Driving home. From Langley to Burnaby, the trip usually takes me an hour because I avoid the freeway whenever possible, preferring a less hectic manner of travel. Im approaching the overpass to the freeway at 232 avenue when my car makes a right turn. Without my permission. I noticed this right away (I’m pretty observant about these kinds of things). When making a right turn, I prefer to have input into the proceedings, “telling” my car when to turn and how much. This time I did not give any such input. So my car makes a right turn all on its own and so I hit the brakes. I come to a stop, on the side of the road, just before this overpass, and slightly askew due to the aforementioned unauthorized right turn. So I sit there and mull over what had just happened. The car is still running fine, and none of those “You’re SCREWED!” warning light have turned themselves on. My situational assessment completed, I attempt to drive the car again. I shoulder check, put on my ticker – and hit the gas. Nothing happened. Apparently, my car was on strike (an illegal one at that…). Sure, the RPM went up, but there was nothing of the sort of usual speeding up type behaviour that I have become accustomed to when hitting the gas. I try again. Nothing. I turn it off, put it in park – then start it and put it into drive. Nothing. It seemed I was screwed, no matter what the lack of warning lights indicated. So what to do now?
Enter one tow truck. Towed back to the parental unit’s home in Langley pending opening of car fixing place. Long weekend. 60 dollars.
Towed to car repair people in Langley. Another 60 dollars.
Why do tow truck drivers think you want to hear all the stories of the gruesome accidents and things that they have seen in the past? Why do they always pretend to know exactly what is wrong with your car? Why is that never what is wrong?
After such an experience, and not one that I particularly relished, I now know what it is like to seize the transmission in one’s car. I don’t recommend it. Seems all the differential fluid had scampered its way out of my transmission and the transmission, presumably mourning its loss, refused to move another step further. The repair place told me that they had put some more fluid in it, driven it around, and said that it only made a “little bit of noise” and that I should “try it out for a while”. I pointed out that this seemed like a completely asinine idea (I may have used different terminology here) since it had already run itself off the road once and nobody knew if this was to happen immediately again. Clearly the fluid had leaked out, but nobody knew if this was a relatively quick thing, or if it had vacated its rightful place over a period of weeks, months etc. So I refused to drive it again, a safe yet expensive solution as the only rectification of the problem at that point seemed to indicate the need for a new differential. This caused an argument with both the repair place and the parental units. Finally, I ordered a “used” one. This took well over a week. So then they had the transmission (1500 dollars later….) in the shop, but were stalling as to when they were going to put it in. Meanwhile, I was going to work on the bus, and showing up late everyday. Try and get a bus in the Vancouver area to get anywhere by 7 am. So one day, after numerous false alarms along the lines of “We’ll do it today unless we don’t”, the car appeared to be ready. I got a ride to Langley, and showed up at the dealer. Oh, sorry – it won’t be ready today!
At this point we had a “conversation”.
I got a rental car. Free. The car was fixed the next day. I have yet to have severe problems with it since, with the exception of the engine flare it keeps giving me (RPM goes up and no shifting happens – then it jerks). This has been “adjusted” and is largely gone. Im taking it in next week (under warrantee) and I hope the remaining bit of “engine flare” will disappear.
So all this happened around a month ago. Lots of other things have happened. Next I’ll write about how the mice had invaded my basement suite. Some of you might remember this is why I moved away from my old place a year ago. I think they followed me! Oh, and EVERYTHING else has gone to hell as well. Yes, I’m sorry – a cliffhanger……..
We now return you to the year 2002, already in progress on a planet near you…..