New & Improved Car Troubles

This afternoon I went to make my daily run to the post office. I turn the ignition and I get a bizarre noise that I’ve never heard. It sounded like something was spinning, but the car wasn’t even trying to start. I figure maybe it’s a belt so I check those, but they all seem intact. Then I start checking fuses, but all of those are good. I look around on the internet for suggestions and thumb through the car’s repair manual for ideas, but come up with nothing. Out of desperation before having it towed to the repair shop, I key the ignition for about 30 seconds straight and it finally catches and starts!

I throw my bike into the back and leave, planning to go straight to the repair shop. But since it seems to be doing okay, on the way I decide to stop by the post office and mail all my boxes and letters. I’ll just leave the car running while I’m in there so I won’t have to worry about starting it again. As I make my turn onto the road that leads to the post office, it dies again. Luckily, I’m able to get it started by holding down the ignition for about another 30 seconds. It finally starts up and I continue to the post office. Just to make sure I don’t accidentally turn my car off out of habit when I arrive, I take the key out of the ignition and lay it on the seat. (My key can be removed while the car is running.)

As I pull into my parking space at the post office, the car dies again. Argh. I begin to wonder if I’ll ever make it to the repair shop, which is still 10 minutes away. I grab all of my boxes and go inside. This is when I realize that I’ve added to my problems by locking my keys in my car. Since they weren’t in the ignition, I didn’t grab them on my way out of the car like I usually do. Argh again.

While standing in line to mail my stuff, I come up with a brilliant plan to get into my car without having to pay for a cab ride back home to get the spare keys. I walk to the park behind the post office and into the woods and find a giant rock long, sturdy stick. I’m able to stick it into the top of the window, which was luckily down an inch or two, and press the unlock button on the other side. I’m such a hacker. I jump in and hold down the ignition for close to a minute before it finally starts up again. At every stop I’m throwing into neutral, keeping the engine revved and hoping this will keep it from dying. It works and I finally make it there.

It ended up being the timing belt. I think it’s going to be $382 to fix and I’m supposed to have my car back tomorrow. It’s a lot of money, but my monthly average is still way less than what I used to pay for car payments, so I’m thankful for that at least. Plus I thought timing belts cost a lot more than that to replace, so I actually feel like I’m getting a discount. I’m just happy this didn’t happen while I was in Portland this weekend. That would suck being stranded up there until my car was fixed.

While biking home I realized what an amazing day it was outside. Passing by a bank, I saw that the temperature was 68 degrees. It’s been in the 50’s and rainy for the past week, so it was kind of a surprise. I had a nice ride home and stopped by Dairy Queen for an Oreo Blizzard for lunch. I couldn’t have had a more perfect day for riding.

When I got home I saw the perfect ending to my day – I left the garage door open for the 3 hours I was out. I guess with all the excitement of having my car actually start, I forgot to close it as I left. I left a brand new Xbox 360, still in the box, sitting on the washer and dryer. (Not mine, it’s someone elses.) Luckily nobody walked in and stole it and everything else I own while I was gone. I left my office door unlocked too. It’s not the first time I’ve left the garage open when I left, but definitely the longest.

While I was waiting for my Blizzard, I Twittered about my car problems and Rogue Clown replied to it, “was it a medium pepperoni timing belt?” which I found extremely hilarious. It was a reference to one of the old auto parts prank calls. Thanks for making me laugh, Rogue. I needed it today.