Penny got to take a ride again
 

Penny got to take a ride on a flatbed again, this was the 4th time in almost 6 years. Today's ride was just in town and was due to (I think) blown power steering line(s). She was just in the shop on Thursday to get a noisy alternator changed. Then we find out that it wasn't the alternator making the noise but the a/c pulley which ended up seizing and melting a nice little hole in the timing cover. Have to order the pulley, so they just took the belt off so I could drive her over the weekend. Went shopping this afternoon and we were headed home when we starting smelling something and the steering started feeling a little funny. At a stoplight we could see smoke and were luckily near a gas station. Had absolutely no power steering by the time I made the turn into the gas station. So now she's sitting in the yard at the garage. I'm sure I'll get a call first thing Monday morning, "Michelle, why's Penny already here?" They'll know that I had to have her towed because only one tow company in town has the key to the gate. Hopefully the pump is still okay and it's just the lines. I knew they needed to be replaced, so I guess I'm lucky that it happened in town and not out on the road somewhere.

that blows.

You know your car spends too much time in the shop when:

1 - your mechanic makes Christmas present house calls

2 - you have the combination to the gate at his garage for weekend tow-drops

3 - he calls you on the weekend to find out why Mnypnny is in the yard now when she wasn't supposed to appear until Monday afternoon!!

:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

*gives hug*

We should start a thread about that! God only knows how many things we could put down as many of our cars spend alot of time in the shop! :p

I'm willing to wager that the problem is with the idler pulley for the power steering/alternator belt. The pulley is probably siezed up.

Sorry Dave, it was blown return hoses.
She's back now, but burning off ps fluid all over the engine is not fun.
Car smoked forever and that s**t smells awful!

But she's all happy again for now (knock on wood). We're going to take a roadtrip this weekend, wish us luck!

Good to hear. You should give her a (engine) bath now.

Update.....
 

Well.... Penny got to take yet another ride yesterday morning.
Tried to drive to work and she started smoking like crazy.
Turns out that they didn't burp the ps system like they should have and they overfilled the reservoir, so fluid was blowing out all over the place.
While they had her yesterday, they went over her with a finetooth comb and now she's staying to get the valve cover gaskets replaced too. Maybe have her back Friday afternoon. If so, don't know if we'll try our roadtrip or not.

On another note, I'm now officially unemployed. :(

Don't you mean "extended vacation"?

Don't worry, Penny will be better soon. She probably just has PMS. ;)

So Penny made it home tonight.
I still have fluid and oil burning off the engine and exhaust so she smokes a little bit and stinks to high heaven. Gonna go through the auto car wash tomorrow morning on our way out of town, get that bottom blast. Then I think I'll call the engine cleaner guy next week while I'm off to clean off the rest. I'm just glad we got her back since we're going out of town for the weekend and she's much more comfortable to ride in than the Ranger. And the Ranger doesn't have a cd player. And we can't take the Bronco because it's having tire issues. :rolleyes: