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radio flyer, non flyer
Jan. 16th, 2006 02:18 pmMy plans for this weekend were simple: drive down to Northampton on Saturday, meet up with Hillary and Laura, putz around Noho enjoying ourselves until Monday, drive back to Albany. By Saturday afternoon, it was becoming rapildy apparent that these plans were nothing but wishful thinking. Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?
I wanted to get my oil changed before I left, because the oil has been higher than it should be since I bought the car. I've put about 2k miles on since I bought it, so I figured I might as well, but that it wasn't absolutely necessary. I bought oil myself, and washer fluid while I was at it. I meant to put the washer fluid in myself, but the hood latch is doing something weird where the forward latch pops out only when you're pulling the inside latch, then retracts. Opening the hood is now a two-person job. I figured out later that I could pry it out, but that was later. So I didn't get to look at the engine compartment before leaving.
I took it to the Valvoline across the street and got in line for an oil change. Two essays in Mapping the World of Harry Potter later, they come out and tell me that they can't change my oil because they can't get the plug out. They could put more torque on it, but they'd risk cracking it which would make them liable. You'll have to take it to a mechanic, they say. So I drive off, noticing that they've at least refilled my windshield washer fluid (albeit not with the stuff I'd just bought).
At this point, my mechanic is closed and I'm running behind anyway, so I get on 90 and head to Noho. Everything is fine for the first 45 minutes. Then my coolant light comes on as I accelerate away from the first set of MA tollbooths. The Lee travel plaza is barely 5 miles away, and my engine temp is actually only halfway up the gauge, so I slow down and turn gadgets off. She's running warm, but not poorly at all. We make it to the travel plaza, and the engine temp moniter is still just a little over halfway, so I let her sit while I manage to pry the forward latch for the hood out of its little hidey-hole and open the hood. The coolant container is totally empty. (first question: how did the oil change people refill my washer fluid and not notice that the coolant tank was bone dry? they're right next to each other.) As my manual has no recommendations for coolant other than that I should get it from my Audi dealer, I go inside and buy a bottle of the brand that I recognized (there were only two options, anyway), and a gallon of water. I sit around and let the engine cool down some more, then fill the tank with a 1:1 mix of coolant:water, as indicated on the bottle. I let it sit some more as I clean up and get something to eat. She runs a little rough when I start her up again, but calms down some as I drive towards the on ramp, so I figure she'll keep getting better as the coolant works its way through the system. Indeed, by about the Lee exit a couple miles down the road, she's either running fine or I've totally gotten used to it.
But a couple miles past the Lee exit, the engine just stops firing. No weird noise, no lights come on, just a totally unresponsive engine. I pull off to the breakdown lane, and open the hood. The coolant tank is steaming a little and the level is lower than I filled it to, but not exactly empty. The liquid seems darker than the bright orange stuff that I put in, but the sun is setting by now and it's begun to rain. The engine temp hadn't been rising, so I don't know that the coolant is to blame at all.
A Masspike safety vehicle pulls up and offers to call a tow. I say that I want to give it a chance to cool down first, and he gives me the number to call and drives off. I let her sit a bit, but when I try to start her again, the engine cranks but doesn't fire. The electrics are fine, I've got a half a tank of gas, but no spark. I call a tow truck and wait.
Fortunately, I'm still close to the Lee exit. Unfortunately, that's still a $75 tow right there. They're closed for the night, but will be open Monday morning. They offer to look at it on Monday to try to diagnose it, then decide where to go from there. I try calling Carolyn, but she doesn't pick up. I call Mya, who is just leaving work, but whose car won't even make it to Lee, much less back. She'll try if I can't find anyone else, I know, but neither of us really wants that. Crystal and Steve would both pick me up on a moment's notice, but they're both out of town. I call Rachael, who is at the lab. She answers the phone "hey, bitch!," but when I ask if she knows where Carolyn is and explain my situation she revises her schedule and says she'll go home right away because she thinks that Carolyn is probably napping. She does, and she was right, and Carolyn picks me up in Lee a little over an hour later. A little running around, but at least that worked. Carolyn, by the way, is an absolute godsend.
So today the towing company takes a look at it, says the battery dead, so they charged it, but the engine still turns over but doesn't fire. Unfortunately, their computer is too new for my car, and can't check it out that way. They swear up and down that the fuel pump is still pumping, though, which is what my mechanic in Albany said it's most likely to be. They can't do diddly-squat there, so they're towing it the 50 miles up to Albany tomorrow morning, where my mechanics won't get a chance to look at it until Thursday, they say.
I'm getting out of Lee with about $300 in charges. I don't know how much it'll be in Albany, but I only have about another $100 to work with, and that's all my money until the 25th, most of which needs to go to rent and insurance and bills. And it means that I can't buy my light box this month, either. Let's see, I was told to get that back in, what, October? I guess the plus side is that at least this happened in a month that I was going to have a little extra money, but since that "extra money" was all going to go for medical necessities and paying my dad back, it hardly feels like a plus side. I know that getting a car was setting myself up for these kinds of problems, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. It also doesn't make it any easier to live without a car in Albany; the weather finally turned January-cold, I have a Girl Scout meeting this week, and I'm supposed to be starting a biochem class in Troy on Wednesday.
What a shitty weekend.
the hedge abides.
I wanted to get my oil changed before I left, because the oil has been higher than it should be since I bought the car. I've put about 2k miles on since I bought it, so I figured I might as well, but that it wasn't absolutely necessary. I bought oil myself, and washer fluid while I was at it. I meant to put the washer fluid in myself, but the hood latch is doing something weird where the forward latch pops out only when you're pulling the inside latch, then retracts. Opening the hood is now a two-person job. I figured out later that I could pry it out, but that was later. So I didn't get to look at the engine compartment before leaving.
I took it to the Valvoline across the street and got in line for an oil change. Two essays in Mapping the World of Harry Potter later, they come out and tell me that they can't change my oil because they can't get the plug out. They could put more torque on it, but they'd risk cracking it which would make them liable. You'll have to take it to a mechanic, they say. So I drive off, noticing that they've at least refilled my windshield washer fluid (albeit not with the stuff I'd just bought).
At this point, my mechanic is closed and I'm running behind anyway, so I get on 90 and head to Noho. Everything is fine for the first 45 minutes. Then my coolant light comes on as I accelerate away from the first set of MA tollbooths. The Lee travel plaza is barely 5 miles away, and my engine temp is actually only halfway up the gauge, so I slow down and turn gadgets off. She's running warm, but not poorly at all. We make it to the travel plaza, and the engine temp moniter is still just a little over halfway, so I let her sit while I manage to pry the forward latch for the hood out of its little hidey-hole and open the hood. The coolant container is totally empty. (first question: how did the oil change people refill my washer fluid and not notice that the coolant tank was bone dry? they're right next to each other.) As my manual has no recommendations for coolant other than that I should get it from my Audi dealer, I go inside and buy a bottle of the brand that I recognized (there were only two options, anyway), and a gallon of water. I sit around and let the engine cool down some more, then fill the tank with a 1:1 mix of coolant:water, as indicated on the bottle. I let it sit some more as I clean up and get something to eat. She runs a little rough when I start her up again, but calms down some as I drive towards the on ramp, so I figure she'll keep getting better as the coolant works its way through the system. Indeed, by about the Lee exit a couple miles down the road, she's either running fine or I've totally gotten used to it.
But a couple miles past the Lee exit, the engine just stops firing. No weird noise, no lights come on, just a totally unresponsive engine. I pull off to the breakdown lane, and open the hood. The coolant tank is steaming a little and the level is lower than I filled it to, but not exactly empty. The liquid seems darker than the bright orange stuff that I put in, but the sun is setting by now and it's begun to rain. The engine temp hadn't been rising, so I don't know that the coolant is to blame at all.
A Masspike safety vehicle pulls up and offers to call a tow. I say that I want to give it a chance to cool down first, and he gives me the number to call and drives off. I let her sit a bit, but when I try to start her again, the engine cranks but doesn't fire. The electrics are fine, I've got a half a tank of gas, but no spark. I call a tow truck and wait.
Fortunately, I'm still close to the Lee exit. Unfortunately, that's still a $75 tow right there. They're closed for the night, but will be open Monday morning. They offer to look at it on Monday to try to diagnose it, then decide where to go from there. I try calling Carolyn, but she doesn't pick up. I call Mya, who is just leaving work, but whose car won't even make it to Lee, much less back. She'll try if I can't find anyone else, I know, but neither of us really wants that. Crystal and Steve would both pick me up on a moment's notice, but they're both out of town. I call Rachael, who is at the lab. She answers the phone "hey, bitch!," but when I ask if she knows where Carolyn is and explain my situation she revises her schedule and says she'll go home right away because she thinks that Carolyn is probably napping. She does, and she was right, and Carolyn picks me up in Lee a little over an hour later. A little running around, but at least that worked. Carolyn, by the way, is an absolute godsend.
So today the towing company takes a look at it, says the battery dead, so they charged it, but the engine still turns over but doesn't fire. Unfortunately, their computer is too new for my car, and can't check it out that way. They swear up and down that the fuel pump is still pumping, though, which is what my mechanic in Albany said it's most likely to be. They can't do diddly-squat there, so they're towing it the 50 miles up to Albany tomorrow morning, where my mechanics won't get a chance to look at it until Thursday, they say.
I'm getting out of Lee with about $300 in charges. I don't know how much it'll be in Albany, but I only have about another $100 to work with, and that's all my money until the 25th, most of which needs to go to rent and insurance and bills. And it means that I can't buy my light box this month, either. Let's see, I was told to get that back in, what, October? I guess the plus side is that at least this happened in a month that I was going to have a little extra money, but since that "extra money" was all going to go for medical necessities and paying my dad back, it hardly feels like a plus side. I know that getting a car was setting myself up for these kinds of problems, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. It also doesn't make it any easier to live without a car in Albany; the weather finally turned January-cold, I have a Girl Scout meeting this week, and I'm supposed to be starting a biochem class in Troy on Wednesday.
What a shitty weekend.
the hedge abides.
