Tuesday: The next day, he drove it to Case for his morning didactic sessions without any issue, and ended up just staying home that day because of a diagnosis of Whooping Cough (which diagnosis he picked up while at Case that morning), which precluded him from going to his rotation. So, he got home without issue. That evening, he spoke to his dad about the car... he strongly recommended that we have it looked at, because there could be something potentially dangerous going on with the car. I'm like, "oh, man! You mean that it won't just go away if we ignore it? blast!"
Wednesday: Mike takes my car to work, and I take his car to the shop. The mechanic listens to what happened, and suspected it may be the battery. This made me happy, because until then we thought it was probably the fuel pump, which would be a pricier repair. Apparently the battery in our car is located up underneath the front passenger fender near the wheel well, thouhg, and is not something you can just access. They didn't have a lift open at the time to check it out for me, so we set up a time in the morning when I could come by and get it looked at. After this, I was planning to head home, but Megan strongly suggested that we should not go home, but go to the library instead. I obeyed, and halfway there, what should happen? Why, the car died! I wasn't stressed about it though because it had started up again for Mike after a few moments when it happened the first time, and I expected the same. Fortunately, I was on a residential street so I wasn't obstructing traffic. Sure enough, it started up again a few minutes later. We made it to the library and home again without further event. Until that point, I still had been telling myself that there was probably nothing wrong with the car and the mechanic would just confirm that for me. Yeah, my denial of the existence of a mechanical problem ended when it died that second time.
Thursday: Take the car to get checked out at 9am, hoping to get a diagnosis and be out in time to make it to Robby's 9:30 Library class. They check it out, test the battery, and sure enough! We needed a new battery. I was happy-- it was a quick fix, only $130, and we were out the door just a touch late for the Library. I got to the intersection where I would turn right to go into the library parking lot. What should happen? Why, the car died! Of course! Hmm, I guess the battery wasn't the problem (though we did need a new one, no denying that). Now I'm getting annoyed at this point. This time, I sit and try to start it up for about 10 minutes-- only mildly obstructing traffic, mind you. Mike happened to call at this point and he said he'd pop out and rescue us (he was 25 minutes away). Megan and Robby were both getting frustrated with me. Megan didn't understand why we were still in the car at this stop sign when the library was quite visible right in front of us. So, I called our road-side assistance folks to tow me back to the mechanic. I got that all squared away, and I'm waiting for Mike when I decide to try the car again... and it started! At that point I have no idea how far I can trust the car, and I am afraid to try to get it into the parking lot in case it just dies right in the middle of the street. So I decided to turn down a residential street and see how close I could get us toward the mechanic, which is 2 blocks from our house. I made it about .25 mile and it died again. Megan and Robby were both pretty mad-- they are happy in the car when it is moving, but when we were just sitting still, they didn't quite see the point in it. So, Mike shows up and trades me cars and I take the kids to the library and he waits for the tow truck. He gets the car back to the mechanic. Fast forward 5 hours... I call the mechanic at about closing time because I hadn't heard from him. At this point, we're all pretty certain it must be the fuel pump. He said they couldn't tell me what was wrong with it yet, but they knew it wasn't a fuel pressure problem. They figured out that it was in the ignition, but the few things they were able to test at that point weren't the problem. So, he said they'd keep at it the next day and let me know.
Friday: They have the car all day, I call at closing again. This time, they have the answer! It was the crank shaft position sensor. Hoorah, hoorah! This is good news because at least the part is only like $20. However, we have no idea how much they are going to charge us for all the work they did figuring out the problem. But the mechanic said that they would call us first thing monday and get the quote for the part, and that there was no reason why we shouldn't have it done that same day. A light at the end of the tunnel!
Today: We got the car back! And it works! It all wound up being another couple hundred bucks to finish-- but that's 10 year old cars for you. As annoying and stressful as car problems can be, I'm pretty grateful because everything went very well, really. Here are the many ways we have been blessed as we've gone through the hassle:
1) We have two cars now, so when one freaks out, it's okay... there is backup!
2) The car didn't die two days earlier when Mike was driving to and from Washington DC
3) The car didn't die on the freeway or in the middle of busy roads. Actually, if Mike hadn't had whooping cough, it WOULD have died on the freeway. Scary thought!
4) We have very wonderful mechanics who are very close to where we live. The owners are very friendly and helpful, and they know me when I walk in (which is perhaps not what you want from a mechanic...). He knew exactly what kind of car I drove when I first came in and described the problem, before I even reminded him. So hoorah for Shaker Quality Auto Body, who always give us a fair deal and treat us with integrity! They spent quite a while finding the problem for us, and didn't charge us nearly what they could have.
5) We have free towing and road-side assistance. On a side-note, here's a plug for GEICO, who we have our road-side assistance through. ($10 every 6 months... totally worth it). We got a quote from a different insurance company who supposedly offered us discounts because we are BYU alums... yeah, their quote was more than twice what we pay to fully insure two cars with GEICO. Yay for the gecko. And they have fantastic customer service.
6) I have a cell phone now, so I could call for help when I needed it!
7) We have very good children who stayed calm and mostly happy as I had to sit with them in the waiting room at the shop, and the times the car died.
8) Thanks to being in the army now, we are able to have savings in place for just such contingencies, and were not at all de-railed by the unexpected expenses!
No comments:
Post a Comment