hearing what the conclusion of the tests were.
NRMA man was very nice but suspected I did the typical Mum in a car park thing (apparently NRMA get a lot of call outs for the same thing cause a kid has either accidentlly or intentionally played with the hi/lo thingy ) I was quiet okay with this as even though it cost a fortune to join the NRMA - no problem with my car is a good outcome.
he found the car in the neutral position on the hi/lo thingy and so put it in Hi and said he would follow me to the airport and make sure I was fine. We did get the car in 1st gear and I could move it between gears but the car wouldn’t actually move forward.
He gets in and he couldn’t get it to move - says he thinks it is the clutch (that it was loose) and he will call a tow.
Skip to the next day and the mechanic calls as he can’t get it to go wrong. I suggest he takes it for a longer drive (as maybe the problem was heat related??) He obviously isn’t going to drive it to sydney so not sure how to continue to test it. He did comment that when he got in the car in the morning he found the clutch on the floor and that was unusual)
Decide best thing is to pick car up from Canberra on the way home and attempt to drive it home. If it plays up again I can call NRMA and at least it is closer to the dealership…..
Pick up the car last night and it drove like a dream and I fell in love with it all over again.
The car is a manual, has done 126,000, has had full service history up to the 100,000 mark has had one since which is 2 missed. Not sure how long it had sat at the dealership. Came from Lithgow…. I am third owner (guessing here)
I think I put in E10 as thats the only choice (i kind of baulked at the price tag of 95…. )
I am pretty sure that he didn’t fill the hydrolics as he commented that it wasn’t a problem (even tho he did suspect that the night before) Claimed it to be a good car overall. And that it must have been human error.
I have called my mechanic (i use this term loosely as all he has ever done is my rego check on the excel but seemed nice enough at the time) told him the full story. Said it may have been human error, maybe I was stressed (Deano voice was in my ear as soon as the first problem occurred!) the fact that I had purchased the car on my own with no real input from a male - to which he said… and why didn’t you call me….. which is though was nice as it is not like I am a regular customer. He is going to look the car over, if he finds nothing abnormal and thinks it is a good car he will do a service. And we cross our fingers and hope next journey is uneventful and I have a long happy association with this car. Oh and that I can get the day off work and drive during daylight hours!.
Okay I think that is it!!! Sorry for the long post but Spaz did ask…..
dont know about older subbies but never put e10 in them. my missus impreza only takes 98