The Tale of the Exhaused Car

I spent 7.5 hours today cruising down roads with Texas in route in a 2007 Nissan Maxima.    WAIT!!!  I don't own a 2007 Nissan Maxima!  I own a 2001 VW Passat!   Where's my car?!?! My beautiful VW Passat has always driven great!  Well, except when I almost ran out of fuel . . . and. . . when the battery died . . . and. . . when the battery died again, for good . . . and. . . when the tire blew out . . . and. . . well. . . now.  

Over the past several weeks I've driven my car for nearly 50 hours on long road trips, trekking well over 2,500 miles (nearly 4,500km).  Not only that but I had plans to take it on yet another 30 hours on a trip down to Texas and back, adding an additional 2,000 miles (3,200km).  

On my last journey with my car I was returning from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Princeville, Illinois.  As I was leaving I plugged in my address into my GPS and it asked if I wanted to avoid Toll Roads.  I clicked, "Yes".    As I was pulling out onto the road I stopped to text my grandma telling her when I'd be home.   Though my GPS told me I would be there in just over 5 hours, I received a prompting from the Holy Spirit to tell her I'd be home in about 7 hours.  So I did so, figuring one of two things was going to happen: 1) I would get stuck in 2 hours of traffic or 2) God was going to take me on yet another what I call 'God adventures'.   I figured it was an 'either or' scenario.  Turns out it was a 'neither' scenario.

Several hours down the road I noticed my GPS was suddenly telling me to turn left in about half a mile on a road heading towards a Toll road.   At first I thought it wasn't actually going to put me on the Toll road, but as I got closer to the turn, noticed it was.  I was a bit frustrated at my GPS for not doing what I had told it to do earlier, to avoid Toll roads.  I pulled off to the side of the road and told my GPS to reroute, avoiding Toll roads.  This time it did.   BUT GOD stopped me before I could get on the road again.  He told me He was the one who routed my GPS on to the Toll road because He wanted me to be on that road.    So He had me reroute my GPS again by turning onto the Toll road.    As I got on the toll road I was given a ticket that I didn't understand, it contained a wide range of toll prices with the most expensive being the road I got on at.   As I was pulling up to the toll booth I noticed there was a digital screen in front of each booth stating the toll fee (as there was no previous sign).    I noticed as the car in front of me was paying the toll, that the toll was $8.50.   I was worried.  I didn't know if I had that much.   I dug through my quarters (that God had me put in my car 3 weeks ago - and come to find out it was for Toll charges) and only found about $5. I knew I had a $5 bill buried in my glove box and I really wanted to get it, but God held me back and said not to get it.  I was confused on why I couldn't get it as I didn't have enough in other cash at that moment.    I only hoped that they would change the fee for me as I had a different ticket.  Praise God, they did.  I handed the lady my ticket and the sign changed to $0.70.   I was so happy.  

Most of my travels on Interstates were in the left two lanes traveling between 70-80 mp/h.  My speed was with the traffic, though some seemed to think that speed was too slow.   Later on as I was just coming out of Chicago (about 3 hours from home),  I suddenly felt that my car seemed to lose a bit of power.  The peddle seemed less responsive all of a sudden.   Almost instantly (within 30 seconds) I was in the far right lane struggling to keep 60 mp/h.   As I got off at the next exit, I called my dad and explained the problem.  He asked a lot of questions and had me try different things as he tried to diagnose the problem.  Finally he suggested me to call Justin Koch, the guy who sold me the car a year ago, a friend of our family.  I couldn't get a hold of him, but my dad did.  He told us the problem has happened before and normally fixes itself.  He also routed us to his son, Ben, a diesel mechanic (yes my car is diesel, it's a TDI: Turbocharged Direct Injection).  Ben really help us out and told us lots of useful information and suggested that I turn my car off when it happens and turn it back on.   It was just had too much at one time and was protecting itself by going into a low power mode, or a half power mode.   (When I had first got off the interstate, I put the peddle to the floor, which will normally do a lot, but now I could not get a speed higher than 20 mp/h doing that).  Ben's advice worked, for a bit.  Though it seems that it's something more as it kept happening.  Now my car struggles to keep up at the speed limit and when it can get that much speed, it takes a while to get there.   Over the past year while I've had this car, it's spat out black smoke from the Exhaust less times than I can count on my fingers (at least that I've noticed).   Now it Pours out Tons of black smoke every time I start it up.  

With this situation on hand, Justin offered that I could take his car down to Texas and leave mine for Ben to look at while I'm gone.  I am so blessed!    Praise God!