In January I had my car smogged. Before they could smog it, it needed a $600 repair to replace the fuel rail and fuel pressure regulator. They didn't have to replace the fuel injectors, fortunately, I thought. Fine. I couldn't really afford it, but I saw the leak, and had been occasionally smelling fuel when I started it up. I borrowed the money, put off some bills, and sweated a lot.
Fast forward to last week. My roomies did me a favor and put gas in my car so my tank would be full for starting my new job. Nearly a full tank.
But I kept smelling gas when I started it up, when I was at a light, and when I got out of it. I went through 12 gallons of gas in a little over 100 miles. My car usually gets around 17+ mpg. I sometimes heard weird popping sounds. Something was seriously wrong!
So on Sunday (my only day off during the entire week) I popped the hood and started up the car.
Holy Crap!! One of my fuel injectors was literally spraying fuel all over the intake manifold. The new fuel rail was fine, and only the one injector was leaking, but it made my car actually downright dangerous.
So now, with a new job and no paycheck in yet, I have to have my roomie drive me to work. I don't have credit cards, and my credit is shot to hell after 20 months without a steady income. So I won't be able take it in to get it fixed until at least March 9. It should only take a day or two, assuming they have the friggin' parts in stock.
If the damned car had an ordinary carburator, I wouldn't have had to spend this kind of money. I could have swapped a carb out for a few hundred and a weekend, no muss, no fuss.
I really hate the modern cars and the fancy (and expensive) fuel systems.
Posted by ljl at February 27, 2003 12:44 AMwell Linda, modern cars need much less routine maintenance than older cars. Your new parts were not installed correctly! I would go back to the shop and make them make it right.
Posted by: metoo on February 28, 2003 06:28 AMwell Linda, modern cars need much less routine maintenance than older cars. Your new parts were not installed correctly! I would go back to the shop and make them make it right.
Posted by: metoo on February 28, 2003 06:29 AMsorry for two posts, I clicked twice by mistake and there they are!
Posted by: metoo on February 28, 2003 06:29 AM