Apart from hoses and fan belts (which you should carry all the time anyway), I always have a couple of bottles of Octane Booster in the boot. I always run my car on 98 and sometimes you can't get it when you are out there in the wild. Having said that, a road trip in a Zed is just about one of the World's most pleasurable experiences. I have done plenty of these trips and the Zed has never let me down. I keep the cooling system in good nick and I have an A/M temp gauge for peace of mind. Never moves off 82 deg. If you don't have one, fit one now!
Thanks. Octane booster is a good idea, especially as it will probably be pretty hot. I should get an after market temp guage but don't think I will have time between now and when I leave so I will just have to keep a eye on my cooling system. It has been quite good up until now and I keep it pretty well looked after so I am sure I will be fine.
Get one Any workshop can fit in no time if you can't and for around $100 only, i can't think of a more REQUIRED upgrade to any Zed my AF guage moves heaps between say 80 and 95 showing me heatsoak after engine off and everything. the stock guage SERIOUSLY sits on half way. tells me NOTHING fit one
Yeah, I know the stock one is pretty unresponsive and I will get around to getting an A/M gauge soonish but I don't know that it will happen before this trip. I might run a PDA with ConZult or ECUTalk to keep an eye on temps I guess.
Pete, so far as I'm aware, you maintain your Zed in pretty good condition. Under those circumstances (and provided there are no real problems that you are aware of) just jump in the damn thing and drive it! IF you are going to really remote areas (how many of those are there in Victoria?), take the obvious spares. . . panty-hose, wire coat-hangers, gaffer-tape and so on. My qualification for this comment: received an emergency call from Adelaide (which is where I am at the moment), adjusted the tyre pressures for highway, filled it with fuel and drove! Not the first time I've done this sort of thing. I really think the Zed is no more likely to let you down than any other car (probably less likely than a lot of them!).
I have done the Adelaide and back trip a few times in my Zed and it has not missed a beat, I don't actually expect any problems on this trip either even though I am going to be doing at least 5 or 6 times that distance, probably on worse roads. The reason I am taking extra precautions against the unexpected is that I am going to be in some pretty out of the way areas (yep, we do have them in Victoria and if I go into north eastern SA or western NSW there are plenty of them there too) and all you need is something to go wrong 70 or 80km out of mobile phone range on a road that does not see much traffic and you have a very very long walk ahead of you if you can't get your car going again. Normally I would take it to Joe for a check up before a trip like this (as I would with any car, even a new one. I know the risk of problems is low but the potential for any small problem to become huge makes the extra precautions seem sensible to me) but I have decided to do it myself, the more I can learn about my car the better and this seems like a good opportunity to learn more. Edit: Also, keep an eye on your right foot on the Adelaide-Melbourne route, there are a couple of highway patrol cars that go up and down sections of that road 24 hours a day so you are guaranteed to pass them some time on the trip.
