My Car Didn't Explode



For the last couple of weeks, off and on, my car hasn't quite been "feeling right" while driving. There were a few times when it felt like I was driving on a rough road… on roads that I knew usually felt really smooth. It never lasted long, so I just assumed it was a non-issue – maybe a squirrel stuck in my tire throwing off the balance or something.

Last night though.. ugh. Driving home I could feel the car hesitate when I left the first stop light. Then my check engine light came on and I could feel the car stuttering. My first thought was "Oh crap.. my car is going to explode!", so I decided to stop at the gas station, check my oil, and fill up my gas tank before leaving town. I figured if my car was going to explode, I might as well make it as spectacular as possible.

I took it slow leaving the gas station, and my car drove a lot smoother. She still didn't feel right, but I wasn't as worried.

I decided this morning that getting it fixed was more important than going to work, so I did that. It turns out that the parameters in the Engine Control Module (or "ECM" as the guy said.. before I asked him "The what?") were set to be too sensitive. So, basically what was happening was the car was thinking that the engine was mis-firing, so it tried to compensate and caused the engine to – wait for it – mis-fire.

So, all is good. Which is good, because I love my car. She's a trooper.



Subscribe Did you like this post? Great! Subscribe to the sparxMind RSS Feed!

8 Comments »

  1. sparx said,

    This could be an entire post, but I'm going to bury it in the comments here…

    I just found out that one of the songs that I co-wrote, and sang lead on, has been getting radio play for the last year. Yeah, it's the college radio station.. but MY song is in the regular rotation.

    🙂

    September 23, 2008 @ 12:25 pm


  2. sparx said,

    lolcats will be posted saturday. no time today.

    September 26, 2008 @ 10:59 am


  3. unlikelymoose said,

    ok, maybe you're not a gearhead.

    May 14, 2009 @ 11:04 am


  4. unlikelymoose said,

    you refer to your car as a "she"? Please, please, please don't tell me you have a name for your car. I always thought that was the strangest thing in the world when people give their cars human names.

    May 14, 2009 @ 11:06 am


  5. spudart said,

    Can we refer to cars as aliens?

    kaitnxbai.

    May 14, 2009 @ 5:13 pm


  6. spudart said,

    crap. i screwed that up. it's supposed to be kaytnxbai.

    May 14, 2009 @ 5:13 pm


  7. unlikelymoose said,

    what is a kaytnxbai?

    May 15, 2009 @ 8:43 am


  8. spudart said,

    moose, read it out loud and the words shall speak to you and unfold their hidden meaning.

    May 16, 2009 @ 1:22 am


RSS feed for comments on this post

Leave a Comment