My Life with the Suicide Car

The check engine light in my car came on today. This made me cross.

I'm totally taking my business to Burger King then.

The incident occurred just before I dropped the Space Monkey off at work. My mood regarding this was not aided by the part where she shifted the car into neutral at a stoplight.

On the way home from dropping her off, I noticed that the car would jump suddenly from 2750 RPM to 3500 RPM at the top of 2nd gear. Transmission problems make me even more cross than "engine" problems.

Eventually I decided to take the car to Advanced Auto Parts so I could use one of their diagnostic tools so I could know what I was getting into before I presented my hind parts to a mechanic. Unfortunately another customer got to it before me and took his sweet time. At that point, I decided I'd get the oil change from Jiffy Lube I'd been planning on anyway and ask them to check with their computer for me.

At Jiffy Lube I was told it's the camshaft sensor and the speed sensor. Apparently my make of car is notorious for electrical problems and the camshaft sensor problem would explain why I sometimes have to try two or three times to start the car.

For the past 3 years.

In case you're wondering, yes, we have asked mechanics about it, and, no, they never did seem to know what was wrong.

Es posible.

At that point, it was too late to get the parts before the wife was due out of work, and I wanted to scout the prices. So I picked up the wife and told her about the problems on the way home.

Which is when the car turned off in the middle of one of the busiest intersections in town.

Dear reader, if you are the type of person who honks angrily at people when you can see that a man is pushing his car up a hill...eat a live hedgehog.

Eventually, we made it through the intersection and tried the ignition again. It worked, but we drove the rest of the way home with our hazards on.

In case you're wondering, it's about $30 for the camshaft sensor and over $200 for the speed sensor.

Has no one a cactus for me?