Car Solutions

We have had a problem with our car that has people scratching their heads, though there is no shortage of helpful advice. The problem is that the car seems to bog and lurch coming out of first gear. It seems like the timing is off, and the car is on the verge of stalling. Once out of first gear, however, it runs fine.

The main theory was that it needed new spark plugs, which seemed reasonable to me, but what do I know? To add to our misery, the check engine light suddenly went on, and our inspection tag expires this month. These are the sort of things that give me anxiety to the point of shutting down and ignoring the problem.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you see it, that is not an option, not when my family is counting on me to step up to the plate.

The only thing to do was to take it in and have the inspection done and hope for the best. It helps that our mechanic, RM, is our neighbor and really knows his stuff. We took the car over to Meunier, and I was expecting the worst.

Well, it turns out that the problem was an air intake hose, and the guy fixed it with a piece of duct tape. We passed the inspection, got our new tag, and resolved the check engine light/stalling problem in one visit. How cool is that? All it cost was the price of the inspection.

I love when that happens. Of course, I need to order a new hose, and from an authorized dealer, who tend to overcharge. However, when I called, it wasn't that bad, and she said she'd send it to me via UPS for only about $5. Wow, one lucky turn after another. She actually said that this is a very common problem and they send out a lot of these hoses. She even said she has the same car and had the same problem.

I love a happy ending.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Jascha Hoste for the pic.