It Smells Like Burning!
It's time for part two of my story. Actually the first half of this is really part one, a flashback if you will. So... "I remember it as if it were yesterday"
Two Saturdays ago, I was ready to buy a car. Riding a motorcycle in the heat all week had gotten old. And, since it's been, oh, probably a year since I've had the oil changed on my bike, I figured it was about to bite the dust as well. But since I wasn't 100% sure I would have a new car that day, and Saturday is the really the only regular time I can get to the motorcycle dealer while it is open, I decided to take a trip there first to buy some oil in case I needed to do a "quick" oil change myself. With that trip done, instead of buying a car that afternoon I went home and did more web searching for cars, just to be sure I was making the right choice. By the time the afternoon was over, I knew I better get out to the dealer or I'd have to wait until Monday. So I look for my keys... for a long time. Can't find 'em. When I did, I found them where they shouldn't have been. In the ignition of my motorcycle. Now if you've never driven a motorcycle before, you may not know that 1) to turn them off you don't rotate the key back to off, you flip a kill switch 2) the headlight doesn't have a separate on/off switch (it comes on automatically when the key is turned) and 3) there is no ding-ding-ding sound when you cut the engine to tell you that your headlight is still on. These facts make it very easy to leave your headlight on and kill the battery. So, when I finally found my keys, I also found a dead motorcycle.
I was surprised to learn on that camping trip how quickly leaving the light on will drain a motorcycle battery. But I was also surprised to learn how easy it is to roll your bike down the street, pop the clutch, and have it running again. So this is what I decided to do. Maybe the hill I was on wasn't steep enough, or I needed someone to push to give me more speed, or something serious was wrong with the bike (needed some oil maybe?), but I couldn't get it started that way this time. I ended up two to three blocks away before I gave up--and had to push it all the way back home, uphill (but at least not a steep up hill). It was hot and still sunny, so not fun. I had to rest several times on the way back. So this whole deal took several hours from start to finish. I called Jeremy who noted that I could jump start it. I mean, I did still have a car here. It doesn't run but it does still have a charged battery. I found the battery on the bike (actually quite easy to get to), hooked up the jumper cables, and I'm back in business. I drove it around for an hour to get the battery charged up.
When I tried to start the bike on Sunday, it wouldn't. At that point I'm thinking that maybe I killed the battery for good, or something worse like there isn't any oil in it at all. That starts my oil changing story (see previuos entry). My Probe--which I keep swearing I won't drive again--got me to the dealer on the 4th of July, and I got the new car. They wouldn't take it for a trade-in, and I can't say I blame them. So, the Probe sat up there for nearly a week.
I got Jeremy to go up there last Saturday to help retrieve it. It had a little trouble starting, but not much. Jeremy drove my new car back and followed me home since he wasn't exactly sure where we were. He was probably adjusting the mirrors, seat, radio, whatever, for awhile as I sat there with the Probe running, watching the smoke escaping from under the hoood. "Hurry up!" I thought, "I need to start driving to cool this thing off before it blows up!" We got most of the way home and by that point my heart was racing... I was noticing more smoke and some not so good smells from the engine. A couple miles away from home I turned on the heater full blast (to try and cool off the engine) and tried to adjust my speed so I wouldn't hit the stoplights on a red. Almost there. Since I knew something bad was going to happen at any second I took the shortest (distance) way home. The bad thing about the shortest way home is there is a long, very steep hill just before the house. On this hill I made the mistake of shifting to second gear once I was gonig fast enough. Once I realized the car wasn't going to get all the way up in second gear, I tried to shift back, which is when the car died. I tried to start it, but it was done for that day. Thankfully street parking was legal where I was, so, using gravity and my emergency brake, I was able to park it on the side of the road and call it a night.
It stayed there until just a few hours ago, when I walked the couple blocks down to attempt to bring it home. I've been putting it off cause the car is really starting to scare me now. I checked the oil, which accomplished nothing because oil coats the entire dipstick when I put it in now. So, I dumped in a quart "just because," started it up, kept it in first gear, and drove it the rest of the way home. Only two blocks and it smells like burning already. But, now it is here and I can forget about it for awhile. But not too long, as I may be having to move in a month or so--and I don't want to have to drive it to whereever that is.
Two Saturdays ago, I was ready to buy a car. Riding a motorcycle in the heat all week had gotten old. And, since it's been, oh, probably a year since I've had the oil changed on my bike, I figured it was about to bite the dust as well. But since I wasn't 100% sure I would have a new car that day, and Saturday is the really the only regular time I can get to the motorcycle dealer while it is open, I decided to take a trip there first to buy some oil in case I needed to do a "quick" oil change myself. With that trip done, instead of buying a car that afternoon I went home and did more web searching for cars, just to be sure I was making the right choice. By the time the afternoon was over, I knew I better get out to the dealer or I'd have to wait until Monday. So I look for my keys... for a long time. Can't find 'em. When I did, I found them where they shouldn't have been. In the ignition of my motorcycle. Now if you've never driven a motorcycle before, you may not know that 1) to turn them off you don't rotate the key back to off, you flip a kill switch 2) the headlight doesn't have a separate on/off switch (it comes on automatically when the key is turned) and 3) there is no ding-ding-ding sound when you cut the engine to tell you that your headlight is still on. These facts make it very easy to leave your headlight on and kill the battery. So, when I finally found my keys, I also found a dead motorcycle.
I was surprised to learn on that camping trip how quickly leaving the light on will drain a motorcycle battery. But I was also surprised to learn how easy it is to roll your bike down the street, pop the clutch, and have it running again. So this is what I decided to do. Maybe the hill I was on wasn't steep enough, or I needed someone to push to give me more speed, or something serious was wrong with the bike (needed some oil maybe?), but I couldn't get it started that way this time. I ended up two to three blocks away before I gave up--and had to push it all the way back home, uphill (but at least not a steep up hill). It was hot and still sunny, so not fun. I had to rest several times on the way back. So this whole deal took several hours from start to finish. I called Jeremy who noted that I could jump start it. I mean, I did still have a car here. It doesn't run but it does still have a charged battery. I found the battery on the bike (actually quite easy to get to), hooked up the jumper cables, and I'm back in business. I drove it around for an hour to get the battery charged up.
When I tried to start the bike on Sunday, it wouldn't. At that point I'm thinking that maybe I killed the battery for good, or something worse like there isn't any oil in it at all. That starts my oil changing story (see previuos entry). My Probe--which I keep swearing I won't drive again--got me to the dealer on the 4th of July, and I got the new car. They wouldn't take it for a trade-in, and I can't say I blame them. So, the Probe sat up there for nearly a week.
I got Jeremy to go up there last Saturday to help retrieve it. It had a little trouble starting, but not much. Jeremy drove my new car back and followed me home since he wasn't exactly sure where we were. He was probably adjusting the mirrors, seat, radio, whatever, for awhile as I sat there with the Probe running, watching the smoke escaping from under the hoood. "Hurry up!" I thought, "I need to start driving to cool this thing off before it blows up!" We got most of the way home and by that point my heart was racing... I was noticing more smoke and some not so good smells from the engine. A couple miles away from home I turned on the heater full blast (to try and cool off the engine) and tried to adjust my speed so I wouldn't hit the stoplights on a red. Almost there. Since I knew something bad was going to happen at any second I took the shortest (distance) way home. The bad thing about the shortest way home is there is a long, very steep hill just before the house. On this hill I made the mistake of shifting to second gear once I was gonig fast enough. Once I realized the car wasn't going to get all the way up in second gear, I tried to shift back, which is when the car died. I tried to start it, but it was done for that day. Thankfully street parking was legal where I was, so, using gravity and my emergency brake, I was able to park it on the side of the road and call it a night.
It stayed there until just a few hours ago, when I walked the couple blocks down to attempt to bring it home. I've been putting it off cause the car is really starting to scare me now. I checked the oil, which accomplished nothing because oil coats the entire dipstick when I put it in now. So, I dumped in a quart "just because," started it up, kept it in first gear, and drove it the rest of the way home. Only two blocks and it smells like burning already. But, now it is here and I can forget about it for awhile. But not too long, as I may be having to move in a month or so--and I don't want to have to drive it to whereever that is.
posted by PlaysByEar at 10:26 PM
1 Comments:
+15 points for awesome Simpsons reference!
I'm glad you got your car situation kinda' straightened-out. My advice: get rid of the prope asap. I say this because I've started the neon exactly twice since April 26, 2004 and still it sits out behind the house. If you leave it sit too long, then it will never start when you move outta that place, then you'll pay to have it towed to the new place... where it will sit... etc.
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