Spoke to the owner. Sounds like some younger guy. Said he doesn't know much about cars but it just died on him and he couldn't get it started again. Sounds like a dead PTU going by his description. He sounded extremely worried once I told him his car is slowly being trashed. Mentioned it's not insured. Told him I'll drop by after work with spare PTU and some of my tools and give hopefully get him up and running before there's no zed left.
That's pretty damn cool right there. Your Zed breaks down on the side of the road, and you don't have to do a thing. Just wait for a call from a friendly amateur that wants to fix it for you!
Having now met Ross, I can tell that he's one of those people who is just happy to help and share knowledge where he can.
Finally moved it off the calder. The car was pretty bare. Stereo completely ripped out, boost gauge gone, ECU stolen and they even stole the oil cap off the engine!! The poor guy couldn't believe the state of his car. He said he put it up for sale because he couldn't afford to feed its appetite for fuel as it was costing him heaps to drive to uni and back. Anyway, I had a spare ECU so I chucked it in. Checked the oil which looked like it had enough before starting it up. Engine was chugging on about 4 cylinders. I could hear a loud knock from the bottom end and top end sounded quite scary too. Piles of smoke pouring out the exhaust. He quickly grabbed some cheap oil and we topped it up. Moved off only to get surrounded by a couple cop cars. They had a report that the car was being stolen. It didn't take long to prove the owner. The guy then proceeded to explain how I'm just here to help him get it running and move it to a safer spot. Then one of the cops asked for my details because his mate has a zed. We continued down the road and pulled up at the macedon exit. The car had managed to consume a couple of litres of oil already! So we tipped what was left and continued to riddles creek. Got about half way before calling it quits as we simply didn't have enough oil. The car is at least at a house now. Not quite at the mechanics but at least it's in a safer spot. The guy was very greatful for the assistance but now is in a jam as he needs to swap in his spare engine but doesn't have the know how.
Great work Ross!! You really are the bush mechanic. Judging by the time you posted this, you must've been on the side of the road for a long time trying to get it to work. Poor kid. He should've organised a tow at the start of all of this but nobody deserves what happened to that car. If there's a tech day to help the kid put his engine in, I'll be there. I'm feeling much better and my last Uni exam is on Thursday. The weekends are quickly filling with birthday and christmas parties but if there is an event, I'll try to make it. Get the lad to join the forum too.
what on earth was he thinking leaving a Z on the side of the calder fwy for a week+?? $120-$130 he coulda had it towed.. even if he was broke just borrow the money??
Fantastic work Ross, I'm sure the owner is extremely appreciative and indebted of your efforts, if a little heart broken at the state of his car the vultures have left it in. I am amazed though that he didn't seek out help from someone to get his car towed and simply abandoned what looks like a very clean example, not knowing what else to do. Cheers, Craig
Yeah I'd be in that too...! Would love to see an engine being installed (would help too of course but knowlege is limited)
Thanks guys. The guy couldn't afford a tow truck by sounds of it, that's why it ended up sitting there so long.Told him to keep an eye on ebay to see if his stuff comes up for sale. Yeah it took longer than I expected. Took a while to figure out that the ECU is missing as I wouldn't have expected someone to pinch nearly everything from inside! Then there was the problem of a missing oil cap, which we plugged with an old rag. I'll see what I can organise but unfortunately can't have another zed sitting in my garage for weeks. Need to hurry and put my shed up (council keeps stuffing me around). I've told him to join the forum, so you might see him pop up soon.
This may be a little off topic, but im curious. The reg sticker on that zed says tare 1150 (so 1,150kg) Seems rather light? Compared to my little stock 2 seater which is 1,400kg.....
thank **** you helped the bloke out. after page one i was expecting to see the car sitting on bricks with smashed windows and grafiti all over it. if i see this happening to a zed near me ill just get the thing towed to my house and store it untill i find the owner, i cant imagine how the owner of that zed feels. cant be feeling to smart though.
of everything to go missing a Z ecm is pretty unique, makes me think that somewhere a fellow Z owner is a little dodgy.
I was thinking the same. The passenger window was fully wound down, indicating it was a person the knew which wires to manipulate in the the door to get it down without a key.
Yeah. Good point. I was also thinking this when I saw that they took the side indicators and the Z badge. I didn't open the doors or look under the bonnet as it would've looked like I was trying to take stuff too. We've all said it before - Damn that thing looked clean before it was stripped.
