Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Stupid VW Jetta's!

For the final 2 years of my varsity life I drove a Red VW Jetta that belongs to my dad. Last year it started acting up, and by September it was REALLY behaving badly. By October 20th or so, the car one day made strange noises whilst my husband was driving it, not really liking to be started up. I drove it the next day, and wam-bam-thank-you-Ma'am, suddenly the car is not starting at all! No matter WHAT we tried after that, we could not get it to start.

So we towed the car to my husband's work (as I had just left his work and was closer to him than our home)and there the car stood...and stood....and stood some more! About a 1 1/2 months ago, we finally had enough money to fix the car... well to START fixing the car. First we replaced the starter... then it would not start. Charged the battery for what seemed like FOREVER. Then we replaced the spark plugs and floater complements of my oldest brother (this is a device that is somewhere in the carborator ("vergasser" in Afrikaans) and prevents the car from flooding, or something, when the choke is pulled out)... and the car STILL would not start. Once again we tried to jump-start the car and charged its battery. We did consider to put in some petrol, but the petrol gauge was still on a quarter-tank. My dad came last night to fix the car, YET again! They were busy, ONCE AGAIN, charging the car's battery!

My youngest brother and I got bored whilst hubby and daddy were fixing the car... so we decided to go and buy some petrol. And guess what happened as soon as petrol hit the petrol tank? Well...the car considered for a few moments to start, then actually succeeded in doing so once we cranked up the REV's on my dad's car... and then it died again after two minutes. This car is really suicidal, cause it just WANTS to remain dead...how stupid! I called my oldest brother for help, and HE said "Clean the spark plugs, coz it might have become dirty in the meantime by the carbon/soot in the system" --> secondary to the stupid float having burst in the first place (requiring replacement).

Cleaned the spark plugs...and guess what? The car ACTUALLY committed itself to life again, for a short while and then it required some more psychoanalysis to convince it this life is worth driving through! So ja, the car is working, I'm happy and my mom and youngest brother are relieved that my dad finally has a more trustworthy car to drive with! (Today everyone at Thinus' work must have thought something is missing, and then realise that the parking lot ornament of the past 10 months-or-so, is GONE...someone actually stole it?...whatever!)

God is awesome, really, coz He knew I just could absolutely NOT handle another day of knowing that I have to repair the car, or find someone to do it for me. So here follows a few pics of what a car looks like after remaining stationary in one spot for over 10 months - and interesting facts on what happened to the petrol price in those 10 months!





The last time I threw in petrol into the Red Jetta, the petrol price was at...wait for it... R6-87/liter! Can you ACTUALLY believe there was such a time? And with that it was not that long ago. Thus the petrol price have increased by about 80% or so since October 2007! Now there's something for you to ponder on... Enjoy your day!

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