No, It's Not Snowing Again, Van Troubles Instead
By Marsha
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
Midland, Michigan
May 4, 2016 11:01am CST
I just searched through my picture folders for an image of our work van and this is the best I could do upon short notice. I know I have other images, but I must never have labeled them. Therefore, this isn't a discussion about snow, but rather our work van, which currently isn't working very well for us.
Sunday night as I was going home from work the van did some type of chugging with the engine light flashing. At first I thought I was on rough roads, but they just redid it last year, then I thought the tires, but they are all fairly new.
I left the van there on Monday and went to work with hubby instead. Had it towed to the mechanics and they've had it ever since. The computer showed a faulty coil which they fixed but couldn't see any other issues, so we tried driving it home yesterday on the way back from a window job, but it died before getting very far. The mechanic has driven it around without it acting up, but we don't want to get it and have it not work properly again.
Problem is my husband's car is a pacifica, and can only hold smaller ladders. We need the large ones for most of the jobs we have for the month. I'm hoping we won't have to buy a new vehicle just yet. I'd like to get more bills paid first. But it's a catch-22 situation.
10 people like this
9 responses
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
4 May 16
The mechanic has had it for two days now. It hasn't done anything for him until a little bit ago. It finally threw an actual code out that made sense. My mechanic replaced a coil but that didn't take care of it, so he put the old one back on. It's now a cam and another sensor which will be fixed by tonight.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
5 May 16
@sallypup I don't think it will be an awful memory. I've had worse car problems than this and none are fun. They all need to be worked around. At least it's a rainy week. I thought we'd get loads of work done because I work odd hours this week, but with the weather that's hanging around our state I wouldn't be doing much anyway. Maybe next week will be better and I can count on the van working right, or so I hope.
1 person likes this
@sallypup (69157)
• Centralia, Washington
4 May 16
@MarshaMusselman I hope all this becomes an awful memory pretty quickly.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
12 May 16
Did the mechanic ever say why it was on? Sometimes it thinks it needs something not worth getting at present and they can erase the codes and it will stay off for a bit. My light was on last november for something not really necessary for an older van, so we left it on. The colder weather tended to cause it to go on even after the code was erased.
I noticed this spring as it warmed up a bit that the light finally did go off and then when it got cold again it went on again, but the van at that time wasn't doing anything different. The time this current trouble began, the light was blinking while driving it down the road, and it was running rough. It ran as if I was going over rough terrain except the road I was on just got repaved last year so I knew that wasn't the issue.
That situation needed an immediate fix and got taken care of. We never did fix the original problem from last November and hopefully won't need to.
Was that light on before you got the tune up and did you ask them to put it on diagnostics to see what code came up? Tune ups don't usually cause that light to show up, I don' think. Tha's usually something else entirely.
Ours is now fixed again, thanks.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
13 May 16
@just4him It may be that your son isn't able to reset the engine light so it isn't on any longer. Even though the work was done already, I don't think doing the work will eliminate the light on it's own. I don't know if autozone could/would reset that for you without any further cost or not. i don't know how it's done or I'd explain.
1 person likes this
@just4him (323168)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
13 May 16
@MarshaMusselman I did have a diagnostics done on it when I went to Auto Zone, and they said it needed a tuneup but the light wouldn't cause anything bad to happen. When my son did the tuneup and got everything taken care of that needed doing, the light did not go out. I have since gotten the electrical system taken care of, and still the light is on. Even with the latest situation, it's still on. I also noticed the light for the air conditioner is also on and won't go off. So I'm not going to worry about it as long as the car is operating good.
1 person likes this
@Tampa_girl7 (54714)
• United States
17 May 16
I read out of order and know the van is fixed
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
18 May 16
I've done the same thing many times on other people's pages. Thanks for continuing with the saga, lol.
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
5 May 16
I picked it up tonight, but will have to take it back tomorrow. THey had it since yesterday and changed one part, but when we drove it home...l guess I already put that part above. Anyway, the mechanic has been trying to find out why it wasn't working still and it wasn't until today that a different code came up. That cost just over three hundred dollars, but it was an odd ride home. I'll be taking it back tomorrow afternoon and they will hopefully find the further problem. We're hoping it won't be the computer as I'm not sure whether that would be worth replacing on an almost twenty year old van or not. Not that I have the funds to purchase a replacement just yet.
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
5 May 16
At least this is a rainy week, so we're not missing out on a lot of work where we'd be making a lot to pay bills. That's one benefit.
1 person likes this
@CRK109 (14556)
• United States
5 May 16
@MarshaMusselman On days like this I find myself sitting here and typing a lot more than usual, so that should be good for my bank account. :)
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
5 May 16
It was fixed or so we thought, but then on ride home it bgan acting up again. I'm at the mechanic s now, he's on a test drive trying to get it to throw the right code. It may need a new computer.
1 person likes this
@marsha32 (6631)
• United States
5 May 16
Hopefully whatever is wrong won't cost much.
Something is going on with my van and the oil and it's knocking. I have no money to have a real mechanic look at it. I really needed it this weekend to haul yard sale stuff to the town where my daughter lives. Luckily a friend is going to bring his trailer over and take our sale stuff over. Of course at this point I couldn't drive it there even if the engine was right because my tags are expired and I don't have the money to renew those either.
@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
4 May 16
hope you can get it sorted out without too much expense
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
5 May 16
Part of the sorting cost just over three hundred dollars, but it still has issues. Taking it back tomorrow for a further look and hoping it's an easy and not expensive fix.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
4 May 16
I doubt if it works as well as fertilizer, but that's a funny one, Alfredo. I live in the north, and lived in CT once too and never heard that one before. We did have sleet last week when OK was getting hit with the tornados and grapefruit sized hail. Here, we only had small hail or sleet, but nothing really hit the surface.
