seldear | the long drive home, car troubles, life, the universe, and the coolant in your car engines...

So. Went to a drawing group with

arabel in Parramatta. Headed off to the home of one of the people in the group for dinner, pizza, and the observation of the blowing up giant bugs in another "OMG! THE BUGS ARE COMING" console games.

Drove

arabel and another guy from the group home. Listened to a rattling noise under the bonnet (hood) every time I hit the accelerator.

As I turn off the main road, into a side road that will take us to

arabel's place, all the warning lights flash on and the car breaks down. Engine shuts down, something's burning, and we coast to a stop.

Luckily, there's three of us, we're still in a reasonably busy area, and I'm a member of a state roadside assistance group, which entitles me to call them up and say, "Heeeeelp!" any time of day, any day of the year.

About 35 mins later, the roadside assistance truck rolls up. By this time, we've lifted the hood, roughly checked the engine (not having the faintest idea what to look for) and let the engine cool down. It starts up fine about 10 minutes before, but I'm worried about it doing again what it did before and just breaking down.

The guy checks the coolant levels. Coolant's all gone. There's a slow leak up the back of the engine, possibly just a little corrosion and wear from over time, but when he tries to fill the coolant (radiator?), it sizzles and spurts. Apparently the thermostat valve is locked shut. So he jams it open for the time being fits it in, and tries more coolant. Over the course of the next hour-and-a-bit, he fiddles with various bits and bobs, speculates on the possibilities of what's wrong, chides me for not being a bit more hands-on with my car, and pours about 12L of water into the engine. And it's still not full. At the least, there's a leak somewhere in the engine. Possibly several.

In short, it's bigger than roadside assistance can handle.

The car is driveable in the interim, but has been left for the weekend at a service station just down the highway.

arabel called her family to pick her up, and we had to drop the guy from the drawing group off at the station

Honestly? He came with us because we figured it would be faster for him to get from my place to his suburb than to catch the train all the way around from Parramatta. And his ticket technically isn't valid from our station to his home station, so he has to buy another one. It would have been faster for him to take the train from Parra. Poor guy.

So that's my Saturday Night Excitement. To be followed by Monday Morning Payout of money to get the engine working again. If it can be done at all - I guess that's something I'm going to have to find out on Monday. Good thing I have the new job. *wince*

I thought that the regular checkup-services I got done at the garage would keep an eye on this sort of thing, but it seems that it's best to keep an eye on it yourself since there's no telling when it sprung a leak and would only have been noticed over time. But no-one in my family knows much about this kind of stuff - or has ever learned. And the peeps at the garage aren't exactly helpful if you express an interest in knowing more about how the car runs and how to take care of it.

Guess I'll have to find out about now.

As per usual, I wanted to get a whole heap more done today. I have some nice sketches, but not much by way of writing. Maybe tomorrow?