Wreak HAVOC on Steve's Car!

If you live near us or have in the last 10 years, you recognize the car below (not sure where he found this picture - it was taken in front of our old townhouse) as being Steve's BABY! He loves this car. Its got turbo and all wheel drive and he really loves it. He babies it and has always taken good care of it. Unforutnately, it is over 10 years old now and has 150,000 miles on it. Well, a few weeks ago we decided to go ahead and do some needed maintenance on it, even though it was a big chunk of change to do it. We took it in and asked them to look at EVERYTHING and let us know ANYTHING that needed to be fixed. A chunk of change later and Steve was so happy! It was purring again and he felt like it was back in great shape. He wanted to go drive, just to drive!! Then the HAVOC!! Of course, not by him ...

Steve had a gig on Friday night so he got home really late. To save him time that night, I suggested I drive his car instead of the van (which was loaded with his drums) to Alyssa's competition at the U on Saturday. So, off she and I went. When I got in it at the U of U to come home, it started funny ... didn't want to idle, felt sputtery. I was on the phone with him and told him it was starting funny, but me, not knowing enough about cars asked him if the battery was ok. He said it was a fairly new battery. So, I revved it a few times and it seemed fine so he said to drive home. Did you know there is a temperature gage in the car that you are ACTUALLY supposed to WATCH? Yeah, not me. My van has a light that comes on when ANYTHING goes wrong so I only watch that.

Well, I was almost home, at the Bluffdale exit (last exit on the freeway before my exit), when I realized the car (which was in cruise control) was slowing down. I thought I had accidentally bumped the cruise control, turning it off so I stepped on the pedal and realized it was DEAD. I immediately flipped on my hazards and cut across (with no power steering) 2 lanes and the "Y" between the road and the exit (almost missed the exit) and coasted to a stop at the bottom of the exit as SMOKE bellowed out from under the hood. AGH!!!!

We had it towed in and yep ... I did it!! I wreaked some serious havoc! Seized the engine completely up. Oh the joys!! So now, the work that needs to be done ... is more than the previous big chunk of change!! AGHHHHHHHH. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Guess it could be worse ... we could have wrecked it and been hurt! I think just wrecking it would have almost been better. At least we would have insurance coverage!

Sad thing is the guy at the shop offered to buy it from Steve after he had the work done 3 weeks ago ... if we had let him, we'd be in a much better spot. Don't think he'd offer as much now! :(

So ... here it is ... the moral to my story!! WATCH THE TEMPERATURE GAGE on your car!!