a 2003 Honda Accord Coupe V6 automatic with leather & moon roof...
when I realized that it would probably be my last chance...
to have a nice car, for sure, my last new one...
[I've had 3... and believe me... I've also had some real junkers too...]
I got as many of my heart's desires, "on it" as I could afford...
got the shortest lease period I could afford...
and borrowed against my inheritance to pay it off at lease end...
it's 100% mine... & with luck, it will last the rest of my life...
[mine is a pale gold...this one is silver...]
I haven't been sorry...
it gets good mileage [28 city, 32 highway]
is fun to drive [V6], handles well...
has high safety ratings and has been very reliable...
but then, that's WHY I bought another Accord...
AND... why I've been a stickler about regular services...
last May, I shelled out BIG BUCKS for new tires & a new battery...
so you might imagine my chagrin when yesterday...
around 6:30 PM as I went out to get in it & go home from the church...
it wouldn't start... not a click or a whine...NADA...
so I opened the hood to see if I could spot any obvious problem...
[unhooked hose, etc...] nothing...
so I called AAA...
after the nice lady in AZ[better there than in India...]
assured me that my membership did show on their computer as renewed...
[I had JUST done it an hour before, online...]
and that the card I had, exp.7/31/09, was OK to use...
because the computer showed the renewal...[WHEW...]
then, after inquiring if I was alone & then, in a safe place...
she told me that the driver would be 10-15 minutes...
I had no sooner hung-up with her...
than my phone rang...
an automated message told me that "the updated arrival time"...
was 15-20 minutes... I hung up, only to get a voicemail from them...
"the re-updated arrival time is 20-30 minutes"...
at this point, about 5 minutes after the original call...
the AAA guy pulled into the church parking lot...
he was really nice and got my car started right away...
I was concerned about the battery becoming charged & holding it overnight...
since I needed to drive MzYBee to Ahnoldtown the next day...
so he contacted the AAA charger/battery test guy...
who was there in only a few minutes...
he tested my battery and it tested almost fully charged...
since I noticed that the "check engine" light was on...
I asked what might have caused the "no start"...
they said that there were several possibilities...
then asked when was the last time I had it "serviced"...
"...because that kind of battery needs it every 6 months..."
having NOT been told that when I bought the battery...
I asked what could need checking ?
they had already scraped the terminals & there was no build-up...
one of the guys mentioned that there were some minor acid marks on the top...
so one of them pulled up the top to check the water...
and the chambers were all almost empty, just some acid left...
so I went back into the office & got some water...
which one of them poured into the 6 chambers...
until the water/acid level was up to the top...
then replaced the covers...
the "check engine" light was gone...
my dash was glowing brightly, the windows went up & down quickly...
so we all went on our way...
pretty sure that the lack of water had been the problem...
I extended my drive home to 30 minutes, to re-charge the battery...
once home, I attempted to reset my clock and "code" my radio...
[when the battery was disconnected, they went off & needed to be reset...]
but the "reset" wouldn't work...and soon "locked me out"...
for too many failed attempts...
this morning, before going to Ahnoldtown, I went to Mudville Honda...
hoping they could reset it quickly...
the blinking clock was annoying & I missed my radio...
but there wasn't enough time before I had to leave...
so tomorrow, I'll take it to "Sleepy Village to the North" Honda...
early...
it needs the oil changed anyway...
and I'd like to know why they sold me a "maintenance required" battery...
that was supposedly a "Honda replacement"...
that doesn't have "Honda"printed anywhere on it...
I also seem to remember that the service manager...
told me my next lube & oil change would be free...
this should be amusing...
at least the excuses should be "entertaining"...
3 comments:
I am dumbfounded - I haven't bought a battery that you needed to check the water level in since the '70's. All our car batteries for years have been sealed units. Where the heck did they dig THAT up?
Re: AAA. I bailed on AAA when we had a problem with my husband's car and the wait extended from 1 hour (first estimate) to 2 hours to 3 hours - at that point I told them that their services would no longer be required - and dropped them. It was ridiculous - he had a flat tire on fairly new tires, and the tire store had put the lug nuts on so tightly with an air wrench that we couldn't get them off. The only thing I really needed was a burly guy with a long cheater bar to loosen the lug nuts - I've changed plenty of tires myself (addendum: my husband is disabled - he had called me to come downtown when he found the flat, so I could help change the tire. This kind of thing was why I got AAA in the first place). Well, a downtown parking structure after 9 at night is a creepy and not too safe place. We ended up leaving the car in the parking structure and going home. I bought a long wrench handle the next day and changed it myself. Bye, bye, AAA. P.S. This wasn't the first time they left me sitting for hours, but I didn't worry so much when it was me.
And re: gas prices. Gas stations at either end of East Brainerd Road (10 miles apart) can have prices that differ by 10 to 15 cents. I have no idea.....
(I know this is long and getting longer, but...) Why on earth does your clock and radio have a "lockout"? They don't want car thieves to change your preset channels??? That's a new one on me!
Oh, yes, regarding the AAA operator in AZ rather than in India: The customer service people for my local natural gas distributor is in India. WHY??? I dare say that you could round up a couple dozen people to man a phone bank by just standing on a corner downtown and saying "Anybody want a job?" And get people that don't have such a heavy accent a southerner can't understand them. That's not a racist comment - just truth. I worked with lots of Indians and Egyptians and other middle easterners in engineering and the hardest part the first few months was cutting through the accents. They all spoke acceptable English, vocabulary-wise, just not with the vowel and consonant sounds we expected...
...this was my shortest AAA wait ever... they once had to truck my car from Oakland to Mudville after a guy hit me, but that's a l-o-n-g story...
to make the radio useless for a thief,
whenever the battery is "disconnected"
the radio must be "reset" with a code #...[nb the radio is wired into the battery for this reason...]
but for some reason, the reset code didn't work...
and the "help" with strong accents...?
I really have problems understanding them on the phone...
face to face is easier...
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