Engine Light

Don’t you know it ALWAYS get worse before it gets better?

Halfway to work on Monday, my car shifts gears while going up a hill, as automatics normally do, but then it did it again right after, which didn’t seem normal, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. That day was cold as HELL, so I figured that’s just what it was.

As I began coasting down the hill, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my engine light was blinking. I COULDN’T BELIEVE MY EYES… A slight wave of panic came over me and I just prayed to God that I’d make it to work before anything bad happened. Of course, 20 feet in front of me, was a line of traffic spanning for about a quarter of a mile-just my fucking luck.

As my car was idling in traffic, it starts jerking and shaking slightly. Right then and there, I KNEW something was wrong, but didn’t know how bad.

Come the end of my work day around 6:00, I get back in my car and the engine light is still on; steady at first, but then starts blinking. Pulling out of Manhattanville’s campus, I hit a red light, where I normally would make a left.

My car begins jerking and shaking even worse than it did earlier. I just NEW something bad was about to happen, but before I could pull over when the light turn green, my car stalls in the middle of the road. I laughed in shock and like any normal person would do, I tried to start my car up again… it wouldn’t.

All the lights on my dashboard were on, my headlights, heat and radio so I knew it wasn’t the battery. I began to freak out as people were obnoxiously honking behind me, paying no attention to my fucking HAZARD LIGHTS. The assholes just drove around me, not one seemed interested in helping me.

Panicked, I called my brother, Darren; the one person I knew would come quickly to help. 15 minutes later he shows up and figures out that I can start the car if I give it gas, but it won’t stay running if I didn’t keep my foot on the accelerator. That would be the only way to move it.

I refused to drive it as it would cause problems for breaking. We just decided to have him put the piece of shit out of the way and come back later that night to have him drive it home. I decided not to deal with the tow truck and the car dealer until his gas station could look at it for a free diagnosis and at least steer me in the right direction…

Well, Darren took it to the gas station the next day and they couldn’t find ANYTHING wrong… I did some research on the Internet to find out why that bullshit happens and it seems like there is something going on with the fuel system. I bought dry gas hoping it would solve the problem, and it seems to have helped but I still don’t trust it… isn’t your tachometer supposed to read 1 or 1.5 when idling? Mine reads .5 or a 1 if it’s being good.

And by the way, if you didn’t know, this is my new car that I haven’t owned for 3 months yet!