Broken Car Blues
So, yesterday was kinda fun, then really suck, and then back to fun.
We first went to the farmers' market for the first time in a few weeks. The sweet corn has arrived finally, and we picked up a dozen ears along with a few other things. The weather was gorgeous, even if the market grounds were really soggy. (The poor Mennonite girls we bought the cider from were standing in a giant mud pit.)
After we got home, I did some much-needed weeding down the side of the house and in the garden. I still need to take the weed whacker to the edges, but I think I got the worst of it down.
Then we went for a drive. It was beautiful out, if a bit cloudy, and plonq drove us up through the park, out towards Stonewall, and down back into town. We stopped at Giant Tiger to get some cheap snack food, and then at Staples so I could round out what I needed for school supplies.
On the way home, we smelled something burning. It smelled like plastic or insulation. By the time we pulled the car into the garage, the smell was very pronounced. We popped the hood, and even though the engine was off there was an electrical-sounding whine from inside the engine - like something was trying to run but couldn't. (It almost sounded like a speaker that was turned waaay up, but with no sound coming out - a constant hum.) Plonq noticed that the turbo's cooling fan wasn't running like it usually is when we shut the engine off, so he thinks the fan has seized.
Since the VW dealer was closed by then, he popped the positive connecter off the battery. The hum stopped and the smell went away. At least it won't burst into flames now while we wait to call the dealer on Monday. :P
With that weighing heavilly on our minds, we went to dinner with pierrekrahn and dronon. We abandoned our first restaurant of choice because we would have had to wade through 30+ people just to get in the door to reserve a table, and ended up at an Applebee's in the south central part of the city. Afterwards, they came back to our place (so I could check that the car wasn't on fire!!!) and we played some board games to round out the night.
So on Monday, Plonq will get to call the dealer again. This will be the third problem we've had with the vehicle; the first two problems were technically the same problem (they just didn't fix it completely the first time). Hopefully the dealer is as quick and apologetic about everything as they were with the first few problems.
We first went to the farmers' market for the first time in a few weeks. The sweet corn has arrived finally, and we picked up a dozen ears along with a few other things. The weather was gorgeous, even if the market grounds were really soggy. (The poor Mennonite girls we bought the cider from were standing in a giant mud pit.)
After we got home, I did some much-needed weeding down the side of the house and in the garden. I still need to take the weed whacker to the edges, but I think I got the worst of it down.
Then we went for a drive. It was beautiful out, if a bit cloudy, and plonq drove us up through the park, out towards Stonewall, and down back into town. We stopped at Giant Tiger to get some cheap snack food, and then at Staples so I could round out what I needed for school supplies.
On the way home, we smelled something burning. It smelled like plastic or insulation. By the time we pulled the car into the garage, the smell was very pronounced. We popped the hood, and even though the engine was off there was an electrical-sounding whine from inside the engine - like something was trying to run but couldn't. (It almost sounded like a speaker that was turned waaay up, but with no sound coming out - a constant hum.) Plonq noticed that the turbo's cooling fan wasn't running like it usually is when we shut the engine off, so he thinks the fan has seized.
Since the VW dealer was closed by then, he popped the positive connecter off the battery. The hum stopped and the smell went away. At least it won't burst into flames now while we wait to call the dealer on Monday. :P
With that weighing heavilly on our minds, we went to dinner with pierrekrahn and dronon. We abandoned our first restaurant of choice because we would have had to wade through 30+ people just to get in the door to reserve a table, and ended up at an Applebee's in the south central part of the city. Afterwards, they came back to our place (so I could check that the car wasn't on fire!!!) and we played some board games to round out the night.
So on Monday, Plonq will get to call the dealer again. This will be the third problem we've had with the vehicle; the first two problems were technically the same problem (they just didn't fix it completely the first time). Hopefully the dealer is as quick and apologetic about everything as they were with the first few problems.