03 June 2005 Friday

Car sick

Bluey the car died (got terribly terribly sick) today on way home from work.

• on the highway there was light smoke coming out of the front right side of the car
• on Ustreet it got quite worrisome… I started upping my sweettalk and had long since turned off any music.
• on Gstreet it started getting quite embarrassing… an externally audible rolling rattle sound had was going steady… i was just asking car not to explode [with me in it]
• right after the left turn from Gstreet onto Nstreet, cars started staying away from me… what, smoke doesn’t entice them?
• car had been slowly losing response to accelerator for the last mileish.. i started to make that right turn into Flower Valley… and was composedly but a mildly alarmed to feel the steering wheel almost stop responding (auto steering failed)...
• i managed to pull that turn alright (thank goodness)... but after just a few feet, all the car stopped and every single warning light on the dash turned on (where had even a single one of those lights been before??);
• the car was dead… not even really gliding (i forget… i may have had my foot firmly on the brake pedal…either that or there’s a built in brace against a car just completely letting loose and coasting if the engine/everything dies.
• was a bit scary when the brakes were barely responding (no more power brakes, i guess)
• lots of sweet talking to get the car to let me pull (no more power steering) the left turn onto Fstreet, and i just hoped that a) no exploding would take place on a neighborhood street where there are people and pets and pretty grass and stuff… b) i could coast down and get out of people’s way and just make it safely home and deal with all of it afterward.
• i kept conscious of perhaps pulling to the side on the grass on Fstreet, but I didn’t want the car stuck outside someone else’s home and disturbing the street and stuff…. I managed to ‘float’ quietly past the neighbors who live right in front of us (they had some other neighbor there with them outside, and were enjoying their babies and dogs…. i didn’t want to blow up/lost control of vehicle and run into them)..
• i pulled that left turn into our drive way and…..
• a few yards in, the car would not coast any further. i pressed the brake all the way down, hoped the ‘park’ option would work (it did), packed up my stuff, got out of the car, and walked a little bit shakily into the house.
• i came back out later… personally i think the coolant fluid is empty. it seems that there’s oil, but it’s pretty dirty-looking, even for oil. anyway, i managed to drive it into parking spot in proper driveway… and had been lucky that neighbors who share our driveway had not come home during that time… (when the car first pulled into the driveway, i considered parking in the grass, but other neighbor would surely have been upset with their new baby lawn, and i was still hoping hoping i could get it more in our driveway and not be on anybody’s toes at all.)

anyway, last night i had already looked up the phone number online, and plugged it into my cellphone, and this morning i had made the phone call and booked the doctor’s appointment for Bluey at nearby auto service center, for Friday afternoon. now it’ll be less a check-up, and more an emergencyish operation.

well that’s my story.
i think i’m still slightly shaky. but that might also be cuz i didn’t have lunch today.

p.s. YES the car was overdue for a checkup.