So long story short…

My girlfriend and I took the trip to Maryland for Moparpalooza and I was on pins and needles for the whole ride to and from. Let me explain.

The week leading up to Moparpalooza weekend I ran over (and I swear by this) a large, industrial sized lug nut for like a bridge while on my way to work. Luckily, sort of, it hit on the flat side but still hit my gas tank and broke the sending unit inside. Shortly after I hear ‘ping!’ and the CEL comes on. No visible damage whatsoever. That’s when I checked it at the race shop and discovered the sending unit floating at the bottom of the tank and my needle showing a half tank on the dash.

So I couldn’t do anything about it and since I was short on time decided to wing it to Moparpalooza. I get to the last exit in Jersey and it was time for gas.

Wouldn’t go in.

Thanks to the flurry of viper gas threads on the net, I remembered to try the nozzle upside down. BINGO! Slowly it filled and I got $40 in. However coming back the car wouldn’t take any gas at all. The EVAP really took a crap and I got 3 gallons in. So I did what any racer would do, draft, not knowing how much was really in my tank. 60 mph, 1700RPMs behind a RV for 100 miles home.

Pretty sure at this point I wanted to go insane.

We eventually make it back safely and I take the car in for service the next day. I get a call Wednesday that parts would take 3-5 business days to ship to the dealer. One would think such parts would be readily available for overnight shipping if the car is technically still in production since 2005.

I’ve been driving a rental Chrysler 200 for the last week and a half, finally I’m picking up the Magnum today. The repair is going to wipe out my viper savings and I have to miss out on alot of things this Summer but I guess I just have to start over. Good news is, it’s paid off and I don’t have anymore payments to make!

–RS