Car joys
This will be short, as I'm tired.
Everything is at least okay enough for now, but it has been an eventful day for my car. We had plans with Jason's sister and nephew, so we headed to Macon, happily air conditioned. We had just enough time to go get gas and the car washed before going to Becky's and all of us heading for the 3:15 showing of Shrek 2 (which was just too damn cool!). After the car wash, my windows were fogged so I pulled over for them to unfog, and lo and behold--smoke started pouring from under the hood and it started shaking weirdly. I turned it off, we got out, and well...to make a very long story shorter...
I have an oil leak in my car, and there was no oil in. This would be problem one. We went and bought 5 quarts in a convenience store (hurray for drastic overpricing). Then we realized that all the antifreeze had boiled over and out into a nice stream flowing away from the car, so we went and got more of that. Eventually, it wasn't overheating as soon as we turned the car on, and Becky had arrived (we'd called her) so we decided to chance driving it to her house. The whole way there, the temp gauge stayed at about 50%, but then if we turned the A/C on, it shot up immediately. Turn it off it falls immediately, turn it back on, and up...you get the idea. So we figure the problem may be the A/C.
Anyway, after Shrek 2 and a yummy meal at Becky's, we drove home. Once we got through most of the traffic and all, we decided to try the A/C and see if it would still make it overheat. It raised a bit, but nothing scary, so we started feeling a bit better about the whole $596 we just spent on it. Of course, we drove with the A/C on all the way to Macon and didn't notice a problem til we were there, and had been driving for about 45min-1 hr. On the way home, the A/C was on about 25 minutes total.
Then, to make it more curious, after staring at it all the way home, then getting to the post office and Jason running in and getting the mail with me sitting in the car, when we got home I noticed that the temp guage was close to the H again...odd. So perhaps it is when the A/C is running and the car is standing still? Is this at least more normal?
So what we've concluded so far is that it isn't anything that makes the car undrivable, at least, which is good. After work tomorrow, we are going to do some more experimenting and see if we can narrow down what the problem is, so we can see if it is something we should just somehow avoid, or if it is something we can take back to the place that fixed the A/C to see if it is something covered under their warranty. I'm really hoping for the latter. My car has enough "character" and money invested in it. It doesn't need any more.
So now I'm going to eat some more wonderful Double Strawberry ice cream and then dry my hair and go to bed, and dream of nice new working cars.
At least Shrek 2 was good. And boy, was it good. It was hella good. I wanna go see it again right now! :)
Everything is at least okay enough for now, but it has been an eventful day for my car. We had plans with Jason's sister and nephew, so we headed to Macon, happily air conditioned. We had just enough time to go get gas and the car washed before going to Becky's and all of us heading for the 3:15 showing of Shrek 2 (which was just too damn cool!). After the car wash, my windows were fogged so I pulled over for them to unfog, and lo and behold--smoke started pouring from under the hood and it started shaking weirdly. I turned it off, we got out, and well...to make a very long story shorter...
I have an oil leak in my car, and there was no oil in. This would be problem one. We went and bought 5 quarts in a convenience store (hurray for drastic overpricing). Then we realized that all the antifreeze had boiled over and out into a nice stream flowing away from the car, so we went and got more of that. Eventually, it wasn't overheating as soon as we turned the car on, and Becky had arrived (we'd called her) so we decided to chance driving it to her house. The whole way there, the temp gauge stayed at about 50%, but then if we turned the A/C on, it shot up immediately. Turn it off it falls immediately, turn it back on, and up...you get the idea. So we figure the problem may be the A/C.
Anyway, after Shrek 2 and a yummy meal at Becky's, we drove home. Once we got through most of the traffic and all, we decided to try the A/C and see if it would still make it overheat. It raised a bit, but nothing scary, so we started feeling a bit better about the whole $596 we just spent on it. Of course, we drove with the A/C on all the way to Macon and didn't notice a problem til we were there, and had been driving for about 45min-1 hr. On the way home, the A/C was on about 25 minutes total.
Then, to make it more curious, after staring at it all the way home, then getting to the post office and Jason running in and getting the mail with me sitting in the car, when we got home I noticed that the temp guage was close to the H again...odd. So perhaps it is when the A/C is running and the car is standing still? Is this at least more normal?
So what we've concluded so far is that it isn't anything that makes the car undrivable, at least, which is good. After work tomorrow, we are going to do some more experimenting and see if we can narrow down what the problem is, so we can see if it is something we should just somehow avoid, or if it is something we can take back to the place that fixed the A/C to see if it is something covered under their warranty. I'm really hoping for the latter. My car has enough "character" and money invested in it. It doesn't need any more.
So now I'm going to eat some more wonderful Double Strawberry ice cream and then dry my hair and go to bed, and dream of nice new working cars.
At least Shrek 2 was good. And boy, was it good. It was hella good. I wanna go see it again right now! :)