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She's sprung
My car was granted a weekend furlough. I’m so happy to see her. I filled her little gas tank (the mechanics drained it) and took her for a little spin. They fixed the squeaky brakes. I noticed that right off the bat. Good thing, they’re the ones who put brand new ones in a couple of months ago. No charge for removing the squeaks. So far I have a brand new oxygen sensor and that did not fix the situation, but the sensor was as dead as a doornail. Joe (my mechanic) showed it to me and it was fried. There are no leaks in the system, so there is another sensor on order which won’t be in until Monday or Tuesday. Rather than take up space in his parking lot, he told me to take my car and bring it back by Tuesday. Small town honor system. I paid nothing to drive off with my car. That’ll come later. Not looking forward to that.
Joe is trying his best. As he told me...Toyotas are very good cars, but there is a reason why they don’t make Echos anymore. They had a few bugs and I, unfortunately, have been introduced to one. When he hooked my car into the computer to find out what the engine light code was...it said “engine too lean.” I kid you not. He showed me and that’s exactly what it said. Which is not exactly helpful. Of all the umpty bazillion specific codes that could have registered, I got this one. Which means, basically, it’s a hunt and peck operation to find out why the engine is running too lean. No leaks in the emissions system, the engine is fine otherwise. It’s one or both of the emissions sensors, we think. If one goes, the other often follows. So, Kate very much hopes that the sensor on order does the trick. If not, I’m not sure what I’ll do next. I’m not prepared to drain the treasury for more hunting and pecking for a stupid engine light that won’t go off.
Well, at least I don’t feel stranded today. I feel anxious, but not stranded.
engine too lean.
See, that low-fat diet will kill you!
linkmeister beat me to it, I was going to say, time for the Atkins Diet!! Fingers crossed for you!! ;)
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it was a diet related problem. Every since they started putting all that ethanol in our gas, my car has been running crappy. It was horrible this summer, slightly better this winter with whatever the winter fuel mix is. Heaven knows what it’s doing to my car’s innards.
Ethanol has a habit of dissolving things that are insoluble in gasoline - and then depositing them in inconvenient places like fuel filters and injectors where the restricted flow can cause lean or erratic conditions - or worse.
Way beck when I still bought into the mythology of Japanese cars, I had constant problems with Hondas and Toyotas and their rusting gas tanks, clogging idle jets and melting fuel filters that often left me or my wife stranded in very bad places.
Is it rude to say that I normally get over 130,000 miles on American cars before anything needs to be replaced or adjusted? <s>
Mileage varies, I guess. Worst car I EVER had was a Buick. Best vehicle I ever had was a VW diesel pick-up, which never needed anything replaced until about 320,000 miles when the engine finally fell out because everything around it rusted out. ;)
There are plenty of tales around here (with 5 marinas within a 2 mile radius) of the horrible things ethanol is doing to boats. Boaters around here hate the stuff. It’s costing them a small fortune in repairs.