About three weeks after I brought my car in, I am bringing it in again. This is kind of insane, but I don't want to blame The Other Mechanic Around The Corner, at least not yet.
It was the weirdest thing. I get the car back on Thursday night. Saturday, driving on the highway on my way home (I think) the goddamn Check Engine light comes on. I was dreading the worst. I was dreading that it would come back on, and the goddamn motherfucking Check Engine Light came back on.
But then another weirdest thing happened. Last Saturday, when I was driving to the Mall of America, I went over some bumpy patches on the highway ... and the Check Engine light went off. It turned itself off. And I thought, Great! But then I thought, Huh?
So I turn to the Internet, because they always have the right answer. My question was, "Is it OK if the Check Engine light just turns itself off?" I actually dreamed throughout this ordeal that my car would one day just fix itself. But apparently a Check Engine light turning itself off is a bad thing, because a car doesn't fix itself. So, ironically, a Check Engine light turning on a bad thing, and a Check Engine light turning off is also a bad thing.
I called The Other Mechanic Around The Corner and he concurred. Well, if I keep driving it and it still doesn't come on, he says not to worry. But he suspects that it turning off means something's still wrong, and he anticipates it turning itself back on again. Bring it back in at that point, he says.
That point came Sunday evening after I drove back from working the Vikings game and relaxing at My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Division). I was driving on the same stretch of highway when it came back on the first time, and it came back on a second time. First of all, I thought, Oh, shit. And then I thought of something very peculiar: Back when the light came on a bit after I drove the car, it was always on this stretch of highway, headed home, accelerating when it happened. Pretty much every single time. What is it about this part of the road system in the Twin Cities that triggers my light?
So I brought it in Tuesday evening and walked home in the dark. The Other Mechanic Around The Corner will get to the bottom of it. He said that he'll tear out the engine again, no charge. He also said he stands by his work, so anything that needs fixing again he'll fix again. I like what he says. Now I just hope he can find a permanent solution.
One thing that'll gum things up: I brought my car in to O'Reillys to see what codes the Check Engine light is giving up, just in case they are different than before. Well, the old knock sensor code is still being sent, but another knock sensor code, for the circuit maybe, is also being given. Finally, the car is complaining that the O2 sensor isn't working.
I had the codes lifted when the light came on the first time, as well as the day of me bringing the car back in on Tuesday. Same three codes, and I believe they are three of the five codes that I got the first time I had my car diagnosed. So either the car is cascading its maladies, something was overlooked, or The Other Mechanic Around The Corner screwed something up while replacing the knock sensors.
By the way, the car seemed to be performing just fine. A little slow accelerating from third to fourth gear, but not as bad as the stalling it had begun to do on a regular basis. We'll see.
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