MY WAGON DIED ON JANUARY 13, 1997
It is true the beast managed to died... although it needed a little help from me...
Let me just start from the beginning of my problems...
I finally got my guage faces (white) come from NOPI after about 4 months of actually placing the order and I took my old ones out. The needles popped off the tach and speedo without a problem. I thought maybe these faces would fit. I knew the center one wouldn't. They had sent me the wrong on for that. I decided to take the center guage off as well so I could get a photocopy of it to send to NOPI. Well, when I popped off those needles, the pin that they were supposed to pop off of had popped off as well and were still in the needles. I didn't think anything of this at first... then I tried to put them back together... huh, they wont go back right. I finally realized that the center part of my instrument cluster had to be replaced. No biggie I felt. I had been doing a lot of long distance driving and knew almost exactly how much gas my car burned getting from point A to B. As for the temperature, I had absolutely no problems with that gauge. My cooling system was working great, and besides it was winter. Doh! Well two weeks later and about 4000kms later (believe me) I was about to embark on my final leg of my driving escapades. An 800km trip was about to be underway. I left town with my McNuggets and got on my way... funny, the car seems to be taking longer to warm up today??? Oh well, I'm hungry. What's that noise..? Then turning the stereo down and simultaneously pressing in on the clutch... the engine stalled. *GULP*
I got a ride back to town, got a tow truck and paid $80 for the 12km Flatbed ride. Brought her to a garage. She started first turn of the key.
We laughed then and decided to check out to see if she was low on coolant. Bingo. We poured some in and I then discovered a small pinhole leak on the front of my radiator. Just so happens that the garage is also a rad shop and they fix my rad after I go on back to my girlfriends. When she gets back from school she tells me that she was qquite surprised to see my car drive by her hours after I had left, but driven by someone else. Excellent, they got her out for a test drive, she works!
Well I got a ride to the garage. Paid the cash, got my keys and off I went... or so I thought. The car wouldn't start. Figuring she was flooded, the mechanic took out the plugs... dripping wet. One of the other mechanics decided to warm up a plug... sweet smelling smoke. DOH! We then got a flashlight and looked into the spark plug holes, what a pretty green color down there, smelled kinde sweet too, how nice. My cylinders were practically filled up with engine coolant!
Well they stripped the engine down, the block looks almost new, there's no sign of damage to the head, and the gasket is not hurt. I then gave up on my car. I told the guys to throw her back together and asked if they would tow it to my girlfriend's aunt's. No problme they said, but then they made me an offer. They ordered a head gasket just in case, and offered me free labour. Now they are going to put it back together in their free time. I guess they wanted a Honda as a project. Not too many end up in the shop, eh? (Yes, I'm Canadian) And here I am. I had to make the trip I had planned to make in my car in a jet. I am now carless and I feel like I have two broken legs. Any suggestions on a good car to buy, year, model??? I'm looking for a four door civic of some sort I think or maybe a CRV if they offer a standard soon.
Well that's the story of how my car died with just 244,000kms on the Odometer.
UPDATE: The car has been working since then. The head gasket made the car work but she needed so much more. I ended up buying a Honda del Sol. Read all about it in the latest installment.
