Imminent Machine Death

[aggienaut]

   Driving home last Tuesday my car started alarmingly shuddering just a few hundred meters from home. Of course I looked in the engine immediately after getting home but to my utterly inexperienced eye nothing looked amiss. Maybe it was just a random thing. Driving to work Wednesday morning (21 miles), the shuddering was there from the outside, steadily got worse, after about halfway the car could hardly go over 80kph (50) (interesting fact, all these country roads have a speed limit of 100kph, which is 62mph, which I think is a bit ridiculous for country roads -- in the states I think non-highways are 45mph (70kph) tops), and the last few hundred meters into work even at the 20-30kph I went up the farm driveway at it was shuddering so badly I expected it not to make it.
   Long story short but talking it over with my more mechanic-inclined friends we quickly determined the head gasket is blown -- the professional mechanic had looked at it just two weeks ago over the oil guzzling situation and determined it wasn't anything outside the engine block, that the gaskets and such inside were probably leaking, and so I gather this is the critical natural progression of that problem. Additionally I confirmed there's bubbles in the radiator when the accelerator is applied (actually I learned there's a throttle in the engine area one can pull instead of magically pushing the foot pedal and trying to see the engine at the same time! So that's a thing I learned today), and this bubbling apparently is positive proof that the head gasket is blown. All my life I've heard of "the head gasket being blown" in hushed whispers as the certain death of a car, though my one friend says as long as I keep the oil and coolant up it could hobble through life for awhile yet. It's not worth an entire engine rebuild so my plan is to just keep driving it until its eventual catastrophic failure -- which would definitely happen the moment Ii really needed to get somewhere like to catch a plane but I definitely don't plan to put the car and I in that situation. As long as I only drive to and from work it should be no worse happening on the roads between here and there during business hours than if I just gave up at it at home hey? And in the mean time I'm heavily looking for another car (I think I'll look again at leasing because I don't have the kind of money sitting around to buy a car and/or the kind of car I could afford would definitely be another maintenance nightmare)


I was going to be done posting this guy's paintings but it seemed to me the imminent machine death of my car called for something mech related


Also I was about to go on to write about the state beekeeping conference that occupied the latter part of the week but after finishing the above paragraph I thought oh hey, there's a complete thought. Might as well post it as a standalone.

Comments

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

I knew a guy who drove a car for months with a bad head gasket. Granted he couldn't do more than 30 mph, but the car drove. So you can likely make it for a bit.

That painting is cool.

[spaciireth.livejournal.com]

One of the more main roads where I grew up (reasonably rural NSW) was 80kph, which seemed bad enough when I was learning to drive. I always felt like I was barrelling along it. And when I went home last Christmas I saw it had actually gone up to 90. Given that people have died on some of the nastier bends, I can't see the logic at all.

[suzanna-o.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you might need a new car soon! We had a car with a blown head gasket and it wasn't really safe to drive any distance. But check the fluids daily and you might be okay.

[ryl.livejournal.com]

I had to get a new head gasket last year. Fortunately I caught it before it blew...along with a few other things that were about to go like the clutch, right axel, ball joint. No one can say I don't support my local mechanic.

[richaarde.livejournal.com]

Here in the states, it depends on the state and the locality. But yes, country roads can have high speed limits like that.

Bummer about the car. At least a head gasket (if that's what it is) is a doable fix, so you can get a few more miles out of your old car.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

My mechanic brother always says it's better to rebuild the engine if the car is worth it and if not, trash it instead of driving something that unstable and unsafe. But what a bummer! I hope you find a good substitute.

[pundigrion.livejournal.com]

Yay, more paintings! But boo for the dying car.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the car!

In New Jersey the speed limit unless otherwise posted is 50 MPH/80 KMH on open country roads and 25 MPH/40 KMH in towns. Like others have mentioned, this includes narrow roads meandering through stands of trees with deer, driveways, etc. But then I'm still reeling from the post about the four-way stop that locals ignore.

I was going to jokingly posit that this painting was "The Unsinking of the RMS Titanic" and then I see in your archives another of his works with a ship in it.

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

I imagine the logic is that the speed limit is the maximum, in places where the speed is safe, rather than an expectation of the norm *g*

I followed your link there - those pictures are very interesting.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Ugh to your car situation!

You know, I still use "blowing a gasket" as a metaphor for a cataclysmic rage event. Maybe that's how your car is feeling? Because... life.