Stranded, AAA sucks, I'm upset :( (LONG)
Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2004 10:32 am
As I said in the other thread, I was driving home from work today and broke both coolant tank nipples off.
How it happened? Probably a combination of things, but I have a feeling it had to do with my ownage of a maxima. Rolling up to a light at about 5mph, the croses go yellow and I double clutch to 1st and take off (just as the light turns green). A fairly decent pull later and I was 2 cars up and shutting it down. The street-launch was so hard (1st pulls like a MOTHER) I spilled coffee on my hand (earlier in the day, driving to Fairfax, I launched my cellphone from the cubby in the dash to the back seat). I looked at my winshield and saw liquid. I thought it was just coffee and didn't think anything of it (I'd clean it when I got home). A few hundred yards down the road, I saw liquid on my hood scoop. Temp was OK, so I figured someone just threw some water on me or something stupid like that. Nope. My temp gauge shot up like a rockstar shoots heroin. Pulled over and called Matt.
Me - "Can I limp it home?"
Matt - "I dunno, it's gonna shoot coolant everywhere. Mine broke 2 blocks from my place."
Me - "Shit, shit shit.... Wait... There's Andrews beetle! I forgot he was at work today! I gotta run!"
Ran inside the auto tech building and ran up to him. Pulled the car into the garage of the local community college. This particular school happens to be the training center for the Mid-Atlantic Subaru Technicans. That didn't help anything, as the Subaru building was closed.
Talked to a friend of Andrew's who worked there about what to do. After trying to convince me to put a 2.5L block in there (and me refuting it because I prefered the closed deck, hoss EJ22t), we figured it'd be easy to just attach the two coolant hoses so the whole cooling system would be closed loop with no access to the overflow tank. It'd get me the 6 miles home... we thought.
We bubba'd up the setup and started going home.
Some ghetto ass Ford Probe GT with chrome feet and a wing pulled up next to me, looked my car down, and smirked. Oh how I wanted to beat him, but I restrained myself.
About .5 miles from the school, temp goes red, and I shut her down for a few minutes. I opened the hood and heard the coolant boiling and popping. Scared the shit out of me. Let it cool down and limped onto the road again. Another .5 miles down the road, it did it again. I stopped and waited for about 45 minutes. My buddy Roman showed up and the 3 of us (Andrew, myself, and Roman) waited. A cop kept hot-lapping the metro-beltway. Passed us like 4 times, flipped a bitch, and came back.
Called AAA. They told me, "you aren't listed as a member, we can't send a tow truck." I said, "my parents are members." They didn't care.
"You mean to tell me, that you are going to leave me stranded at 1:00am, while my parents are 3 hours out of town and I have no way of contacting them?"
"I'm sorry sir"
"Fine." Click. Fuck AAA. I like them about as much as I like scooping out my knee cap with a tea spoon.
Called my insurance company, USAA Roadside Emergency.
"Hi, I'm stranded and I need a tow truck. My parents are members, so by extension, I am also a member."
"Sure thing, can I have the main members social security number?"
"That'd be my dad. I don't know his social. I have mine though..."
Gave him mine.
"Sorry sir, you are listed, but your car isn't."
"Yea, it's titled in my dad's name."
"Unless you have his social, I can't offer you a free tow."
"Ugh, are you serious? How much is it going to cost to tow me 4 miles?"
"Anywhere from $100 and more. We can check the receipt at a later date for reimbursement though."
"Your kidding me right? I'm listed as a member, UNDER MY PARENTS, and just because I am driving a car titled to my dad, you can't send a tow truck? I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, in a car titled to my parents, with a car that needs to be towed, at 1:00 in the morning, while my parents are out of town, and you are telling me that since I don't have my father's social security number, I've got to pay $100 that I don't have to get towed 4 miles and that I MIGHT get reimbursed for it?"
"I'm sorry sir."
"Ugh, alright. Thank you very much." (they are my insurance company afterall).
"Your welcome sir. I hope you get home alright." That was nice of him.
Limp the car another few miles and let it sit for an hour and a half.
Limp it the rest of the way home, at around 3:45 or so I think. Maybe 3:30.
Now I've got to do some mad searching to find out how to fix this little SNAFU that I seem to be having.
It sucks because my car was running really great today. Super fast and everything. Sorry about the long ass post
How it happened? Probably a combination of things, but I have a feeling it had to do with my ownage of a maxima. Rolling up to a light at about 5mph, the croses go yellow and I double clutch to 1st and take off (just as the light turns green). A fairly decent pull later and I was 2 cars up and shutting it down. The street-launch was so hard (1st pulls like a MOTHER) I spilled coffee on my hand (earlier in the day, driving to Fairfax, I launched my cellphone from the cubby in the dash to the back seat). I looked at my winshield and saw liquid. I thought it was just coffee and didn't think anything of it (I'd clean it when I got home). A few hundred yards down the road, I saw liquid on my hood scoop. Temp was OK, so I figured someone just threw some water on me or something stupid like that. Nope. My temp gauge shot up like a rockstar shoots heroin. Pulled over and called Matt.
Me - "Can I limp it home?"
Matt - "I dunno, it's gonna shoot coolant everywhere. Mine broke 2 blocks from my place."
Me - "Shit, shit shit.... Wait... There's Andrews beetle! I forgot he was at work today! I gotta run!"
Ran inside the auto tech building and ran up to him. Pulled the car into the garage of the local community college. This particular school happens to be the training center for the Mid-Atlantic Subaru Technicans. That didn't help anything, as the Subaru building was closed.
Talked to a friend of Andrew's who worked there about what to do. After trying to convince me to put a 2.5L block in there (and me refuting it because I prefered the closed deck, hoss EJ22t), we figured it'd be easy to just attach the two coolant hoses so the whole cooling system would be closed loop with no access to the overflow tank. It'd get me the 6 miles home... we thought.
We bubba'd up the setup and started going home.
Some ghetto ass Ford Probe GT with chrome feet and a wing pulled up next to me, looked my car down, and smirked. Oh how I wanted to beat him, but I restrained myself.
About .5 miles from the school, temp goes red, and I shut her down for a few minutes. I opened the hood and heard the coolant boiling and popping. Scared the shit out of me. Let it cool down and limped onto the road again. Another .5 miles down the road, it did it again. I stopped and waited for about 45 minutes. My buddy Roman showed up and the 3 of us (Andrew, myself, and Roman) waited. A cop kept hot-lapping the metro-beltway. Passed us like 4 times, flipped a bitch, and came back.
Called AAA. They told me, "you aren't listed as a member, we can't send a tow truck." I said, "my parents are members." They didn't care.
"You mean to tell me, that you are going to leave me stranded at 1:00am, while my parents are 3 hours out of town and I have no way of contacting them?"
"I'm sorry sir"
"Fine." Click. Fuck AAA. I like them about as much as I like scooping out my knee cap with a tea spoon.
Called my insurance company, USAA Roadside Emergency.
"Hi, I'm stranded and I need a tow truck. My parents are members, so by extension, I am also a member."
"Sure thing, can I have the main members social security number?"
"That'd be my dad. I don't know his social. I have mine though..."
Gave him mine.
"Sorry sir, you are listed, but your car isn't."
"Yea, it's titled in my dad's name."
"Unless you have his social, I can't offer you a free tow."
"Ugh, are you serious? How much is it going to cost to tow me 4 miles?"
"Anywhere from $100 and more. We can check the receipt at a later date for reimbursement though."
"Your kidding me right? I'm listed as a member, UNDER MY PARENTS, and just because I am driving a car titled to my dad, you can't send a tow truck? I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, in a car titled to my parents, with a car that needs to be towed, at 1:00 in the morning, while my parents are out of town, and you are telling me that since I don't have my father's social security number, I've got to pay $100 that I don't have to get towed 4 miles and that I MIGHT get reimbursed for it?"
"I'm sorry sir."
"Ugh, alright. Thank you very much." (they are my insurance company afterall).
"Your welcome sir. I hope you get home alright." That was nice of him.
Limp the car another few miles and let it sit for an hour and a half.
Limp it the rest of the way home, at around 3:45 or so I think. Maybe 3:30.
Now I've got to do some mad searching to find out how to fix this little SNAFU that I seem to be having.
It sucks because my car was running really great today. Super fast and everything. Sorry about the long ass post