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3:35 p.m. - November 28, 2005
Starter? Who Needs a Starter? Uh....
Well, I guess it was inevitable.

After about 10 years of almost perfect luck with my cars, I do believe that this morning the starter of my Honda CR-V gave up the ghost.

I went outside in the misty, cool rain turned the key and heard this faint �grrrrrr� noise.

I had noticed that the inside dome light was on, so I thought I needed a jump. So I get the jumper cables from Liz�s car, hook them up, and�.

The starter was laughing at me. �Your jumper cables are of no use for this problem. Mwahahahah!�

So I walked to work, then got on the horn to my auto repair place, and then called AAA to arrange to have it towed there. This afternoon I should know if my expert amateur diagnosis was correct.

(Actually, I think that�s about all I can diagnose on a car. Well, I know when the muffler is going bad, and the brakes. That and I damn well know when a clutch is going out. Other than that, all I can do is tell a mechanic that �it�s broken� and sometimes I can�t even tell them WHAT�S broken. Once I needed a tuneup and I thought it was the transmission.)

It�s odd that I don�t know that much about how to fix cars, seeing that I looooove auto racing. I�m the kind of idiot that will watch the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 24 hours of LeMans because I love those types of cars. I watch every F-1 race, and almost every Champ Car and Indy Car race.

And I really wish I could have been a road racer. I suppose it�s not too late, but right now I don�t have the disposable income to go to driving school.

As I said, I�ve had great luck with my recent cars. Of course, though, I bought a great brand. I used to have a Honda Civic for a while, and then traded in that for a CR-V when I started making a commute through the country. I�ve had that car for five years, and it�s got over 120,000 miles on it.

But it�s run great through all kinds of weather. It�s been to Alaska, to Kansas and Oklahoma at least twice, up to Minneapolis, over to Iowa, to Pittsburgh, and all over the wilds of Indiana and Ohio.

Before then, though, I had a dog of a car. For whatever reason, in 1991, I traded in my Ford Escort GT (mind you, not a great car, but�) for a Hyundai Excel in an effort to lower my car payments.

That Excel, yeesh.

It needed constant tune ups. I had two clutches go bad on it. Plus, it felt like you had to Fred Flinstone the car to get it to go fast.

I was relieved when I hit a patch of ice early in 1995, and totaled it by hitting the back gate of a truck that had already hit a lightpole.

Yeah, that�s all it took. I smashed the right rear quarter panel, damaged the trunk and the rear wheels, and the insurance company said it was totaled.

(This all happened about six days after I got back from my honeymoon. That - now that was a pleasant phone call to make.)

Going back a bit, for about six months in 1991, I had a great car as a second car. I bought a baby blue 1971 Triumph Spitfire on the cheap. I had a group of guys who wanted to get their hands on it, so they helped me put in some new brakes, oil filters, and spark plugs.

I treated that car like a baby. I never went over 55, I made sure it was well taken care of, and basically, in a choice between absolute crazy girl I was semi-dating at the time (which will be a great essay) and the car, the car would have won. Hands down.

Great car, but unfortunately, I had to get rid of it when I moved to Indianapolis. That car wouldn�t have lasted more than a month in the parking lot of my apartment complex.

As luck turns out, I sold it to a professor here at the College, and he STILL has it, and I see it all the time in the summer.

Liz is a big help too, she always said, �Hey, I saw your old car being driven around today.�

I weep silently every time I see or hear about that car.

My FIRST car - that was a real hoot and a half. It was a 1976 Dodge Aspen station wagon, and if it was under 35 degrees it stalled every time you turned left. It had just an AM radio, so I drove around with a boom box for the most part.

Then I drove a Dodge Omni for a while. That�s not what you�d call a sexy car, especially not for a 21-year old male. Yeah, baby, cruising JustRite in the Rock-and-Roll Omni�who hoo!

Of course, they were all in one piece. Moose had a Ford Pinto wagon (Danger! Death Trap!) that had some of the floor boards rusted out so you could SEE the road as you were driving.

Scrumptious.

With the Civic, I had more bad luck, but it wasn�t the Civic�s fault. It went to the body shop on four separate occasions. Two of those were my fault due to snow and ice and crappy Indiana conditions, one time because some moron ran a red light and plowed into the front of my car, and the other time because some eeediot backed into me at a red light.

The guy who ran the light was a pip. He immediately got out of the car and offered me money not to call the cops. Too bad. There was a witness as well. Turns out he had given me bogus insurance information, and my insurance company had to go after him, I believe.

The other time I was sitting at a light after playing softball. This guy in front of me realizes he�s a bit out into the intersection and starts backing up. All the while, I�m going, �he�s not going to see me�� and honked my horn and flashed my lights. Oops.

But the Cr-V has stayed out of the body shop, and for the most part out of the repair shop, except for basic maintenance.

And if it�s just a starter that�s wrong, I�m not too terribly worried. Those things happen.

Knock on wood, formica, and all of the other things on my office�

 

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