torture
cwi@bdol.com
Sat, 15 Feb 1997 11:19:24 -0500
My Peugeot is doing all sorts of bizarre things. It would fail to start,
so my mechanic said that the wires needed cleaning and spark plugs
needed to be replaced. This was done -- spark plugs replaced and wires
cleaned. The automobile started up, drove fine for about five miles and
then got me stranded in a most inconvenient place possible. Being towed
to the mechanic, the torture vehicle started up (made me look like an
idiot in front of my mechanic too) drove for less than a mile and got
stuck. What a great feeling of thrill when your steering wheel is
freezing and locking up on full speed in heavy traffic... Peugeot was
towed again -- actually there was also some ball bearing lose in it and
it was replaced at a cost of $180. I assume it was a gold-plated ball
bearing. What is OK. The mechanic started the car again. I drove for a
long while (about five minutes), then the auto started shaking and
jerking violently like the poor thing is being suffocated. Then it died.
Perished. It was towed again. My AAA membership expired, so I had to pay
for all the tows but I hope my Peugeot enjoyed the ride. Mechanic asked
"what is that?" pointing at a pool of some oily fluid on the floor of my
car. I looked at the puddle and really had no idea. This was my clutch.
When I pressed the clutch pedal, I would also produce a fountain of
break fluid. I needed to replace some sort of brake cylinder, which was
replaced (around $300 with labor). Now all this misfortune happened
within two weeks. At some point I really considered going to fhe nearest
VW dealership and buying or leasing a Golf. Finally, we determined that
there must be crack (I bet a microscopic one, as I couldn't see any) in
the distributor cap, moisture gets in and the car fails to start. Lew
and Brian, thank you very much for your fast response! The set of wires
($75) and distributor cap were acquired and installed only to discover
that the alternator died in the meantime. The alternator was replaced.
The car was running fine yesterday for several hours, at the peak of
rush hour, in very dense traffic, the car started "choking" and caughing
again and stopped... the same problem all over (pushing a heavy 505
wagon in traffic is another amusing experience). It was towed to the
garage yesterday night. Why is this torture and what can be wrong? It is
like now spark is there but no fuel (the tank is full). Did the fuel
pump die as well?
Cheers,
Eugene