Oh boy. While I was out running some errands this afternoon, I wound up with some time to kill so I stopped at a theater and checked out a movie. When I came out to my car, I saw that someone had hit it while it was parked. Again. This time around, the damage wasn't much more than a rub against one of the rear doors. Probably not even worth my trouble to worry about that one. I thought that this would be the worst news of the day with respect to my car. I was wrong.
After having dinner and visiting with some friends out in the northern suburbs, I headed down to my gym in Novi for my leg workout. All worn out and showered up, it was time to head back home. Somewhere along the way on I-275, I started to hear a noise. It started off sounding like a plastic bag was stuck to the front of the car and flapping in the wind or something. By the time I got off the freeway, it had evolved into a much louder knocking sound from the engine. Oy.
I had an oil change done a few weeks ago. At some point along the way since then, all of my oil has either burned away or leaked somehow. I threw a couple of quarts in tonight, then took it easy in order to cover the last few miles and make my way home. The knocking sound seems to have eased a bit, but it's still pretty bad. From what I've found with that newfangled Google thing, it sounds like I'm fucked. It's always something, eh?
Tomorrow was already looking like a real pain in the ass for me. My dispatch has me going to three lousy stores in the Flint area. It pays a little over the daily minimum and, based on my prior experiences with the stores in question, will likely take eight hours or so to complete.
The general hassle of delivering milk will likely pale in comparison to tomorrow's real challenge though. I'll need to get my car to a shop, get myself to work (and possibly to the gym), pray that my engine hasn't been destroyed, find a way to get back home from work (or possibly the gym), and then do it all again the next day. I don't trust mechanics at all to begin with, so I'm off to a bad start. There's a Mazda dealer pretty close to where I work, but I'm not inclined to think that I want to drive the damned car that far, just in case I haven't wrecked it yet. If you know anything about the less than impressive slice of heaven that I call home, then you know that I'm not too thrilled about the thought of giving my car to one of the degenerates around here. That's probably what I'll have to do though, if I want to preserve any hope of saving the engine.
I don't know man. We'll sort it out in the morning. At least I had a good dinner and a good workout tonight. And that Ben Affleck movie was moderately decent this afternoon. And there's an Enterprise Rent-A-Car place right down the street. They'll pick you up, you know. I might as well drink a few beers and try to get some sleep.
Toss in some MotorKote - available at any Meijers, Flying J, Petro or T/A in the automotive department. Put in 2 ounces per quart of oil - it's a hyper-lubricant which truckers swear by. I've heard unsolicited testimonials on WLW 700 AM of drivers who - like you - lost the entire engine-oil sump, pulling 80k, and driving on home 100+ miles, to find no damage done to their engines. (Trucker talk, but too consistent to totally dismiss).
ReplyDeleteThat treatment - 2oz/quart - lasts four oil changes, no need to re-add the treatment for a year for most car drivers.
What-the-hey, about $30 vs an engine over-haul?
-- Calmar
I'll give that stuff a shot.
ReplyDeleteSounds like I probably already cooked the bearings though, at the very least. I'm just hoping I caught it and got off the road soon enough to save the engine.