eastowners

Current Mood: F%@k It!

As many if you probably know by now, I abhor cars.   Well, it’s really a love/hate relationship I guess.  Cars get me places I want to go; like the beer store.  But I still hate them.

With all the rain and high humidity from the warm weather and melting snow, my car decided to start acting up.  Perhaps it was because it hadn’t had a tune-up since before Clare was born.  Perhaps it was because it is in fact as sentient as I sometimes believe and it hates me as much as I hate it.

Either way, it was idling fine, but then began sputtering when I gave it gas; worse when it was in gear.  I began to think it out as some kind of fuel problem.  I did my usual reading and research and was set to buy a fuel filter and a new injector; something the car has needed before when things like this happen and probably should get again anyway.

For some reason I didn’t make the purchase though.   Something told me to go home and to really pay attention to what it was doing.  So I did.  It idled fine.  Gave it gas and it sputtered like crazy; and backfired.  Ahh…  ELECTRICAL.  So we went to the store last night and bought all the usual tune-up essentials; cap, rotor, wires, and plugs.  I picked up an air filter because I didn’t know when -that- was last changed.

This morning, I went to move the car into the driveway and nothing; no sputtering, backfiring, or anything.  It’s got cold again and is completely dry outside.  I think I got it.  I replaced the wires and plugs (and the air filter), but found that the desk jockey at the autoparts store gave me the wrong damned cap and rotor.  Nothing can ever go right.

The wires were showing rust through some of the joints and the plugs were basically gone.  Likely that’s probably most of the issue, but the cap and rotor will still need to be replaced.  I’ll be making an exchange this weekend.

Fun times.  And the exhaust needs to be welded up again.  That’ll have to wait until spring.