29 July 2006

Either I'm cursed, or my car is

OK, so I FINALLY get my car back. Let me tell you something, eSurance is also the Suxx0r. It took them an entire week just to send someone out to look at my car. Then, they pay me only $600 out of the $2,000 it cost to get it fixed (and I didn't even get the replacement parts painted, because they weren't going to pay for that since the paint on my car is chipping away as it is). I mean, WTF is up with these people? (Not to mention, I rented a car, for a weekend -- which I could have afforded, except I kept it for a little over a month--ooops!)

Anyway, so I get my car back last Friday. I'm driving back from the grocery store, and there are mad crazy thunderstorms all about. (One of my best friends, Stacey, lost her power due to the storm. She has some crazy pictures of damage that it did to her yard (mind you, this was just a thunderstorm!) But I digress....) So I'm driving back to the apartment that I'm not allowed to be in because it's my friend's and he's on Section 8 and he's not supposed to have people living with him (which is why I still consider myself to be homeless, especially since I'm sleeping on the living room floor!) and it starts pouring. And by pouring, I mean it seems like someone's taken a huge bucket filled with water and dumped it upside down, kind of like this image, but more intense.

And so then all of a sudden I see this rush of water coming down the street. It's a freakin flash flood for christ's sake! And to make matters worse, it's an urban flash flood. So the street literally turned into a river. And it hit my car as I was driving through it. But I did manage to drive through it and get up the hill. However, (you knew this was coming, right?) driving through the street-turned-river caused one of the belts for my engine to come undone. It was the supercharger belt. I managed to get back to the apartment, after waiting a very, very long time for a tow truck (and shelling out a few hundred bucks or so), after I tried to get back to the apartment by driving it, and quickly I saw that the car wasn't going to be drivable, as it had overheated in a very short period of time. Apparently, the supercharger belt not working has something to do with the car overheating. Anyone care to explain this to me, since the alternator belt (which drives the engine cooling system) was still working (although barely).

So what's the damage? Well, I already knew that I was having a problem with the belts because oil is leaking onto them, because, apparently, this $5 seal on the crankshaft is leaking, which has caused the crankshaft pulley to break, although the car still drives I'm not get as good performance/mileage/economy out of it, and it makes a loud clacking sound while the engine is running. So driving though the water caused one of the belts to come off, and the other belt to start to shred.

I got the car fixed today, but just to the point where it's running again. I still have to get the crankshaft pulley/seal fixed, and the A/C compressor is leaking which is why my A/C isn't working, so I need to get that replaced, and there's something wrong with the moonroof because it won't open anymore, but I'm out of money now. As in, I have no money. Actually, I take that back. I have negative money. So if you can, click on that donate button down there on the bottom right hand side of the screen, or use the button below (the right-hand sidebar, toward the bottom) and send some money my way!





1 comment:

  1. Oh, did I mention that when I got out of my car, after I got back to the apartment, after the flash flood hit it, that I dropped my mobile phone, and it bounced into the street, in the direct path of a car, which promptly ran over it? So I basically was without a phone for a week, since I use my mobile as my only phone (e.g., I don't have a landline)?

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