I did not have a good last couple of days. I drove up to Vancouver, BC (lovely city by the way) to visit my first cousin who was in town for a conference. We got our wires crossed and didn't end up meeting but as I was driving home my car lost the power steering belt.
Fortunately, I pulled over and I seem to have avoided any damage to the motor. But in spite of the CAA (Canada's AAA) responding very competently and quickly I didn't get my car to the dealership in time to get them to fix it.
So I got a loaner car and stayed the night in a hotel. Bad breakfast (not at the hotel) followed by the news that an idler pulley had "frozen" on the motor and needed to be replaced--presumably the proximate cause of the belt failure.
Note that my local dealership had set the belts should be replaced at my last service and I had three new ones sitting at home in the garage waiting to be put on this weekend.
Well, the pulley may or may not be in tomorrow. But I had to return the loaner car (a lovely G35) this morning and rent another car to drive the 100 miles home south across the border.
I drive up tomorrow in the hope that they have received said pulley (shipped from Toronto overnight) and that I can actually drive my car home tomorrow. I took the opportunity to ask them to change the transmission fluid (I use Mobil 1 ATF) only to find it is just about unavailable in Western Washington for some unknown-to-mortal-man reason.
So I have to run about in Vancouver tomorrow am early and try and secure 14litres of unobtanium (otherwise known as Mobil 1 ATF).
I just don't need this stress.
Posted by artandscience at March 11, 2004 08:22 PM