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cabbitzillaLess than a week after getting the Explorer finally titled and tagged properly, the Saturn opts to be a pain in the ass.
Around 5:30 this afternoon I got a worried call from Megan; the Saturn had started smoking, and she was getting a burning smell in the passenger compartment. She wasn't far from the apartment, so she limped the car home from there. I popped the hood, honestly expecting something annoying-but-trivial like a blown valve cover gasket, and got a nasty shock.
It wasn't the gasket that was blown. It was the valve cover itself. A lovely pencil-sized hole right through the plastic cover above the camshaft linkages... and a splash pattern of oil radiating out from it. I turned the car over briefly; it rattles a bit, but it's all valve clatter from there not being enough oil in the block. Great. The engine's intact, I just need to call around and find a cover for it. Given that it's plastic, it can't be too expensive, right?
Wrong. Once I had the full specs on the engine and was getting quotes for the proper part, I got another nasty shock: dealer price on the piece in question were consistently in the $310 - $335 price range, nobody has the damned thing in stock, and nobody can get it any earlier than Wednesday of next week (1 place) or Friday of next week (the other 2 places).
It should be noted that my surgery is the 15th. The following Monday. If it's the wrong part or misplaced in shipping, I'm totally screwed. Given how late in the day it already was, there was no way to start in on the various junkyards... that'll be the project for tomorrow. In the meantime, Megan's on the hook for a sewing workshop tomorrow... which means I'm going to have to get up, shuttle her down to Crofton (with two stops), and then return here. My plans for the weekend have gone up in smoke.
The next person that tells me I'm selfish and only think of myself is going to eat a haymaker and likely parts of my cane as well.
*sigh*
Around 5:30 this afternoon I got a worried call from Megan; the Saturn had started smoking, and she was getting a burning smell in the passenger compartment. She wasn't far from the apartment, so she limped the car home from there. I popped the hood, honestly expecting something annoying-but-trivial like a blown valve cover gasket, and got a nasty shock.
It wasn't the gasket that was blown. It was the valve cover itself. A lovely pencil-sized hole right through the plastic cover above the camshaft linkages... and a splash pattern of oil radiating out from it. I turned the car over briefly; it rattles a bit, but it's all valve clatter from there not being enough oil in the block. Great. The engine's intact, I just need to call around and find a cover for it. Given that it's plastic, it can't be too expensive, right?
Wrong. Once I had the full specs on the engine and was getting quotes for the proper part, I got another nasty shock: dealer price on the piece in question were consistently in the $310 - $335 price range, nobody has the damned thing in stock, and nobody can get it any earlier than Wednesday of next week (1 place) or Friday of next week (the other 2 places).
It should be noted that my surgery is the 15th. The following Monday. If it's the wrong part or misplaced in shipping, I'm totally screwed. Given how late in the day it already was, there was no way to start in on the various junkyards... that'll be the project for tomorrow. In the meantime, Megan's on the hook for a sewing workshop tomorrow... which means I'm going to have to get up, shuttle her down to Crofton (with two stops), and then return here. My plans for the weekend have gone up in smoke.
The next person that tells me I'm selfish and only think of myself is going to eat a haymaker and likely parts of my cane as well.
*sigh*
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-06 09:36 am (UTC)