thejunipertree (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thejunipertree) wrote2007-09-05 03:14 pm
thejunipertree) wrote2007-09-05 03:14 pm
Entry tags:
goddamnit
You know when you see this icon, it's generally never anything good, right?
Right.
So, Friday night. I head out to Trenton to pick up Miss Janette at the train station for a weekend of punch and pie. I'm tooling down 29N at a good clip, making sweet time and rocking out (by myself) to my iPod. Then what happens?
The temperature light flashes at me. I snarl at it and briefly try to talk it out of doing that. Why are you doing that? You should stop that IMMEDIATELY. Five seconds of this proves nothing, so I pull over on the side of the highway to see what I can see.
As soon as I park and shut off the car, great plumes of smoke erupt from my hood. To the point where I thought the goddamn thing was on fire. I pop the hood and everything underneath is covered in coolant and hissing at me with rage. I hissed back, with equal amounts of rage, and got a face full of coolant gas for my troubles.
Shortly after, as I was waiting for the car to cool down so I could check everything out, a NJ DOT truck pulls up behind me and a guy who reminds me an awful lot of Deputy Winston from Cabin Fever gets out to see what my trouble is. He discovers that the hose that goes between my radiator and my expansion tank has blown (and that it looks like it was originally attached to the radiator with epoxy). Tries to reattach it and plug it up, no dice.
(At this point is when Miss Janette called me to tell me that she had reached the train station. I told her to sit tight for a bit.)
Deputy Winston tells me I'm going to need a tow. He gives me a fistful of flares (whoever thought that was a good idea, me and flares) and puts a no-tow tag on my car so the state troopers don't bother with it. Then he fucks off for parts unknown. I frantically call my mechanic for a tow, who apparently has also fucked off for parts unknown. Maybe to hang out with Deputy Winston, I don't know.
I call my father, the Engineer, Joanna, and Tony- for various reasons, not all of them being important. My father tells me to get the tow, the Engineer tells me he's on his way, Joanna laughs at me when I tell her I blew a hose (then asks if I need a ride), and Tony keeps me occupied until the Engineer shows up.
The car gets locked and left on the side of the road. I call the mechanic for a fourth time, this time reaching him, and tell him what's going on and where to find the damn car. The Engineer and I go to get Miss Janette.
I called the mechanic today to see what the hell is going on and he tells me he's not rightly sure why the car overheated. He took her out on the road today, without the hose attached, and it didn't overheat. Says they need to pull the radiator out of the car and send it out to get the hose welded back onto it. This holds the additional caveat that the welding facility may tell us to get bent because the radiator is a factory part and needs to be replaced because of its age. He also tells me that the car is leaking transmission fluid "badly".
What the eff.
The car's going up on the lift to have its innards checked out. I need to call the mechanic tomorrow morning and see what the verdict is.
And I'm tied up in knots.
School starts this week (my first class is actually tonight). And so far, I have a rather impressing array of rides lined up to get me to work and school and home again. However, this can not keep up. My brother brought me to work this morning. The Engineer is picking me up tonight. Wemble is taking me to class tonight and picking me up when it's done. Tomorrow, I'm not quite sure how I'm getting to work, but Wemble's husband is picking me up for class and if I remember correctly, the Engineer is picking me up from class. After that, goose egg.
I had a rental car this weekend for Miss Janette and I to toodle around in, but that got returned yesterday because I just couldn't afford to keep it out any longer. I don't know what I'm going to do.
I especially don't know what I'm going to do if the car needs more fixing than my father is willing to shell out for (for instance, if something is really gone pear-shaped with the transmission). I do not have any money whatsoever to get a new/used car. No money for a down payment and no money for a monthly payment. It's the whole reason why I drive the Eldorado in the first place: it's free.
I'm going to lose my nut. For real.
Right.
So, Friday night. I head out to Trenton to pick up Miss Janette at the train station for a weekend of punch and pie. I'm tooling down 29N at a good clip, making sweet time and rocking out (by myself) to my iPod. Then what happens?
The temperature light flashes at me. I snarl at it and briefly try to talk it out of doing that. Why are you doing that? You should stop that IMMEDIATELY. Five seconds of this proves nothing, so I pull over on the side of the highway to see what I can see.
As soon as I park and shut off the car, great plumes of smoke erupt from my hood. To the point where I thought the goddamn thing was on fire. I pop the hood and everything underneath is covered in coolant and hissing at me with rage. I hissed back, with equal amounts of rage, and got a face full of coolant gas for my troubles.
Shortly after, as I was waiting for the car to cool down so I could check everything out, a NJ DOT truck pulls up behind me and a guy who reminds me an awful lot of Deputy Winston from Cabin Fever gets out to see what my trouble is. He discovers that the hose that goes between my radiator and my expansion tank has blown (and that it looks like it was originally attached to the radiator with epoxy). Tries to reattach it and plug it up, no dice.
(At this point is when Miss Janette called me to tell me that she had reached the train station. I told her to sit tight for a bit.)
Deputy Winston tells me I'm going to need a tow. He gives me a fistful of flares (whoever thought that was a good idea, me and flares) and puts a no-tow tag on my car so the state troopers don't bother with it. Then he fucks off for parts unknown. I frantically call my mechanic for a tow, who apparently has also fucked off for parts unknown. Maybe to hang out with Deputy Winston, I don't know.
I call my father, the Engineer, Joanna, and Tony- for various reasons, not all of them being important. My father tells me to get the tow, the Engineer tells me he's on his way, Joanna laughs at me when I tell her I blew a hose (then asks if I need a ride), and Tony keeps me occupied until the Engineer shows up.
The car gets locked and left on the side of the road. I call the mechanic for a fourth time, this time reaching him, and tell him what's going on and where to find the damn car. The Engineer and I go to get Miss Janette.
I called the mechanic today to see what the hell is going on and he tells me he's not rightly sure why the car overheated. He took her out on the road today, without the hose attached, and it didn't overheat. Says they need to pull the radiator out of the car and send it out to get the hose welded back onto it. This holds the additional caveat that the welding facility may tell us to get bent because the radiator is a factory part and needs to be replaced because of its age. He also tells me that the car is leaking transmission fluid "badly".
What the eff.
The car's going up on the lift to have its innards checked out. I need to call the mechanic tomorrow morning and see what the verdict is.
And I'm tied up in knots.
School starts this week (my first class is actually tonight). And so far, I have a rather impressing array of rides lined up to get me to work and school and home again. However, this can not keep up. My brother brought me to work this morning. The Engineer is picking me up tonight. Wemble is taking me to class tonight and picking me up when it's done. Tomorrow, I'm not quite sure how I'm getting to work, but Wemble's husband is picking me up for class and if I remember correctly, the Engineer is picking me up from class. After that, goose egg.
I had a rental car this weekend for Miss Janette and I to toodle around in, but that got returned yesterday because I just couldn't afford to keep it out any longer. I don't know what I'm going to do.
I especially don't know what I'm going to do if the car needs more fixing than my father is willing to shell out for (for instance, if something is really gone pear-shaped with the transmission). I do not have any money whatsoever to get a new/used car. No money for a down payment and no money for a monthly payment. It's the whole reason why I drive the Eldorado in the first place: it's free.
I'm going to lose my nut. For real.
no subject
If your credit isn't atrocious, you may not have to put down a down payment. That's my only consolation.
no subject
Say you need a radiator, expansion tank cap and hose (the cap in case it's not releasing correctly; they're supposed to let excess pressure off).
Now I forget what year the Caddy is, but I remember it's the same body as mine was, the post 82 revision of the E-body 3rd gen (indepedent rear suspension, which has no bearing on your radiator, and the alloy/cheese engines, which might).
This is a raditor for the 4100 equipped Eldo; brand new, $199.
A reconditioned/recored radiator might be cheaper, and one from a breaker should be about $50 and can be pressure tested. There might be cheaper ones on ebay, too; I see the radiator for one year of E-body is $114. No-one is going to want to recore the radiator if the hose flanges have broken off - no top/bottom tank basically means nothing to recore.
Your top hose should be about $15 or so. Maybe a bit more these days. Remember Arby blew his top hose in Chandler on Rt 66, one of my favourite car stories; cost me $11 to get mobile again.
The transmission can be replaced or repaired. And as long as the car's body and chassis are holding up; they're rapidly becoming classics...
Most likely the transmission will need new seals, as long as the fluid has been changed. The cost of a rebuild is still going to be the same or less than buying pretty much any used car of any quality.