The (In)Convenience of Owning a Car

Been having some trouble recently with my good old reliable Honda. Lately, if I don't let the car warm up the shifting (sadly, it's an automatic) is really rough until it gets going. I figured the transmission fluid was low and it just took a while to go from sitting in the bottom of the pan to actually circulating. So says the girl with only a smidgeon of car knowledge. Well, it may be a little more than a smidgeon, but if so, it's like smidgeon plus one.

Last night as I was leaving work I was in a hurry so didn't let my baby warm up. As I'm leaving the parking structure the check engine light comes on and the gear indicator light thingy (yeah, technical name there - the thing that highlights which gear you are in) starts flashing. Not so good. So I pull over, turn off the car and then restart it. This time the enging light stays on, but gear light is normal. I let my car warm up and go on my way.

Now, this happens to coincide with needing an oil change anyway so that part works out well. I took my car in this morning to my little Honda Service Center. Did my usual chat w/ the boys who work there because they are all dolls. Then had to wake up my buddy R to snag a ride to work with him. Thanks lovie (even though you don't know about this blog).

Well, my lovely mechanic just called. Definitely an issue with the transmission. Now, the good news is he looked it up and since I have an extended warranty on this thing it is still covered. Just barely. It's 6 years or 100,000 miles. I'm at 96,000 miles right now. Whew! By the hair of my chinny chin chin. The bad news is I have to get my car to the main Honda Service Center where the warranty office is and they'll take care of it. The real PITA is I need to do it today since I need my car tomorrow. So now I'm scrambling to try and find a lift back into SF to get my car and take it on down there. Normally I'd just do BART, but with the cane and air cast it's far too much of a PITA.

Oh, and to top it all off, I also need new tires. Well hell D, as long as you're doing the oil change, slap a few tires on there as well. Then I'll take it to the other shop to fix the transmission. Can't wait to get this bill!

Latest update - well, took my car to the main service center. I explained how I had taken it in at 7am to the other service center and what they had found. Well, turns out they can't look at it today because they have over 200 cars to work on. The guy did say, "Well, if you had brought it in at 7am this morning we could have looked at it." Thanks jackass. I did have it in at 7am. Who knew it was the wrong one? Anyway, so now I have a 7am appt tomorrow morning to have it looked at. They obviously can't tell me if it's serious until they do the diagnostic work. So that's how i'm spending my Saturday morning. I hope it's nothing serious becauase I really need my car this weekend. Drat!