Well this is becoming a bit of a saga so I thought I would wright it down.
First, when I got my car one of the keys was missing the button, so I couldn’t unlock it remotely, thus it became my spare.
Every so often my can does nothing when I turn the ignition, putting it into neutral or back into park usually fixed this in one go.
Sometime this year the idle seemed a bit off, particularly when accelerating. But it was only mildly annoying.
Sometime after that my key nolonger remotely unlocked my car. (apparently this is a sign that the battey is flat and if you don’t fix it soon you cannot start the cat without leaving the key in the ignition for 40min)
Four sojourns ago (1st Oct I think), when last Byron came I dropped him off at his house then my car wouldn’t start. It also sounded really ill when attempting to start. But the following morning when I returned to my car with mum it started as soon as we decided to call RACQ. Then at work that Friday I got Dave Foster to chech the battery and that appeared fine, regardless of if the lights were on or not. Of the two dozen times we started it maybe three or four times the engine didn’t go.
For the next two weeks the car started most of the time and I decided to wait for the next service that was due in nov to get it all checked.
Then prior to the following sojourn I went to collect Josh and my car really died, this time the battery was defiantly flat and jumpstarting the car got it to work. So I went and bought a new battery prior to driving to the beach.
The following Monday 22nd, after an uneventful canoeing trip to Bucca, I took my car to ultratune for a service and to get the key looked at, as well as the isolator in the gear lever. They couldn’t start the car at all. The following day I gave them the spare key, this time they could move the car and did the service. They also replaced the batteries and still couldn’t get the remote to work.
Apparently replacing the batteries in the remote is pointless because it breaks the waterproof seal.
So the remote still didn’t work but using the spare key reliably started the car. So I went to Biloela on the 27th with confidence. On the 29th though, as I was driving up to Nangandie station on the way home my car started to squeak. Seemed it didn’t really like the rough road. Dad was visiting the following weekend and we decided it may be the suspension or the exhaust. Incidentally also found out I have no tire spanner and that there are locking nuts on the mags.
So on Monday the 5th I took my car to enterprise street exhaust and booked it in for the following day. After watching the Melbourne Cup they we decided the squeak was probably the exhaust, which required replacing anyway. This was the first time in ~8 years that I replaced it. So I was back the following day for that. In replacing the exhaust we found that the mounting for the “panarm rod” was bent and cracked and this is the source of the movement and squeak. Apparently a rather large car crash must have caused this and it had been like this for a while, that being more than ten years, a pothole and dust appears to have made the movement squeaky.
On the 8th then I got a new key for my car, one where the remote actually works, but it doesn’t always turn in the ignition, I gather I have to wear it in. Then went to enterprise street exhaust for the 4th day that week to get the panarm mount fixed, as soon as the car was on the hoist the mechanic asked if I had just filled up. After a bit of investigation we found the breather line for the fuel tank was completely perished and broken.
So now I need to use up all my fuel, so that the tank is nearly empty so that the fuel lines can be replaced so that my car don’t explode when it gets re-welded. The squeak is just annoying, everything else I really need to fix to have a reliable efficient car: a working key (to start the car), new battery, exhaust without rust and fuel lines that don’t leak.
And I didnt even mention the rust.
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So in the end it took half a day but my car nolonger squeeks. This last little bit cost:
$100 for Labor
$20 for fuel lines
$5 for weld
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and now on the 17/02/13 all the water leaked out of the radiator, time for a new car methinks.
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