That Empty Feeling

When we left to take Donna’s aunt to the airport I wanted a coozie to put around my daily Diet Dr. Pepper, I got all the way to the garage before I realized that I couldn’t use the one I normally use, the one stored behind the passenger seat of the Miata, because the garage was empty.

Later in the day when Donna pulled her Master’s Miata Club name tag out of her purse and Said. “Oh, here it is.” I said, “When we get home you can put it back in with mine where we normally keep it, in the center console of the Mia…” Nope can’t do that, the garage was empty.

Of course, now would be the perfect time to paint the garage floor with one of those fancy paint finishes especially designed for garages.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1809.37
Started up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 248

Monks

A man’s car broke down as he was driving past a beautiful, old monastery. He walked up the drive and knocked on the front door of the monastery. A monk answered, listened to the man’s story and graciously invited him to spend the night. The monks fed the man and led him to a tiny chamber in which to sleep.

The man thanked the monks and slept serenely until he was awakened by a strange sound. The next morning, as the monks repaired his car, he asked about the sound that woke him.

The monks said, “We’re sorry. We can’t tell you about the sound. You’re not a monk.”

The man was disappointed, but eager to be gone, so he thanked the monks for their kindness and went on his way. During quiet moments afterward, the man pondered the source of the alluring sound.

Several years later, the man was driving in the same area. He stopped at the monastery on a whim and asked admittance. He explained to the monks that he had so enjoyed his previous stay, he wondered if he might be permitted to spend another night under their peaceful roof.

The monks agreed and the man stayed.

Late that night, he heard the sound. The next morning, he begged the monks to explain the sound.

The monks said, “We’re sorry. We can’t tell you about the sound. You’re not a monk.”

By now, the man’s curiosity had turned to obsession. He decided to give up everything and become a monk if that was the only way to learn about the sound. He informed the monks of his decision and began the long and arduous task of becoming a monk.

Seventeen years later, the man was finally established as a true member of the order. When the celebration ended, he humbly went to the leader of the order and asked to be told the source of the sound.

Silently, the old monk led the new monk to a huge wooden door. He opened the door with a golden key. That door swung open to reveal a second door of silver, then a third of gold and so on until they had passed through twelve doors, each more magnificent than the last.

The new monk’s face was awash with tears of joy as he finally beheld the wondrous source of the mysterious sound he had heard so many years before.

Free Ride

Didn’t need to buy any plug wires. A friend had his old ones in his garage he could lend me. At noon when we got back to the car I lifted the hood and in the day light I could see that the wire wasn’t broke, but the metal end was recessed into the rubber boot. Carefully reseated both ends of all 4 wires. Tried to start the car, but it wouldn’t go. To double check I used all four of the borrowed wires and got the same results. I removed the borrowed wires and before I replaced them with my original wires I ohmed out the coil pack per the Enthusiast’s Manual and they checked OK. Replaced the wires, but left #1 off the plug. I put a screwdriver in the wire and held it near the strut bar and asked Donna to crank the engine. There was a good strong spark. I then checked the under hood fuses, especially the fuel injection ones, they were good. I took off the oil filler cap and had Donna crank the engine again, I could see the cam moving, but it didn’t sound right after the first few rotations.

I called for my friendly tow truck. The Miata was going back to Rader. I called Kelly and told her it was coming. She called me when it got there. 30 minutes later Kelly called to tell me the bad news, that my new timing belt was broke. The even worse news was that they didn’t have one in stock. As a matter of fact the one I got 2 weeks ago came from Andy Jones and it was their last one. Bad news was on a roll because apparently the timing belts were on national back-order and they weren’t sure they could get one, but the parts guy was working on it.

A little while later Kelly called to say that Scott Rushton (fellow Club member and a pre-owned salesman at the dealer) had offered up his nearly new one that was on his car but the car wasn’t going anywhere until he had some head work done. Or I could wait until next Wednesday when the one they located in North Carolina would be in, meaning the car should be ready on Thursday. Thanks Scott, but I said I’d wait.

Now the news gets better. Because the broken belt was only two weeks old it was under warranty, so I wouldn’t have to pay for this repair. They also said they would pay for the towing charge for today. I tried for Tuesday’s, but they wouldn’t do that. Can’t blame them, when they got the car that day it was working fine. They only had my word there was something wrong. If I’m really lucky, I may get a loaner car on Monday if one becomes available too.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1809.37
Started up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 248

One Plug Wire?

When I emailed everyone in the Miata Club with what happened with the car on Tuesday, Jim Creer emailed back and said it was a plug wire. So on Wednesday morning before driving to work I unhooked each plug wire and reseated them. The drive to work was just like the drive home, underpowered, with some surging, so at work I called a tow truck and had the Miata taken to Rader.

This morning I called at around 10 AM and was informed that she had just got my paperwork and the technician couldn’t find anything wrong with the car. Riiight. Donna and I took a half day off and went over at noon to pick up the car. The cynical side of me thinking that they haven’t fixed anything or if it is running right now, they fixed something and just don’t want to tell me. As soon as I get in the car I know it is fine, so off we go home.

At the Miata Club meeting tonight I was explaining this all to the gathered throng and Rudy says, “When was the last time you changed the fuel filter?” I guess it was a couple years ago at the 90K service. He explains something about a sock getting plugged, all very plausible considering that it started after a kinda hard left turn. Maybe it was cleared by the angle of being hauled up onto the flatbed tow truck. No matter, everything is fine now.

On the way home from the meeting we stopped at Bi-Lo for some OJ for tomorrow’s breakfast. When we started to leave the parking lot the car stalled. I though, gee, I didn’t think I engaged the clutch that badly. The car would not restart. Donna and I (with the help of a nice man) pushed it back into a parking spot. As Donna went off to call her mother to come get us, I remembered what Jim had said as we ate dinner, he said that I needed to check both ends of the plug wire. Sure enough the wire on the far right of the coil pack (#3 I think) came off too easy. There wasn’t any metal plug under the boot, it was still in the coil, the wire was broke.

Tomorrow I guess I’ll be buying a new set of plug wires. Hope that fixes it. I can understand one broken wire causing the low power with some surging, but not starting at all?

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1809.37
Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 248

The Curse of the Bambino

Well, the Red Sox lost to Oakland last night. I turned it off after 3 innings with the Sox down 3 – 0. They made it interesting, but still managed to lose 5 – 4 in 12. I wish today’s game was that close, the A’s scored 5 in the second on two hits a couple of walks and an error. The Red Sox vaulted offense never got it going and now they are down 0 – 2 in a best of 5 series.

The Sprint PCS question* for tonight’s game on FOX was, which town would be the most heartbroken if it’s team was bounced from the playoffs in the first round. The top vote getter was Boston with 37%. New York 27%, Minnesota 27% and Chicago 7%. Not a lot of true Red Sox fans must have voted because a true Red Sox fan revels in their misery. We will be heartbroken if they don’t get bounced out of the playoffs. It is better to not make it to the series at all then to lose the seventh game as usual, giving even more credence to The Curse of the Bambino.

* you can call for free on your Sprint PCS phone and vote or you can vote on the FOX web site.

Well, This Is Another Fine Mess

Limped to work this morning and called a tow truck to have the car transported over to Rader. They did the timing belt change just 2 weeks ago and I think they mucked something up. I called the “service advisor” and let her know it was coming. Nothing was said other than my describing the symptoms. It should have made it to them around noon. At about 3 PM I called and got her voice mail. At 3:45 I called and held on the line until Kelly actually answered the phone. The car wasn’t going to be ready today. I can only guess that they are tearing it down and starting over. Or maybe they just didn’t have time. I’ll call in the morning and see if I can get some more information.

Purchased Today: $62 in towing
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1809.37
Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 246

That’s Not Good

On the trip home from work today as I made a 110 degree left-hand turn off the main road the car sort of hiccupped. The power was way down, it ran rough and the torque curve seemed way out of whack. I continued to drive home as it was running and not making any ugly noises.

My semi-informed guess is the timing belt jumped a notch. The car had it’s timing belt changed 13 days ago and has run beautifully until tonight. My first thought is that the belt wasn’t aligned right when they changed it, but made it run correctly by tweaking timing and now it is not right because the belt is aligned properly. Or the belt was right when they completed the job but something has caused it to jump a tooth now, like the tensioner was not tighten down right.

Of course now I will have to convince the dealer that their service department messed up and they should fix it for free. They after all, must offer some sort of warranty on repairs.