Day after Halloween: Fuel pump died. Car stalled while I was in the turn lane to get to the office. Had to have my supervisor and my coding dude help me push it across two lanes of highway into the parking lot. Took hours to get it to start enough to drive it home.
Five days later, the fuel pump replaced, it made it to work and then wouldn't start to get home. It sat in the parking lot for two nights before we finally managed to jump it. This happened again a few days later.
Eventually we figured out it needed new spark plugs, and it was mostly okay for a while.
Sometimes the ignition doesn't go when you turn the key. The accessories come on, but the ignition does nothing. Letting it sit for five minutes usually fixes this. We have no idea what the fuck is going on with that, and it's an unpredictable and non-replicable problem so we can't troubleshoot it.
Yesterday on the interstate it started stalling out. It was running a little hot - right on the edge of the red area of the temp gauge - and the oil pressure was a little low - right on the edge of that red area, too. It actually stalled out completely as I was pulling into a parking lot going "oh shit oh shit oh shit."
40 minutes later Justin arrived to help me look at it. We replaced the engine coolant and checked the oil - the oil was fine, the coolant was really low, but that doesn't actually explain the problem, because it didn't stall out because of overheating. It wasn't running hot enough, for one thing, and for another - the sound an engine makes when it stalls out from overheating is a particular kind of noise, and this was just - dying. Not an overheating-to-death stall.
With the coolant in it, it started. Then it stalled again and wouldn't restart. This process repeated several times before we finally got it to stay running.
It almost stalled out on the on-ramp, then again a couple of times on the interstate on the way home. It nearly stalled out one more time coming off a red light a few blocks from home, but whomping the gas pedal as hard as possible saved it.
Now it's sitting in the parking lot of the apartment complex, because we have no idea what the fucking hell is wrong with the goddamn piece of shit. And quite frankly, after a fucking MONTH of one thing after another going out on it, I'm about ready to just buy a new fucking car and haul that one down to our shooting land and blow fucking holes in it with a fucking shotgun.
We opened up the radiator cap. Coolant's milkshake-brown. Blown head gasket. Car is dead.
We're going car shopping soon. Going to arrange for the money while we're in Longview for Christmas. I'm leaning toward an early-90s Honda with a stick shift - those things are impossible to kill. My parents had an early-80s model sitting in the side yard for several years - a maple sapling managed to grow through the engine compartment - and once they got the tree out of it, it started up and ran just fine. A friend of mine had a '92 which he flipped in a ditch and kept running upside down for a couple of minutes - a maneuver which complete killed the engine of another friend's Mustang of similar vintage, so that it never ran again - and after he'd turned it off, flipped it back over and started it again, there were no problems whatever. I firmly believe you could drive a Honda off a cliff and as long as the driveshaft wasn't snapped by the impact you could make it home.
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timeasmymeasure
that sucks
Date: 2007-12-09 07:58 am (UTC)THE NEVER ENDING SAGA
Date: 2007-12-09 09:30 am (UTC)Five days later, the fuel pump replaced, it made it to work and then wouldn't start to get home. It sat in the parking lot for two nights before we finally managed to jump it. This happened again a few days later.
Eventually we figured out it needed new spark plugs, and it was mostly okay for a while.
Sometimes the ignition doesn't go when you turn the key. The accessories come on, but the ignition does nothing. Letting it sit for five minutes usually fixes this. We have no idea what the fuck is going on with that, and it's an unpredictable and non-replicable problem so we can't troubleshoot it.
Yesterday on the interstate it started stalling out. It was running a little hot - right on the edge of the red area of the temp gauge - and the oil pressure was a little low - right on the edge of that red area, too. It actually stalled out completely as I was pulling into a parking lot going "oh shit oh shit oh shit."
40 minutes later Justin arrived to help me look at it. We replaced the engine coolant and checked the oil - the oil was fine, the coolant was really low, but that doesn't actually explain the problem, because it didn't stall out because of overheating. It wasn't running hot enough, for one thing, and for another - the sound an engine makes when it stalls out from overheating is a particular kind of noise, and this was just - dying. Not an overheating-to-death stall.
With the coolant in it, it started. Then it stalled again and wouldn't restart. This process repeated several times before we finally got it to stay running.
It almost stalled out on the on-ramp, then again a couple of times on the interstate on the way home. It nearly stalled out one more time coming off a red light a few blocks from home, but whomping the gas pedal as hard as possible saved it.
Now it's sitting in the parking lot of the apartment complex, because we have no idea what the fucking hell is wrong with the goddamn piece of shit. And quite frankly, after a fucking MONTH of one thing after another going out on it, I'm about ready to just buy a new fucking car and haul that one down to our shooting land and blow fucking holes in it with a fucking shotgun.
Re: THE NEVER ENDING SAGA
Date: 2007-12-20 07:13 am (UTC)Re: THE NEVER ENDING SAGA
Date: 2007-12-20 08:24 am (UTC)We're going car shopping soon. Going to arrange for the money while we're in Longview for Christmas. I'm leaning toward an early-90s Honda with a stick shift - those things are impossible to kill. My parents had an early-80s model sitting in the side yard for several years - a maple sapling managed to grow through the engine compartment - and once they got the tree out of it, it started up and ran just fine. A friend of mine had a '92 which he flipped in a ditch and kept running upside down for a couple of minutes - a maneuver which complete killed the engine of another friend's Mustang of similar vintage, so that it never ran again - and after he'd turned it off, flipped it back over and started it again, there were no problems whatever. I firmly believe you could drive a Honda off a cliff and as long as the driveshaft wasn't snapped by the impact you could make it home.