![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Bad Car Day
Dec. 24th, 2007 03:51 amToday was not a good day for my car. I went out at about 10am to put some air in the tyre with a slow puncture (with a hand-pump, not my recommended way to start a day). When I went back out at about 12:30pm to drive to Helen's place, I couldn't help but notice that the now empty parking space behind my car seemed to have some kind of relationship to the big fucking dent in my rear wing. Closer inspection revealed that the bumper has also been seriously broken, and the rear panel mildly damaged too. It's all repairable stuff, but it won't be cheap to get it done properly. There was of course no note with the other driver's details, and I'm thinking there's no way they didn't feel that impact when it happened. Gits.
Still, wounded though my lovely shiny car was, we still needed to get to Helen's place, so off we went. The car actually ran remarkably well on the way there, very perky and fun to drive.
A couple of trips back and forth later, we leave Manor House for the final time at about 12:30am. And get about 50 yards before the 'out of oil' emergency light comes on. I pull over immediately (had a friend once who tried to drive to the next garage when that light came on - watched him replace the engine the next week - looked like hard work). I seemed to recall having some oil in the boot, and I was right - a precious half-litre, enough to get me to the next garage where I could buy more. I felt victorious over fate's whims... which is never a good idea. Seems the heat of the engine running low on oil had managed to pretty much weld the plastic oil filler cap to the metal engine block. I couldn't undo it. I refused to admit this for rather a long time, various efforts were attempted, including one that involved removing my t-shirt to use it as a 'rag' for better grip. It's cold out there.
Eventually I conceded, and phoned the RAC at about 1am. They said they'd come out right away... okay, they said '75 minutes'. Fortunately they also said they'd ring when they got close, so we wandered back to Helen's place to chat with her housemates (and visiting monkeys) and wait in the warm. The guy rang at half past 2, and turned up at about 20 to 3. Glad we had that house nearby!
It took him all of about 3 seconds to undo the cap, once he'd found the ridiculously large set of pliers he had in his van (not standard RAC issue apparently, fortunately I got a plier fetishist of some kind as my knight inshining armour dayglo orange Transit). I tipped in the oil, and he followed me to the garage to make sure the car didn't blow up on the way there. Bought more oil, topped up, drove home - it's a Mazda adventure.
Got in at about 3:30am. Helen went straight to bed so she'll be fit to wrap presents in the morning. I'm staying up to wrap mine now (because I'm fit for nothing in the morning) and because I needed to post this entry so the words would stop floating around in my head. It's probably not obvious from the tone of this post (you've got to laugh, eh?), but I'm really quite upset that someone has hurt my car. :(
Still, wounded though my lovely shiny car was, we still needed to get to Helen's place, so off we went. The car actually ran remarkably well on the way there, very perky and fun to drive.
A couple of trips back and forth later, we leave Manor House for the final time at about 12:30am. And get about 50 yards before the 'out of oil' emergency light comes on. I pull over immediately (had a friend once who tried to drive to the next garage when that light came on - watched him replace the engine the next week - looked like hard work). I seemed to recall having some oil in the boot, and I was right - a precious half-litre, enough to get me to the next garage where I could buy more. I felt victorious over fate's whims... which is never a good idea. Seems the heat of the engine running low on oil had managed to pretty much weld the plastic oil filler cap to the metal engine block. I couldn't undo it. I refused to admit this for rather a long time, various efforts were attempted, including one that involved removing my t-shirt to use it as a 'rag' for better grip. It's cold out there.
Eventually I conceded, and phoned the RAC at about 1am. They said they'd come out right away... okay, they said '75 minutes'. Fortunately they also said they'd ring when they got close, so we wandered back to Helen's place to chat with her housemates (and visiting monkeys) and wait in the warm. The guy rang at half past 2, and turned up at about 20 to 3. Glad we had that house nearby!
It took him all of about 3 seconds to undo the cap, once he'd found the ridiculously large set of pliers he had in his van (not standard RAC issue apparently, fortunately I got a plier fetishist of some kind as my knight in
Got in at about 3:30am. Helen went straight to bed so she'll be fit to wrap presents in the morning. I'm staying up to wrap mine now (because I'm fit for nothing in the morning) and because I needed to post this entry so the words would stop floating around in my head. It's probably not obvious from the tone of this post (you've got to laugh, eh?), but I'm really quite upset that someone has hurt my car. :(
