Many of you have spoken about how I need to quit my night job. Well, every time I get close, something happens to prevent me. I.e. the f-ing engine light in my car. Which is on again. And I hate it.
Granted, this is an ideal time for it to happen. The sis is still in the cities, so I can swipe her car tomorrow morning and (hopefully) still get to work on time. I am going to see the folks this weekend, so it is also good that it decided to break down now before I am out driving through the Reservation where I get no cell phone signal and there's nothing but slough as far as the eyes can see.
HOWEVER. Nearly every spring this happens, and I am a complete idiot because every spring, I pay them to hook it up to the computer and decide that my emmissions settings are set too high. It's always on a day like today when it's been cold and/or rainy, and then it warms up (i.e. Saturday, which was the first offense and today, which was the second), and then it gets humid. And then I drive to White Bear Lake, and on the same damn stretch of road (between White Bear Ave. and Century Ave.) every damn year the damn light goes off.
And I hate it.
But there's always the possibility that it's something major, which will then mean I have to decide to either trade it off or fix it or fix it and then trade it off and then I will either have a repair bill or car payments again or both. Booo.
This is why I have a night job. This is why I will be working at said night job until I am a very old woman. No matter how sweet freedom looks, no matter how close it is, I am always pulled back by something new and exciting happening.
That is all.
Posted by LoWriter at May 9, 2006 08:25 AMWhat year is your car? If it is a 1996 or newer car it will have OBD-II (OnBoard Diagnostics 2) emissions controls which means that you have 2 oxygen sensors. One before the catalytic converter and one after. They adjust the mixture of fuel and air. If one malfunctions or your emissions are a little wonky, it will light the MIL (malfunction indicator light, or check engine light). Usually this is no big deal and the car can be driven just fine with it lit. It sounds like the humidity is just affecting one of your oxygen sensors. Little things like that will cause it to light. With my 2000 Honda, if the gas cap isn't extremely tight, it will take into the next half tank of gas for the light to go off. Maybe someone that reads your blog has an OBD-II scanner you can borrow to see and clear the MIL code.
Posted by: jeff at May 9, 2006 10:22 AMAutozone will scan it for you for free. If it's just a wonky oxygen sensor I'd say just let it dry out and it'll turn itself off. My grand prix did this all the time, and if you just let it dry out it wasn't a problem.
Posted by: schdav at May 9, 2006 10:51 AMHahaha, OBD-II.
At first glance I thought Jeff said ODB-II - like Jon's old car, the ODB (Ol' Dirty Buick) part deux. With all the troubles you've been having with it, "ODB-II" sounds like the perfect name for your car.
Posted by: Thom at May 10, 2006 06:29 AMThom-- Ha! I remember the ODB. Ahhh, good times. And the car pig? Remember that? When are you coming back from Japan, anyway?
schdav and jeff-- Thanks for the advice. I am more than a little paranoid when it comes to car things, but I think you're probably right about just driving with it on. They've replaced at least one of the sensors before (someplace different from where I'm going now), and I replaced the gas cap because they were always saying that it was because the gas cap was loose even though I know full well that I tighten it as tight as it'll go because I've had this problem before. I think you guys are right. I'm just going to drive with the mo-fo lit from now on.
I think I used to know someone with one of those computers. Hmmmm. Must check address book.
Posted by: Lo at May 10, 2006 07:40 AMThe original was, of course, Jon's Old Dirty Bastard (which was later cleaned up to Old Dirty Buick). And i must say that i loved that car. Many a fond memory with the ODB.
The old minivan that my family owned while i was in school sounds a lot like your car. The engine light came on every 6 months like clockwork, and it seemed like we always had to put money into that thing. My mom finally said 'enough' and stopped fixing anything that broke, stopped paying attention to any alert lights that came on, etc. She decided that we'd just use it until it simply would not run anymore. And let me tell you, that van ran just fine for many years after that. I swear it was just rigged to try & make us waste money at the repair shop.
Now that being said, if, say, your brakes went out, i'd think they should probably be fixed. However i think most other things are optional. :)
Of course, that's coming from the friend whose honda probably won't last the summer.
Posted by: mel at May 10, 2006 07:43 AMtowards the end of it's life, with me anyway, my saturn would put up the service engine soon sign whenever it was at a stop. since i had just put 1800 into it about a month before this started happening i did decide to screw it and just drove it until i could replace it - it worked out well for me in the end :-)
hope you are having a good day! and you shouldn't make your car the reason you work a second job, you would 'find' the money another way if you only worked one. i know it's security though...
Posted by: 10lees at May 12, 2006 09:32 AMthe car is just one thing in a long list of reasons for why I need another job. BUT I probably don't need three jobs, which is basically what i have now.
Posted by: Lo at May 13, 2006 08:07 PMI'm about to share quite possibly the best advice I've ever given:
Buy a TOYOTA.
Posted by: J at May 22, 2006 10:58 AM