Thursday, March 15, 2007

Teacher, May I Be Excused?

I had a little run in with my car yesterday... at the mall at 8:30PM, it didn't start. AAA shows up 1.5 hours later, but the car doesn't need a jump (I figured that, something else was broken), and the driver can't fit his flatbed into the garage. 1.5 hours after that, a tow truck arrives. The driver, Artie, asks me to start it so he can hear what it sounds like. Of course, it starts right up. It looks like either the solenoid is corroded and needs to be replaced, or some other wire is loose or corroded.

End result: I left the house at 7:30PM, didn't return until 12:30AM. I am excused from being productive.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Follow-up: I took it to a mechanic who spent two hours looking at the car. He couldn't find a thing wrong with it (he couldn't even get it to not start). He suspects the problem is the starter motor, but because the car regularly starts he said he couldn't ethically replace it.

Volsar Automotive in Medford, MA. They're the best.

Unknown said...

It's the solenoid. I figured that out by jumping the solenoid (connecting the circuit by placing a screwdriver across the terminals). Volsar replaced the solenoid for a nice $70. Sweet.

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