Corsica Crisis

[Mocha Man]

Yesterday started off as a normal day: I had my mocha in one hand while browsing the forum with the other hand. Eventually, 8:30 came around and my mind started swarming with what homework I had forgotten to do the night before (nothing new there).

I went out to my car (1996 Chevy Corsica) and checked all the fluid levels after something in my gut told me something wasn't going to go right today. Antifreeze looked a little low but nothing serious and I thought sure I would be able to make it to school and back...

On the way to school I noticed my temp gauge steadily increasing as I worked my way up in speed, reaching "H" as I entered onto the highway. At this time I knew something had to be wrong, having had this same thing happen to me last summer. Just as I was pulling off the highway into a parking lot my car started overheating, consuming my car and me in the smoke produced.

I parked in the deserted parking lot on top of a pile of broken glass (indicating cars had been broken in at this place multiple times before) while a guy pulled in behind me. My first thoughts were "Oh thank God, he's stopping to help me." Instead, the guy apparently found it hilarious to sit in his car and watch me try to decipher what was wrong with mine instead of being a Good Samaritan. I popped my hood and saw that my car was clearly devoid of antifreeze but all the hoses were fine, no visible splits. My back and knees screamed in agony having just started recovering from surgery as I knelt down on the broken glass to see if the car was dripping, which it clearly was but I couldn't tell from where since my car is too low to the ground to crawl underneath it.

After a fit of hysterically yelling obscenities at my piece of crap car I reached for my phone to call my friend to pick me up, but the bulge in the pocket of my pants wasn't my phone... it was my wallet! I'd forgotten my phone at home because I've never had the need to use it before. "Well this is just great" was all I could think as I began my trek to the nearest business - a physical therapy office about a quarter-mile down the road - as the creeper in the car watched me walk off; I knew full well I shouldn't trust him so I got his license plate number.

After playing Frogger with a few huge semi trucks and a crazy soccer mom van I reached the office. I explained everything to the workers and they very kindly let me use their phone. I got ahold of my friend (one of the few phone numbers I actually have memorized) and he told me he was at work but he'd call the physical therapy's phone back after seeing what he could do. Ten minutes later the phone rings and the receptionist calls out "Noah, it's for you!" Noah? There wasn't anyone else in the whole place at this time so I figure she must have just misheard my friend. I answered the phone and to my surprise it wasn't my friend talking, but rather a girl on the other side of the line, telling me she'd be there in a bit to pick me up. I didn't recognize the voice in the slightest so I thought my friend had a work friend call me. The receptionist at the office asked me who was coming to get me and I told her "I have no freaking idea..." She started laughing and we joked around with how badly my day was going until the phone rang again. Once again, the phone was for "Noah" and the same lady was on the other side of the line. She said she was pulling into the parking lot. I didn't want to ask her who it was since I figured I probably should know already if she didn't tell me her name and instead asked what car she was driving. At this the receptionist started cracking up again and teased me as I hung up the phone and walked out of the building, thanking her on the way.

I got outside and found the car to find a lady that my whole family has been best friends with for a couple years. Seeing this, I majorly facepalmed and thanked her for picking me up. We went and got my car hooked up to her Chevy Avalanche and proceeded back to my house as cars continually honked at us for slowing them down on the way, despite having our caution lights on. I stayed in y car to man the brakes as my friend drove and when we got back to the city where I live she began turning about a mile too early onto a road that led to a dead end. But what was I supposed to do? I was only in control of my car's brakes and that was it! She drove all the way to the dead end and got out of her truck to ask me if this was the right spot, with which I responded, "Not even close!" I described where I lived while thinking that she should probably know this already since she'd been over to our house so many times. Eventually we got home without any more problems and pushed my car into the driveway.

Fwew, it's all downhill from here, right?

After going to school and coming back home thanks to my friend I began looking at my car. Everything looked fine on it until I remembered that I should check the floorboards to see if they were wet, indicating a leak. I prayed that they weren't going to be wet but my prayers weren't answered as the floorboard was completely soaked. This lead me to think that only one thing could have caused this: my heater core finally went out.

Now, for any of you that haven't had the pleasure of removing a car's heater core, I'll have you know that I couldn't think of a better way to spend my day than toiling over a poorly-engineered piece of crap such as this thing. Heck, I bet you could build an entire Boeing 747 in the time it takes to remove a heater core. In the 1996 it's up behind the middle console and the firewall in a place so terribly difficult to get to that all horror stories I read online said you had to remove the entire dash just to get to it. I wasn't about to do that.

I cut the floors just enough to where I could peel them back (got the car for free, probably time to upgrade) and get to the heater core after many profanities were yelled due to the poor design and a few "Hulk" moments when I ended up just ripping pointless plastic pieces with all my strength and a loud yell of, "Hulk smash!" after spending 2 hours simply getting to the core due to terribly placed bolts and plastic pieces I'm sure were only there to prevent someone from working on the car I pulled out the heater core and saw just what I had suspected: both hoses made of...hard plastic? Wait, wtf? Why make it of something that corrodes and splits so easily when presented with antifreeze? Ugh, anyways they both broke so I pulled it out, went to Autozone, and picked up 2 bottles of antifreeze and a new heater core. Got home, installed the heater core, spent about 3 more hours yelling at my car and ripping plastic, put everything back on as it should be, and filled the car up with antifreeze.

Good as new, right?

Well yes, that would be correct if my car's engine wasn't making such weird noises. I was positive I put everything on right so I began to look closer at everything and saw my worst fears at the moment...

My head gasket had blown.

I had just spent roughly 6 hours of my life fixing the heater core and saving $500 on having a mechanic fix it for me and now I realize that I have an even more serious problem and one that I don't have the proper tools to fix myself. I know a guy who runs an auto repair shop but now I face a dilemma:

I don't have much money being a college kid and I know full well that my car will deem itself undrivable soon since it has 177k miles on it and had been treated badly by previous owners. So do I pay the guy only to use the car for one more year, sell it for scraps and get the Ninja (which I was going to buy with my own money in a few months and keep my car when it was still running), or sell the car and use the money I had saved up to by a different clunker car? The problem I face now is I have no means of transportation other than a 49cc scooter and I'm in the process of shimming the needles and getting a new exhaust on it broken in after a winter of some major repairs so it can't be ridden for long distances.

Sorry if this post was long but I hope you enjoyed my misadventures as much as I did

[Sigma.40]

Depends. Where do you live? If you can get by on just owning a motorcycle, that seems fine. But, if you need a car and can't afford much you should probably just fix yours. If you buy a crap car, all that stuff could go wrong with it soon. At least if you fix your car, you will know that your heater core and head gasket are good. And in changing your head gasket, I'm sure there are little things you can replace to make it even better, spark plugs, etc...

[Mocha Man]

The weather around where I live isn't too bad. The only reason I need a car would be for the winter; when we get tons of snow on some days and nice weather on others.

I know it's probably more wise to get a new cage but they're so much less fun