Reply to "Pre-LMC visit to Italy"

The trip down here was not without its problems. As I said before, anytime you go abroad in a classic car, you roll the dice. Personally I’ve always managed to get the car through the trip with one exception, I drove my Camaro to Mantorp 400 km into Sweden and dragraced it with nitrous. With water in the oil, I had to get it transported home, though it was later found to be only a headgasket.

After many hours on the freeway on day one, when I exited and reduced speed, I could hear a constant whining from below. Could be a wheel bearing, could be the rear end, could be C6 transmission. Not very loud, but definitely not right. At the hotel I checked for oil leaks, didn’t find any. The noise was very constant, weaving right to left didn’t do anything, so I was sure it wasn’t a wheel bearing. So I had no problems just driving on, a risk of course, I might ruin more, but hey, I was going to Italy. And France. And Charlie’s trip. And Le Mans. Couldn’t stop.

So I drove it to my current destination near Venice, the noise didn’t change. Maybe just a bit higher. Maybe not. Hard to tell. Then I thought, well I’m near the world’s only DeTomaso shop, RSCorse in Modena, maybe they can help? I called their number Monday, got hold of a guy, “do you speak English?”, “Yes”, and we discussed. They’re apparently in the middle of moving shop, but they would help me anyway, I should come by Tuesday at 10:00. Great. I hadn’t caught his name, so I asked “what was your name again?”. “Santiago deTomaso”. The man himself.

So Tuesday I got up at 6:00, left at 7:00, got to Modena Via Salgari at 10:00. There I met Raffaele and Mirko and some other that spoke Italian to me, and I know about 10 words Italian, so no lengthy conversations there. I felt in good hands though. They took the Longchamp in, and just the way they carefully examined the lift points and were two people checking while lifting, to make sure not to damage the car. A Danish mechanic would maybe have been faster at this, but he wouldn’t have been so careful with your car for sure.

So they checked the 4 wheel bearings. The fronts are quite new and were OK. The rears are (I think) pressed into the aluminum hubs, and if bad require both a new bearing and to have the aluminum checked. Safety first. Rear bearings were a little worn but didn’t seem to be the source of the noise. Then Santiago arrived. As always in nicely clean pressed pants and shirt, but he quickly went on a roller on the floor, helping to examine my car. Then we did a bit of driving in it, first me with Santiago besides me. Then Santiago. Then Raffaele up and down the street, so Santiago could stand on the street listening for bearing noises.

The conclusion was that it was not bearing related. So the suggestion was the rear end. It was leaking a little, very little, never any puddles beneath it, but if it was going empty, that might be the noise, so we agreed to have the oil changed/topped up. That could require going to their other shop, and now lunch was getting nearer, so while I wanted to press on obviously, you have to accept local customs, so we agreed I’d be back at 14:00, then I would drive with Raffaele to the other shop where there was room on a lift.

Let me just say that I had started taking some pictures of interesting cars there, but Raffaele asked me not to share them, so I won’t. Sorry. Only this: