The Car Saga

Chapter 1: The tale of how the Corolla came to be


So, about 2 years ago I bought my first car. It was during the super gas price days, when it regularly hit $4 a gallon, so finding an economy car was very difficult. I ended up with my swank 1999 Toyota Corolla, which was exactly what I was looking for, so I overlooked some of the minor concerns we had with it. (It has paint issues, it shook on the highway, dent in the hood, looks like it was treated unkindly.) Bought it for about $4500, after we talked them down a grand. The day after I bought the car and happily drove it back to Madison, the check engine light came on. The dealership was good enough to take it back, check it out, and fix whatever it was for free, as I had literally just bought it. It turned out to be a faulty sensor, no big deal. I should have taken it as an omen, though.




In January of 2009, it broke down on one of those days when it was -30 degrees (Fahrenheit), no surprise there. When we got it to the shop (this time, at a nice respectable dealership here in Madison), we had them work on all sorts of things that we knew were wrong. There was a shake, they replaced two wheels. It got a new battery. It got a general 'tune-up.' I think some other bits and pieces. And finally, I had a power issue when I tried to accelerate, which involved me not accelerating. So, they investigated a little and ended up replacing my bad spark plugs. Spent about $1200 total. End of story for a year and a half..

Chapter 2: I f* my brakes and the return of the mysterious power loss


I got an oil change earlier this year, sometime around January, and this time I actually got it at the dealership for some reason. They told me my rear brakes were 1mm. So I proceeded to continually forget to schedule a brake job until June, by which my rear brakes were f*ed. When I finally did schedule it, I had also noticed the return of the mysterious power loss when accelerating. So I scheduled my car for an oil change, rear brakes, and some sort of 'engine tune' thingy that included changing the spark plugs. (Spark plugs fixed it last time, right?) When I dropped it off, we talked about the power loss and he said it simply couldn't be the spark plugs as they had installed 30,000 mile spark plugs and I had only driven 8,000 miles. I said,  "That's what fixed it last time." He said if they were bad, it was a symptom of an underlying cause. He said they would look into it.

I get a call later, and my car needs new rotors and whatnot (which I sorta expected/dreaded), a new bearing (ouch), and they found that my transmission fluid was dark so they recommended a transmission fluid flush ($140) which could help my power problem. I said "ok." The bill came to $1070.

I pick it up the next day and proceed to drive out of town. I notice it still has the power issue, although not quite as bad as before. This makes me worry that it might be related to the transmission after all. I keep driving it, and it just gets worse and worse, to the point that I struggled going up hills and I was expecting to stall at any time. The check engine light flashes every time the power drops out. Finally, it stays on. This was in a span of two weeks.

Chapter 3: The not-so-great repair job


Desperate, I drop my car off without an appointment. Unfortunately, this means I cannot have my normal advisor. I explain the situation to my temp. advisor, and I mention the spark plugs at least once during this conversation. He says he doesn't think he'll be able to get to it that day, as they were fully booked. I say fine. This is Thursday.

Friday, I get a call saying they figured out that it had a bad ignition coil. So, they can replace it, but the part is in Chicago so I can't get my car until Saturday. I say fine. I get a ride home from work, as my boyfriend is out of town. I figure I will just walk to the dealership on Saturday and pick it up.

Saturday, I get a call that they replaced the coil but it still isn't working quite right and they can't figure out why. He says they will try to get it done, but probably it won't be done until Monday. I tell him that I read a little about ignition coils and that the technician should be sure to check the spark plugs. Ok. Now I am desperate, so I get a fast online reservation for a rental car from the place down the street and walk over there. Since I am under 25, it costs me double, so it will be $120 for two days. (Instead of $55 if I was one year older.. also, my boyfriend ends up coming back early, so I end up only driving this car 10 miles. Yes, that's $12 a mile. I also got a $30 parking ticket while I had it because my management wasn't in the office to give me a temp pass, and MPD decided to come by in the 4 hours that I had it in the lot. Boo.)

Monday.. I get a call, he says that the problem was.. a loose wire from installing it incorrectly. For serious. Reputable dealer here. Loose wire. WTF. This is what I spent the weekend car-less and spent a ridiculous amount of money on a rental for? He says, "it shakes a little when the a/c is on, and that is probably the compressor going [...] but otherwise it purrs like a kitten [...] so I recommend to ride her, and ride her hard." No joke, that's exactly what he said. So, marginally excited to finally have my car back, I go to pick it up. I pay them $370. Pulling out of the parking lot, it does the exact thing it was before, down to the flashing check engine light. WTF.

Fed up, I decide to take matters into my own hands. [Start timer.] I check the bill. It doesn't say anything about checking the spark plugs. Also, it says the engine code was "Cyl 1 and 4 misfire." Well, I think, that sounds like I should check the spark plugs, since my 30 seconds of Wikipedia research told me that when an ignition coil goes bad it ruins your spark plugs, causing them to misfire. So I go to the auto parts store, buy some spark plugs. Go back home. Change my spark plugs. Old ones don't look horrible, but they show some signs of wear. Then I get to cylinder 1. When I try to stick the socket wrench in, it doesn't go. I look, and part of the wire is still attached to the plug. Hmm.. I wonder why my car isn't working? We go back to the auto parts store with the old plugs and the broken wire. The guy sells me new wires. Looking at my old spark plugs, he notices that they aren't terribly worn, and that they are extremely good quality plugs you can only get at a dealership, and that they should be rated for 60,000 to 80,000 miles. When I tell him they are only a little over a year and 8,000 miles old, though, he is surprised. I get home, install the new wires. Hey presto, the car works perfectly. [Stop timer: elapsed, 30 minutes and $60.]

Now, I don't doubt that the ignition coil was bad. I'm sure it was going bad when I bought the car, which is why it fouled my spark plugs the first time, and why a year and a half later I needed new ones again. But literally about 5 minutes of online research into ignition coils (google "main ignition coil") told me that it fouls the spark plugs, which causes the misfires and the symptoms, and that after the ignition coil is changed you should check the spark plugs because they most likely need to be changed, too. Things I expect a professional technician to know. Also, I'm pretty sure it would have been hard to miss a f*ing broken wire if they actually took the time to check the spark plugs like I asked them to 3 separate times.

Chapter 4: The ancillary tale of the Sunfire


Right before he went out of town, my boyfriend's car started making this whirring noise. I said it sounded a lot like an electric motor with no resistance to it's movement, like a band broke or a fluid is missing. He went out of town, his uncle (or someone) recommended checking power steering fluid. At the auto parts store the first time in the above story, we asked about said whirring noise. A helpful man in the store came out into the parking lot. We revved the engine in neutral, with no whirring, determining it was not the engine directly. He cocked his head and listened as we turned the wheel back and forth, and pronounced confidently that there was no way it was our power steering fluid.

Before going back the second time, we decided to ignore the helpful-man-with-no-credentials. As my boyfriend unscrewed the cap to the power steering fluid, it made a sound like opening a soda bottle, with the last bit of vaporized steering fluid escaping. So we bought a bottle of that at the store as well, poured it in, and hey presto, the car worked perfectly.

Chapter 5: The moral of the story


Become a gearhead. Ignore others, including 'experts,' when you are pretty damned sure you know what the problem is. Do it yourself. Or if you can't, be adamant that you get the service you want.

Chapter 6: The saga continues...


Today my muffler fell off. Oops. I noticed when I walked out to my car from work that it was starting to fall off. I tried to drive carefully back home, but it fell off at a corner anyway. My phone was basically dead. I used the last of the battery to call my father (a must in any crisis situation for me), who recommended finding something, anything to tie the muffler back on long enough to get it the few blocks left to my home.

Luckily, I had a bunch of goodwill stuff in my trunk. I used an old shirt to hold onto the muffler (since it was, you know, a million degrees) and a shoelace to tie the muffler back on (using my box cutter from work to trim the ends). I then proceeded to drive home at 20 miles an hour, after which I got some nice galvanized wire and wired it on until I can get it into the shop.