Never ask a Spider owner how his car is running.

[70spider]

On my way to the Wally Mart I stoped by my son's freinds house to drop the house key off. His friend's father was out in his garage working on his motorcycles so I went to have a chat. He asks me the dreaded question "How is the old Fiat running?" "Really good" I reply and as the words left my mouth I knew I had offended the Fiat gods. An air of uneasiness fell upon me. I should have just drove him back home but I continued on my journy to the store. Everything was fine, excellent in fact, what a pleasure to drive. I did my shopping and admired the beauty of Pesto as I approached him in the parking lot, setting next to a 2000 something Chevy. I opened the door the interior light came on, good sign, sat down fastened the seat belt and turned the key. "Click" then nothing! I was dead in the water, literally, it started raining. I did a systematic check of all connections and retried to start him with the same result, perhaps the ignition switch issue I had last week is the culprit. I went back into the store and no public pay phone, I walked to every filling station in a 3 mile radius still no public pay phone. I went back into Walmart and they let me make a local call for help. Called the wife she called the wrecker and we made it back home.
Lessons learned if ever asked the question again I will reply "like crap" and apparently I need to get a cell phone, damn changing world .

[AriK]

On my way to the Wally Mart I stoped by my son's freinds house to drop the house key off. His friend's father was out in his garage working on his motorcycles so I went to have a chat. He asks me the dreaded question "How is the old Fiat running?" "Really good" I reply and as the words left my mouth I knew I had offended the Fiat gods. An air of uneasiness fell upon me. I should have just drove him back home but I continued on my journy to the store. Everything was fine, excellent in fact, what a pleasure to drive. I did my shopping and admired the beauty of Pesto as I approached him in the parking lot, setting next to a 2000 something Chevy. I opened the door the interior light came on, good sign, sat down fastened the seat belt and turned the key. "Click" then nothing! I was dead in the water, literally, it started raining. I did a systematic check of all connections and retried to start him with the same result, perhaps the ignition switch issue I had last week is the culprit. I went back into the store and no public pay phone, I walked to every filling station in a 3 mile radius still no public pay phone. I went back into Walmart and they let me make a local call for help. Called the wife she called the wrecker and we made it back home.
Lessons learned if ever asked the question again I will reply "like crap" and apparently I need to get a cell phone, damn changing world .

Took note. My car runs "like crap".

[RRoller123]

We had a discussion about that damned "click of death" and it turned out for a couple of us to be the C17 connector just aft (maybe 6") of the ignition switch. All the ignition switch connections go through this connector, so if we stop our diagnosis by just checking the connections at the switch itself, we miss a real opportunity for error. I found loose connections there which were the culprit in my car.

[nelsonj]

The two crucial/essential tools I carry with me on EVERY drive:
1) cell phone
2) AAA card (with extended 100 mile towing range.)

Peace.

[steve8462]

how about a unicycle in the trunk?

[JTBernhardt]

I find the knocking on the wood dash inserts helps when a "My car is running great!" slips from my lips. I've never had the pleasure of being dead in the water (yet), but I'm always sure to have my AAA card and cell phone with me. I have, however, been known to pull into a gas station and re-set the points and time the car and various other things to keep me on the road. There's never a dull moment when your idea of a daily driver is a 43-year-old Fiat.

[fiat218]

That's is funny