Delorean Maintenance

I remembered that the red battery light came on right before the car starting over heating and since the battery was now dead i decided to charge it. The car charger said the battery was at 10%. When it got up to 89% I hooked it back up to the Delorean. I filled the car with coolant and checked for any leaks. The car started fine. and was not overheating but i did not drive it.

Thats when i notice a few problems with the belts. The A/C belt looks kinda ripped and off the track. And a second belt i found laying there.

I’m going to speculate what happen…

That second ripped belt is the Alternator belt, when driving it ripped causing the alternator to stop working. Which caused the red battery light to turn on. The battery drained and made the car not have enough amps to turn on the fans, resulting in the car overheating.

I’m going to ask a few people if what i’m saying makes sense.

Here are the pictures:

On my way to pick up my wife from work with the Delorean it starts to overheat 1 block away from the building. I pulled into a parking lot and inspected the problem and it seemed like the same Colant Hose Burst Problem I had last month. I was thinking I could fix it with some duct tape, a large bottle of coolant and a jug of water. My dad got me those 3 items and i went to work. After I got it all in the temp stayed low but once i started to drive the car it went high again to the first orange line. I pulled over and lots of smoke + coolant coming out of the overflow line. I ended up calling AAA to come tow the Delorean to my house.

I plan to replace all the hoses, radiator, and get a stainless steel coolant container. Hopefully this will fix the problem.

Went over to Tire Kingdom today and put the tires on the Delorean. The ride is so much smoother with the new tires. Before the entire car use to shake like crazy.

Heres some pictures:

I placed the order for new tires at tirerack.com

 I really wanted to try to find Goodyear Eagle GT-II for front and rear with white lettering but couldn’t find the front.

What i settled for was:

Goodyear GT-HR 195/60/14

Goodyear Eagle GT-II 235/60/15

I will try to paint the GT-HR lettering white. If it looks stupid I will just leave it black on front and rear.

Just came back from a week long labor day trip and it seems like something drained the battery. I’m going to try to get it recharged and hopefully that fixes the problem.

After filling the car with more coolant the overheating problem was fixed. I’m still going to get a fan fail fix for the Delorean to prevent this terrible event from every happening again.

I was driving on I-95 this morning and I start to hear a strange noise. I look at the engine temp and it’s in the middle of the orange so I get worried and pull off at the next exit. I pull into a 7-11 and open my gull-wing door and see that hot steam is coming out near the front of the rear tire. I take a closer look and see that its coolant coming out and as the steam slows down I notice the coolant just pouring out of the hose.

A guy comes up to me and says having engine problems? Mind if I take a look? He looks and sees its just a simple hose and says to me “I’m going to do my good deed for the day, and help you fix your car. It’s not every day you get to work on a Delorean”.

He tells me how he use to work at a garage and lives down the street and he’ll be right back with his tool kit. He comes back about 5 minutes later and takes the broken hose off the car and says he’s going to go to Napa to get a new hose + coolant. I ask him what I am going to owe him for this. He responds, “$800-$900….just kidding don’t worry about it”

Another 5 minutes later he comes back cuts the new hose puts it fills up the coolant and the car seems to be working fine. I gave him $40 for his trouble. This didn’t solve the overheating problem and the car was still going into the orange. I noticed the Fan Failed light was on and I believe this is the problem and the Fan Fail Fix might fix it.

I tried driving it and as long as I was moving at a nice pace the engine temp stayed down. I got it back home without any problems.

I received my package from SpecialTAuto which included oil filters, spark plugs, wires, fuses, relays, air filter, brake pads, bleed screws and the oil screw. I replaced all the fuses in the Delorean so far and about to replace the relays once i confirm where each one them goes.

I tested the windshield wipers and they now work with the new fuses installed. It’s probably a good idea to replace the windshield wiper blades now also.

The rear passenger tire is flat. I had to put air in it twice because it was a little low and haven’t got around to checking to see if it needed to be plugged or replaced.

I’ll probably get a can of fix-a-flat and take it to the gas station to put air and get the tire inspected to see if it can be fixed.

I purchased some Mr. Clean windshield washer fluid for the Delorean because the windshield washer reservoir was practically empty.

It’s most likely just a fuse that needs to be replaced. Cleaning the contacts of the fuse might solve the problem. But since I’m replacing them all anyways and not driving the car, I’ll just wait for my package to arrive.

While driving the Delorean to work the other day is when I noticed how bad the car shakes when it goes above 55mph. An alignment and balancing the tires should hopefully fix the shake. If not then I might need to also replace my mounts.

Here is the list I created with the top priorities to get done to the Delorean to make it reliable, safe and fun to drive.

Engine

• Bosch Spark Plugs + Wires
• Change Oil
  • Castrol GTX 20w50
  • Purflux Oil Filter
• Fix Oil Leak
• Replace/Bleed All Other Fluids

Brakes

• Front and Rear Brake Pads
• Bleed Brake Lines
• Inspect Rotors, Calipers, and Brake Lines

Electrical

• Relay Kit + Fuses
• Fix Headlights
• Fix Taillights

Air Conditioner

• Fix A/C

My pal Roman noticed that my right rear tire was very low. I was unsure how much pressure should be in the tires. After checking DMCTalk.com I found out that in the glovebox it says 23 front and 30 rear.

 I didn’t like the idea of the front tires only having 23 psi so I put in like 26psi. The almost flat tire doesnt seem to be going down again so I believe its fine.

I also placed the order for the Wings-A-Loft Basic/Elite Trunk Release System. This will solve the problem of me having a hard time opening the bonnet.

I also got a quote today from DMC Florida about refilling my R-12 and checking for leaks. It’s $160 for the leak/vacume checking and $60 per ib for the R-12. The delorean uses 2.25 ibs of R-12 if its empty.

The air conditioner not blowing cold air was really bad today. I think today being a really hot day had a big part of it being almost unbearable. But I need to find a place to get it fixed.