It stared back in January when I was driving home from work. My car died on a busy street. A sheriff's deputy stopped to help. He popped the hood and try to figure out what was wrong with it. At that time another bystander stopped to help. Both of their efforts where unsuccessful. While the guys were trying to help, I called my husband to have a tow truck sent out my way. The tow truck arrived and put my car on the back of a flat bed. My car was towed to a local car shop.
The car shop found the issue. They said the throttle body was really dirty and mucked up. They cleaned it and test drove my car. They said it felt good. They cleaned the part to save me money. The part is very expensive. I picked up my car a day or two later, and it drove fine.
A couple of weeks later, I started my car in the morning before work. My car was chugging and black smoke was coming out of the exhaust. I saw on my dashboard the same things I saw a few weeks ago: reduced engine power and no traction control. I knew I needed to buy the expensive part. My husband gave me a ride to work and I had my car towed later in the day. The same tow trucker driver stopped at my house and said, "It's you again." Yes. It is me and my car. I told him it was the same issue and the repair shop was just trying to save me money. But I needed an expensive part for my car. The shop had to special order the part and I got my car back a couple of days later.
Again, a few weeks later, I started my car before work. It started chugging, black smoke was coming out of the tailpipe and my dashboard read "reduced engine power." I turned the car off and woke my husband up to drive me to work. The next day, instead of towing my vehicle. My husband attached a tow strap to the back of his truck and to the front of my car. He pulled my car with his truck the few short blocks to the repair shop. Driving a car in neutral without power steering is awful. The brakes didn't feel like they were working. I was scared that I was going to hit the back of his truck. But we made it to the repair shop alright.
The shop called two days later saying that the car was working great. One of the shop guys took it on an extensive test drive and it felt smooth. My husband gave me a ride to the shop before he went to go workout at the gym. I picked up my keys, started my car and left the shop driveway. Not even 50 feet away and my car dies in the middle of one the busiest streets in the city. I put on my hazards, called the shop and said my car was dead just out of the driveway. One of the shop guys got my car started,turned it around and got it back into the shop parking lot. He said that the car was just driving so well, but as he was saying that my car was chugging again. The shop guy that called to say my car was done said he was embarrassed. He said they would figure out what the issue was and fix it.
A couple of days later, the shop called my husband to explain the issue. The map sensor that was in my car was set to 8000 feet above sea level, when we are only at 800 feet. My car was also set at 8000 rpm. He said with those two issues, it was basically chocking my car to death. I joked with the guy that I was going across the street to get gas, I said I hope to make it over there. For everything I went through, I wasn't charged for the repair. My part was under warranty, so that paid for it. Before leaving, I told the shop guy that I liked them, but I didn't want to see them again for a while.
I have driven my car to work twice this week. It has been driving smooth. When I was backing into a parking spot yesterday, my dashboard said "Traction Control". When my car was chugging the previous times, my dashboard also read that. I started to worry. I was thinking, "Is my car going to die again?" But I thought, I could have just drove over some ice in the parking lot. On my drive home later, my car didn't give me any issues. As I was parking in my driveway, which is very icy, my dashboard read: traction control. I didn't think much of it since I was on ice.
For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to keep my car close to home. I really hope it is fixed for good. I need to trust that my car won't die in the middle of the road.
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