I need to vent!

[ShazzieB]

I just had a crappy week, and the week before that wasn't great, either. This weekend is turning out to be even crappier.

It's nothing earth-shattering, just incredibly inconvenient. Week before last, I had my car towed to a garage, because it wasn't running right. It started up just fine, but then refused to go more than 10 miles per hour. Flooring the accelerator had no effect.

Turned out very major repairs were needed. First we thought we were going to have to replace the engine to the tune of about 3 grand. It's a very old car, and we were considering whether replacing it would make more sense, but then the garage came up with another solution that was "only" 2 grand, so we decided to go with that route. (Please don't ask me to explain any of the technical details; that stuff is, as they say, over my pay grade,)

They had to keep the car for an entire week, but I was finally able to pick it up on Friday, and everything seemed fine. I dropped off my husband's car when I picked it up, as it needed some brake work. Drove wherever I needed to go on Friday evening; car ran great. Until the next day, when I got in the car to go do some grocery shopping, and guess what? Started fine, but wouldn't go over 10 miles an hour AGAIN.

So here we are with one car in the shop and the other one undriveable, and nothing to be done about it until Monday morning. We couldn't even get a rental car today, because *surprise surprise* local car rental agencies are closed on Sunday!

So I will have to get up bright and early tomorrow morning, arrange for a rental car, and have my car towed back to the garage again, on top of worrying about how much all of this is going to end up costing. We'll manage somehow, but things are going to be tight for a while. It's just a bummer, because we finally got all our credit cards paid off last year and being debt free for a while has been WONDERFUL.

Best case scenario would be my car getting fixed quickly without a lot of additional expense, my husband's car repair bill being minimal, and not needing the rental car for more than a couple of days. Worst case scenario, I don't even want to think about.

Along with everything else, my husband had some pretty extensive oral surgery on Tuesday and is still not fully recovered, so I've been having to deal with all the car stuff without a lot of direct help from him. He could barely talk for the first few days, and still can't do so very comfortably, so I, a person who HATES making phone calls, will probably have to make all the calls to the garage, car rental agency, etc. tomorrow. Oh joy.

The effort required to type all this out in a somewhat coherent fashion has calmed me down somewhat. There's still a part of me that feels like screaming and throwing things, but it's under control for now. Thanks for reading.

P.S. The garage that fixed my car is one we've used for years, they've done good work for us in the past, and they have a track record of being trustworthy. Just so you know.

[marble falls]

1. I do think I might take that car elsewhere. It sounds like a sensor/computer communication ...

... problem. If it's old enough, a carburetor, or vacuum lead to distributor. Or a manifold leak. Nothing worth $2Gs.

[ShazzieB]

8. I live in an apartment so I can't do yard signs. *sad face*

Last edited Mon Dec 13, 2021, 12:08 AM - Edit history (1)

Bumper stickers are pretty safe around here. I'm sure there are places where my Biden/Harris sticker wouldn't fly, but I live in a purple suburb of a big blue city in a blue state and have never had a problem, either with that or my Obama and Hillary stickers in the past.

[marble falls]

12. Try that "free speech" librul crap out here in Central Texas. I told one old boy I had ...

... no problem voting for Beto. If he hadn't had his hat on, his head might have exploded.

"But the guns ..." I interrupted him, "you don't for a moment think Beto as Govenor of Texas has the power to take your guns away, do you?"
"Uh ... no."
"Then let's talk about something he really does have power over, like dealing with the power failure this last February, and potentially again this coming winter and then again next summer?"

At that point he had to leave.

It's cult like and I wouldn't dare put out signs or bumper stickers. There were a bunch of "Republicans for Biden" signs out here that got stolen.

[ShazzieB]

13. I feel very fortunate to live here in my little purple bubble with lots of bright blue close at han.

I've read so many horror stories here at DU about life among the rednecks and Trump humpers, it makes me never want to leave this state!

[2naSalit]

6. Check this out...

My older Toyota was doing just what the OP describes and I couldn't figure out what it was and came up with the same ideas you did in your post. What it turned out to be was the wires from plug to distrb were not in their clips (which serve as resistors) and one had a bare spot which was shorting things out where it crossed the valve cover. It was discovered when the mechanic touched two different parts and got shocked.

I was surprised that I didn't get shocked all the times I was under the hood trying to figure out what was wrong. Once upon a time I had a fuel injected VW that did that too but I just ripped that whole system out and put in a dual carb system, ran a lot better, had more power, it was Baja'd.

[a kennedy]

2. Damn, so sorry for you.

hope it all gets better for you.

[secondwind]

3. Count your blessings, you have your health, etc.

This is life... it can hand you a curve ball, but everything will be okay in the end!

[Srkdqltr]

4. How annoying. Things always seem to happen in bunches at the worst possible time. Virtual hugs

And a soothing pat on the back.

[Hoyt]

7. Decades ago, but I had a car that wouldn't go over 10MPH.

Spent a bunch and they were saying it needed valve replacement, etc. Bought a new set of spark plug wires from K-Mart. Put em on and it ran perfectly for years.

Good luck. Maybe a small adjustment will get it.

[brer cat]

9. I'm sorry, ShazzieB.

I hope your car repair is minor and no more problems in the immediate future.

[multigraincracker]

10. On board computer put it in limp mode.

Most likely something simple. It does that when there might be a problem and keeps you from blowing up the motor. He may have just not cleared the code.

[Totally Tunsie]

11. Sorry you're going through all that, ShazzieB. Bummer.

One hopeful thought, however - Surely your dependable garage must have some type of warranty on the work they did last week. Since they obviously didn't fix the problem, it should fall under the warranty. Worth checking their policy, which might mean just finding a newspaper ad or Yellow Pages listing where they state it in print. Now, if they do something different this time, you won't have that protection.

Good luck!