Just Pass Me By

Just great! Went through a tank of gas in less then a week! I called my Mechanic who fixed the Van right away and lift a message for him. He returned my call, right away. He told me he would cover it under warranty and to bring it back to him.

I put more gas in on my way to his shop, I figured less then a half of tank of gas would not get me very far. I got to him around 4pm and just got home a little after 9pm. So that about 4.5 hours with him. We had to wait for 2 parts to get there.  While he was waiting he thought he would be a nice guy and check and see if he could find out why my heater wasn’t working.

I guess the jokes on me!! The heater unit thing by the wall of the van that hooks up to the heater and has the thing that opens and closes to allow hot water in, broke apart in his hand. My Mechanic was trying to be gentle and he wasn’t man handling nothing.  Then we had to wait for that part, and the delivery place delivered the wrong part, just lovely. So I had to wait for a little while longer. Well I have heat now, so I can’t complain but it cost me 67 bucks for it. Here I went thinking it would be just replacing the stupid regulator which would have been zero bucks to me but it ended up that the heater thingy broke apart. After that was broken, we saw how dirty my antifreeze fluids was, and now I know I need a coolant flush and I know I probably need to take care of Transmission flush to but first I will do the other serious things..

Last night, my husband and I lift the mechanic at close t 130 am maybe a little later. At the start of the day it was 22F by the time we lift it was -15. Okay this is bitterly cold, and not pleasant even with heat one. Our mechanic shop was maybe 40 degrees if that. He doesn’t use a lot of heat because his heating bill is a little high. I said it was cold and he did turn up the heat. While waiting for van to be finished, the wind started to pick up okay we knew we have up to 40 mile a hour wind gust and it was -6 when we got there, 4 hours later it was -15.
The heater has been working but not pushing out enough heat in my van but I haven’t really worried a whole lot about it, because it would heat up very slowly and I figured by the time I drove for about 15 minutes the car would be nice and warm. Wrong was I. I guess the Heater is another problem to fix in the van, Just great no heat in the van now. Boy this van going to cost me more money, then I feel it aught. To bad I can’t give my van an performance evaluation I would right now tell it many places I need it to improve on. Wouldn’t it be great if fixing cars worked like that. You could just tell it what you wanted fix and suddenly the heater would be fix. I would love to have that option.
By the time I had gotten to the under ground garage in my apartment, my face and feet felt frozen. My husband was a little worried I got froze bit but I know I didn’t because I was away from the wind. Well, I went to step out of my van into the nice warm garage and when I step on my foot, I thought I might just kill over from pain in my foot. They where so fold to the touch when I got into the apartment. In Minnesota it is important to have a heater in the vehicle which works well. Well at least I will not have to worry about the van suddenly stopping working. I think a bigger concern would be my right front tire, flying off while driving, I am going to try to deal with that soon.

Trust me a mickey mouse job isn’t a nice term here.. I have wrote about my van a few times. To be honest I am a little disappointed and annoyed. I ended up taking my van to a different mechanic probably a very good thing I had done that, my mechanic has a very good term, for bad work. I brought in my van because the break lights in the back would not turn off unless I put a pop bottle under it. I was also having a little bit of a issue starting the car but not a big issue, but I did mention it good thing I did..

I know I wrote her about the gas all over the hood. It had to do with the fuel lines and regulator, and I thought it was fixed. I guess I was wrong. I had a bunch of gas in my oil which means I needed a oil change. The regulator was not working properly and was letting gas into my engine.. Oil and gas are basically the same thing but gas is well a lot more refined then oil. the Fuel regulator was $69.95, I just paid for this like what maybe a little over a month ago. I can say I am not happy, but this isn’t even close to way I am ticked off..

You should have seen the clip on my break pedal, it wasn’t even a clip for the car, it was a clip that you find on maybe CD players or something. It was such a flimsy clip, I am surprised it didn’t break sooner. After my Mechanic saw this he decided it would be best to do a very good check over the van. I was glad he did and he didn’t charge me. He did some other work and choose not to charge me, I think he felt bad for me.

Well after he had checked the van over, we found out I need 2 outer tie rods, 4 ball joints, 1 wheel HUB, a fuel filter, and need a new Exhaust cat, and possible a Oxygen Sensor. I will also need to replace a hose for the fuel injection, and clamps because the last mechanic used the wrong clamps. Eventually I will need to get the correct Suspension for the Van because those are wrong too.. So we know this will cost me a pretty penny. I will probably do the most important work first and bring the van to him once a month until all the work is complete maybe I should get the transmission checked before I decide to start putting in a lot of money to this problems.. I understand most of this is regular maintenance but I was told the engine was rebuilt so I most of the issues I been having should have been taken care of and done right the first time. To bad there are no anti-aging formulas on mini vans.

I just hope I will not have to have my mini van in a gain. It seems that one of the exhaust pipes is leaking exhaust which I will need to fix. If this is going to be another take it in every month for repairs I will not be happy. Lately in the morning very cold weather here it seems to have troubles getting up to speed to I wonder if it is because of not giving the Transmission enough time to warm up because the van is okay if it parked in the garage. Today on my way home i had a little trouble with it getting up to speed it a little annoying but I probably just needed to give it more warm up time.

I recently brought it in because the gas line broke, and that was a couple of months after I got it after the stupid Warranty went out.  All I know is right now I can not pay to fix the van. I just started a new job and we do not know how long that will last. I hope that I can improve on the Publisher Software quickly today was not very fun. I know I won’t get the job if I can’t get that to work. The computer is a bigger issue then anything because it is so old and slow.  Otherwise my job going well I finally got the email figure out, and I am learning the other stuff. I just hope I retain it I gave my Resume to the hiring person, but I know their are other applicants who well are more qualified, maybe they will choose me because I am already trained in, and I doing a pretty good job. I know know how to use Publisher better. PTL for the Children Ministry person because she showed me some shortcuts which is what I needed.

Well today I found out what was wrong with my van. It was leaking so much gas and this was probably a problem coming on for a while. The gas line was rusted, rust takes a while to build up or eat away at the lines, so maybe know I will get better gas mileage.

The fuel pump was good so that I will not have to worry about. Had it been the fuel pump I would be looking at close to $200, but since it was the fuel line it will be a little over 45, I am assuming he is using used parts but that okay.

Today at work it was starting to look thin, my boss asked me what time I was off, I told her around 5pm because that when my hubby would be there to pick me up. I need to make up some of the hours I missed from Tuesday. She was able to find me another project which took me to almost 5pm. While talking to her before she gave me the assignment I had told her, if you don’t have enough work I will call a cab so that I can get home. While I was talking to her I said I could take the bus but it would take me just as long to walk home and I would end up being just as cold on the buss so might as well walk home if I need a buss. I really miss summer already.. She told me that if she couldn’t find something she would drive me home since I was so close. That was nice of her but I am glad she found me work to keep me because tomorrow I won’t be able to work 10 hours, I have things I need to do before my hubby and I go out.

A day missed from work yesterday, because I stayed home to try to get the van dealt with. Finally tonight at around 9pm my mechanic came to tow the van. Yesterday my mechanic told me that he had to do some repairs on his tow truck, and he would be able to tow my van this morning and to leave my keys and check in the glove compartment. I did that this morning, good thing no one tried to take it, not like they’d get to far with the amount of gas it is losing.

Today i worked 10 hours and tomorrow I will work hopefully 10 hours, but it not really promised because we are slow at work. This is kind of stressful because I don’t want to lose the whole days worth of pay. Another problem is my husband is dropping me off at work and picking me up from work, which means that unless I want to take a taxi or figure out the ugly buss system in my city that I might have a long walk, to bad it is not spring or summer or even fall would be good for walking. The town my husband and I live it it is so much easier not being on public transportation.

Boy I am having the time of my life lately. I am not having fun at work, it’s a difficult job, everything employment wise for hubby and I seem a little up in the air okay I can handle this it called temp work. Eventually a company will want to hire us on so i am not letting it get to me. This morning I lift for work. Ever have one of those days where you should have just stayed in bed. I think I am having a month of I should have just not woke up this morning and remained in my nice warm bed.

I lift for work and smelled a mild smell of gas, I thought nothing of it because I was near the gas station at the time and it seemed to dissipate, I got to work on time. I was anti social I just did not want to talk to anyone after what happened Friday. I lift work and smelled gas when I started up my van. Hmm odd this hasn’t happened before.

I got home and the gas smell was very strong, I thought nothing of it because the engine was running fun and there was no sign of any leaking yet. I decided to treat my self to a bagel, because hubby is going out with a friend tonight to watch the game. I got to my bagel place, yummy all i could think about is the smoke salmon sandwhich I was going to eat for dinner. Yummy.. it was good. When I parked I noticed the gas smell was sicking strong, and the hood was steaming. Last time I had a car steam this much it was because the water pump decided it was going to break down, but the van wasn’t over heating, and it was running smoothly still. So i figured maybe it the coldness outside and it just being strange.

Well I got out of the bagel place and the van smelled badly of gas. I turned on the car, when I lift the gas was just over 3/4 tanks lift. I was thinking I have enough gas to last me the rest of this week and next week since i work close to home. I turned on the car it had used up 2 bars of gas. My heart sank, by the time I drove the van home, my gas was well under a half tank. This is not good I got it into the garage and popped the hood. It the roof was all wet this is bad it smells like gas. Well i didn’t realize i got what ever it was in my hair, which it was gas because that what my head smelt like. There roof foam or what ever it was is soaking wet with Gas.

Great time to call the mechanic who I bought the car from and tell him what going on he ask me what I think it was. My first response is well there gas allover the place, so it gotta be something to do with the gas. I am not sure if it the pump, the fuel, or some other thing to do with the fuel system. Great just what I need I just got the car in September. So I kindof fell it should always need a tow to the mechanic, but I guess that how the cookies crumbling today. I spent 1200 on a car that already needing repairs. Wonderful…. I can’t drive the van if it spraying out gas all over the place.

I have never had a car that had ABS breaks, all my cars where way to old to have it. This morning I was on my way to work leaving my apartment parking lot. I was probably going a little to fast, with the snow still on the ground and wasn’t thinking. I hit my breaks and all the sudden the stupid van started pumping the breaks for me. I am so used to having to do it on my own, that at the same time it started pumping I was starting to pump.

I made my sudden stop with no problems and no sliding but the ABS Breaks really bugged me this morning, but I know it is best to have them in a van incase there are problems stopping or if i hit the break to hard.

I am not used to it making the pumping noise and still cause me to just about jump.

Today was a busy day, but surprisingly I am not stressing yet. I needed new license tab on my mini van at the time I decided it would be a good idea to transfer the title to me. I recently bought it and haven’t had the money to do that, plus the tabs. Lets face it no one wants to be at the DMV twice in one month…. It’s not a fun place to be even if the people who work their are great. Today there was no line, probably because I went in before 9am and the earlier the better.

Well the guy, I brought the car from got it from someone else… When I was asked if the guy on the form was the same person I bought the car from I said “NO. I bought it from my mechanic” The guy told me that it was sold to me wrong. Just wonderful…. He asked me how long I had the car and I told him since the date that on there. He told me it was title jumping. My first thought was great, I am going to get into trouble now, and I am was supposed to be well on my way to the hospital. Well he had a few more questions. I answered everything honestly, but some of the question I had to take in good faith, I was giving a true answer, because I didn’t know the questions. Oh well…

Next step was my tabs on the car. I had some questions because my husband was telling me I had until the 10 of the next month to get my tabs. I asked this questions, and was told that no it’s only till the last day of the month, you have 10 days to actually place it on your car. Well normally I put the new tabs on right away, I don’t give myself a chance to lose those things. I am figuring it could be ugly to replace it.

So if you are due for your license tabs don’t wait till last minute because a police officer can decide to give you a ticket and be well within their right to do so. If your out of state you definitely want your tabs all current because in another State the Police may not be as graceful as your police in your own State if your in a state that does that.

I recently got a new Mini van it’s a ’92 Chrysler, I like it. Everything is digital, never had a car that everything was digital. I can’t help but laugh at myself. I had the Mini Van for 2 weeks, and one day I lift from work. I was going 20 and thought wow this seems really slow. I got onto the side street, which leads to the highway I got on to the highway and right away got up to 60. Boy 60 is slow, and everyone passing me by. I took the first exit which I always do onto the next highway with is 45MPH. I decided I would just go with the flow of traffic because I just wasn’t going fast enough to keep up with traffic and was worried I might be pulled over for impeding traffic. I pulled over on a side street. I decided to head home, was trying to figure it out. In my family, I am the car person. My husband calls me for help when he has car trouble.

Well I concluded something was wrong with the Timing belt, or the thing that sends info to the numbers in the Dashboard. Well I was going about 70 to 80 in some parts to keep up with the flow of traffic. I got home and got busy doing other things, forgetting about the odd problem with the car. The next morning I lift for work, and it seems like my speed was really way to slow to be 45 MPH. The problem was no traffic, which means I can’t go with the flow. I was seriously worried about getting a speeding ticket….. Probably in this, case a ticket for going way to slow. People must have thought I was senile. I got to the Stop light and just happened to look closer beyond the numbers and realize the stupid van was set on KPH not Mile per Hour. Some how it must of changed. I laughed all the way to work feeling rather stupid. I guess I had better learn about all digital cars now.