I had quite the interesting occurance today. Some of you know that I've just done a stock-for-stock motor swap in my 5th gen. I figured I'd take my daughter for a ride around some hilly areas and visit a friend of mine that needed a favor today. My friend lives in a very mountainous area so I thought it would be a great test to see if I refilled my tranny fluid properly, and to see how strong the motor was. All was fine and good until the ride home.

I passed the test all the way there and half way back. On a nice long straight-away the car started jumping and then not responding to the accelerator. I looked at the gauges and the CEL was flashing. I'm thinkin', "great what'd I forget to plug in during the motor swap?"

I have a Blackberry phone, so on the side of the road I came to this forum and looked up what a flashing check engine light was all about. It listed something about a misfire in a cylinder, and I found something about damage to the converter occuring. So I'm stopped on the side of the road thinking about what could cause that, then i remember that my gas gauge doesn't work, and my trip meter is way beyond where it should be to refill. Now I'm thinkin' I can make it to the gas station a mile up the road, so I try.

Now I get to this little crest of a hill, and the car starts sputtering again, I'm wondering why there is a cop blocking off the entrance to the gas station, so I had to stop the car to wait for slowing traffic due to the officer, and the car dies while he's moving for me... Two car lengths away from the gas station! I'm on the opposite side of the road, just barely able to pull into the breakdown lane of the most busy 50mph road in the area, I've got my 21 month old daughter in the back, and it's 4pm so there's no way in hell I'm able to push the car to the gas station due to the heavy load of traffic.

Now I've gotta' carry my girl with me to the gas station (took 20 minutes to cross the road), I borrowed the gas can they had (one gallon can) filled it up and walked accross the street again (15 minutes later), I turned the key on and off a few times to let it prime the fuel pump, but it wouldn't start. A few minutes later I decided that it might be due to the angle of the hill I was on, maybe the one gallon of gas couldn't reach the pump? So I spent another half hour crossing the road, filling up the can and another 20 minutes crossing the road again. No go. Still won't start. It started raining so I went back inside and ate some beloved gas station chicken with my daughter and had a few minutes to think it over. I had called a friend to come help me out somewhere in the midst of this who arrived at this time. We crossed the street to the car (10 minutes) and I showed him what the car was doing, cranked it again, and again, and again, and it started... ...angry.

STUPID! I think I might have vapor locked the line from trying to start it too many times before I actually had gas to the pump. Either way, I wound up getting home at 6pm, so two hours I was on the side of the road. This is certainly incentive to replace my sending unit.

I've had the Monte for a week and I've already done a motor swap, and ran out of gas... Share your most inconvenient "Monte Moment?"

 

Wow man that sucks. I'd have to say my worst Monte Moment was when I first put the cowl hood on it. It didn't fit correctly, so when I sat the hood down it would sit flush - but wouldn't be closed unless I pressed on it. One day I was working on the motor, and forgot to latch the hood. So yeah, going 50 mph and having a 3" cowl hood break through the windshield is my worst moment, but that was about three years ago.

 

i have one, no where near as bad as the above! first week i bought the car i had a TPMS sensor(tire pressure monitoring system) go bad, took it back to the KIA dealer, they had to order it, told me to bring it back!! next week, the battery died, had to get it towed on a flatbed back to the dealer, it had a bad cell, replaced at no charge, but sucked to see it on a flatbed towtruck the second week i owned it, all i all. so far nothing very bad!!

 

My worst monte moment other than the rearend at 70 mph in a 35 in which my beloved white 98 3.1 was killed unceremoniously against a jersey barrier, was the night I got my '00 back from the tranny shop. My gas gague said full, and halfway down the road (4 line highway at 55 mph) the car DIES on a bridge and there is nowhere for me to safely pull over so i COAST it across the bridge and just bareley make it into the emergency lane putting on my 4 way flashers. A very handsome bethel park cop came to my rescue, drove up the street to the gas station and brought me gas AT NO CHARGE, and she started right up so that I could fill her.

$45 dollars and 20 minutes later I was home. I vow never to let my gas gague go anywhere past 1/2 a tank even tho it's sorted and works great, I never want to pay almost $50 bucks to fill my tank. Call me cheap.... Oh and I went on a date with the cop but he was a jerk. LOL

 

Well ded548 thats not good and to have you young doughter with you... Well My worse monte moment would be. I Owned the car for 2 months. I lost my licends for stupied stuff in my old car 01Alero (1 speeding ticket 18km over, and Turning Left on a red light :P Dont ask...) Soo after loosing my licends for 3 months it was Hard to see My Monte On the drive way and sitting thier..

It was 3 weeks befor I GOT my licends back. I was sleeping my Dad comes down to my room Wakes Me up and says STEVEN some one tried to steal your car and i have to go to work.... I run upstairs Run out side and I seen My door lock was punched out.. I open the drivers door and i see my ignition all over my floor mat and the dash was just BEAT on.. Soo I call autoPack they Deal't with evrything. It was ATEMPT of theft DIDnt have to pay for anything + free Rental. I didnt need a rental untill I had my licends back.

So My Car was towed to get estimated (950$) and then gets towed to the body shop.. (NO one told me i had to Go to autopack and go to the bodyshop with my car..). Soo The body shop calls me 4 weeks later saying my car is done. Im Like GREAT!!! Just had my licends back for a week and i get MY BABY back....

My dad Drive me to The body shop to go pick up my Car.. I go and get the keys come outside and Im ALL ready to GO... I see my dad with this strange look in his eyes as i aproch my car. I asked him what? He pointed down and said Looks like tow truck didnt know what they where doing... I SEEN my fender was Pushed in, left side skirt was CRUSHED. and the Front lip extention had Cable marks and scratches. Then here WE GO BACK into the body shop. They said they did what was on the autopack (insurance) paper and we did not see the dmg that are thier now.. I had to go back to autopack to tell them what i seen. they said tow truck company's always says they didnt do dmgs and I will have to pay. (Tow Truck Dmgs 5,500$) I got the estimator to writt down it's CLEARLY done by tow truck and blah blah.. 3 days later Insurance Calls says Tow truck company Admits it.. I was relieved. Car went back to the same body shop and they were happy to do my car lol..

 

My worst moment used to be when the monte got rear ended (actually the car behind me got hit and pushed her under me)- it smashed up the bumper skin, and pushed my car up and on top of her 90s neon, my tires were sitting almost at her strut towers. Then up front I barely slid into the person in front of me. It looked a lot worse than it was- but luckily insurance covered it all, and the car got repaired just like new.

Now I think the more emotionally worse moment for me was when my monte got broken into and I was states away, and couldn't even see her for a week or so. At least with the accident, the insurance paid for everything- but with this I am going to have to eat the whole cost, including the damaged custom fiberglass work. This incident drastically changed my view on people and society- and I am now significantly more cautious and much less trusting of others. Thats not to say I was careless before by any means- I just really don't feel like I ever fully enjoyed my sound system out of fear that someone would break in- and it happened anyways. I suppose its lucky for me that I wasn't there to catch them, and that I never found the people or stuff- things would've probably got a lot worse that way

 

My worst Monte moment was 3 months after I bought the car. I was minding my own business when a "friend" told me about the Hypertech 3 for the 3.8 montes and I said "ok, if the thing makes the car move faster I'm all for it". And there I went, forking over $100.00 (it was used) for the HP3 on ebay, installed it following the instructions and, voila, the car seem faster (I think I was just imagining things at the time, lol). Something happened that I had to reinstall the HP3 and something went very wrong during the installation. Half of the dash lights came on and the car would not start. I tried it again, to no avail, and decided to call Hypertech them self's. Well, after 3 straight days of calling and emailing, I finally got a hold of someone and was told that the PCM was probably fried. They told me that I probably turned off the ignition while the HP3 was doing it's thing and I told them that I wouldn't do that since I knew what that would do. Anyway, after all the back and forward, and since the car wouldn't start (not even crank), I made an appointment with the dealer, called the tow truck and the monte was taken to the doctor. It turned out to be the PCM fried to a crisp (at least the dealer was nice enough to take it as core and I didn't have to pay the $100 extra that otherwise I would have since the PCM was shot to hades) and paid for the reprogramming of the PCM and the ignition module. The $100 HP3 cost me $1,300.00 in damages that the insurance wouldn't cover and now it sits as paper weight and a reminder to never, ever buy that crap again! One week car-less and broke isn't good for anyone's blood pressure.

 

Monty.... AGREED. That is why I REFUSE to tune my car or reprogram my PCM... an Ex of mine drove a 1999 chevy silverado z71 offroad stepside that he had tuned out with dual exhaust and that thing drove like a DOG, you tap the gas and the damn thing starts acting up because it wanted to be floored. I can't tell you how many times that thing has stalled out at a stopsign because of the bad tune....

 

I've not lost all faith in tuners yet since I'll be getting an HP tuner. The good thing about them is that, if you follow directions, your pcm's program will be safe and, in the event of a catastrophic situation with your PCM, you can recover it (unless something goes extremely wrong and you fry the PCM, but then you can get a new one and program it with the old PCM info) and it will only cost you the $100.00 bucks for the PCM. better than paying $1300, lol. Besides, I'm venturing into the turbo world and I've the feeling I'll be using the HP tuner a lot.

 

Nice, everyone... Our devotion to our cars sometimes is greater than what we'd do for ourselves, lol.

Keep it up! Get some funny ones in here too!