Concerned

As previously mentioned last Saturday evening was booming in Sydney. An international pop concert, Super 14 rugby and a race carnival ensured taxis were in demand all night.

My vehicle’s day driver was starting late so the cab was mine until dawn and with the end of daylight saving creating an extra hour, conditions were perfect to double my usual Saturday wage.

Resuming work after dinner I was really pumped and prepared to go hard for six hours. But there was a strange noise developing under the vehicle at low speed and on tight turns – a sort of klunking sound suggesting retarded (automatic) gear changes. Or even worse, a slowly shearing ball joint on the steering assembly.

At midnight I called the boss for a meeting downtown to pinpoint the issue as I was concerned about the possibility of a catastrophic part failure at high speed.

Unfortunately, though, the noise was intermittent and refused to perform during the test drive so I carried on working.

However by 1.30am the klunking sound had developed enough to indicate something was definitely wrong with the vehicle. So I decided to call it a night and head back to base, some four hours early, with work everywhere. Sure, this was disappointing but that’s life in the cab game.

The good news is that such events rarely occur with my vehicles as the boss is proactive on regular maintenance. Yet even he couldn’t locate the problem and later that morning sent out the day driver with instructions to take it easy.

Subsequently, within thirty kilometres the differential blew up and the vehicle needed towing. After hearing this I didn’t feel so bad about missing the extra work.

Comments

[Josh]

Fix Or Repair Daily :)

Thw amount of k's and punishment those newer falcons take as taxis is amazing

[Dataceptionist]

I had the ball joint detach from the front right axle on a Ford Festiva as I left my driveway, it was a giant pain in the ass because it wouldn't winch onto the tow truck properly, taking over an hour to be towed away.

I felt better though when the towie told us he'd seen the same problem once before, happened on a Merc, at 60 km/h, the ball joint ended up under the driver seat, creating massive accident & injury.
Sometimes irritations are a blessing in disguise.

[Goldstein]

Yeah, as Josh commented -the Fal-cans do phenomenal mieage ! I used to drive one that had 600,000km on it, a wagon, and it drove pretty much like new.

A few of the cabs in the depot had around 1,000,000km on them !

What I noticed was that at very high mileage everything starts to "feel" worn -doors sag, seats get lumpy, and the wheel bearings start to grind like buggery..

My daily drive at the moment is a '95 Falcon ute -280,000km on it, I just did the head, cooling system and suspension/steering, and it goes like the "powers of piss" ! I will be launching it to Sydney from here (Adelaide) in May, I don't expect problems.

I'd be interested to know how the Japanese cars -Camrys, Magnas and so on -are going as cabs.. I had a ride in an '03 Avalon taxi the other day -300,000km I think -older driver, said it was no trouble at all so far.

[Kezza]

At the end of the day (or should that be night?) you did the right thing, after all it wasn't you who ended up stuck on the side of the road with a trail of diff bits smouldering behind you!

Goldstein asks how the Magnas and Camrys rate as taxis, I know we had plenty of high milaege examples of both when I worked for a Toyota dealership, some in excess of 400,000 Klms (High milage for privately owned vehicles) and they still held up very well. The fact they are comprehansivley re-engineered for Australian duty helps, but that said nothing comes close to a Commodore or Falcon for rugged reliability. What I'd like to know is how the "new breed" of hybrid taxis (so popular in New York now) will hold up to the punishment.

Sorry to hear that your busy night didn't go according to plan though, did you do alright out of the hours you worked though?

[Rainer.the.Cabbie]

My old horse is clicking the 500000km mark, two more months to go before we have to swap it for a new one. Plenty of noises and strange behaviour but she keeps on running and the meter works perfectly well, for everything else we keep superglue and sticky tape in the glove box.
Pity you missed that busy Saturday finish, it may have been the last great night between now and 2011. Lets hope not!

[adrian]

Forgot a important detail with this incident. The vehicle is relatively new, still under warranty with around 90,000klms on the clock. It's either had a tough life or the differential was defective from the start. Kezza, did alright on the night, considering.

[Goldstein]

90,000km ? What was it, ex-Police? The diff usually outlasts the rest of the drive train..

[NQ cabbie]

The most I have seen on a cab I have actually driven is 660,000 km on a four cylinder Camry. Until recently up here most of the cabs were 4 cylinder Camrys (now most new cabs are Toyota Prius) so they can't be too bad. As for the Hybrids, I drive one with 230,000 km on it, I too am looking forward to seeing how they last with high k's.

[Goldstein]

Yes, NQ, the highest km I ever drove was in 2000 -it was a "stand-by" taxi, fleet number 388, an EB 3.9 Falcon with 1,100,000km ! The 4 sp auto trans had died in the arse and they'd fitted an older 3 sp auto -$700 vs $2200 at that time.. I think it was on its second motor -slack drivers forgetting to check coolant levels = motors overheating and dying..

Everything groaned, squeaked, rumbled, but the old bastard wouldn't die, and I would have gone to Melbourne in it without worry.