All Things Woompty

Well, OF COURSE this is what happened next

This is how the universe works.

You notice one day that there is a little weird steam thing coming out of the front of your car, floating listlessly away over the hood. It's really faint, and not smoky at all, so you ignore it because your car is not anywhere close to over heating. It's probably just some water that splashed up into the engine and is drying off. The car's fine. Besides, you have a wedding to plan. You'll get it looked at when that's all done and over with; the car needs an oil change anyway.

So you run around town paying for wedding doodads and new shoes and in general maxing out your credit cards (because sometimes you act younger than your age proclaims you to be and still sort of stupid), and you don't think about the car anymore. At least, not until a couple days before the wedding you just finished paying for, when you notice A) a little more wispy steam and B) the distinct smell of hot Prestone. You mention it to your soon to be spouse and make a mental note to check the coolant levels when you get back from your honeymoon.

And then you forget about it.

You forget about it because the universe is tossing in-law drama and name change paperwork and a guy named Butt at you. You forget about it until you are driving back to work from lunch one day and realize that your car is suddenly on the verge of overheating when you are idling at a stoplight. Something is definitely NOT RIGHT. And so you get back to work and frantically scour the internet to try and figure out what might be wrong with your car and discover it could be one of a dozen things, and it might be as simple as putting more coolant in but it might be as bad as a head gasket threatening to blow up your car.

So you get some coolant and you dutifully mix it with some distilled water and you cross your fingers that everything will be okay now. But the universe has a cruel sense of humor so by the time you get to work the next morning, the engine will be steaming mad once again. Thank goodness your mechanic is right near your job, because you can drop it off and pray that it's just the $15 thermostat.

You see where this is going, right?

The fan switch on my car broke (maybe as long as 6 months ago, thank you efficient Honda engine for making it last so long), which caused the fan to not turn on, which meant the radiator wasn't being cooled off, which meant the coolant was heating up too much, which meant there was too much pressure on the radiator seal, which meant there was Prestone spurting all over the engine instead of staying in the radiator, which made the car start overheating.

Basically, it was something that Rube Goldberg would have come up with if he was a mechanic.

$750 later, the radiator was replaced, as were the hoses, the thermostat and the fan switch. Considering that it's a 10 year old car and those were all original parts until today, I'd say it was due.

And hey, at least now I won't be inhaling antifreeze fumes all the time. That should be good.

posted by Melinda @ 5:02 PM