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Real off topic:Car shuts down on me while I was in motion....
And you bet I was terrified.
Here is the backstory: my air conditioner compressor died -- I had it replaced.
That was Trip #1 to my mechanic.
The compressor failed. Exploded and spewed parts, Mechanic said.
So I made Trip #2 to have the compressor re-replaced.
That one lasted all of a day or 2...
Trip #3: He replaced the compressor, plus I needed a hose. Something happened with the hose/compressor: oil leaked into everything.
He told me to come back to replace that compressor -- and he's back logged so that won't be until the 11th.
Which leads me to the title of my post:
Yesterday, I was in the car and I was at a stoplight. The light changed.
I have the choice of hanging a left and heading onto a very busy boulevard or continuing along the same street.
I decided to continue on the same street. Which is narrow and a big hill and in the middle of a densely populated area.
About 50 feet down, I felt a "give" --- and I looked at the dash.
My car DIED -- it stalled while I was in motion. Every light on that dash was lit.
Luckily for me, there was an empty parking space -- the street never has any parking at all -- and I pulled into it.
I am wondering if the sh!t that happened on Tuesday at the mechanic's is the cause for the car shutting down.
Now I have no car until...yep...THURSDAY --- they are closed for the duration of the week.
I have a 125K mile car that is no longer being made -- all of the parts are rebuilt and refurbished. So I guess now I have to look at another car in the very near future.
Good thing I was where I was --- if this happened on that boulevard or the highway, forget it.
Re: Real off topic:Car shuts down on me while I was in motion....
Hmmm....sounds to me like it could be your alternator. This happened to me once when I was driving in the Staten Island Expressway....the car just died - luckily I was passing an exit and was able to get off the highway before getting into an accident.
Not sure what model car you have but depending on how the engine is constructed, like where the alternator is situated in relation to everything else...something may have leaked onto the alternator causing it to burn out. This was how mine died - there was some fluid from I don't even remember what that was leaking in that area....you could probably pop the hood and just have a look to see....
I had that once. It was the air intake. Somehow I'd gotten enough leaves in there to start a compost pile and it was blocking the air. I vacuumed it out regularly and it was fine.
But yours sounds more serious than that.
What kind of car is it?
So glad you are okay....my car died on the highway last year. I was in the fast lane going 70 during rush hour....somehow I remained calm and coasted over to the breakdown lane.
Sorry about your car!
i had that happen to me when i was on the highway. scared the ever living day lights out of me.
what it was, thankfully, was an easy repair.
see, i had previously been in for another repair. during that time they had disconnected the battery. when they put the connectors back on they didn't do it very tightly, so there was no charge.
all they did was clean off the connector thingies (they were old anyway) and tighten them up for free.
my read shelf:
I took that car for an hour's ride yesterday (I stuck to local streets) and nothing happened. I was out today for a drive, 30 minutes each way; nothing happened.
That's so strange but at least it's not something majorly wrong and you are ok. Given the amount of mileage on the car though, you might want to consider upgrading to something new in the near future. In the meantime, drive safe!
This happened to me. I was on a busy country road (a direct artery into the city) and my car just stopped working. Stalled, all lights on, like you experienced. I managed to get over to the shoulder (I was on a bit of a decline, thankfully). In my case, it was the ignition. It took 2 trips to the mechanic to get a new ignition - like you, we were working with refurb parts. It marked the beginning of the end for my 15 year old car - I replaced it about 3 months after that when the list of issues got too long (I needed all new brakes, some major exhaust work, the frame was rusted out, the ignition problem was never fully fixed, the shocks were shot, I needed a bunch of new tubes, etc etc). It was a really terrifying experience. Worse than the time my power steering quit 20 minutes from home.
Anyway, I'm just commiserating. 125K miles is pretty high. If you're considering getting a new car after all of this, start shopping now. I had to rush when I replaced my rust bucket (the mechanic didn't even want to let me take it home and drive it for a week until I could replace it, it was that unsafe apparently), and although I like my new car, I wish I'd had time to research it more.