Yeah, I said it. Fuck. My. Life.
Coming home from birthday dinner with folks, the Check Engine Soon light came on in the momvan. How festive. It idles like shit, hard to start, easy to die, but once you get some gas to it, it smooths out a bit. Took it to our handy dandy local mechanic who was going to get the codes, but guess what? His code reader doesn't ready older than 2000. Missed it by 5 years. So trying again tomorrow with an older borrowed code reader and some suggestions from Jesse in DC as to possible causes. May be without a vehicle for a few days, but the Cute Chicks can ride the bus to school. No biggie. Just a few hundred dollars and a few more ulcers.
On the way out to the garage, I go through the laundry room and hear an ominously familiar hissing coming from the hot water heater. Get the closet cover off (Gerry rigged double wide) and find an Old Faithful spewing forth from the hot water line at the tank connection. Cut the power to it, turned off the water at the main (after showering and getting Teen Queen showered) and started draining the tank to eliminate other leaks. Nope. Just the one. So, without wheels, I have to do what I hate doing, and call someone to come fix what I can easily fix myself. A quick call to Frank's Repair Plumbing (the guys drive pink white and black service trucks) and we're on the call list for tomorrow morning. A few hundred more, handful of gray hair, and I think my ulcer sprang a leak.
I'm popping antacids like M&Ms and thinking I really wished I had some of wirecutter's magic Xanax pills. I don't even have any of Mother Nature's natural stress reliever (not that I ever did, Poppy.)
So, yeah.
Fuck. My. Life.
14 comments:
honey...dont fret...it only goes downhill from hear
bison guy
Ugggg when it rains it pours. Huggs my amigo. I'll be saying a prayer for your finances and sanity tonight.
If the car is too old to support "OBD II", which it is, there's a way to read out the codes using the "check engine" light.
I don't know which method to use as I don't know the specifics of your vehicle, but I'm surprised your mechanic didn't know.....
autozone reads codes for free
The law requires OBDII on 96 and newer autos. I hope your mechanic pulls both your legs so they end up even.
Daryl
The momvan is a 1995 GMC Safari.
Here ya' go:
http://www.obd-codes.com/faq/read-gm-2-digit-obd-codes-free.php
And they give you a link to what the codes mean.
Angel, are you by any chance using "cheap gas" meaning non-name brand gas? I had an old Plymouth that once developed symptoms just like you describe (stalling at idle, but ran OK at higher RPMs). I cleaned and rebuilt the carburetor (yes, it had one of those--no fuel injection), but with no change in the symptoms. I then took the carb to a buddy who worked at a carb shop, and he tested it and said my carburetor was fine. He then asked me where I bought my gas, and I said "Gas N Go" (an off-brand). He asked how long I had been buying gas there, and I said, "about a month." He then asked how long I had been having the symptoms, and I said, "about a month--doh!" He then told me to wait until the gas tank was almost empty, and then to fill the tank with a name brand gas. I filled it with Shell, and I could tell when the Shell gas made it to the carburetor as the idle speed picked up, no more stalling, etc.
So before you spend tons of money on repairs, check the quality of the gasoline you are feeding your beast. Other things to check would be a poisoned/plugged catalytic converter, but if it runs fine at highway RPMs that's probably not what the problem is.
Rusty
prayers, and wishin I could send other "spirits" to help you make it thru......
vaquero viejo
Idle air control motor
Or a set of plugs cap rotor and wires . betting former
Angel,
You know what they say, when life hands you lemons,... throw them at the head of the first sob that pisses you of until he runs away screaming for mercy. It won't help, but it will make you feel a little better. Of course, not as good as Xanax but I am afraid you are on your own there. Seriously, I feel for you, been in your shoes so many times, I have blisters.
There is a rash of bad capacitors in the ignition voltage control circuit on the engine control unit circuit board. It's something to check when an engine starts acting weird and the fault codes are merely symptons. You have to pull the computer out and open it up and you can actually see brown stains and board damage around the ruptured capacitors. If it is only a minor rupture sometimes you can actually solder a new capacitor in. If it has leaked to the extent that the board is damaged you'll have to replace the computer. Go read the Wikipedia article "capacitor plague". Your vehicle is out of the time frame but I chased one of these around a 94 Toyota for a year before I found the bad cap. I can't be sure that's what it is but it is something to check. Enjoying the same lovely weather here North of the DFW metroplex as you.
Apply the "5 year rule" to stuff like this.
Will I even remember this in five years? If not, or I'll remember it as being funny, then it's not really all that important, although it seems so now.
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