My van is dying
I went to the mall yesterday instead of starting my work right away after class. On my way to gharbad's place to pick her up, my van stalled out twice. This was on top of some warning signs like my oil pressure looking awfully low and varying RPM, so I decided that, even though the sucker was starting up okay now, it was time to take her on in to be looked at. So, on my way back from the mall, I stopped at Canadian Tire to drop it off.
They woke me up at AM this morning to tell me that the problem is a defective oil pressure switch and ask me if they should go ahead and work on it-oh, and the brakes need work, some belt is badly cracked, and there seems to be some oil & coolant leakage, so would I like them to fix that too? I told them to go ahead and fix my oil pressure switch, but to just give me an estimate on the other stuff for now. Then I tried to go back to sleep for an hour, with limited success--although I still hit the sleep button a couple of times and was very nearly late for class.
Then, with impeccable timing, they called me sometime after 12:30, between my first and second classes. "We've fixed your oil switch," the guy told me, "But it looks like the oil is contaminating the coolant system. It's too late to fix it with any smaller measures, so it looks like your van is not long for this world. It's safe to drive for now, but I don't know if it will hold out for a month or two or what; before it goes, it'll start making a kicking sound in the engine." This is not a verbatim quote, mind you, but merely the gist of what he told me. He told me how the engine was worn and the vehicle had a lot of kilometres on it, and these things are to be expected, I guess... So I called my folks, who weren't in, and left them a message. As for what I'm going to do, I don't know. Drive it around for awhile, or maybe just leave the darn thing in Sarnia for my brother to drive the rest of the way into the ground, and get used to bussing around from the start this summer. I won't be acquiring another vehicle any time soon, so I guess I won't have a motorized vehicle of my very own for much longer.
Well, them's the breaks, right? It was a nice free-except-for-gas-and-repairs ride (if you'll excuse the pun) while it lasted. And it's still around now, even if not for much longer.
I guess I'm walking up to the Canadian Tire after class today.
They woke me up at AM this morning to tell me that the problem is a defective oil pressure switch and ask me if they should go ahead and work on it-oh, and the brakes need work, some belt is badly cracked, and there seems to be some oil & coolant leakage, so would I like them to fix that too? I told them to go ahead and fix my oil pressure switch, but to just give me an estimate on the other stuff for now. Then I tried to go back to sleep for an hour, with limited success--although I still hit the sleep button a couple of times and was very nearly late for class.
Then, with impeccable timing, they called me sometime after 12:30, between my first and second classes. "We've fixed your oil switch," the guy told me, "But it looks like the oil is contaminating the coolant system. It's too late to fix it with any smaller measures, so it looks like your van is not long for this world. It's safe to drive for now, but I don't know if it will hold out for a month or two or what; before it goes, it'll start making a kicking sound in the engine." This is not a verbatim quote, mind you, but merely the gist of what he told me. He told me how the engine was worn and the vehicle had a lot of kilometres on it, and these things are to be expected, I guess... So I called my folks, who weren't in, and left them a message. As for what I'm going to do, I don't know. Drive it around for awhile, or maybe just leave the darn thing in Sarnia for my brother to drive the rest of the way into the ground, and get used to bussing around from the start this summer. I won't be acquiring another vehicle any time soon, so I guess I won't have a motorized vehicle of my very own for much longer.
Well, them's the breaks, right? It was a nice free-except-for-gas-and-repairs ride (if you'll excuse the pun) while it lasted. And it's still around now, even if not for much longer.
I guess I'm walking up to the Canadian Tire after class today.