It is still cold, cloudy, and rainy.....*sigh*
At 4:15 yesterday...G-man called me. His car died. In the middle of the road. The car wouldn't turn over, wouldn't do anything. He was stopped for traffic, and when he went to hit the gas, the whole car just up and died.
The kids and I went to get him (he managed to get his car off the road and into a nearby parking lot). The little wrench light was on....which, per the manual, puts the car in "limp home" mode. That is what it was literally called....limp home.
We got it towed to a local shop (after all the problems we had with the one we were using....we said forget it). We don't have AAA, but we do have roadside assistance with our insurance, so the tow was free. Thank goodness for little things (and that I had my head on straight enough to remember to call them, instead of the $75 the shop was going to charge).
Unfortunately, they can't look at the car until Monday.
We ended up taking the kids out for dinner....we had dinner started already at home, but it would have been at least an hour before it was ready, and it was already 6:00 at this point. Bossy was getting out of sorts, so we said "ok, another epic fail on the challenge."
G-man is in shut down mode. He has my car today and tomorrow, but we have to figure out Monday, when we both have to work and the kids start camp. He is refusing to talk about it.
We googled the problem, and it seems that this light can come on for something as small as a battery (c'mon battery!!!!) or as large as a major engine failure (NOOOOO!!!). We have already dumped $2000 into the car this year for a new transmission. I said we have to decide how far we are willing to go, and what to do at that point. Again, he is in shut down mode.
I am just crossing my fingers and toes that it is a battery. We have enough in the car maintenance fund to cover that.
Really.....this isn't funny.....I don't understand why we can't get farther on this stuff.
Hopefully its just the battery. Could be the alternator --- which while more costly than the battery, not nearly as costly as major engine failure. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteDinner out was not an epic fail - you couldn't anticipate that, it's called "rolling with it" don't be too hard on yourself.
ReplyDeleteI HATE car problems, HATE repair shops and HATE when a wrench (literally in your case) gets thrown in the gears.
I hope it turns out to be fairly simple!
I am sorry, car problems are a real pain. DO you have a close friend or relative that can help you on Monday with a car> I would e doing that now. If hubby is in shut down he won't do anything to help. At least mine wouldn't.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry! I hope it turns out to be a small matter. I hate it when our car acts up. We have two cars and a VERY old truck.
ReplyDeleteOne year, all three cars died within one week of each other. Seriously, one week. My car and hubby's car died so hubby was forced to drive the very old truck.
I got a phone call from him that that, too, had died and he was stranded (in the rain) on the corner with our son who was then about 10 years old.
I just couldn't believe that we were without any cars. Fortunately a friend of ours had an extra vehicle and loaned it too us for several weeks or we would have been in big trouble! It's always hard to know when to sink more money into a car or when to give up.
BTW, I have no idea how many shoes I have, lol! But practically all of them are thrifted!