As summer is coming to a close, I decided to do a bit of reminiscing towards it.
With school ending at the literal end of April, I had a much needed extended summer; having the entire month of May (throwing shade at you, Chicago Public Schools), June, July, and most of August to not worry about the next deadline.
On the major end, the main focus of summer 2016 (and this article) is my car. I own a 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe and have had it for two years now. The car had a lot of miles added to it this summer. From roundtrips from home to school for my studio space for over a month, driving an hour and a half to camp and back, four extended trips from school to hang out with friends, and a wedding, that car has been a blessing to have.
However, with the good that the car has done for me I wasn’t expecting any serious problems. On one late June evening, I was going on a trip to Walmart from camp. The trip had to cancel because the RPM suddenly skyrocketed and the car wasn’t moving. After turning the car on and off, driving at what little speed it could move with the safety blinkers, getting help to up a hill, having the cops called on us by a drunken lady and a friend almost getting hit by a motorcycle, my friends and I and the car made it back to camp. I would find out a week or so later that the transmission failed on me (but to be honest 150,000 miles wasn’t that bad for a trans to fail). So, my mother, her friend and I managed to barely take the car to a mechanic to get fixed.
Fast forward to two weeks and another transmission has been installed with a cost. The Engine light was still on and the speedometer wasn’t working and the steering wheel alignment was screwed up. Need I mention that this service costed $1700, most of it from the money I was saving from working at camp. We were told by the mechanic that the Engine light was because of the O2 sensor, and we could get that, the wheel alignment, and the Speedometer fixed elsewhere. I ended up using a speedometer app from my phone in the meantime. I would spend the two weeks following my return from camp getting these problems fixed, then I’m told my battery dies. Turns out I was missing a screw where it was plugged and that I’ll eventually need to get alternator soon. As for the O2 sensor and speedometer, the mechanic said that as he could fix what the mechanic back upstate did, it was best to go back up there and fight to get what was damaged fixed –and for free.
In the end, the car is back to “normal”, and I must say that it had more of a birthday than I did, regarding all of the money that went into it in about a month. Yet, despite the situation that was brought onto me, I can’t help but dwell on the idea that this could’ve happened at any time! On a positive note, at least it happened now and not later.
