When it rains it pours..
 

So I had been fairly pleased with how consistently well the miata has been running up to this point. Today, however, karma ( or fate) caught up to me.

So I drove to play outdoor doubles volleyball at a grass court about 35 minutes away. With the newly tuned car, I had a blast driving there. I got on the court and two plays in, managed to get an epic ankle sprain (accompanied by a nice loud POP). After icing, I realized that I knew no one in the area that can drive stick and my ankle looked like a softball. So I was left to drive the miata with my ACT XT clutch home on my sprained ankle.

After getting through a painful few lights, I made it onto 495, and was very proud of myself. I was cruising in 4th just thinking how bad it would be if my car died. Within 5 seconds, I heard a loud "POP" (the second of the day), and saw my AFRs go to hell. Seconds later, fuel and smoke started spraying out of my hood. I shut down the car (at 65 mph), cut someone off, and swerved onto the shoulder. Limped my now crippled leg, AND car off the road and went under the hood to check it out. My injector O-ring failed, and was gushing fuel all over the motor. Good thing I had AAA :) Unfortunately, I had been camping the night before, and noticed my cell battery was gone, dead, fin.

Luckily, Scott had left a pack of O-rings that I had saved in the trunk, and after McGuyver-ing one that should NOT have fit, into the hole... I was on my way. What a shitty day. :vash:

That sounds like it sucked! Here's to a speedy recovery... for you both.

Holy crap man! Glad it was something simple relative to what could've happened!


Vehicle power Cord, INVEST IN ONE!! You coulda been in the middle of BFE with a dead phone!!

double damn.

incidentally, jenn's still limping, swollen, and in pain from her ankle sprain (pop sound also) that she did March 21. she can just barely drive now. and this is wimpy civic clutch.

sucks about the car. glad it was fixable. i wonder if it happened because scott spent so much time in it lately.

Yeah, I've had this happen to me before.. I can pretty much count myself out of any vball tournaments this summer now :(. I may end up giving up driving the miata for awhile.

I will now be investing in a damn car charger also ;)

hey was the grass court on the mall by any chance?

You need to rig something to the clutch pedal so you can push in the clutch with your left hand while you are recovering from the sprain. Section of broom stick and duct tape? Better yet a lever of some sort to reduce the force needed.

When it rains it pours. Wasn't bad enough to sprain the ankle, the cosmos had to keep slapping you down. Pisser.

Damn Newb...that is shitty as hell.


But you have to admit you are a trooper for getting that bitch up and going and making it home. Props.

how the hell was it fine on the dyno and failed soon afterwards?!

You touched it Scott, Matt was dead on on this one.

I touched the laptop i didnt touch the car!

Fuck if I know. The o-ring was almost sheered straight through. I have seen them get "nicked" and drip a bit, but this thing looked almost cut straight through.

Matt, no the grass tourney on the mall was supposed to be the 20th. Doubt I will be playing that one anymore.

You need to put that health insurance to use, make sure you didn't tear something important. When I fucked up my knee it started healing improperly right away. Then a week later I was under the knife for 6hrs.

To reiterate what neo said, get it looked at so it heals properly, plus pain meds are good.

I took out my clutch foot once, when I put my foot under a lawn mower. Didn't take me long to get good at starting with no gas using my right foot, than rev matching to shift gears. Thankfully I didn't have a broken car to go along with that.

At least when you suckers funked up your feet, you can still do sutff albeit with some pain... when I severed my achilles tendon, I couldn't do shit, the Miata sat in the driveway for 5 months :(

Sucks to hear though, hope ya get getter soon! I 2nd the opinion of going to the doc..get that looked at... any popping followed by pain is NEVER something you want to let "get better" on it's own.

I feel ya. In 3-days I managed to have a garage door mechanism break and fall on my hood and fenders, hardtop stolen, manifold studs broke, a 21mph+ ticket, a 2mph warning, a no-front-plate ticket, and I'm stuck i a shit-hole town.