Guest Post!!
So Hailey has asked me to write out the story about how my last work van came upon its very, VERY timely demise. I don’t remember how much Hailey has written about my Chevy Astro so I may be repeating what some of you already know but please bear with me.
That Astro was a lemon from the get go. Unfortunately, the van I had before it, started to burn oil in a significant way sometime around when it was getting really cold and starting to snow last winter. Thus began the hunt for a new work van. Unfortunately we were coming off a bad slump with work and DID NOT have money to spend on any kind of vehicle. So the search was restricted to anything under $1000 which meant that our options were sketchy at best. I ended up finding this Astro for $800, however, the seller sold it out from under me and another guy to college student who used it to move a friend over the weekend and then put it right back up for sale on Monday for $900. That should have been a huge red flag but unfortunately I get really bad tunnel vision when I’m looking at buying a vehicle and I just honed in.
We went to look at it in the middle of a blizzard but that didn’t stop me either. I checked it over as best I could with a foot of fresh snow on the ground and wrote off the issues I found as manageable ‘because it’s old and cheap.’ I bought it, and before we even got it home I was having buyers remorse.
It was a Piece. Of. Junk.
The seller also roped me into getting rid of an old couch he had left in the back. Which I did because tunnel vision. *facepalm*
In an effort not to ramble on and on about my regrets here’s a list of the things that were wrong with it when I bought it.
~ Tires were bald (remember the blizzard)
~ Needed an oil change
~ Needed a new Air Filter
~ Hood wouldn’t open
~ Rear Door wouldn’t unlock
~ Exhaust pipe was separated from muffler and dangling below the van
~ Driver and Passenger doors wouldn’t open from the outside (I had to climb in through the sliding door)
~ Battery wasn’t strong enough to start the van below -20*C
~ Heater fan didn’t work
~ Multiple front suspension parts were in need of replacement (to the point that my tire shop refused to do a wheel alignment)
So you get the picture. It was a solid, reliable, built to last work van with only 309,000 kms on it. *faceplam*
What was I thinking?
I have to say that Hailey was the picture of a loving, supportive wife through every step of this process. She talked things through with me and gave me space to make the decision and didn’t say anything when I started kicking myself later that week.
Thanks Honey! I couldn’t imagine a better partner in crime! I love you.
So over the course of the last year I was able to fix a number of the issues without pouring too much money into it. I still spent more money on it than I should’ve in hindsight. And it worked decently well once spring and summer rolled around, however, I could tell it wasn’t happy moving back into fall and towards winter. It was starting to act oddly in bad weather and running rough from time to time. But I tried to be brave and live with the bad decision I made a year earlier. Maybe we could think about a new work van next year sometime.
But then came that ridiculous Tuesday.
I ran a few errands after work and started making my way home for supper. As I was getting out on the highway and accelerating I heard a small ‘Pop’ and lost power little a bit. I could still make the van drive but it wasn’t driving normally at all.
I pulled over and walked around the van, looked underneath and as far as I could tell, nothing was broken or leaking. I started thinking to myself that this was probably the Astro’s last day but I figured I’d try to get home anyways. Most likely something was up with the transmission and it wouldn’t be worth trying to fix it.
I got back on the highway and managed to get it almost up to highway speed so as not to be a hazard. I limped it about half the way home and got to the turn off towards home where I was only about 10 minutes away. I started accelerating again, this time with a little less caution. I was about a kilometre towards town when I heard…
BANG! ThwackThwackThwack! Thwack! Thwackthwack!
A scattershot of parts hit the underside of my van, all power was lost, smoke started to fill the cabin. I slammed on the brakes and pulled off into someone’s driveway. Oddly enough, our across the street neighbour happened to be behind me on her commute home and had to swerve to avoid me. (She told us later that she didn’t recognize my van and thought someone had just blown a tire in front of her. HAHAHA)
So I left the van running and jumped out as quickly as I could to look under the van. Transmission fluid was pouring all over the ground so I shut the van off as quick as I could. The pouring fluid seemed to stop so the panic was over for the moment. I walked around to the passenger side, out of the way of traffic, and got down on the ground to see what had happened. With the help of my phone flashlight I could see INSIDE the transfer case.
For those who don’t know, a transfer case is a box of gears that takes the rotation of the shaft coming out of the transmission and sends it rear wards to the rear wheels as well as turns it around and sends it forwards to the front wheels. It’s a necessary component of any four wheel or all wheel drive, of which my van was the latter. Hopefully that helps. For the record, my dad taught me what it was when I was 11 or 12 so please don’t hate me for my mansplanation.
So the transfer case had ripped itself apart, and as I was marvelling in the destruction my Astro had bestowed on itself, I looked a little further forward at the transmission and noticed …
A small flame. About 2″ tall. I watched it for ten seconds or so to see if it would put itself out.
It didn’t.
Panic! Fire! Expletives!
I jumped up to grab my fire extinguisher from under my passenger seat but the door was locked. So I had to run around to the driver side again, careful not to run into traffic, grabbed the extinguisher and sprinted back around to the passenger side. I dropped to the ground. Pulled the pin. Looked to see if the flame was still there, it was. And, for the first time in my life, pulled the trigger on a fire extinguisher.
It put the flame out instantly. As in, annoyingly fast. I was kind of hoping to have to ‘fight’ the fire. Is that bad? Oh well. I put out the ‘fire’ and as I was taking stock of the situation I saw my friend/neighbour backing up to me in his work truck.
After a brief explanation of what had happened he offered to tow me home. Which I graciously accepted. Haha
He hooked up his tow rope and after a brief issue with me forgetting that the emergency brake was on, we were off towards home. Thus began the most nerve wracking part of the day.
We were doing about 60-70 km/h which doesn’t seem that fast, but when you’re forced to go that speed and tailgate someone at about 15-20′, its a a scary experience. Keep in mind my van was not running so I didn’t have full brakes either. I was terrified to slam into the back of my friend’s truck if he had to stop suddenly. 70 km/h was our agreed upon speed, however, so I can’t complain too much.
But we made it home! He towed my van up to a spot on the street in front of our house and I threw on the emergency brake.
It was over.
Not my scariest commute, I’ve definitely had scarier, but not a relaxed one either.
So of course you read the rest of the story about how we found a new van and how much better it is. Haha But today was the day that the Astro was taken away. I called an auto wrecker to come tow it away and they even paid us a little for it. YAY!
Goodbye Ass-tro!