Ahh, Cars...
Apr. 15th, 2004 08:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
realsorienWhee. Cars. You can't live without one in the US, really. At least not easily. And thus, I have a car. Dad was fixing a few minor issues for me, so I was driving his for a week. Not bad- leather interior, nice stereo, reliable... Or so I thought.
Tuesday I had a little trouble with it- a bug my car has is a nasty tendency for the positive terminal on the battery to cake up with corrosion to the point that there is no current flow- it happens because the positive terminal has TWO leads going to it rather than one, making more gaps and more surface area. Whatever Fucking genius at GM came up with this, I dunno, but I wanna beat the living hell out of him- cos, rather than just losing battery power and running off the alternator, this little mess kills the car DEAD. No lights, no power, no nothing. Just 5000 or so pounds of steel with no real brakes coasting to a stop.
Well, Dad's car seemed to have the same problem. Same hookup, and wiggling it seemed to get it going. Did errands, got comics, and much later, went to work. That all went fine with no problems.
Wednesday morning arrived, I got into the car to drive home... Nothing. I got out to fix what I thought was the problem, and noticed something I'd seen but kinda ignored- a thick trail of corrosion-goo coming from the positive terminal.
Sinking feeling... I check, and sure enough, the bolt that connects to the battery is badly eaten away, and the stuff is from the battery. But, I managed to get it started. Yay! I'll just get it home, and let dad deal with it...
Nope. about 1/4 mile past Penn avenue on Highway 62 eastbound, it died in the left lane. blah. Commence a 20 minute wait in the cold til a State patrol officer came by and pushed me off the road and got a towtruck for me. I shoulda known better. But, Dad picked up the tow charge, fixed his car and I've got mine back. :)
Tuesday I had a little trouble with it- a bug my car has is a nasty tendency for the positive terminal on the battery to cake up with corrosion to the point that there is no current flow- it happens because the positive terminal has TWO leads going to it rather than one, making more gaps and more surface area. Whatever Fucking genius at GM came up with this, I dunno, but I wanna beat the living hell out of him- cos, rather than just losing battery power and running off the alternator, this little mess kills the car DEAD. No lights, no power, no nothing. Just 5000 or so pounds of steel with no real brakes coasting to a stop.
Well, Dad's car seemed to have the same problem. Same hookup, and wiggling it seemed to get it going. Did errands, got comics, and much later, went to work. That all went fine with no problems.
Wednesday morning arrived, I got into the car to drive home...
Sinking feeling... I check, and sure enough, the bolt that connects to the battery is badly eaten away, and the stuff is from the battery. But, I managed to get it started. Yay! I'll just get it home, and let dad deal with it...
Nope. about 1/4 mile past Penn avenue on Highway 62 eastbound, it died in the left lane. blah. Commence a 20 minute wait in the cold til a State patrol officer came by and pushed me off the road and got a towtruck for me. I shoulda known better. But, Dad picked up the tow charge, fixed his car and I've got mine back. :)
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Date: 2004-04-15 12:55 pm (UTC)Well...
Date: 2004-04-15 03:51 pm (UTC)