Yesterday morning, The Boy didn’t get up early enough to make the bus. No problem, the school is a block off my usual route to work and he needs some time to get breakfast and so forth anyway.
As I got to the school, I noticed the temp gauge in the car climbing beyond its usual 1/3 of the way up. I’d been smelling anti-freeze off & on lately, so I unloaded the kid and headed back to the gas station. When you can take the radiator cap off the car when the motor’s warm, that’s not a good sign.
Ever since I first smelled the anti-freeze, I’d been popping the hood and looking for steam. This time, I found it coming up behind the engine. I used a handy spigot at the front of the gas station, called Wife-o-licious, and she told me to drive over to our mechanic’s and she would meet me there. Got home, jumped on the motorcycle, and got off to work. The car’s still in the shop, so I’m biking it again today.
I think this brutal dirt road I drove up Sunday morning, picking up one of Daughter Dearest’s chorus-mates, poked a hole in one of my heater hoses. I’m not 100% certain, but it doesn’t really matter. I probably should have the system flushed this time of year anyway.
Friday, September 23, 2005
2 comments:
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"When you can take the radiator cap off the car when the motor’s warm, that’s not a good sign."
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm a guy, I can't help offering car advice. My apologies in advance. Years of listening to "Car Talk" has paid off (I don't listen for the car advice, but for the laugh therapy).
It could be the thermostat. If the radiator is cool, the water isn't circulating, and the usual source is a bum thermostat. I hope that's all it is, anyway - that's a cheap fix. Good luck.
Hi Steve, thanks for the advice. In this case, though, I'd lost nearly 2 quarts of water from the leakage. It was a bad sign because there was no water to spray out when I took the cap off.
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