I've been a bit absent but life has been interesting.
Two weeks ago I realized that the entire week before school started was filled with meetings. So I quickly contacted folks in California and drove out there to catch-up, plan future work, return equipment and just hang out. The trip was busy but good. I got to see everyone I needed (and even some I didn't expect to see!), stocked up on all of the things that are hard to come by in Utah (wine, good olive oil, lemon tree, you get the idea) and headed back with a full car. I left in plenty of time to get back in time to get a decent night's sleep before my week of meetings the following morning.
Around Zzyyxx (if you've ever driven this stretch of the I-15, you know where I mean, for the rest of you, this is the middle of nowhere), my temperature light came on. I pulled over and waited a few minutes and it went off. I started up again. Less than twenty minutes later, it came on again. Fortunately I was approaching Primm, NV and pulled off there.
I eventually reached my long distance mechanic/honorary brother-in-law on the phone. I had a leak in my coolant system. We were hoping it was small. It wasn't.
For future reference, if your temperature light comes on but the temperature gauge hasn't budged above normal, one of two things has happened. 1. Your temperature gauge is broken. 2. You're leaking coolant. The tank that holds the coolant apparently has a sensor in it that triggers the temperature light to go on if there isn't enough liquid in the tank. To find out if it is due to a big or small leak (or a busted fan), get some bottled water and fill up the tank. Turn on the car and look underneath for any leaks. If you don't see anything obvious and the temperature light stays off, you probably have a slow leak and as long as you immediately top off the coolant tank with clean water whenever the temperature light comes on, you can probably drive to the nearest mechanic. If there is so much water leaking out that you can hear it splash over the sound of your motor, this would be a BIG-a** leak and you are screwed if you are far away from a mechanic. Oh, and if there is no leak and the water levels holds but the light stays on, you are seriously screwed because you need a new part that costs much more than a simple hose.
It was pretty dark by the time I had figured out that I was dealing with a serious leak. While Primm has no mechanic, it does have three casinos so I was able to get a room easily and relatively cheaply. I say relatively cheaply because this same car had problems in Vegas when I moved out to California and the hotel cost nearly $200/night.
The next morning I found out that I was pretty lucky. The leak was in a short molded hose that I could easily see and reach. This meant that I should be able to patch the leak with duct tape. Did I have any? Of course not. Did any shop I visited have any? Of course not. Did the neighboring outlet mall have a shop that could sell me some? (all together now) Of course not.
However, the outlet mall did have a helpful guy who sent me to the other side of the highway where the gas station convenience mart actually sold convenient things (like duct tape). They even had a heater hose emergency repair kit so I got that too since Paul told me that, if it worked, I could drive all the way home. Did it work? (one last time....) Of course not. Did I mention the big-ass leak before? Yes, well, my leak was so big that if I had cut out the damaged part, there wouldn't have been enough to stretch back together to attach to the emergency patch. So I went all McGuyver and duct taped that sucker until it was nearly doubled in diameter. Since this probably wasn't going to completely block the leak, I also picked up an extra four gallons of water and started off toward Vegas.
A friend's father and stepmother, who live in Vegas but were out of town (hi Deb!), had helped me locate a VW dealer in a town next to Vegas and presumably the closest to my location. Was it? (okay, okay, dead horse, beaten, I get it) However, I did such an impressive job with the duct tape that it held without any problem the entire 60+ miles to the dealer.
I got a case worker (I don't know what else to call them since they don't work on the cars -you all know the people I mean) who was wonderful (at Findlay VW in Henderson for anyone else prone to getting stuck near Vegas) and he even had someone bring all three cases of wine, the olive oil and the lemon tree, that would have all been ruined in the heat, into the air conditioning. After looking around for a real replacement part (it did turn out to be a molded hose part instead of a basic heater hose), they found a hose that did the job just fine and I was on my way after about five hours, just about the time my first day of meetings was coming to a close.
Let me just say that my car will never see Vegas again if I have any control over it.
Anyone in need of a large quantity of bottled water?
