What next?

[blas]

First my water pump goes.....then I discover I have bent valves and MAY need an entire new engine for my car.....

Then it seems everything I touch malfunctions or breaks. Murphy's Law...anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Now that I have to walk a lot of places, and it seems to want to rain pretty much every day, I pull out my trusty umbrella.....which upon opening up I discover is now broken.

I took my CD visor out of my car before I had it pulled away, mostly because I didn't want all the kids at the high school stealing them, and because a life without music, well, just sucks.

I've had this stereo since I was maybe 13......I just wanted to play some music while I'm stuck at home and can't go anywhere.......but noooo......the laser won't read CDs anymore. The damn thing is possessed! It's a multi CD changer....it kept changing from 1 to 2 to 3....and it wouldn't give me my CD back......oh I was so mad.......it will NOT play CDs.....so I'm stuck with the radio, and because of where I live, I can only get 2 radio stations. So would I rather listen to Britney and Mariah all day, or country? Gaaah...neither...

When it rains, it certainly pours. I'm just waiting for the microwave to blow up....and then the fridge........that stereo had some really good bass.....and now all I can do is listen to CDs on my laptop :(

I know I should be thankful I'm alive and still have a job and two legs to get me place to place.....but I really want this to be over. Everything I touch seems to break or malfunction.....why?!

[Pedersen]

I feel for you Blas, I really do. This sort of thing happens to me, too, every so often, and it sucks. You spend a week or two with everything more technologically advanced than the wheel breaking around you, and then everything goes back to normal.

It's strange how it happens. I hope it stops soon, at least. Good luck.

[Amethyst Hunter]

I'd offer a hug, Blas, but everything I touch turns to shit too so you probably don't want any of my cooties rubbing off on you. ;)

Well... here's some get-better-soon vibes, anyway: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Evil Queen]

Blas, dear, you need a vacation.

Since I'm not afraid of bad-lick-cooties.... (I work less then 3 miles from home and the Suzuki delership I take my car to is right next door to work, with grocery stores between home and work, if something goes wrong I'm still okay)

*hugs blas*

*hugs Amethyst Hunter*

[iviles]

*hugs* Oh hon I'm hoping your working some serious Karma here and something great is going to come out of this!

[blas]

More bad news......news that was conveniently not told to me before. I discovered it for myself this morning once I got to my parents' house and saw my car for the first time since two Fridays ago.

Imagine looking at a Dodge Neon from the front. Between the headlights and blinkers...that piece of plastic right above the front bumper.......well, the last time my brother and his friends pulled my car, it FELL OFF.

Oh...it's no big deal, brother says, you can just glue that back on....

Ok blas, calm down......at least the entire front bumper didn't fall off....at least nothing else is broken *yet*........

I'm going to explode.

[Evil Queen]

*patpat*

Oddly enough, that same thingy mabob on my car is being held on with zipper ties. :D Fits better with the Zipper ties anyways.

[Slytovhand]

Oh dear, Blas...look at the bright side... you can still post here :D

<hugs>

[protege]

Fits better with the Zipper ties anyways.

Duct tape works better. Plus, in some cases it can actually double the value of the car... Ford Tempo owners take note :D But seriously, you might be able to get away with just a valve job, Blas. That is, unless the cylinder head is trashed. Either way, the valves will get replaced, along with their guides, seats, and hopefully it'll run like new. Neons are common enough that it should be easy to find the parts you'll need in a scrapyard or two.

[sms001]

Since I'm not afraid of bad-lick-cooties....

Isolated for pervs like Rap's amusement :devil:

Pedersen's right Blas. (Although I assume you already know that.)

Just be sure to buy a lotto ticket or two when the Wheel of Fortune spins back to the other direction! Hope it's soon.

[Evil Queen]

Thanks a lot Sms! But I'll leave the typo there because it's too amusing to change. :D

[Giggle Goose]

Speaking of Murphy's Law, every possible thing that could go wrong DID on Saturday night at work. It was just awful.

I was swiping the final credit card of the night (about an hour after closing, which sucks), and guess what the person's last name was?

It was Murphy. :eek:

So yeah, I feel ya.

[blas]

WOW could things get any worse YET?

I'm going to have to get it professionally done. Now, I am not trying to be ungrateful towards my boyfriend, but ever since he *spontaneously* bought a new truck with a bad engine, he has forgotten all about my car. He was supposed to come pick up my keys and tug my car to his place today. He won't answer his phone. He was supposed to help me call around and get deals on used engines, and he only called ONE place in two days, while I called every junk yard in the yellow pages. He talked a big talk about fixing my car and how he wanted to get started on it right away today. Then he won't answer his phone and my dad is getting pissed because he was going to help him.

I am really not trying to be a bitch. Really, I'm not. I didn't want him to fix it in the first place because I know this is hard, boring work and he has better things to do. When it came down to it, I asked him because I CANNOT afford to have it professionally done. He said yes. If he didn't wanna do it, he SHOULD HAVE SAID SO. I was patient with him until it got to the point where he stopped caring and just kept talking about it. I'm so sick of being promised something, and then nothing happens. My dad says my car can't stay where it is forever, it NEEDS to get fixed. I can't keep depending on people for rides like this. I can't keep living like this anymore. I am nowhere near anywhere I can easily get supplies.....and everyone already has to go out of THEIR way to pick ME up....it's getting OLD and I am getting upset at my loss of indepedence.

So now I have to go to the bank and attempt to get a loan and get my car professionally done. This could have been done almost a WEEK ago if he'd just been honest for Pete's Sake.

Sorry, had to vent. Now my only option is to get a loan that I'll spend forever paying off just to fix my car because I don't have the money or that big of a credit limit. As much as this is going to hurt and haunt my purse forever, at least this way, the real problem can be diagnosed, and it will be fixed in a TIMELY manner and finally FIXED FOR GOOD.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

Blas, I totally feel for you on what you are going through with your Neon. The same day you had problems with your water pump, the transmission went out in my Neon. The only advantage I had was we were in the market to buy a new car at the time. We got a Ford Focus. We are having the Neon fixed so our oldest will have a car to drive back and forth to college in the fall.

[blas]

Oh my word....big hugs to you......both of our baby Neons were sick that day :(

Guess what now?

Oh you'll never guess.....get your desks ready....you're going to bang your heads...

You've been warned.

For whatever reason, Dad NEVER told me that the mechanic did NOT DO ANYTHING with my engine on Friday when they took my car in to look at it and find out what is wrong. He told them it was either the timing or the engine. He told them just to see what was wrong, give him an estimate, and then stop if I said I couldn't pay that much. I asked Dad why it only costed an hour of labor, and how in the world the mechanic managed to tear apart my engine and find that out in an hour or less (because they checked the timing, too). THEY DIDN'T CHECK THE ENGINE. They just told my Dad "It's most likely bent valves".

So even though there's still a chance it's an engine thing, it MIGHT not be. Since they didn't tear apart my engine, the head is still good so far.

Oh that just chaps my ass. I was under the impression that they'd LOOKED AT IT and KNEW it was the valves. RRRR.......

[FormerCallingCardRep]

My little blue Neon is sitting in the carport right now literally covered in polen to where it looks a greenish yellow. We made a deal with our oldest that she could buy the Neon from us when she got her money in June. We have now told her that it is hers if she pays to get it fixed. I will be glad to get it back on the road so she will quit asking to drive the new car.

[blas]

Yours is blue too?!!?!? Bright blue??? :)?

[FormerCallingCardRep]

Yes, bright blue. My youngest always calls it big blue. She was in the car with me the night the transmission went. It was acting funny, I turned around to come home. The transmission blew in the driveway. She got out and hugged the car. She pats the trunk every morning when she leaves to catch the bus for school.

[blas]

I gave mine a hug the other morning.....I probably looked like a weirdo, but I didn't care.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

My new car is a charcoal grey. I have just started getting used to it. I still am having trouble remembering where the ignition is on the new car.

[blas]

Oh I know..my mom's Malibu has the ignition by the dash. So did my Dad's Intrigue....I hated borrowing that car, I could never figure that ignition out. I still can't figure out WHY my Dad insisted we take my car to that mechanic, as they "misdiagnosed" my Neon when they told me it was my ignition switch that was causing my gauges to fail, and they held my brother's Beretta hostage and wouldn't let him get a tow truck to take his car home...they fixed his brakes and made him stay until my dad could come and pay for it! Then the morons proceed to not even listen. I swear they have a dartboard in the break room, and whatever the dart hits is the "problem" with the car. To boot, when my Dad's transmission went out in the Intrigue, they fixed it, and no more than a month later, the car threw a rod and that was the end of that. No previous engine problems.

Now I need help growing some balls. I caved last night when my bf called me at the last minute to pull my car to his place. He ended up doing it at 11 pm at night! My parents were absolutely irate, because they were asleep.....even though the guys were quiet about it....

I called him today to warn him not to start taking the engine apart now that I know that the mehanic didn't even touch it, and he said "I haven't even touched your car. I put it in my driveway. I've been working on my new truck all day."

I need a diplomatic and nice way of telling him that I don't have all the time in the world to wait for him to fix my car, that I understand that he's excited about his new truck and wants to get it fixed and up and running, but I can't keep living this way and people are getting really sick of giving me rides and I'm getting sick of begging people for rides. I don't want to be rude...but I need to find a way of asking him for my key back, so that I can get a tow to a different mechanic. Maybe I can say "I appreciate everything you've done, but I don't think you have the time to do this with everything else you have going on. If you could just try to figure out what's wrong with the car, I can take it from there."

I'm really not trying to be a bitch. I realize when you're in a position where you're getting something done for free that would usually cost hundreds of dollars for hours and hours of labor, you really have no right to complain, but at the rate he is going, he isn't even bothering with my car.....and I cannot go much longer without a car. It'll be 2 weeks tomorrow. It should have been fixed already. My dad is getting absolutely furious about it......at the rate he's going, it could be at least a week or two for him to fix the car because he keeps ignoring it in favor of his new truck.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

Our Neon will probably go into the shop about the middle of June so that it will be done when my oldest gets her trust fund money the end of June. She is going to pay to get it fixed so she will have a car to drive to and from college.

[Evil Queen]

uh, start our with "I love you but..." and go from there? *shrugs helplessly* That's how I generally start when I need to tell my BF something like that.

[blas]

I don't love him yet..lol...

I don't want to bruise his ego or hurt his feelings. I want to get the point across that I totally understand how it feels to have a new toy and be excited to play with it, but at the same time, my car can't keep waiting forever, that it's been almost two weeks. It's not even my car. It's in my father's name. I may be the one paying for it, but my dad has made all the decisions, and apparently that's the way it's going to go. I don't want to play the blame game, but my dad isn't going to tolerate 2 or 3 more weeks of car repair, and I can't keep living that way either.

[Evil Queen]

Uh... I think a little bruised ego might help, but I'm mean. :p

Keep us updated on this, okay?

[karath]

*cyber hugs* aw, man, good luck blas! Do you (or any friends/family) know good, honest mechanics in your area? My Tae Kwan Do instructors recommended the current mechanic for my car (which has cost more to repair than it did to buy now :cry:). It probably would have cost double without that guy; don't know if that will help any, but at this stage I figure...

No. No, I'm not going to tempt murphy like that <.<

Good luck, Blas!

[blas]

There's no such thing as too much blas:angel:

Well I just did it and we struck a deal. All I asked is that he do his best to try to figure out the problem with my car, and then my dad will come pick up the key and I will pay to have a tow truck take it to a mechanic. I have a mechanic picked out, suggested to me from a coworker. A place whose labor isn't $50-$75 an hour and mechanics who don't mess with stuff that doesn't need work and who are honest. This coworker would know, she's a woman, and she trusts only them for repairs.

He didn't seem very happy. He said "Ok, but if you don't want to pay for what that place quotes you, I'm not going to take your car back." Sure....because all I really need right now is to have him put my car on the back burner for another few days while he fixes his truck, then maybe gets to working on my car by next week and then maybe finishes in 2 or 3 weeks. Sure...but I didn't say that out loud.

The only option now if I want my car back in a timely manner is to get it professionally done, swallow my pride, and find some way of getting a loan or getting some money to get it done.

A little bit of good news, though.....my little brother just bought a used Lumina. Of course we have to wait for him to get it registered and whatnot, but he said I can borrow that car until my car gets fixed as long as I keep gas in it, if this car thing is going to continue like this.

[protege]

I nearly ripped into the people "working" on my MG the other night. The deal was, that they'd get the car running...I'd get the photos for the insurance company, get the car registered/insured, and then drive it home.

That was the plan. However, because the car still needed some small (yet annoyingly expensive) bits, I've been waiting. Waiting for the air cleaner boxes (which are no longer available new), the spacers to fit the bumpers, and related bolts to arrive...has held things up a bit. Supposedly, the parts have arrived, yet the garage "doesn't have the time" to fit them. Then they turn around and whine about my car still being there and taking up space :confused: I mean, to quote my father "how long does it take to fit a fucking bumper?"

Yes, I know that I could do it quickly. However, I'm reluctant to do that...mainly because it would involve bringing it home on a flatbed. Doing that would not only be expensive, but might piss off the neighbors as well--blocking a one-way street with the truck would *not* be a good idea! Oh, and there's always the possibility of the car getting damaged on the way home...and without it being insured, I'd have a snowball's chance in hell on repairs.

So for now, I've been constantly pestering them :devil: It just pisses me off, that my car sits there (and has *been* sitting there) for awhile...yet the others, including the race cars they sponsor, seem to move more quickly. It's not like I'm waiting to pay for it (took care of that weeks ago), so I don't know why it's sitting around. I want my car, dammit!

[blas]

Oh protege, if the actual mechanic took that long to fix my car, I'd be furious, moreso than I am now.

Well guys, good news and bad news

The good news is I got approved for a loan to fix my car. I'm thinking worst case scenario here (needing a new engine). So that way, if it turns out to be less, any extra money I will pay off right away. I have a tow truck all lined up to pick my car up tomorrow from my boyfriend's house, and it's going to take my car to the mechanic while I wait for my appointment (thankfully I can leave it there an extra day). I wish I didn't have to go this far, but this stuff gets quite expensive, so I need to be prepared and I really do not have any money right now for this.

The bad news is that my bf did look at my car today, and one valve does appear to be bent. He is still convinced it's timed wrong as well, because there's supposed to be a "timing mark" and he can't find it. For now though, he's just going to say "It may be and it may not be."

So I probably will end up using most, if not all, of the loan for the repairs. Either way, they're going to take the head off so I'll need a new headgasket. I may or may not need an entire new engine. We may be able to bypass that.

The other bad news is that my little brother and his friends didn't put my car entirely back together and there's a bunch of parts in my trunk, and my boyfriend can't find the bolts for them. I'm hoping the kids put them in a bag, but I can't figure out why they just didn't put the damn thing back togehter!

[Tanasi]

Oh protege, if the actual mechanic took that long to fix my car, I'd be furious, moreso than I am now.

Well guys, good news and bad news

The good news is I got approved for a loan to fix my car. I'm thinking worst case scenario here (needing a new engine). So that way, if it turns out to be less, any extra money I will pay off right away. I have a tow truck all lined up to pick my car up tomorrow from my boyfriend's house, and it's going to take my car to the mechanic while I wait for my appointment (thankfully I can leave it there an extra day). I wish I didn't have to go this far, but this stuff gets quite expensive, so I need to be prepared and I really do not have any money right now for this.

The bad news is that my bf did look at my car today, and one valve does appear to be bent. He is still convinced it's timed wrong as well, because there's supposed to be a "timing mark" and he can't find it. For now though, he's just going to say "It may be and it may not be."

So I probably will end up using most, if not all, of the loan for the repairs. Either way, they're going to take the head off so I'll need a new headgasket. I may or may not need an entire new engine. We may be able to bypass that.

The other bad news is that my little brother and his friends didn't put my car entirely back together and there's a bunch of parts in my trunk, and my boyfriend can't find the bolts for them. I'm hoping the kids put them in a bag, but I can't figure out why they just didn't put the damn thing back togehter!


There's always parts left over when working on cars. :lol:

The timing marks are on the crank shaft and the cam shaft. They have to be perfectly aligned otherwise you can bend valves and break pistons. If the piston(s) aren't damaged and the cylinders badly scared I'd just get the head work done and be done with it. I'd also make sure they put in new valve guides and seats no sense in burning motor oil.

[protege]

I have a few things left over from the MG. Most of it was just junk (old spark plugs, a valve or two, an extra taillight lens, several nuts and bolts...)...that has since been thrown away. I still don't know why any of that crap was saved. The plugs were shot, the lens was cracked, and the valve wasn't even *from* an MG in the first place!

[blas]

Thank you thank you.....that's exactly what I needed to hear. My boyfriend couldn't find the timing marks and my Dad is so adament that the kids had it timed "perfectly".....

The mechanics are going to take the head off and send it to a machinst who will determine if it's warped or not, and the mechanics are going to do a full "diagnostic" before they start fixing anything. I'm not worried about the cost because I got a loan and the estimate seemed pretty fair. They said they'd be able to fix the timing and make sure the car was running perfect before they give it back.