The weird thing about calling The Mechanic Around The Corner after my car dangerously stalled during rush hour twice early this week is that it has not happened since that call, not even close. So I had very low hopes that I would be able to duplicate it when I woke up very early, too early this morning to have one of the mechanics ride with me and see if this was going to happen again. It didn't.
However, as often happens, in many other situations besides trying to figure out what the hell's wrong with my car, something else came up. It is a very cold morning, and while we were driving I turned the heat on. As has been going on for months if not years, while I have ventilation system on (heat in the winter, air conditioning in the summer), while the vent's on external and while I am stopped, I smell gas inside the car. The stopper, one o-ring, and a flex pipe have been replaced over the past few years, with my belief that that would eliminate the odor. None of them have.
During this drive to replicate the stall I realized I had a stranger in my car that is freezing to death, so I turned it on. While we were stopped at a red light I smelled the gas/exhaust. This stranger is a car mechanic, so I took advantage of the situation and brought up another problem with my car: "Do you smell gas?" To which he replied immediately, "Yeah, I was about to say that." So, even though I couldn't replicate the car's inability to speed up despite hitting the gas pedal, he had something else he could look at. Hey, it's not like I have to be anywhere, even if I lied to Father and said I was going out to work out in the morning before heading off to work. (For the record, I will exercise at some point today because I ate seven slices of pizza during lunch of my last day at work [their treat, just to say thank you] and another four at My Favorite Late Night Italian Place that was free because someone didn't want it or something. I have to work off 11 slices of pizza. The going to work party is a total lie.)
Several minutes of scrolling backwards in time through the Calendar app on my iPhone (maybe I'll talk about it some other time) later, the mechanic managing today strolled up to me and said that they found something. The fuel pressure regulator is leaking. They showed me the regulator dripping drops of fuel onto, according to him, the manifold. I asked him if I could drive it as is; I have three weeks of unemployment, and that takes me into the next billing cycle, so I hoped I could delay it so I could charge it to my credit card and pay it a month later than I would if I have the repairs done now. He recommended against it; he says that the fuel could spark.
That confirmed a fear that I have had playing in my mind ever since I saw a photo of it from a Facebook friend about a month ago. The son of this Facebook friend was driving a dealer's car while his car was getting fixed. He apparently saw a lot of smoke while driving it, so much so that he immediately pulled into a a store parking lot and got the hell out of the car. Then, the car caught on fire. How in the hell does a dealer's car -- not a beater, a dealer's car -- get set on fire?! He snapped a photo and sent it to his (hot) mom, who posted it on her Timeline. I didn't equate my car stalling with it going up in flames, yet sometimes while I have been driving I think of seeing thickening smoke and hoping that I could escape my car before it blows up.
So it looks as if they caught this problem before something that drastic happens (don't know how possible it is, but it's possible). Moreover, the mechanics think that this fuel pressure regulator may also be the source of the stalling; a leak signals a lack of a vacuum, which prevents smooth acceleration, I guess. I okayed the repairs. Thankfully they had a loaner car for me to use to go somewhere more interesting; therefore, I am writing this at a coffeeshop (where I would have gone if they found nothing) while waiting the couple hours to change the pressure regulator -- and, after I realized just before I reached the coffeehouse they might as well, since they have the car, to change the oil and rotate the tires.
I may have said this before, but I'll say it again here: It's not good that I have had to get things in my car fixed many, many times over the past several years, not least because it costs money. But yet I can't help but feel really good now. Why? Because my car is getting fixed -- it's going to get better. This regulator has to be replaced, but maybe -- I hope, please, Buddha and God -- that this will mean my car won't ever stall again in traffic and the smell of gas will finally, finally! be gone. Besides, it's not that expensive a fix. So now I wait with something akin to bated breath. Fingers crossed.
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