long distance q purchases

[auditude at neta.com]

On 13 Dec 00, at 21:28, TM wrote:
> 
> One other thing to consider is that if you drive the car back
> cross-country, you will have to look at the possibility that you
> may have a breakdown on your trip, which would cost you even more
> time and money. 

Shoot, I would say that what you wrote is my "number one" 
concern when thinking about a long trip to purchase a car.

Today I ordered a multifunction temp sensor.   When I got home 
from work, I started to inspect the suspension.  I may get an 
alignment w/o new struts.  This reminds me, can I change the 
struts without losing the alignment?  If so that's great.  It looked 
like the struts would hit the hood before they came out.  My car 
seems to be lower on the right front, but I may have a slow leak in 
that tire.  It's not enough of a difference for me to really be able to 
tell with the "fingers between the tire and wheelwell" method, and I 
haven't measured it to verify.  Half the time I dismiss it as the 
crown in the road.  It may be an excuse to get springs.  I'm not 
sure if the struts contribute that much to the height to make such a 
difference if only one "blew".  I only inspected one corner, which 
looked pretty good, before I got sidetracked.

I noticed under the hood that the top radiator hose had the tiniest of 
leaks that must've just sprang recently.  There was a small pool of 
coolant on the hyd pump bracket where a teensy stream could 
shoot.  I was able to get a new one ordered and onto the same 
shipment.  Threw in a bypass valve and some oil filters.

An interesting thing about the hose, and this whole long distance 
thread, is that I am in a way trying to get the 5kcstq a little more 
squared away, so I can drive it instead of my Saturn on a 400 mile 
each way holiday trip.  A blowing radiator hose is exactly the type 
of thing that could put a damper on my trip.  I can't say that I 
haven't had the same type of occurence on my Satty.

I hope the MF sensor helps more than just the temp gauge.  I'd 
sure prefer taking the turbo quattro to Cali.  Let me know about 
being able to swap struts without losing the alignment.  I don't 
recall that it applied to the rear, if at all.

Thanks,

Ken