Whelp.
I've had a rather stressful day today.
So like.....a few weeks ago I helped to jump an old ladies car right?? With my own car???
And like....I had noticed after helping her start her car that when I left for the day, that when I started my own car...it had had a delayed starting sound to it.
Kinda like the "Hey your car battery is dying" sort of sound.
Which was semi concerning because like....I'd literally just bought a new car battery?? Like I remember it being cold when I got it so it had to have happened sometime between October of last year and March of this year. But like...it's a recent new battery. So it shouldn't be dying just yet!!
And like, I'd chalked it up to just the stress of starting the other person's car and it would be fine after that point
Only....my car continued to have a delayed start when I'd try to turn it on.
And it was getting to the point where I was like "Huh, I should go get that looked at."
And like I was literally planning to take my car to the Autozone to get the battery checked later THIS week on one of my days off.
ONLY
This morning when I went to leave for work....
My car wouldn't start.
It made that ancient chugging "I'm tryign to start up" noise and the clicked a bunch.
but no car started.
Which when it's seven in the morning and both your roomies are asleep....is not a good thing.
So I was like "Okay, I need to either get a) my car started by a roomie helping me to jumpstart my car or b) have a roomie take me into work.
And I like dithered for a good two minutes on which roomie to wake up before finally knocking on upstair's roomie door.
Which is NOT fun to do to be like "Hey....my car won't stop can you help me?"
Especially since I knew she'd had a late night before and also that she didn't have to get up for her own job for another couple of hours.
*exhales*
In the end we decided that it would be best if she just took me into work and would come pick me up after as she was concerned my car would die AT work if we got it jumpstarted here at the house and I would have to get it jumpstarted there to get back home.
So she took me into work with the plan to get my car jumpstarted when I got home so that I could drive down to the Autozone to get a new battery since this one was /obviously/ bad.
Fast Forward to this afternoon after getting home from work.
And we're having to play a bit of ring around the rosie with our cars.
Because unlucky me...I'd parked on the right side of the garage. And my battery was on the Right side of my car.
While BOTH my roomies car batteries were on the LEFT side of their cars.
So the jumper cables couldn't Reach both batteries. *exhales*
We ended up enlisting the aid of two neighbor guys to help me roll my car out of the garage, and then push it back into the left side of the garage so that my roomie could pull into the right side of the garage and her left battery would be close to my right battery and Walla!! We could get my car jumped!!
*shakes head*
Funnily enough....like the old lady I helped before...my car wouldn't start up until we fully completed the circuit on the batteries. So instead of 'grounding' the black clamp to somethign metal in my car, we needed to place the clamp on the negative point of the battery to get my car to start up.
And I was like WOOT!! It's started! Time to go get to autozone.
Only. As I was backing up out of the driveway. I noticed my clock in my car was flickering. :S And none of the dials were really responding. So to try and test it out I switched from reverse to drive to pull back into the garage to see if the dials would show me using slight accleration....and my car died again. Right there in the driveway.
*exhales*
Like. That's not a Good Sign.
As that probably meant that that wasn't the battery that was the issue. XP booooo.
No apparently there's a part called an Alternator that helps to keep your car charged between driving???? And my roomie thought I hadn't been driving enough to keep the charge going or recharge the charger?? whatever. It wasn't working.
but like....my car was at my house....and if it couldn't hold a charge long enough to get to a mechanic....how in the world was I going to get my car fixed?!!?
I tried knocking on the other next door neighbor's door...because he's a bit of a car guy with his friends as they come over every weekend to do car related things it feels like....only he doesn't answer.
So.
I call the next best person I know.
Which is my brother.
Like he's not a mechanic, but Mav has worked on his own cars before with the help of his best friend who IS a mechanic. A Semi-Truck Mechanic. But still. They've done car related things!
And so I explained my problem to him and he's like "Yep. Sounds like the alternator. Let me youtube it real quick and see if I can fix it. Oh look! I think i can fix it!!"
And then was a whole unhelpful time of us trying to figure out just what type of car I had and what engine I had and what part would be needed for said car. And the stupid little Car Manual that i had would NOT give me ANY of the numbers I needed to figure out the right part.
Like whoever made the manual in the year 2000 forgot the "Oh your car is this type with this body and this engine and this other fancy terminology."
In any case.
My brother was confident he could buy the right part and then drive down here and fix my car for me which YAY!
lol as I desperately needed to have a car. Because I have work shifts both Tues and Wed so I need to be able to get places those two days at least.
But I was like "Okay, worst case scenario. I will just borrow my Dad's car." Because in the unlucky/lucky part of this scenario was that today was the first day of yet another cruise for him. So like...it was frustrating to not have him here to help me out with figuring out what to do with my car but like that meant he wouldn't be using HIS CAR so worst case scenario if it wasn't the alternator or Mav couldn't fix it....I could borrow his car until he got back and we'd figure out where and when to get me a new car at that point.
ONLY.
When I informed Daddoo that I was going to have Mav bring down his car just in case I needed to borrow it. -And if I did then Mav's wife would come pick him up from my house after she got off work to take him back home- My dad informed me that....he'd taken the car keys with him on the trip.
*face palm*
WHY?!!?
Like. Every. Single. Other. Cruise. He's gone on. He's LEFT behind a key.
WHY THIS CRUISE?! WHY TAKE THEM!?
And I was like "What about the spare keys?"
Nope. No go there. My step-mom had taken hers with her. So the cars at my dad's house are basically just sitting hunks of metal until they get back from their trip. *exhales*
So. Frustrating.
So now I was like....Okay...now what?
Because I knew my brother and his wife would need both their cars. And my one roomie wouldn't be able to give me a ride into work because she is also leaving on a trip tomorrow and leaving her car with her parents -as they're closer to the airport- and my other roomie wouldn't be able to take me into work because we worked opposite shifts this week where she wouldn't get home until AFTER I needed to get into work.
So I was like. Sister!! Kikay would let me borrow HER car. Since she doesn't always use hers.
Only she kinda hemmed and hawed and was like "Maaaaaaybe???" It was like a 'tenatitive' yes to borrowing it for just two days if needed.
So basically.
I was screwed. And like...while I knew my sister was a kinda option I've also never driven her car further than like....a block? And the thought of having to make a 40 minute drive IN THE DARK in a car car when I'm used to driving taller cars...on the HIGHWAY....yah....I would do it if I'd have to but I was half convinced I would die if I did.
In any case.
Basically everything now was riding on my brother's ability to fix my car.
Because the only other possible option at this point would to be to beg my fellow managers to give me a ride into and from work for Tues and Wed.
*exhales*
Such good/bad timing. Like the 'good' timing is that I only work 3 days this week so the stress is only for Tues and Wed. The bad is like....the fact that EVERYONE is gone on vacation this week. UGH.
In any case.
My brother arrived like an hour after dark. (because yay daylight savings making it dark at 530pm now)
And we managed to jump start my car enough to get it pulled back into the garage -where there was a bit more light- and onto some blocks -so that my brother could get under the car easier if needed- and then he went to work.
And guys...Youtube is mostly your friend. It's amazing how much you can google/youtube to get answers on how to fix things.
Didn't tell us that the alternator in my car had THREE bolts instead of 2 like we originally thought.
But Hey. My brother -after remembering to disconnect the battery, and a quick trip to Home Depot to get a 12mm wrench to better fit a narrow spot to get the stupid bolt undone...---
Managed to take out the old part and insert the new part!!!
It took about 3 hours because yah....never done this before.
BUT. He got everything back in it's place without breaking anything so woot!! lol.
And after a quick jumpstart with his car....My car started back up!! Woot!!!
We did a quick test drive too and it didn't die on the road and would start up and shut off normally. So double woot!!
The only slight concern I have at this point is that the engine is making a 'clicking' noise as we drive kinda like the baseball card in the tires of a bike sort of sound. Which everyone else is like "Well I think it sounds normal for an old car." but I'm like "No it hasn't made that noise before!" sooo yah.....we'll see if it still happens after sitting overnight. But like....if anything I do plan to do an oil change on the car soon as it might just be making noise from having low oil from what my neighbor says....so yah.
But!
My car is FIXED.
So I don't have to worry (so long as my car starts tomorrow) about how I'm going to get to work anymore. So woot!!
lol and funfact about Alternators.
Apparently they're supposed to last either 7 years OR about 150,000 miles.
And my 22 year old car....has just under 156,000 miles on it.
So like.
That alternator did its job so well! To last 22 years!? Because like...no one in the family could remember it needing to be replaced before. So yah. Ancient machinery part did it's job well. lol.
So grateful that my brother was able to come down and get my car fixed for me. So grateful.
One less stressor to deal with.
Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
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