My Dead Car

When I bought the Maxima I was pretty excited - though the car is only three years newer than the little blue car that was left on the mainland, it seemed to be a lot nicer. But in the last week the problems have been coming out to get me.

First, the gas mileage started getting even worse than it already was. Then it started idling really rough. I decided to try some fuel injector treatment after reading around on the internet a bit. I'm still on the tank of gas that got the treatment, but already have gotten more miles than I was getting and I still have gas left.

But right now, the gas in the tank does me no good. Tuesday began the period of "hunk of metal that is hard to move." The car won't start. I drove to 20 stores for work, and at the last few I was having a little trouble getting the car started. It had done this before, and at the time I thought maybe the starter was going out, but then the car was sneaky and the problem cleared up. And after 20 stores, I thought it may just need a break from trying to start. I got it started, drove 45 minutes to the other side of the island and let the car sit for a couple of hours while walking around. Upon returning, the car started and I drove 45 minutes across the island again to my house. And that was the end of the car starting on its own. Grr.

After having the car towed to Sears they told me the starter was shot. Lucky for me, they were nice enough to call and get the part from the auto parts store where I found the part for cheaper than they had originally quoted me. But once the part was installed, a new problem was found: the cables leading to the battery are the wrong cables. When the guy touched the cable he was talking about it fell off, and the car wouldn't start again. He managed to get the cable smashed back together enough to get the car started, but told me it probably wasn't safe to be driving around and recommended an auto electric guy.

My car is in the auto electric shop now. Who knows what is being done to it. Hopefully the next thing that breaks I can fix on my own.