Never can it be simple...
I'm starting to just go on the assumption that never, never in my life can anything go in a predicatable fashion.
I finally made all the arrangements to head off to see my girlfriend this Christmas. (Yes, I do have a girlfriend, and have had one for nearly a dozen years, along with my fox for that and two more.) The last few years have not been very easy to manage during the holidays, due to this fact: There's my family, my boyfriend's family, and my girlfriend's family all to be visited, and since my family and my boyfriend's are reasonably close, more often than not, we wind up seeing both of them for the holidays. This year, though, she gets Christmas, and my folks got me for Thanksgiving, which seemed to work out best.
In Northern California, at least, when it begins to rain, it's often a downpour, and flooding is none too uncommon. I still had to ship out all my Christmas presents, and realized I had shipping boxes back at my workplace, so I drove out to get them. Well, it turns out that the parking lot had flooded in a spot where there was very little lighting, and as I drive into the parking lot, *sploosh!*, my car dives into an eight-inch swamp of water.
Now I'm sure most of you are saying "Yeah, so? You splashed around a bit and drove through, right?" I'd normally agree with you--excepy my car made a rather loud and very ugly *Th-TH-CLUNK-THMP!!* and decided it wasn't going to budge an inch. So, here I am in a downpour with my car sitting in the middle of this low swamp in the parking lot with no ride home and no way to get the boxes home without ruining them. Great!
I was able to call our friend who is staying with us temporarily to get a ride home and tote my boxes along with me, but this still left the major problem behind. The next day, I used my fox's car to get into work, and decided to try and figure out what had happened.
At first, I thought the problem was solely electrical--after all, I could still turn on my headlights, still got the power locks in my car working.. maybe the starter had just gotten sloshed and wound up shorting itself in a really nasty way. That would wind up with turning the key and getting just a *click*, right? I went under the hood, and with a friend's help, we realized the battery was drawing waaaay too much and dropping to 5V when I was trying to crank it over. This led us to really examine the battery--when the positive terminal came off in our hands, we thought we'd found the problem: The battery was completely leaked out, and there was acid paste all over the battery holder's compartment. (Eww!) A quick trip to Sears to dispose of the old battery and a purchase of a new battery, and everything would be fine... right? Unfortunately hooking up the battery had exactly the same problem as before. At least we'd eliminated it from the potential concoction of problems due to this accident.
When the battery wasn't the problem, I started to try and look at other potential problems. After a full day of poking and prodding around, I couldn't spend any more time on it as I had to get things done at work before I left on my trip, so I got the car towed to my dealership, and let them have a look.
My car's air intake, due to modifications, was placed along the wheel well. *sploosh!* meant water got sucked up directly into the cylinders.
Water doesn't compress like air and gas vapor, and resulting pressure bent the valves all out of whack. Better yet, when the water hit the hot insides of cylinders, they were suddenly cooled, contracting them, and that seized the pistons inside them but good. My car's engine was effectively a metal brick, and I'd need a completely new engine. placed into my car.
Estimated cost of parts & labor: $4200 (Can we say "ouch!", boys 'n' girls? Sure, I knew you could.)
The car's KBB (Kelly Blue Book) value was given at about $4K, so I was looking at dumping as much as the car is worth back into it. This is typically the time when you have to consider buying a new car--the old car simply isn't worth it.
I was going crazy, as this is about the worst possible time to have a large unexpected expense--three months of holidays have drained a fair bit of cash in trips and extra costs, and with FURther CONfusion next month, there wasn't going to be any real chance for recovery before yet more pulls on my finances were going to happen. I had no idea what I was going to do, and worst yet, I was due to get on a plane to visit my girlfriend the next day, so I'd be out of the area and largely out of touch for the next week!
I have to figure out how I came across thinking "I have to call my insurance agent to report this.", because someone needs a really big THANK YOU! given to them: This was technically an accident (I didn't plan for this, after all!), and it involved partial submersion of the vehicle (which they consider 'flood damage'). After calling them and checking on my policy... Gee, I did buy comprehensive coverage with a deductible, and that includes flood damage! I filed a claim and had their adjustor come out while I'd be gone.
I just got a call from the dealership yesterday evening: The insurance company cut them a check and the dealership has an engine on its way. It'll be installed and ready for me by the time I'm back. Now, mind you, I know how much time they quoted me to do this, and I can't help but wonder what that adjustor actually found, because they're closing this up (and fast) and I got the distinct impression they're trying VERY hard to give me the warm fuzzies. By the shovelful. More ruminations/machinations on that later.
I'm just going to smile, nod, pay my deductible, and be very happy I get my car back as I remember it. (Well, better, actually, as the engine will have a 3-year/100K warranty on the engine itself, which could very well outlast the car.) That, and enjoy the rest of my Christmas with my dear panthress.
Merry Christmas, folks!
I finally made all the arrangements to head off to see my girlfriend this Christmas. (Yes, I do have a girlfriend, and have had one for nearly a dozen years, along with my fox for that and two more.) The last few years have not been very easy to manage during the holidays, due to this fact: There's my family, my boyfriend's family, and my girlfriend's family all to be visited, and since my family and my boyfriend's are reasonably close, more often than not, we wind up seeing both of them for the holidays. This year, though, she gets Christmas, and my folks got me for Thanksgiving, which seemed to work out best.
In Northern California, at least, when it begins to rain, it's often a downpour, and flooding is none too uncommon. I still had to ship out all my Christmas presents, and realized I had shipping boxes back at my workplace, so I drove out to get them. Well, it turns out that the parking lot had flooded in a spot where there was very little lighting, and as I drive into the parking lot, *sploosh!*, my car dives into an eight-inch swamp of water.
Now I'm sure most of you are saying "Yeah, so? You splashed around a bit and drove through, right?" I'd normally agree with you--excepy my car made a rather loud and very ugly *Th-TH-CLUNK-THMP!!* and decided it wasn't going to budge an inch. So, here I am in a downpour with my car sitting in the middle of this low swamp in the parking lot with no ride home and no way to get the boxes home without ruining them. Great!
I was able to call our friend who is staying with us temporarily to get a ride home and tote my boxes along with me, but this still left the major problem behind. The next day, I used my fox's car to get into work, and decided to try and figure out what had happened.
At first, I thought the problem was solely electrical--after all, I could still turn on my headlights, still got the power locks in my car working.. maybe the starter had just gotten sloshed and wound up shorting itself in a really nasty way. That would wind up with turning the key and getting just a *click*, right? I went under the hood, and with a friend's help, we realized the battery was drawing waaaay too much and dropping to 5V when I was trying to crank it over. This led us to really examine the battery--when the positive terminal came off in our hands, we thought we'd found the problem: The battery was completely leaked out, and there was acid paste all over the battery holder's compartment. (Eww!) A quick trip to Sears to dispose of the old battery and a purchase of a new battery, and everything would be fine... right? Unfortunately hooking up the battery had exactly the same problem as before. At least we'd eliminated it from the potential concoction of problems due to this accident.
When the battery wasn't the problem, I started to try and look at other potential problems. After a full day of poking and prodding around, I couldn't spend any more time on it as I had to get things done at work before I left on my trip, so I got the car towed to my dealership, and let them have a look.
My car's air intake, due to modifications, was placed along the wheel well. *sploosh!* meant water got sucked up directly into the cylinders.
Water doesn't compress like air and gas vapor, and resulting pressure bent the valves all out of whack. Better yet, when the water hit the hot insides of cylinders, they were suddenly cooled, contracting them, and that seized the pistons inside them but good. My car's engine was effectively a metal brick, and I'd need a completely new engine. placed into my car.
Estimated cost of parts & labor: $4200 (Can we say "ouch!", boys 'n' girls? Sure, I knew you could.)
The car's KBB (Kelly Blue Book) value was given at about $4K, so I was looking at dumping as much as the car is worth back into it. This is typically the time when you have to consider buying a new car--the old car simply isn't worth it.
I was going crazy, as this is about the worst possible time to have a large unexpected expense--three months of holidays have drained a fair bit of cash in trips and extra costs, and with FURther CONfusion next month, there wasn't going to be any real chance for recovery before yet more pulls on my finances were going to happen. I had no idea what I was going to do, and worst yet, I was due to get on a plane to visit my girlfriend the next day, so I'd be out of the area and largely out of touch for the next week!
I have to figure out how I came across thinking "I have to call my insurance agent to report this.", because someone needs a really big THANK YOU! given to them: This was technically an accident (I didn't plan for this, after all!), and it involved partial submersion of the vehicle (which they consider 'flood damage'). After calling them and checking on my policy... Gee, I did buy comprehensive coverage with a deductible, and that includes flood damage! I filed a claim and had their adjustor come out while I'd be gone.
I just got a call from the dealership yesterday evening: The insurance company cut them a check and the dealership has an engine on its way. It'll be installed and ready for me by the time I'm back. Now, mind you, I know how much time they quoted me to do this, and I can't help but wonder what that adjustor actually found, because they're closing this up (and fast) and I got the distinct impression they're trying VERY hard to give me the warm fuzzies. By the shovelful. More ruminations/machinations on that later.
I'm just going to smile, nod, pay my deductible, and be very happy I get my car back as I remember it. (Well, better, actually, as the engine will have a 3-year/100K warranty on the engine itself, which could very well outlast the car.) That, and enjoy the rest of my Christmas with my dear panthress.
Merry Christmas, folks!