Adventures In Canada
July 19, 2005 @ 12:03 pm
I went to Canada last week to pick up Miranda's friend Bek, and on the way home my car broke down. This is the story of that adventure...
First a piece of black rubber came out from under the car, which I figured was a chunk of tire. My tires sounded fine so I didn't think much of it.
Then the charge light came on, and I asked Miranda to look in the owner's manual to see what that meant. She discovered it meant that there was a problem with the alternator or alternator belt.
She read that this belt powers the water pump too, so I looked at my temperature gauge. It was buried in the hot, so we got off the highway immediately and watched the car steam for a few minutes while I collected myself.
Next we called a tow truck which took us to a big Canadian Tire shop with eight bays. They spent an hour and a half and couldn't get one stuck bolt off to change the belt. They said we could come back in the morning when a mechanic would be on hand who was qualified to use a blow torch. So we went to the tiny shop across the street instead, and found these guys:
They were drinking beer and having a good time, and were kind enough to help us even though they'd been closed for almost two hours when we showed up. They got the bolt right off and had the car fixed in 20 minutes. And, one of them even lent me his bike to go get cash from the gas station on the corner.
Four hours and $100 Canadian and we were back on the road. You can read the full account on Miranda's blog, which includes a trip to Niagara Falls and excitement passing through immigration. Thanks to Bek for the cool pics.
Replies: 3 Comments
Should have taken me along. I bring my own blotorch.
Sylvie said on July 19, 2005 @ 1:00 pm
These guys didn't even need that, they just put two wrenches together and swung from it. The whole car was swaying back and forth on the lift. I half expected it to come down on them, but they seemed pretty confident about the whole thing.
Nick Baker said on July 19, 2005 @ 1:42 pm
uh... you mean thanks to me for the cool pics? ha. i love them posing in the last photo. those guys cracked me up.
miranda said on July 19, 2005 @ 1:54 pm
