The Chariots of DOOM

[Drunk Monk]

Nice!

I dub thee Sir Cranefob, knight of the realm and keeper of the keys of Prius.

[Greg]

So it is written. So it shall be done.

[Greg]

Okay. My check engine light went on. The mechanics decided this valve needed to be replaced. Carbon from the ignition gets underneath this flap in the valve and holds it open causing the check engine light to come on. It wasn't a big deal. They said I could drive with the valve in this condition without a problem. Since it was an expensive repair I opted to let it go. This year I had to do a smog check to renew my license and you can't pass a smog check if your check engine light is on. It was time to change the valve.

I did and on the way out the door from the mechanics on my way to get my car smog checked, the man at the counter said I needed for my monitors to reset before I could do the smog check. If your monitors don't reset, you will immediately fail your smog check as well. What now? What dark magic is this. Turns out, you might already know this, there are monitors in the car to check to see if you've repaired something, especially in the exhaust system. The powers that be in the government don't want you getting repairs done on the car that are only temporary fixes. They want the car driven for awhile to make sure the repair has held. It used to be you could unplug the battery to turn off the sensors in the car and they would reset. The monitors make sure you aren't playing games with sensors.

The counter man checked my monitors and they had not reset. He told me I needed to go for a big long drive to reset the monitors which would mean the sensors were checking the engine. I figured a couple drives up and back from Raymond to Oakhurst should do it. For the last two weeks I've been popping into the mechanics to see if the monitors had reset. They come out with a little device they plug in under the dash to check. After at least two hundred miles of driving the car still had not reset. My deadline for getting the car smog-checked was long over due as was getting the car registered.

I finally realized the the monitors had reset when my check engine light had come back on. The valve replacement had not fixed the check engine light problem. Back to where we started. Now the mechanics were saying I should not have driven the car as long as I did with the Check Engine light on. That was the note I received on Friday. They wanted me to drop the car off then, but I didn't have a way to get back to Raymond from Oakhurst without the Queen having to make a long trip. I opted to drop it off on Monday. This Auto Repair place like most of the Auto Repair place in Oakhurst are very busy due to the fact that three places closed because of the pandemic. When I thought about just getting an appointment they said the earliest available time was Sept 7th.

The car is now with the Mechanic and I wait for them to call me and tell what is what. Hopefully they will have an opening sooner rather than later.

[King Bob]

Ouch. Christina had a 2000 Volvo, and the check engine light was on, and the mechanic said it would be several thousand to fix, so we let the car go back in 2020. We're a one car family now. She can walk to work, so that's easy, on her off she has to take me to work and pick me up so she can run errands and such. Not an option for Greg.

[Greg]

One further note. The check engine light code the mechanics could read with their device was the same as it was before the valve was replaced.

[cranefly]

Not certain I wrote about it, but LCF went through this with her last car.  Got a registration renewal notice, which required a smog check.  She decided it prudent to change the oil first.  Went to Jiffy Lube for oil and tune-up.  Later that day the Check Engine light came on.  She had it checked at some gas station that does repairs.  The mechanic found that Jiffy Lube hadn't reconnected a hose under the hood.  He reconnected it, but the light stayed on.  She went back to Jiffy Lube, but they refused to believe they'd made a mistake and insisted it was due to a loose gas cap.  The guy tweaked the cap and said, "There, that'll take care of it."  Bull-pucky.  It wasn't loose to begin with.  Back to the gas station guy, who said you've got to drive it until it resets.  LCF drove it all over the place, a couple hundred miles, I think.  No dice.  And she was way late on registration by then.  Finally took it to a Toyota dealer and paid a hefty price for him to nudge it through the arcane driving conditions required to reset it.

This happens to so few people that it never gets remedied.  But when it does happen, you're left pretty much helpless.

[Greg]

Can you hear me beating my head against the desk?

The nice men checked out the car. They called me and were immediately apologetic. They couldn't find anything wrong. They did the 'smoke check' and everything ran fine. Jim, the mechanic, thinks the problem might be, everyone's favorite excuse, the loose gas cap. Fuck me.

Now because they have tinkered, the monitors are all in standby mode. I need to drive the car until they reset. Last time this took two weeks because I do not drive the car very much. I might do a road trip......

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Jake’s!

[Greg]

Now that would be a plan!

[Drunk Monk]

Can you hear me beating my head against the desk?

nope.

bang a little harder.

[Greg]

Ha! I'm not falling for that one again.

[Drunk Monk]

Well alright then. Sorry to hear of your car woes. Sounds horribly frustrating. 

This is why I don't heed those warning lights.

When I got a recent flat on Darth, the tire warning light went on just prior to the tire deflating. When the tire deflated, it was off. When I got a replacement tire, it went on again. Fortunately, I know how to turn that off.

The Funk mobile perpetually thinks the driver door is open. For a while, it kept the door light on all the time, but I figured out how to disconnect that wire so it didn't drain the battery anymore. The door warning beep still goes on whenever you start the car, and it keeps beeping for several minutes before it realizes it's being ignored and shuts up. The oil light just went on but we'll oil it.

[Drunk Monk]

Slightly OT as it wasn't my car, it was my mom's.

Hopefully we are going to sell that car soon. It's a 96 Camry but it only has 111K on it. It's the 'little old lady' previous owner thing. We might jsut give it to a friend. My mom has been paying insurence on it but hasn't been driving and it doesn't look like she's going to be driving ever again. 

The Camry is gone. We gifted it to the daughter of one of my mom's best friends, Rocky. Rocky used to get regular massage from Stacy. Pam, Rocky's daughter, started getting work too because she's got a lot of issues as well, coupled with being a caretaker. Felt good to gift her the car. My mom was okay with it all. I'm glad to be rid of that burden. We might have sold it for some $$ but I didn't want to hassle with that. I'm just happy it went to someone who needs it. And she's still a monthly client of Stacy's, along with her adult son.

[Greg]

The car warning for "tighten gas cap" came on for The Queen. She did and the light went off. While driving this morning, the warning came on again. When I stopped at the gas station to fill, I noticed the gas cap was really loose and would not tighten. Time for new gas cap. Still can't do smog.

[Drunk Monk]

At least that’s an easy fix. 

Hopefully.

Which reminds me that I have another good mercnret tale..

http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...9#pid59339