Anybody Out There A Mechanic?
Aug182010
So here’s the problem.
My heroine is driving down the road in a ’94 Toyota Camry. She knows that it needs looked at and that in particular if she stomps on the gas pedal hard, it’ll cough and sometimes stall, so she doesn’t do that. But then something in the scene makes her do that and the car dies completely. It’s towed into a shop where the mechanic is smart and honest and he tells her that he needs to find a part for it before he can fix it.
My questions are:
What’s wrong with the car?
What part does it need?
How long will it take to fix?
If you guys don’t have the answer, I’ll have to take my car into Toyota and get it fixed and ask there, which I should do anyway because it has a recall on it, but I have to write, so really, somebody? Help.
Loading ...
80 Comments to 'Anybody Out There A Mechanic?'
On August 18, 2010 at 11:02 pm Betsy said...
You should ask Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers on Car Talk:
http://www.cartalk.com/
On August 18, 2010 at 11:07 pm katt said...
I had a car that did that… many many moons ago. It all stemmed from a dirty gastank, then dirty plugged fuel filter and then the carburator.. so I’m guessing any of the three would do it for you. From the inexpensive fuel filter on up…. You could always cheat, phone a garage and describe the symptoms, SOME mechanics love to talk.
On August 18, 2010 at 11:16 pm Heidi said...
Her car could stall because she uses cheap, no name gas that has fillers because with gas prices now that is all she can afford. She has it towed and they flush her fuel tank and it takes 3 days…. It happened to me
On August 18, 2010 at 11:19 pm hollygee said...
A dirty fuel filter would do that, according to Steve. It only takes 20 min. to change and they are pretty common, so that town has to be really small. Getting more info, but do you need her to be stranded for a bit?
On August 19, 2010 at 1:56 am Jenny said...
Yeah. She stalls out on a Wednesday, he finds the part and goes and gets it on a Thursday, and she ready to hit the road Friday AM. I can fudge that around some but that’s the time line.
On August 18, 2010 at 11:21 pm Chris said...
It is the fuel injector, it is old and gunked up and not giving the car enough gas. And then when she stomps on the pedal she floods it. It takes about three days. One for the part to come in and a day- and half to get to the part because the car maker likes to make it difficult so “joe” mechanic can’t just slip out the old one and put in the new one. Then 1/2 day to put back together.
On August 18, 2010 at 11:41 pm Rosa said...
Yes! Or even worse, it is the computer that runs the fuel injectors, and it has nothing to do with anything she did, but it takes a long time and a lot of money to replace.
Once, my 1990 Dodge Dynasty did this. Died all the sudden. In a parking garage. On campus. After a concert. When I was out of town visiting a man I hadn’t *previously* spent the night with, and then I had to because I was stranded.
On August 19, 2010 at 11:12 pm Kelly S said...
My DH seconds both the fuel injector or the computer for it. He also offers up a mass airflow sensor. It measures the amount of air going into engine. If it is off, then the computer will dump either too much or too little fuel into the engine. He also agrees the filter would be too common to come by. He thinks the computer would be the only part hard to get. (the tease)
On August 19, 2010 at 11:23 pm JulieB said...
When is this set? Depending on the timing, Vince might not have a computer to read the Camry’s codes. By ’94 I think the Camry would have had a computer, but if Vince was a small indy, he may have not been able to read them. I can ask the BIL if it was in the past.
On August 21, 2010 at 2:27 pm Jenny said...
Vince is the cop. And it’s a contemp so it’s set in 2010, 2011.
On August 18, 2010 at 11:25 pm JulieB said...
OK — you could have a combo thing here. The fuel injector could have some sort of clog. (OK — I’ll have to actually talk to my B-I-L about this) But the thing that got my attention was hitting the gas and having it not go. That actually happened to my mom when we owned a Firebird (why yes, it was red. Yes, it was a post-separation car, how did you guess?) Anyway, we were merging on to the Tri-State Tollway (294) outside of Chicago, in about 1979, when the average speed was 80 mph. We (Mom, my little sister and I) were on the merge ramp and slowly gaining speed as she tried to time the space for her merge. She hit the accelerator and we coasted into traffic with semis on our rear end and no inertia. It was by the grace of God that we finally rolled onto the shoulder.
If it’s fuel injection, it’s not as sexy IMO. But I don’t remember the alternator giving us any problem until it didn’t work.
It was the alternator. That keeps energy going to the car and recharges the battery. I believe we had to have it replaced. (maybe it can be rebuilt.)
So, this wasn’t so much help as just another opportunity for me to re-tell my story.
On August 18, 2010 at 11:26 pm JulieB said...
Although, if you call Click and Clack, please give us the heads up. I will definately listen.
On August 18, 2010 at 11:29 pm R. said...
It could be the timing belt. That’s not too expensive to replace, but the tensioner spring should be done, too. Since the belt drives the water pump, that could need to be replaced as well, along with o rings and gaskets. You’d have to ask about costs, but my guess would be around $600 – maybe more. Time would depend on how busy the mechanic is and if parts are on hand. I’m no expert, so for accuracy, I’d go ask the Toyota guys for their take on it. If you offer to thank them by shop name or dealership in the book, I’ll bet they’ll fall all over themselves to help.
On August 19, 2010 at 7:41 am Naked Under My Clothes said...
I had this happen on a busy interstate, though not in my ’94 Camry (ahem) but in a Ford Taurus wagon. We had to leave it because in the little town, they had to order the part and it was a Saturday afternoon and the part didn’t come in so anyway, I picked it up on Tuesday.
It doesn’t have the cachet of the fuel symbol, and it doesn’t really fit the “can’t floor it” symptom, but timing? Also symbolic. And it was just the weirdest sensation–I was driving along and then I wasn’t.
For reality, the thing that keeps annoying the crap out of me in said ’94 Camry are the shocks/struts. But the damn thing is sturdy and is cheaper to fix (STILL!!) than something that is new and shiny. Sigh.
On August 18, 2010 at 11:43 pm Dee said...
As hollygee said, the most common cause of that problem would be the fuel filter, but that’s easy and quick to change. You can go with fouled injectors, too, but that’s generally a cleaning issue, not a parts issue. What model of Toyota are you using? Certain engines use a TPS (throttle position sensor) that can give similar problems if it’s fouled, though that may simply need cleaning, too. Depends on what’s going wrong. Also, depending on the model, there may be wires to certain parts of the car that can corrode. These are not always easy to spot and are not always the first things checked. So maybe he’s (Liz’s mechanic) not waiting for a part? Maybe he starts with the filter as the most logical choice, but that doesn’t fix it. Then he cleans out the fuel injector, but that doesn’t fix it either. And so on and so on dragging out her stay from hours to days. With the problem you’ve described, it’s all I’ve got.
Don’t know if that helps.
On August 19, 2010 at 12:05 am Meredith B. said...
Okay, I had this happen on my Saturn when I had to replace the entire engine (no, do not get me started on that story.) Once they’d put in the new engine (well, used, but new to my car) I kept having what felt like power surges, where I would press the accelerator down steadily, but the car would get power unevenly– and then finally it didn’t get power at all. I remember that it felt like I was running out of gas, but I didn’t hear that coughing sound that I the engine makes when it runs out of gas.
It took two weeks and three trips to the mechanic to figure out what was wrong and get it fixed. My mechanic had the fuel injectors on hand and they were easy to replace, but it took a ton of time to diagnose the problem. Possibly because it was a ‘new-used’ engine and there were multiple things that could have been wrong.
Don’t know if that helps or not.
On August 19, 2010 at 12:18 pm CrankyOtter said...
Well, it helps me, even if it doesn’t help Jenny. I just took my car to the mechanic last tuesday because I would press the accelerator down steadily but the car would get power unevenly. More like it would stutter and stot which made for a jerky ride. They cleaned a throttle intake valve and replaced the spark plugs (yeah, I coulda done that myself, but they had the thing apart already) and it seems to be doing better. It took part of the day to kinda diagnose and kinda fix. Jury’s still out on whether or not it’s fixed-fixed or just temporarily behaving. I don’t think they did anything with fuel injectors but I’ll ask for that next if/when this comes back. (Other than that, I love my Mazda 3.)
Only time I had problem with stomping on the gas and getting no response, it was because my clutch was giving out, nothing to do with the engine really. That was a ’96 Golf.
On August 18, 2010 at 11:45 pm Dee said...
And, yes, fuel injectors should be plural.
On August 18, 2010 at 11:51 pm Dee said...
And I’m a giant moron because it says right there in your second sentence that it’s a ’94 Camry. So, yes, it should have a TPS, which means it’s possible for that to be causing the problem, too. Also, if the wires thereof are not properly grounded, you’d have issues, though I don’t think it’d be the absolute cause of the problem, since it only exists upon giving it throttle, it could be the cause of the ultimate conk-out (technical term).
On August 18, 2010 at 11:52 pm Dee said...
Sorry for that last run-on. I’ll shut up now.
On August 19, 2010 at 12:01 am Beth E. said...
A dirty fuel filter or gunked up fuel injector seems like the logical cause. How about if the dirty fuel filter caused the initial problem but, while fixing that, the mechanic found out there was a leak in one of the valve cover gaskets, which was leaking all over the engine, requiring a number of hoses to be replaced (yes, I do speak from experience on this part . . . with a Toyota). If the mechanic is like the ones we ran into on summer vacations when the family car always broke down, he won’t have all the necessary parts in stock and will have to order some. Could take however long you want for those to come in, plus about a day for the repair, at around $700.
On August 19, 2010 at 12:08 am Brandy said...
Hi! I had a car that did the same thing and took it to about 10 garages until finally a friend found that it was the fuel line. The whole line had to be replaced. Good luck!
On August 19, 2010 at 12:18 am Brandy said...
Sorry I guess I didn’t answer the question completely!
1. What’s wrong? (For me) It’s a fuel line, the gunk got gunky and stuck and would let the gas flow like it should to the engine. It gets ‘occasional’ gas to the line when the gunk gets out of the way.
2. What parts does it need? It was an entire fuel line from the engine to the gas tank. And ALL of it needed changed b/c it’s a thin metal tube (or it was in my Acclaim, and I have to tell you leaveing for work 2 hours early for a 15 min ride until they found the problem was not fun!) and when they were replacing sections of the tubing it would kind of fall apart. This was an early 90′s car in the late 90′s.
3. How long to fix? To actually fix it should only take a couple hours, but finding the problem is the issue. The gas line things are hard to diagnose because it could be anything from the engine to the gaskets, fuel line to spark plugs, the alternator or even the gas tank could be the problem.
I know it wasn’t asked but the cost for parts and repairs (for me back in the day) was $150.00… but this was a ‘home grown’ mechanic, not a professional and it’s been 15 years.
Good luck with your writing! Can’t wait to read it!!!
On August 19, 2010 at 12:21 am Brandy said...
Alright, forgot to add another note: When my car did this, it would run fine and then no acceloration (like running out of gas) stall out for no reason, and you would hit the gas and it would flood the engine. It would sit for 1/2 or so and then it would start and go like it was supposed too. Then the whole thing would happen again.
Hope this helps and sorry it took so many posts! I’ll do better next time.
On August 19, 2010 at 1:48 am Cori R. said...
“An engine needs three things to run: fuel, air and spark,” as my dad is fond of saying. The situation you described happened to me with my Jetta – it was a bad fuel pump and clogged fuel filter. Then my car decided stalling was so much fun that it would try a new game: stalling whenever it got wet. No puddles, no storms or else no car.. That one turned out to be the ignition coil.
On August 19, 2010 at 10:08 am Bonnie C said...
Mt ’84 VW Rabbit did that. You’d splash innocently over an unavoidable puddle in the road and boom – no zoom. Scary as hell when you’re 16 and had your license for only a couple of weeks.
On August 19, 2010 at 1:50 am toni said...
Agreed on the fuel filter / injector. (Speaking from experience.) Ditto the likelihood that the mechanic won’t have the part in stock, if he’s not at a Toyota dealership–because they can’t keep every part in stock that many years.
On August 19, 2010 at 2:01 am Jenny said...
No, this is a small town mechanic. A good guy.
On August 19, 2010 at 2:02 am Jenny said...
First of all, can I just say how much I love you guys? Not only do you know everything, you discuss it in detail and give me many options. You have no idea how much this means to me, to have this many possibilities, all of them so good. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’ll be back with more questions but this is fabulous.
On August 19, 2010 at 3:22 am cbpen said...
I wonder where the fuel filter is on that year? Some cars have the fuel filter IN THE GAS TANK. Mine did. The tank has to be drained, pulled and the filter removed and replaced. Took a day and a half and a few hundred dollars.
I have also had the timing chain go. It took several days and parts. And if the mechanic lies and says he’s fixed one before and hasn’t, you still have problems until you can find someone to properly adjust the timing.
On August 19, 2010 at 3:37 am Eleanor said...
Car Talk is exactly what I was going to suggest. Especially because it’s, you know, free.
If she hasn’t driven in it in ages, maybe mice could have gotten in the engine and nested? Happened to my aunt’s car, which was not a Toyota, so maybe it’s just she bought the kind of car mice really like.
On August 19, 2010 at 3:45 am Eleanor said...
Just realized didn’t include what needed replacing. Ended up being quite a bit of the engines because mouse-corpse bits fused themselves to essential items. Can’t remember how long it took to replace, but I’m betting it was a while.
On August 19, 2010 at 8:02 am JulieB said...
Ew.
On August 19, 2010 at 9:20 am Jinx said...
Yay. Mouse corpse parts. GREAT plot addition — I like that one.
On August 19, 2010 at 9:52 am Meredith B. said...
Oh yeah, I think the mouse should make the book.
Or is it the wrong kind of humor?
On August 19, 2010 at 4:01 pm Eleanor said...
Maybe. It still makes me laugh, at least.
On August 21, 2010 at 6:05 pm Dee said...
Once, I had an entire mouse nest go up in flames upon starting the lawnmower. Mouse carnage everywhere. In flames. That’s rural livin’.
On August 19, 2010 at 9:26 am McB said...
Okay, so he’s a good guy and he knows it’s probably the fuel injector or dirty gas or something, but how to say which one right off? And he happens to be having a busy day anyway so can’t promise to get to her car right off. And then he figures it out but he’ll need to get the part from another town and their closed for the day now, so it’ll be tomorrow if he can get someone else to run over and pick it up in the morning, otherwise it might be noon before he can get it, and possibly the end of the day before it’s installed, and then he’ll need to test drive it to make sure he’s got the problem fixed … because he’s a good guy. So I can see it taking two days easily in a small town, especially one that’s slightly isolated. My parents’ home town is exactly like this … everything you need is at least an hour away, and wind-ey mountain roads don’t help.
On August 19, 2010 at 9:52 am Flamingo Cherry said...
I had a VW minibus that the temperature sensor went out on. Essentially, the sensor tells you how hot the engine is, and if it gets too hot, gas stops going to the engine to prevent a possible fire/explosion. In my case, it started off really small, as minor “misses” in the engine, but it worked up to the point where the engine would just flop over into idle for extended periods, without any warning, and I’d have to coast over to the side of the road and wait until it decided it was ready to go again (essentially, until the engine cooled off enough that the temperature sensor read it as being in the “safe” zone).
The hard part was that it took the mechanics forever to figure out what it was doing, because of COURSE it never did it to them when they’d take it out for a test drive, and I was just a college age GIRL so what the hell did I know? I was probably, like, making it all up. (Rolls eyes.)
Once they figured out the problem, it was an easy & relatively inexpensive fix. Because the engine wasn’t getting too hot; the sensor was just busted and SAYING the engine was too hot.
But you know, if Liz has tried to fix the early symptoms & her normal mechanics have done stuff like tune ups and changing the spark plugs and checking to see if the pistons are “wallered out” (yeah, it’s a real southern term) and messed with timing belts and on and on, and she thinks THIS TIME it’s FINALLY been fixed, then she gets to Burney and it flat goes out on her and she can’t get the car restarted (because the busted sensor is waiting for the engine to “cool down”) …
I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to have a fubarred car and the mechanics have no freakin’ clue what’s wrong so they play “House MD” and fix all kinds of crap that’s not wrong and still don’t fix THE PROBLEM, and then it leaves you stranded in the very last place on earth you want to be … oh, yeah. That could tie in extremely well.
Assuming, of course, that a 94 Toyota Camry has a temperature sensor like a 70-something VW minibus does …
On August 19, 2010 at 10:15 am Bonnie C said...
Wow. Can I just say I’m in awe of the collected knowledge here? Before I got married when my car would go wonky I’d turn to my dad and say, “Daddy! The car is wonky again!” And he’d say, “Right.” And then the car would magically go to the dealership and return in working order. (Now that I’m an old woman under my own roof it still goes to the dealership but I’m the one who has to arrange and pay for it so it’s less magical.
)
This whole discussion makes me want to take an autoshop class somewhere. Do they even still have those?
On August 19, 2010 at 10:30 am Marcia in OK said...
Oh wait – I KNOW this one. I drive a 1994 Toyota Camry SE (Sport Edition that is on the same Frame as the LEXUS for that year. This morning I pulled into the lot at work this moring at 190,734 miles. I’m looking at the DMV notice that says Flo is due for her 17th’ car tag/registration.
I LOVE this car and have been driving it for almost 14 years when it was “new to me” and had 42,000 miles. I’ve had this car as long as I’ve had my kid!
For the last 90,000 miles I’ve been driving mine with the check engine light on because I wasn’t able to afford the Official Toyota check up at the dealership for its 100K and 150K inspection.
At this age and with this many miles, lots of stuff is due for repair, but it just keeps going, until it doesn’t. Clogged Fuel injectors eventually are no longer fixed with Injector cleaner in the tank. Regular filter changes still won’t fix a gunked up fuel line. Totally fixable, just takes, time, parts and money.
I LOVE this car (yep, I said that already – sorry.) Mine is black, has the spoiler on the back, moon roof, CD player with good speakers that totally jam when cruising at night on the highway and you sing off key to Meatloaf playing really loud!, power seats and windows that all still work, and interior upholestry that still cleans up easily even after two kiddos – infant seats to almost driving. I love her so much I can easily ignore the faded paint, chipped paint on the hood covered partially with the car bra, and the slow leakig tire and the sort of blackend and won’t come clean aluminum alloy wheels (much better than LOST hub caps).
Someday Flo is going to have to be retired, but not this year.
(Sorry, but I’m glad I have this car and still love driving it every single day and it isn’t just because I hate making car payments.)
Can’t wait to read this story.
On August 19, 2010 at 11:13 am McB said...
MNO – your enthusiasm makes me smile, so thanks for that. But the other thing that is making me smile is waiting for Gatorperson to wander over here and ask why you were singing to your meatloaf.
On August 19, 2010 at 10:31 am Marcia in OK said...
Sorry for repeats and bad grammar. I kept getting interrupted while typing and then hit submit instead of preview!
On August 19, 2010 at 10:47 am Lola said...
My dad works on cars. He said it would probably be a clogged inline fuel filter or gas tank filter.
On August 19, 2010 at 11:00 am Tonya said...
My car did exactly that earlier this year. I took it to he dealership and they found a cracked spark plug. It took about an hour to fix.
On August 19, 2010 at 11:05 am Ginny said...
Could be a hose. When we got my used ’93 Volvo wagon, the small change dealer had in writing that they had changed the hoses. Well, except one. The small one. The tiny one that went out on a hot Christmast Eve driving to my parent’s house two hours away with bumper to bumper traffic and two toddlers. And my oldest son is disabled. The Department of Transportation guys were fantastic and helped us get the car off the road and the kids into an air conditioned truck until my Dad showed up. With my stupid brother in tow so we couldn’t fit the wheelchair into the car. I think I may still have unresolved issues about this. Sorry. It could be a stinky, tiny little unnoticed hose.
On August 30, 2010 at 6:44 pm glee said...
late, of course, but needing to chime in. Was moving from CA to MI in Jan of ’93. Got to buy a new alternator in Reno. Then about 90 miles from nowhere WY, the car started to act wonky (see above entry). Got car off the road and to the little town of Lyman, WY, where I was *so* lucky. There was a decent mechanic (whose wife ran the only motel in town) who figured out the guys who put in the new alternator crimped a small hose so engine was not getting air or water (I forget which). Took 2 days but he figured it out and fixed it (with parts that needed to come from elsewhere) and I was on my way. I was so grateful — when I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself being stuck in Lyman, WY with no family and a dead car.
On August 19, 2010 at 11:06 am Mia said...
Hubby is a mechanic and he says that the stalling and dying could be caused by a bad “mass air flow sensor”. Since the car is a ’94 it shouldn’t take more than a day to find parts for it, so fixing the car would take 1-2 days tops. Hope this helps.
On August 19, 2010 at 11:32 am Kate G said...
When this happened to me I was riding my Kawasaki, and I’d left a rag on the air intake by mistake. So if you need to compound the fuel problem maybe the air filter could also be black with dirt. (If they didn’t have one available and had to order it that could take a day or two.)
I’m assuming that a car needs air the same way a motorbike does. And of course I could be absolutely wrong. So maybe you should stick to the fuel filter unless some one can confirm my theory.
On August 19, 2010 at 1:24 pm elph said...
I’ll jump on the fuel filter bandwagon, as that happened to me once in a 95 Pontiac Grand Am. I was on a road trip and broke down right outside of a tiny town in Tennessee. The local mechanic was a wonderful honest guy, as you describe, and he knew right away that it was the fuel filter, but he didn’t have the part I needed and wasn’t going to be able to get it fast, so he recommended I get a tow down the road to the nearest good-sized town. The dealer in that town fixed the car within 24 hours, but I wound up wishing I’d asked the small town guy to order the part and shelled out for the hotel room for a week, because the dealer in the bigger town charged me an arm and a leg for that part (they had me over a barrel and they knew it).
On August 19, 2010 at 1:52 pm morningstar said...
Or it could be the EGR – I’ve had that happen on a couple of vehicles. Basically it works with the fuel injector, so the above answers re: fuel injector would still apply. We went through FIVE of them on one car before they got one that worked correctly! And then had to flush the gas tank etc etc.
Good luck ~
On August 19, 2010 at 1:53 pm morningstar said...
Oh – the air filter problem could be it, too. We ended up with one car really cheap because my cousin’s wife refused to drive it any more; she’d be going along and it would die. We took the air filter off and drove it 100+ miles home with no problem. Offered it back to them and they said they never wanted to see it again . Drove it almost 100,000 miles after we put in a clean one.
On August 19, 2010 at 2:14 pm Carol said...
I can attest to the many-hours-to-figure-out-where-the-problem-is. Even if the mechanic knows it is in the fuel system, he has to check all the parts of the system to find the problem. And while the fuel filter is an easy (unless it is in the fuel tank) and inexpensive fix, finding the right fuel filter in Birney could be a problem. We replaced the fuel filter in my 86 Nissan and found only one shop in a medium large city that carried it. We never would have found one in Birney. I could definitely see having to go out of town to find a fuel filter for a 94 Toyota.
On August 19, 2010 at 2:49 pm Stephanie said...
when it happened to my 1974 Ford Pinto it was the carburator. didn’t take long to fix but it only happened to me and never to the mechanic guys so i drove it for months with it dying in traffic or as i pulled into traffic, which was definitely worse.
but i vote for calling car talk because that’s a better story.
On August 19, 2010 at 3:12 pm Becke Martin/Davis said...
In my experience, whenever anything goes wrong with our cars or the kids cars, it’s always the alternator.
On August 19, 2010 at 9:10 pm Meredith B. said...
I’m just waiting for my alternator to go out! I think that and the transmission are the only things I haven’t replaced or repaired on Poor Lu, my Saturn. Learn from my sad experiences, ladies: naming a car ‘Poor’ anything is a bad idea! Both she and I have been poor ever since.
Becke, are you coming to the Cincinnati signing at the Joe Beth? I’m hoping Linda K. will come with me.
On August 19, 2010 at 10:20 pm Rosa said...
Once, a car died on me on the interstate. Starting with the dashboard lights. I pulled off and coasted into a truck stop.
Alternator wire eaten by squirrel. No squirrel corpses, but quite a little hoard of food up in there.
On August 19, 2010 at 3:48 pm Deborah Blake said...
Is it bad that I have had ALL of these problems? (I had a car until it was 18 years old.)
The fuel pump is another one of those intermittent problems that can be hard to diagnose (am I spelling that wrong? oh, whatever). But it usually acts up worse going up hills.
On August 19, 2010 at 4:44 pm SamG said...
You all do have a large body of knowledge. I had a truck that died on me, but it was the computer not anything truly wrong. It required a tow and then a few more hours to fix it. I understand the ‘I love my car’ person too. I have a 207,???-mile van that I love. It is sitting on bricks in my driveway right now. I hope we can fix it this weekend (all by ourselves). Anytime I have to take it into the shop, I’m afraid the repair bill will be too high and it will have to ‘put down’.
Oh, and I just got my 14 1/2 y/o daughter hooked on my Meatloaf songs. She just loves the quote ‘praying for the end of time, so I can end my time with YOU’. We sing it loud and proud (and way off-key).
On August 19, 2010 at 7:14 pm skye said...
“Bat Out of Hell” album is also awesome for cleaning house to. Especially when you have a glass of wine in one hand.
On August 19, 2010 at 11:34 pm JulieB said...
Oh! Meatloaf! Wine! Why has no one ever told me this magic elixer of cleanliness before?
On August 19, 2010 at 9:31 pm GatorPerson said...
I have wandered over. Let me tell ya, if I’m fixing a meatloaf and it starts to sing, I’m outta the kitchen then and there.
Somebody mentioned a sucky alternator. I’d avoid that possibility, only because here in this house (without singing meatloaves) a wonky alternator was mostly the criminal that required having the truck towed four (4) times at seventy bucks a tow, getting one thing, then another fixed, ’cause it had aged and partially fried parts that then kept fritzing one by one.
Ummm, if this theoretical car had a carburetor (probably not, a fuel injection system instead), I’d vote for cleaning the sticking carburetor and the governor connections that go to it. Ya know, those gizmo thingies.
On August 19, 2010 at 11:35 pm JulieB said...
Bad for the towee, but good for the reader…
On August 19, 2010 at 9:34 pm Sharon said...
My husband [PhD from the Uof Illinois in agricultural engineering, restorer of CAT and John Deere machines, and design engineer at Caterpillar}has read all the entries and supports the fuel system as being the problem. You must remove the gas tank-there is a filter in the gas tank that must be cleaned out or replaced. Also clean out the gas tank and blow out the fuel line to the engine. To be on the safe side, the mechanic should replace the fuel filter on the engine. All this should take 2 days. By the way, he became interested in your writing when you designed the home out of a diner! He now asks me every so often,” What is going on with Jenny?”
On August 19, 2010 at 10:19 pm sheagal said...
Hey, I know this, sort of. I have a Camry also. One day we were driving my mother home. Her driveway is the worst. It is very steep and it is almost impossible to avoid bottoming out when you have more than 2 people in the car. The car hit very hard but we didn’t notice anything usual. After a while, the check engine light came on, then over a few weeks, we notice that the car didn’t seem to be getting enough power. I live in NYC, so a few weeks translates into just a couple of trips. This might be a day or so for you regular folks. It also made a funny rattling noise.
It kept getting worse until we finally took it in. It turns out, when the car bottomed out it smacked the catalytic converter and all the catalyst (platinum, I think) broke apart and ended up in the muffler. That was causing the car to lose power and stall, sort of like the banana in the tailpipe thing, I guess. He described the muffler as something like a big maraca, hence the noise. I think the mechanic was kind of intrigued as he had not seen this before. In our case, he just emptied the muffler. For some reason the check engine light was broken, so we still haven’t replaced the converter. I guess you only need one to pass the inspection. The car runs fine without it. It’s a pretty expensive part, I think. (platinum). The muffler thing was just an afternoon. No part require. The converter would have taken a day or so.
I know this sound a little far fetched. But it actually happened to me. The only thing is that the car never stopped altogether. Just stalled and sputtered a lot. Maybe it would have kept getting worse.
On August 19, 2010 at 11:37 pm JulieB said...
Sheagal, I love the maraca detail. That sells it as truth.
On August 20, 2010 at 10:38 am morningstar said...
In many places in Ohio, the catalytic converter must be working for people to pass the e-check and get their license plates renewed. I killed the converter at one point in just the way you describe; and yes they are expensive to replace and not found everywhere. But if Our Heroine hasn’t bottomed out recently, probably best to stick with the fuel injection scenario ~
On August 20, 2010 at 1:25 pm CrankyOtter said...
Fully half the platinum mined in the world goes to catalytic converters in automobiles. A catalyst is something that makes a chemical reaction go faster without being consumed in the reaction itself, and platinum is one of the best catalysts. The platinum catalyzes the breakdown of the exhaust fumes into less harmful by-products. If you’re driving without a catalytic converter, you’re putting out extra carbon dioxide (poisonous to people), nitrogen oxides (smog and acid rain components) and VOCs (volatile organic components of unburned or partially burned fuel which causes smog).
If only one in a few people is doing this, it’s not that bad. When everyone does it, the air turns green. Anyone who was a kid in SoCal has seen this. It’s not nearly as bad now that catalytic converters have been in use for 35 years – I can see the east side of “The Valley” when I drive in from the west. I understand this wasn’t possible 20-25 years ago.
Pt is selling for $1508/ troy ounce today. http://www.kitco.com/market/ It does make for a wickedly expensive part that isn’t technically necessary for the running of the car, but is to benefit the health of the neighborhood.
On August 19, 2010 at 10:31 pm Jinx said...
Ohmigod. Mouse corpses AND wire-chewing squirrels. I’m in heaven. if ONLY these lovely things make it into the book!
On August 19, 2010 at 11:55 pm Meredith B. said...
I’ll bet there’s an odd, chatty assistant mechanic that knows all of these outrageous stories! Even if he only exists off-page, we all know he’s there!
On August 19, 2010 at 10:35 pm Bitchin' Betty said...
I had this problem with a 1986 chevy cavalier. It was about 10 years old and the catalytic converter was not working properly. Something about the air moves through the converter which filters out the pollutants or something. Anyway, the stuff inside the convert breaks down over time and eventually blocked up the converter. They replaced it in about 2 hours but I wouldn’t imagine a small town mechanic would have one on hand and would have to order it. 10 years ago I think it was about $100 to $200 to replace it. The thing is I don’t know if this problem ever occurs any more or was it just a fluke with my old car. I have never heard of anyone else with this problem before or since I encountered it. I would have been suspicious but replacing the converter solved the problem. After it happened, a mechanically inclined friend of my dad said that you could hollow out the catalytic converter on your car and reinstall it to improve your gas mileage. Of course, you would then be breaking the law and adding more pollution to the world and he wouldn’t suggest doing it. I’ll stop rambling now.
On August 19, 2010 at 10:37 pm Bitchin' Betty said...
Sheagal was posting at the same time I was and it seems she had the same problem. I think I drove around for several months just being careful not to hit the accelerator too hard until it just became too big a hassle.
On August 19, 2010 at 11:23 pm Jill said...
Do not have time to read through all the responses. I can just say. Fuel Line.
On August 20, 2010 at 2:04 am Caroline said...
This is totally unhelpful, but as soon I read your post in my inbox just now, I was immediately imagining the helpful mechanic as the very, VERY hot one played by Bruce Springsteen in the video to his song ‘I’m On Fire’, which can be seen on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb9P_86GGDE
The story line in that video is just crying out for a good literay treatment..
*sigh*
On August 20, 2010 at 2:05 am Caroline said...
Sorry, typo, that should be ‘literary’, obv.
On August 20, 2010 at 2:08 am Caroline said...
Although you have, of course, already done the hot mechanic par excellence in Crazy For You.
Ah, Nick…
On August 20, 2010 at 8:03 am bernie said...
I am going with the the majority, sounds like a fuel filter/fuel injector issue. I must say how ironic that you posted about car issues as the very same day my car left me stranded in the WalMart parking lot with 6 heavy bags of groceries and I am still trying to figure out how I am going to get my car towed today and be at work at the same time. Really looking forward to the new book and will read the car troubles with a smirk in my head thinking, yep, been there!
On August 20, 2010 at 8:03 am Nancy said...
If it’s a small, one shop town, the mechanic should be busy fixing the hearse for a funeral and can’t work on her car.
Nancy
On August 21, 2010 at 2:31 pm Jenny said...
Nobody’s dead yet. It’s a terrible failing in my mysteries: nobody dies until about the halfway or three quarter mark.
On August 22, 2010 at 8:05 pm Kristen said...
Sounds like a catalytic converter problem. Just went through that with my 93 Escape. All three went at the same time. Would put my foot in it, gently, and wait, wait, wait for the no power.
Going up hills was painfully slow. Took 4 days to fix once they got the parts in.
Can’t wait to see how you do it for you heroine. Bet it’ll be a great read no matter how you do.
back to lurking…
K.