Recently in Car Category

So my car got a bit smooshed last week, coming home from the gym. *sigh*. Coming home, turning into my driveway and either I didn't look hard enough, or the guy behind me was going way too fast, but I turned and I suddenly hear this screen and a thump as he hits me on the front right left quarterpanel. Basically caved in the body and gave a good scrape on the door (crappy cell phone picture included). Everyone was ok thankfully, mostly it's just going to be my pride and my pocketbook that's hurt, as app

arently ICBC has "special" rules for turning into a driveway which essentially says that if you're the one turning into the driveway, you're at fault. The guy on the phone told me that the best I could hope for was 75% at fault, the other guys' skid 20' of skid marks aside. Luckily of course this is what insurance is for, but sadly the 11 years of safe driving means nothing, or next to nothing (so much for the "one free accident" thing I heard about). So I lose some discount on my insurance (the suck when a "sports" car like mine has such high premiums to begin with), pay some money over 3 years (not sure what's up with that), and of course it goes on my insurance record. Or at least it'll be something like that, I have yet to hear from them with any official word. Course, when you have a monopoly in the province, it seems there's not a lot you can do but some bitching and whining :(

An odd thing happened coming home from work yesterday.  Out of nowhere about 5 minutes from work my car suddenly died.  Just turned off.  I coasted to the side of the side street I was on and thought "that was odd", then started back up and kept on going.  About 5 minutes down the road (this time on the highway) it happened again!  I was lucky to be able to move from the fast lane to the side of the highway easily enough, as the power steering dies when the power is off and the thing went from sports car to brick as far as navigation. 

Again I thought "that was odd".  This time when I started it up it would rev and die.  Tach just hit 0.  Did this two or three times and then I gave it a footfull of gas and it started up as normal again.  I turned it off and on a few more times and then wondered what the hell to do.  I had BCAA's number in my cell phone but didn't know what to tell them. "I'm in a perfectly working car beside the side of the road"?

I drove home on eggshells, not touching the windows or radio or anything just in case that had something to do with it.  Last thing I wanted was for the car to die while I'm in the middle of the bridge. 

So now I'm not sure what to do.  I probably should have it looked at, but without any symptoms for a mechanic to see, it'll probably be hard to diagnose.  On the other hand, the thought of my car randomly stopping out of nowhere is a non-too attractive prospect.

Oh, what a great morning this is turning out to be. I woke up late this morning (big surprise) and had to rush (big surprise) after being up late (big surprise) because something computer related wasn't working (big surprise). Manage to get into the car in time to get to work on time and it just grinds. Not sure if it's the battery, it felt like it, except that the lights on the dash all came on and it did do that grinding thing. I really hope that it's not a starter or something like that, because if so, so much for getting RRSPs this year or anything like that. So because firefly doesn't have a car at home right now no chance of getting a jump, and there were no obviously awake neighbors, so I did what I could, jump on my bike and rode to work. Only came in about 15 minutes late (thanks to the downhill only route) and came in with my hands and ears absolutely frozen (thanks to the downhill only route :) Geez it's cold out there, looks like I'll be riding home tonight in 3 degree weather. It only rained a little bit though, so my butt and legs are only a little wet, and no doubt will dry out just in time for the ride home in the dark. I suppose it can only get better right? Update: Saving me from a clock-tower rampage, my huge thanks to my buddy Aryk's offer to give me a ride home tonight.

... or at least that's what Darren told me. Some odd random grinding noises last night turned into non-random grinding noises, so I dropped it by the mechanic that luckily is right by the place I park for work. Less than an hour later I get a call telling me that not only have my calipers seized up and have worn down my rotors and pads, but my tires were quote "scary" unquote. The brake thing is a $600-700 charge, and last time I got tires they were $130 / tire for the cheapest ones. Sucks to be me. Hey buddy, got a quarter?

I will attempt to compress my three day ordeal to try to re-insure my car into just a few bullet points. It started of course with it breaking down on Sunday. Monday and tuesday it was in the shop, but tuesday night I got it back.

When I first got into the car there was an odd "ticking" sound, sort of like the blinker was on or the "dumbass you left your lights on" warning was going, but neither were. I went back in and asked $cardude, and after mucking around a bit he said that it was the alarm resetting itself after being disconnected from power and basically just saying "hey, something odd might have happened," and just needed to be armed and disarmed a couple of times. Ok, whatever, more to do.

Immediately after getting the car back (and dropping lots of $ into the mechanics pockets) I drove across the street to get insurnace at the handy close by Insurance agent. The sticker on the side of the computer proudly exclaimed "ask me about third party insurance!", so I did, as I was going to anyway, as being screwed over by ICBC for another year wasn't all that nice.

So after an eternity of waiting for the nice lady to learn how to use a computer, she took my paperwork across the desk and said "you don't have aircare" and proceeded to pack things up. "And aircare closed at 5:30," she finished. She did think that third party insurance could probably save me about $300 a year, but she couldn't confirm this because the computer wouldn't let her past the "aircare" thing. This of course, is on the form I recieved, but in a tiny box and not something nice big and obvious (to me anyway).

So now I paid another $25 for a one day permit and drove home. The next day (yesterday) I race from work, past the insurance agent to aircare, which is back past where I live (about a 20 minute drive). I was the last car processed and after being screwed by the goverment for another $47, I went to the nearest insurnace agent, about halfway between aircare and the insurance agent by the garage.

I get in and ask the lady about third party insurance. Obviously either scared or threatened, she told me that it'd probably cost more, and why would I want to leave ICBC anyway? So thanks very much, and I head back to the first place. I get there and another person is in the place of my original agent, but tells me that their third party insurance would cost more.

*sigh*

So for now I'll go with ICBC. Since the big hit of the car repairs I can't do it yearly like I normally do, so I ask for it monthly. "You have a void check sir?" ARGH!!!! Fuck. So, drive another 20 minutes back home, and then back with a void check. I finally get insurance. I finally get to drive home.

The next day I realized that my car alarm wasn't working at all, or at least, was working perfectly but noiselessly. Not all that useful. So I called them up and explained and she took my name and told me to come on in after work, which I did. The person there didn't believe they had time/people nor that I had an appointment, and tried to tell me that they didn't know anything about aftermarket alarms. Luckily my irrefutable logic of "It was working before it came in, and was not working when it left, therefor something happened here" took a few tries to get through the guys head, but finally he got someone to look at it and told me it was just a power wire was unhooked (which I figured).

Then, finally it was over, and I had working and insured car. I still have to call up HSBC or Canadian Direct and see about getting third party insurance that is affordable and that doesn't make me feel like I'm getting screwed over of course.

*sigh*

Just heard from Pat over at the service place... sounds like the timing belt didn't do any engine damage..... Whohohooo! This makes me especially happy after asking for a worst case senario and hearing "new engine" :) I am still going to eat a big bill as I'm getting them to do some of the overdue maintenance stuff that I've been avoiding, fluid top ups, etc. I figure that after having the effects of avoiding regular maintenance on a new(ish) car displayed so graphically to me I'd better be good. This also means that I won't have a tune up that's needed Real Soon Now hanging over my head. Still sucks to come this close to insurance time, but such is life.

Bah, only four months after my last bout of car problems, I was struck again. Coming home from my folks after an awsome chicken dinner, just hitting the bypass the car stalled. Luckily right at a light, so after a couple of minutes of asking it really nicely to turn over, I pushed it off the road. After a bit more hoping, cursing, and pumping the gas, with no better results, I called in BCAA, thankful again that I pay my money each year Just In Case™. Tow truck dude arrived quickly and told me "it's your timing belt."

Words to strike fear into the hearts of most people who have been told at one point or another "timing belts are really expensive." So dude was nice enough to drop us off at the bottom of the hill and took the car onto the Honda place. So I'm carless until I can get it fixed, which hopefully will be tomorrow, and hopefully I won't have to sell a kidney to afford it.

More proof that I should never be allowed anywhere near any sort of hardware of any kind.

Bah. The repairs I had done to my clutch around this time last year seem to be coming back to kick me in the ass. The last couple of days have had the point where the clutch engages "sink" further and further, and today, spurred by the feeling that it was starting to get to the point where I had to push a bit into the carpet to ensure a clean engage/disengage action, I called up the place I got it fixed.

Of course, when I got it fixed originally I was working elsewhere, and of course each Honda dealership doesn't talk to each other, so I can't take it into the Abbotsford place and have the warranty honored. So now it means getting time off work, getting down there, hoping that it doesn't take too long, and if it does, find a way to amuse myself for as long as it takes to fix this. That's assuming that I don't get screwed over for too much ca$h of course. So much for getting ahead...

Saturday I decided that since it was nice, why not wash the car. I didn't want to just wash it though, I wanted to give it the full fred treatment. Since I got my car so many years ago I've been acculating a collection of car cleaning products, including mothers products, armor all, rim cleaner, tire cleaner, and the full works.

So noonish I wandered over to Cat5's place, where there is far more room and a much better water/hose setup than we have here at the apartment building. Armed with beer and timbits, and a milk crate full of car cleaning stuff in the trunk, I intended to finish the inside and out.

I am whole again!

My car is back. It's clutch problems have all been fixed. It's leaky somethingorother seal has been fixed. I can hit the gas and actually feel the car move instead of the engine just revving up. I am happy. I am also poor. Good thing the work invoice payment came in today.