Wednesday started off well enough - I got to work an hour later than I planned, but was still an hour earlier than my "scheduled shift" (I start 1-2 hours before, and finish earlier that way). I got all of my work done by noon, and left by 12:45 to get last minute errands done. All was still well.
I called Rob to tell him I was leaving work, and he tells me that our truck was making a funny noise and he didn't think we'd be able to drive it to NC like we planned. That was okay, we have a 2nd car to drive, we just wouldnt have been able to pick up the boat motor from my parents' house. He was going to try and fix it, thinking it MAY have been wheel bearings from not torquing a nut down tight enough last weekend.
I went home and picked up Nero since he's more boogery than usual. I get to the vet 5 minutes before they were closing for the day. Luckily they love Nero and found one of the vets straggling in the back still. She gave him a 14 day antibiotic shot and did blood work just to be sure its only a URI. (Neko had just gotten over one when we adopted him, I think he gave it to Nero, or at least multiplied his booger content). All was fine there, Nero was wonderful just relaxing in the car on the way home.
I get about 4-5 miles from the house and the Acura makes a weird noise, then shuts off. I pulled onto a sort of side street that parallels the main road and let it glide for as long as it could, thinking maybe it ran out of gas. The gas light WAS on, but only for 20 miles - the car will usually go 40-60 miles on the gas light. It stopped about 5 feet from the stop sign across a small road from the gas station. I got out to push, I push cars all the time. There was a small incline, and some guy in a truck parked right at the top so I had to stop the car from rolling up and lost momentum. He and another guy pushed it up the incline to a pump and told me I was crazy for doing it myself - even though I so had it if he hadnt parked his truck in front of my path! Put in 4 gallons of gas - car was still dead. UGH!
So now I'm stuck at the gas station with Nero next to me cuddled up and just wanting to be home. My BIL & his fiancee came to get us on their way home from grocery shopping. I borrowed my FIL's truck since he was out of town already and went to tell the gas station not to tow the car - I'd take care of it. Rob called a tow company they do trans work for and they took it away. After pole class, Rob was waiting on the steps for me. I was looking for a car - he got dropped off by the guy he works with.
The verdict? The Acura's timing belt broke - 60,000 miles sooner than it should have. It broke last year on our way to my parents house too, but it was 11k miles over when it should have been changed then. The F350s rear end is torn up. Thats $1500 if we have to buy a new housing for it. Hopefully Rob can just get the messed up bearing off, but it lost lubrication and basically warped and melted itself.
Rob told me we weren't going to NC for the Thanksgiving weekend, but I told him we should come for at least Thursday. I haven't seen my parents in months even though they only live 3 hours away. They bought enough food to feed us and them, and we had FIL's truck (which of course, has a nail in the tire). So we are here in NC now until tonight, then back to SC after we eat. Rob is going to fix the Acura tomorrow (and hope we didnt bend any valves - last time the timing belt broke we lucked out and didnt). Then Saturday he's going to look at the truck and try and salvage the rear housing. I certainly dont want to have to drop $1500 right now - we just put about $700 into other parts on it for better performance! 7 cars, not one of them runs anymore.
Whew, sorry so long! Just had to get all that out there lol. SO looking forward to dinner tonight, and bringing home one of my parents' many fake Xmas trees to decorate this weekend at our house (Xmas is there, so we dont have to worry about traveling then!) One upside to having to go home tonight is that tomorrow I can help the SPCA with their "Black Cat Friday" sale - all black cats and shades of black are 1/2 price adoptions. They're seriously overrun with them right now (I adopted one last week!
) It'll be my first volunteer day since orientation on Tuesday. Then I'll probably go on Saturday as well.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, or just a wonderful day for those not in the US. Definitely hoping all the crappyness is over!
I called Rob to tell him I was leaving work, and he tells me that our truck was making a funny noise and he didn't think we'd be able to drive it to NC like we planned. That was okay, we have a 2nd car to drive, we just wouldnt have been able to pick up the boat motor from my parents' house. He was going to try and fix it, thinking it MAY have been wheel bearings from not torquing a nut down tight enough last weekend.
I went home and picked up Nero since he's more boogery than usual. I get to the vet 5 minutes before they were closing for the day. Luckily they love Nero and found one of the vets straggling in the back still. She gave him a 14 day antibiotic shot and did blood work just to be sure its only a URI. (Neko had just gotten over one when we adopted him, I think he gave it to Nero, or at least multiplied his booger content). All was fine there, Nero was wonderful just relaxing in the car on the way home.
I get about 4-5 miles from the house and the Acura makes a weird noise, then shuts off. I pulled onto a sort of side street that parallels the main road and let it glide for as long as it could, thinking maybe it ran out of gas. The gas light WAS on, but only for 20 miles - the car will usually go 40-60 miles on the gas light. It stopped about 5 feet from the stop sign across a small road from the gas station. I got out to push, I push cars all the time. There was a small incline, and some guy in a truck parked right at the top so I had to stop the car from rolling up and lost momentum. He and another guy pushed it up the incline to a pump and told me I was crazy for doing it myself - even though I so had it if he hadnt parked his truck in front of my path! Put in 4 gallons of gas - car was still dead. UGH!
So now I'm stuck at the gas station with Nero next to me cuddled up and just wanting to be home. My BIL & his fiancee came to get us on their way home from grocery shopping. I borrowed my FIL's truck since he was out of town already and went to tell the gas station not to tow the car - I'd take care of it. Rob called a tow company they do trans work for and they took it away. After pole class, Rob was waiting on the steps for me. I was looking for a car - he got dropped off by the guy he works with.
The verdict? The Acura's timing belt broke - 60,000 miles sooner than it should have. It broke last year on our way to my parents house too, but it was 11k miles over when it should have been changed then. The F350s rear end is torn up. Thats $1500 if we have to buy a new housing for it. Hopefully Rob can just get the messed up bearing off, but it lost lubrication and basically warped and melted itself.
Rob told me we weren't going to NC for the Thanksgiving weekend, but I told him we should come for at least Thursday. I haven't seen my parents in months even though they only live 3 hours away. They bought enough food to feed us and them, and we had FIL's truck (which of course, has a nail in the tire). So we are here in NC now until tonight, then back to SC after we eat. Rob is going to fix the Acura tomorrow (and hope we didnt bend any valves - last time the timing belt broke we lucked out and didnt). Then Saturday he's going to look at the truck and try and salvage the rear housing. I certainly dont want to have to drop $1500 right now - we just put about $700 into other parts on it for better performance! 7 cars, not one of them runs anymore.
Whew, sorry so long! Just had to get all that out there lol. SO looking forward to dinner tonight, and bringing home one of my parents' many fake Xmas trees to decorate this weekend at our house (Xmas is there, so we dont have to worry about traveling then!) One upside to having to go home tonight is that tomorrow I can help the SPCA with their "Black Cat Friday" sale - all black cats and shades of black are 1/2 price adoptions. They're seriously overrun with them right now (I adopted one last week!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, or just a wonderful day for those not in the US. Definitely hoping all the crappyness is over!
