June 22-24: Car Troubles

What a crazy week. It all started when Andrew left for work on Wednesday, but he didn't actually leave. He called me from the driveway to inform me that his Nissan Altima refused to start.  Thus started our day of leaning about cars. Here is the story and the not-so-vital information we learned on the way:

We spent most of the morning fiddling with the car. First we cleaned off all the corrosion that had built up on battery. (Lesson #1: 1Tbsp baking soda and 1 cup hot water are the magical recipe for this task of removing corrosion, who knew!?) It seriously looked like a creature had taken up residence on our poor battery, but after we scrubbed it clean, the battery looked like it might be able to function again.  Unfortunately, it still didn't help start the car.
 
Then we called John, Andrew's step-dad, to see it he could help. He was able to jump the car to life, and we thought we were in business. Andrew and I rushed inside for a few minutes to get our wallets and other necessities, and when Andrew entered his car again he automatically pressed the button to turn on the car, thus effectively turning it off and killing our chance of getting to a mechanic on our own. (Lesson #2: Auto-pilot is not a great thing when it turns off your brain. Oops.)

By this time, John was gone so we didn't want to call him back. After trying to jump the car with my Mini Cooper, we learned through internet research Lesson #3: that Minis are not big enough to bring another car's battery to life (this was also after the lessons on how to open the hood of my car and where to find the battery in a Mini Cooper), so we called someone else to the rescue. Helper Number 2 was Andrew's brother, Ben. (Lesson #4: Having helpful family around is AWESOME. I already knew this, but the car experience made me even more grateful for our family) Ben came with his 2 little girls in tow, but his car was also unable to jump the Nissan. After multiple failed attempts, Andrew and Ben pushed the car into our driveway spot.

Then, looking at the battery, we realized that the evil monster of corrosion had actually eaten through one of the metal connectors to the car. We promptly drove to an auto-shop to buy the needed part and see if Andrew could magically fix the problem. When we returned, we realized that the part we had bought was correct but that it wouldn't connect correctly (Lesson #5: Nissan is dumb and makes their own special parts that cannot be bought at a regular auto-shop.) This was a bit frustrating. 

Alright, it still wasn't working and by this time it was close to 11am and we had been fiddling unsuccessfully with the car for almost 4 hours. We decided to give it a little break and I drove Andrew to work instead. To sum up the rest of the experience, the next day we got it towed to our mechanic. He worked some miracles and was able to return it to us a day later for only a $56 charge. (Lesson #6: If you have car trouble and you live around Midvale, go to Ron Clifford's shop! He is a great and trustworthy car mechanic.) And now we are seriously considering trying to sell it because of all the problems this car has given us. Sheesh.