I'm having a car adventure, but not exactly the good kind...
In the course of having to dash home before my orchestra concert last Sunday (I was wearing the wrong color shirt *eyeroll*), my car's temperature gauge was alarmingly high every time I had to stop. Now, there have been moments when it has run hot for probably two months or so, but I usually attributed those instances to external factors. I will admit I'm not as good about checking the fluids as regularly as I should, and the last time I took it in for an oil change (end of July), they mentioned that my oil and coolant had been low.
So I figured I just needed to add more coolant, which I did right after the concert... right after I figured out how to pop my hood despite the broken hood release lever (it snapped when I popped the hood for my last oil change). :-p I hoped that would be enough.
But the gauge went all the way up to the very top red line while Mom and I were in the Arby's drive thru for dinner after the concert. I really thought my car might die right there in the drive thru. But we made it out, I parked it, and took another look under the hood. This time I added more oil, since the coolant I just added was still above the minimum line, and we went back to my apartment. Again, I hoped that would be enough.
The car seemed to behave when I drove to work on Monday, but I parked it and let it idle in the parking lot for a few minutes, just to check, and again the temperature started rising. So I took the car in for service on Tuesday morning, hoping it was a cracked hose or something like that... all I knew was that it wasn't likely to be the radiator's fault, since I replaced that less than 5 years ago.
And the verdict: blown head gasket. My options: replace the engine, or give up on it and find a new car.
O_O
If I'd had an idea of what I might want to get and from where, I might've gone with the new (to me) car option. But I have no idea and no time or patience to figure it out right now (mostly thanks to the staffing issues at work), so I opted for replacing the engine. And also replacing the hood release lever so it's easier to be a good girl about checking the fluids. :-p All told, the bill will be at or above $5k.
I have the money, but yikes! And, of course, the dealership was out of loaner vehicles at that point, so they got me a rental, and I drove to work that day in a red Nissan Versa Note.
Wednesday morning, 8 a.m., the service guy calls me and says, "I have some bad news about the engine." Now what?! Oh, it's just that the used engine they found for my car is being shipped from New York, so it's going to take longer to do the repair than they originally thought because it'll take some time to get here. Whew, that's not a big deal at all. They had a loaner car ready for me since it's going to take longer, so at my convenience I should drop off the rental and get their loaner instead.
So on Wednesday I got the use of a dark blue (they call it "obsidian") 2016 Honda Accord LX, so new that it still has stickers on the side mirrors, that sheet of information in the back window, and the floor mats were still in a plastic bag in the trunk. It's a pretty nice ride, but I wouldn't want to buy one (many of my quibbles are personal in nature... like the headrest coming up high enough that it causes problems with my bun and hairsticks ;-) ).
And then I got another call from the dealership folks yesterday afternoon. They need me to bring back the loaner car, because they went and sold it to someone (how they can manage that without having the car on hand, I'm not entirely sure!). So I'll be taking it back tomorrow morning to get a different loaner car... hopefully this one they won't sell out from under me. :-p And hopefully my car will be fixed soon--the service guy thought the engine may not even arrive until tomorrow, and it's a good long job to replace an engine, so I'm guessing I won't be picking up my poor car until probably Thursday.
*sigh* I miss my car. :-p And I can't shake the fear that something might go wrong with the engine transplant and force me to have to buy something else now after all... I don't want to feel forced into such a big decision.
But I keep reminding myself that I'm grateful to have a car, to have the money to fix that car, and to have transportation while it's getting fixed. It really could be so much worse.
So I figured I just needed to add more coolant, which I did right after the concert... right after I figured out how to pop my hood despite the broken hood release lever (it snapped when I popped the hood for my last oil change). :-p I hoped that would be enough.
But the gauge went all the way up to the very top red line while Mom and I were in the Arby's drive thru for dinner after the concert. I really thought my car might die right there in the drive thru. But we made it out, I parked it, and took another look under the hood. This time I added more oil, since the coolant I just added was still above the minimum line, and we went back to my apartment. Again, I hoped that would be enough.
The car seemed to behave when I drove to work on Monday, but I parked it and let it idle in the parking lot for a few minutes, just to check, and again the temperature started rising. So I took the car in for service on Tuesday morning, hoping it was a cracked hose or something like that... all I knew was that it wasn't likely to be the radiator's fault, since I replaced that less than 5 years ago.
And the verdict: blown head gasket. My options: replace the engine, or give up on it and find a new car.
O_O
If I'd had an idea of what I might want to get and from where, I might've gone with the new (to me) car option. But I have no idea and no time or patience to figure it out right now (mostly thanks to the staffing issues at work), so I opted for replacing the engine. And also replacing the hood release lever so it's easier to be a good girl about checking the fluids. :-p All told, the bill will be at or above $5k.
I have the money, but yikes! And, of course, the dealership was out of loaner vehicles at that point, so they got me a rental, and I drove to work that day in a red Nissan Versa Note.
Wednesday morning, 8 a.m., the service guy calls me and says, "I have some bad news about the engine." Now what?! Oh, it's just that the used engine they found for my car is being shipped from New York, so it's going to take longer to do the repair than they originally thought because it'll take some time to get here. Whew, that's not a big deal at all. They had a loaner car ready for me since it's going to take longer, so at my convenience I should drop off the rental and get their loaner instead.
So on Wednesday I got the use of a dark blue (they call it "obsidian") 2016 Honda Accord LX, so new that it still has stickers on the side mirrors, that sheet of information in the back window, and the floor mats were still in a plastic bag in the trunk. It's a pretty nice ride, but I wouldn't want to buy one (many of my quibbles are personal in nature... like the headrest coming up high enough that it causes problems with my bun and hairsticks ;-) ).
And then I got another call from the dealership folks yesterday afternoon. They need me to bring back the loaner car, because they went and sold it to someone (how they can manage that without having the car on hand, I'm not entirely sure!). So I'll be taking it back tomorrow morning to get a different loaner car... hopefully this one they won't sell out from under me. :-p And hopefully my car will be fixed soon--the service guy thought the engine may not even arrive until tomorrow, and it's a good long job to replace an engine, so I'm guessing I won't be picking up my poor car until probably Thursday.
*sigh* I miss my car. :-p And I can't shake the fear that something might go wrong with the engine transplant and force me to have to buy something else now after all... I don't want to feel forced into such a big decision.
But I keep reminding myself that I'm grateful to have a car, to have the money to fix that car, and to have transportation while it's getting fixed. It really could be so much worse.