That’s The Worst

I may be sick now but you know those cold winter days where you go out and your car won’t start, this is bad but that, that is the worst.  (For those who get what I’m referencing 😉😄). 

Yeah, so the last couple days have been a bit crazy with car troubles.  Monday my car was giving warnings that the coolant was low, the the car didn’t overheat.  Tuesday the car wouldn’t start.  When I tried it gave warnings that the was no oil, no coolant and that i needed to STOP.  Wednesday my car yet again wouldn’t start.  It has been getting a bit cooler at nights, and my car is outside so I figured that something was freezing in the motor.  Whenever I tried to start it the battery sounded strong.  If you remember back to last December, while I was up in Canada I had my battery replaced, so it shouldn’t be anything with the battery now.  In the afternoon on Wednesday, I tried jumping it (at the recommendation of my dad).  I was home alone with grandma Baurer and she was sick.  So I backed her car out if the garage and pulled it around on the road to face my car.  I tried starting my car several times with the jumper cables hooked up to both batteries and my grandmas car running, yet my car wouldn’t start.  So I put it all away and called my dad.  He suggested to let grandmas car stay connected to my car a bit longer and then try to jump it again.  So I hooked them up again and tried it again.  I tried a handful of times to start my car, each with 2-5 minutes of charging.  By the last try, my battery sounded pretty low.  My dad was out of town with some family along with my sister and brother (Jonathan) and grandma was sick in bed.  So I waited until my dad got home.  

When he got home we pushed the car in neutral perpendicular with the road but lined up with my grandmas driveway - we couldn’t push it by hand up the hill on her driveway.  So my dad used his car to bumper push me up the driveway and into the garage.  Once in the garage we popped the hood.  (Oh yeah, also while it was out on the road I had checked the oil twice several hours apart and it showed really low so I added 2qt of oil).  Under the hood we found that the fuel was too gelled and frozen to move they the fuel filter.  At the suggestion of a guy who used tow irk on this car Ben Koch, we decided we needed to replace the fuel filter.  Now my dad and sister were supposed to leave early Thursday morning to head back to Texas, but my dad decided to stay till noon to help me out.  Wednesday night as we dug into the fuel filter unattaching everything so we could take it out to replace it the next day, we found yet another small little plastic piece had broken.  We guessed it would cost $5-10 to replace.  The next day we found that the retail value of that piece was about $55 but we were recommended to a guy in Peoria by Princeville Automotive that had one left in stock and was able to sell it to us for around $13 - Praise God!!!   We got that piece and the filter.  Plush we picked up some fluid that I need to put into my tank whenever I fill up to prevent his from happening again. I had already bought some Desicl 9-1-1 (another fluid to help).  Come to find out also, all those warnings my car was giving were false including the oil level- I now have 2qt too much oil in my car.  I hope to take it to a shop soon and have them do an oil change.  

Anyways as we got back to grandmas we started reassembling the car.  My dad left and I finished it up, well mostly.  Just as I was finishing up, the Mickey Mouse Pin  That holds the filter piece to the filter tumbled down into the darkness of my engine.  People online said this is the last thing you want to happen because it will take forever to find it.  I never found it.  I then drive into Princeville to see if either of the automotive shops had one.  Neither did nor had heard if it.  Princeville Automotive again suggested that I go to the guy I went to earlier with my dad.  I didn’t want to drive that far.  But I did drive to a closer part of Peoria and went to AutoZone and Advanced AutonPaets And neither of them had it.  One of them recommended me to try the Peoria VW dealer just down the road.  So I did, but they didn’t have it either.  So I set off to the guy I had gone to earlier.  I went in and asked him for the part, shows him the picture and part number and he said he would look and see if he had it.  He seemed unsure.  A little bit later he came out out and said, “have you ever played the lottery?” indicating that finding the part in his shelves was like playing the lottery.  But (Praise and Thank God) he just happened to have one left in stock for a whopping $4.95.  I was so happy.  Yes it took me nearly 3-4 hours to get it, but I got it.  

Once I got home and was putting everything together (it was nigjtby now), I couldn’t get the filter cap to go all the way into the filter. It seemed like I had tried everything.  I the. Started thinking that I would wait until Jonathan got home to get his help.  I needed another thought on this.  Just the. I heart Gods still small voice say, “you can ask my thought on this”.  I kind of rolled my eyes in thought not knowing if I should 1) trust the voice in was hearing as I’m still struggling in lea God’s voice and 2) how I would be able to know that what was said was him and not me.  But I replied with, “how do I do this God?”   H simply told me to push down on the left side.  So I started to push down on the bottom (in a way it could be considered left based on this piece) and the piece went down a tad further but then got stuck again.  As I kept trying, I heard God ask me if I was pushing the left side.  So I pushed the left side, which I had already done seemingly thousands of times, and click it fit right in.  Boom!  Thank you God.  

My car now runs good and is thaw.  I am glad that I was able to get it done (with lots of help) before the real cold hit.  Starting tonight till Tuesday, the temperature is continually going to drop.  Up until Tuesday where the temperature will be in the -20’s Fahrenheit plus wind.  Thank you God for all you have allowed and all you are!!!!