memnus: Cartoon kitten after being sprayed with water (Angry kitten (QoW))
Brian ([personal profile] memnus) wrote2005-07-21 10:07 pm

... Justified. I feel stupid now.

I decided my car was happy enough to drive.

That turned out to be a mistake. On the 105 heading away from work, my speedometer and tachometer suddenly decided that the car was neither moving nor running. Despite the steady thrumming and comforting feeling coming from the engine, my dashboard insisted that I was at a dead stop. Another few thousand feet revealed that the odometer wasn't moving any farther, either.

Fine, I thought, some sensor that tells how the wheels and axles are moving is dead. I can cope with that for another hour, my mileage will just be off by 40 or so.

Not so much. As I was on the big bridge onto the 605, the car shuddered and went silent. Keep in mind that I've been driving a manual for tive years now, and although I rarely stall one out anymore I've gotten plenty used to it. So I tried to turn the car back on and keep going.

The key turned silently, sitting in the ignition, doing nothing. Mocking me. A few more turns, and the car was obviously not coming back with my help. Never mind that I'm in the left lane of a two-lane overpass onto a crowded freeway. I tried to turn my hazard lights on, but they weren't having any of it. My battery must be dead on top of everything.

A call later to USAA, and CHP was on the way. Luckily, Metro Whatever towing also happened by, and I got off the freeway and safely to a curb in Norwalk. Upon being informed that I'd left behind a nice puddle of oil, I decided that, even if the car was running again (which it did, after the tow truck gave me a jump) that I didn't want to be driving it back to Claremont. The clunk that I heard beneath my car in a test back-up didn't help either. So, one more tow truck ride (this one a different truck, that we waited a while to show up) the car was safely at a (closed) Subaru dealership back in Long Beach. Chris and MacKenzie (gods bless them up and back down again) drove down to pick us up, and we got dinner and finally got home a bit after 9.

So, tomorrow I will be sitting around waiting for a call from people who will tell me what indignities the Sube will need to suffer to ride again. I really hope that it can make it another year... I thought I'd even been taking good care of it and everything.

click

[identity profile] willworker.livejournal.com 2005-07-22 12:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Good luck at Timmons. I've had less-than-stellar experiences with them (they charge too much and completely missed a wiring problem (or created it) when they did the 120k mile checkup).

Steve

[identity profile] memnus.livejournal.com 2005-07-22 04:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, bloody hell. It figures. Unfortunately, it was the only place that USAA would pay to get it towed to that wasn't random-mechanic-in-Norwalk. I just hope they don't decide that they want to replace the transmission...

[identity profile] willworker.livejournal.com 2005-07-22 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
It sounds, to my limited knowledge, that you're right-- some sensor of where things (driveshaft, etc) are is broken, which means that the computer chip controlling the car has no idea when to spurt in gas or whatever, so /hopefully/ just replacing that sensor will take care of everything.

Steve

[identity profile] muralasa.livejournal.com 2005-07-22 07:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank goodness you got off the freeway alright! LA freeways (in rush-hour traffic no less) are pretty scary sometimes~

~k.