When the car starts acting up we all suffer!
Our Lexus has been reliable for three years and now Hubs says,
“I don’t think I’ll ever trust this car again…”
as it hesitates and splutters its way to town.
For the last three months our Lexus has been acting up and it’s easy to blame the dust along the private road we live on.
As I’ve mentioned before, even the donkey has to wear a mask to protect his eyes.
Tempers have been frayed as we surmised and ruled out just about everything that is movable under the hood that could be causing the hesitancy to accelerate.
There isn’t much left to replace and we’ve brought our wallet to its knees.
The first thing Hubs did was to clean the air filter…it needed it.
But old Lexie still baulked when pulling away from a stop sign.
Hubs looked the problem up on a chat room filled with Lexus owners.
As is the case where a few men are gathered together in the name of car talk, there are far too many suggestions for the possible cause of the demise of our sole mode of transportation.
We set up a systematic course of trial and error.
We filled up with gas and for three or four tanks Hubs added fuel injector cleaner.
Lexie was still gasping at stop signs and the check engine light came on.
The computer printed out some codes that indicated the 0² sensors may be faulty…
After a costly replacement she ran no better.
Hubs is handy with cars and good at finding parts. He followed up on another suggestion and replaced the PVC valve and hose.
All good stuff but still ineffectual.
Returning to the dusty road and the age of our car he cleaned the butterfly valve and throttle body with special stuff that gets down into the nitty gritty and should have our car running smoothly again…
I agreed the throttle was the problem,
“This should work,” I told Hubs as I patted him on the back.
I drove her on the freeway and at 60mph put my foot down to pass a truck and the speedometer needle didn’t budge and there were no rpm readings.
Not a safe situation!
Where had my high performance machine gone?
The check engine light flashed at me again and on inspection we were advised to have the 2 catalytic convertors replaced.
We had to hire a car this time and drive a distance to a specialist shop outside town.
After two days we picked Lexie up convinced she must now be all better.
We’d hardly gone ten miles when the engine light went on again just to taunt us.
Back we went and the computer told our mechanic that the fuel was too lean…
…as if he was talking about a horse…which I suppose in the old days he would have been.
Back at square one the oil light joined the party on the dash.
We added a quart or two but the poor old car was desperately trying to tell us something…
She was groaning and croaking like Charlie the Concrete Mixer and we couldn’t understand a word.
We left her at our trusty shop who was as keen as we were to crack the mystery…only he was making the money as it trickled like water through our fingers.
Another hire car came to sit in our garage, this time it was keyless with no gear lever and other impressive mod-cons and hinted at what we were missing.
We fleetingly contemplated investing in a set of new wheels…
But Hubs got a call from the shop,
“I think I’ve finally fixed it come and try it out!” Ron, the owner said.
“Yay!” said Hubs and rushed off in the reliable rental.
This time he had replaced the mass air flow sensor.
“The ratio of air to fuel should be balanced now and your problems should be over.”
“Let’s wait until my wife drives it…” Hubs said, understandably cautious.
I dreaded getting behind the wheel…
When I did she coughed and wheezed like an old asthmatic.
Our patience was being sorely tried as the ever worsening problem of zero oomph persisted..
Hubs spent a third Monday morning at the garage he was calling his second home and after three hours of testing and analyzing Ron finally fetched his stethoscope…
…all the better to hear with,
and traced the huffing and puffing to a worn and cracked Air Tube Resonator that sits between the air filter and the throttle body.
Now if you’ve been following this closely the throttle body has been mentioned before…
Hubs cleaned the butterly valve and throttle body and in so doing removed the air tube resonator, set it down out of the way, without checking the underside!
“But look at this,” said Ron holding the air tube resonator upside down, “the seam along the bottom is brittle and cracked,” he pulled the casing apart to prove his point, “nothing you did, just wear and tear!”
Air was streaming into the fuel line through the holes and poor old Lexie was drowning in oxygen.
While we wait for the part from Lexus Hubs has taped up the cracks and holes as if he was dealing with an old Landie!
I love it, a luxury car held together with duct tape…
How gecko can we get?
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
No comments so far!
2015-10-28 23:20:23
First of all , it’s ghetto, and 2nd of all Duct tape fixes EVERYTHING!
2015-10-29 23:44:58
It’s even more Ghetto to say Gecko, which is what I say because you Americans actually pronounce it Geddow! And you’re right, the duct tape ended up working better than the real mcCoy!!
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