With the freedom of having your own car comes many problems. Aside from the ridiculous price of gas, radiators like to over heat.
Alright. So here's the story.
This past Friday I was headed up to my friend's house in Telford, PA to hang out with my camp friends. This trip was destined to be about 3 hours because of holiday traffic. So I'm just minding my own business inching along in awful traffic on I95 in Delaware when smoke starts spewing from the hood of my car. I got terrified that the car was going to explode, of course, so I pulled off and got out. As a stepped away from the car I noticed greed fluid leaking out of the bottom as well. Well, that's no good. So I called my dad and explained what happened. After a short conversation he told me I had simply overheated, it was not smoke but steam and that the fluid was anti-freeze. He told me I should walk over to a building that I was very fortunate to have pulled over near and get some water. He told me to let the engine cool and then add water to the radiator to cool it down and I should be fine. I did so with the help of a very nice attendant and went on my way. I glanced at the gauge and it said "normal". Alrighty! Small delay but I should get there in time. Mind you, this was intended to be a pizza potluck and I had sauce, spinach, and onions in my car.
So I'm driving along, traffic seems to have started moving and everything is going great. Then about 20 minutes later as traffic has started to crawl again, I notice the gauge is moving slowly towards hot and there is a small amount of steam seeping out the front of the car. *Groan!* I pull over and figure I'll let it cool down and since the attendant didn't fill up the radiator, I would add more water. As I'm sitting by the side of the road with the hood open letting it cool a trucker stops and has recognized what is wrong with the car by the steam. I gives me a gallon of water and goes on his way. After about 20 or so minutes I add the water and head out again.
Not even five minutes later I realize that this isn't working as I see more steam and the gauge is already at hot. I pull over yet again, and figure I was too impatient. I'll let it cool longer and if I can add more water because I had still not been able to fill it. Another trucker stops and gives me another gallon of water, and after letting it cool for a little more than 30 minutes I add half of that gallon which fills it up. Off I go.
About five minutes later I pull over again, there's no steam yet but the gauge says hot. At this point I call my father back and tell him that it keeps over heating. I explained that it was full of water and there was nothing more I could do. He goes off to look into roadside assistance and I sit. and sit. I text my friend and tell her I might be a little late. I sit some more. My aunt who lives in Philly calls me and said my dad called her. Where was I? About 10 feet form the "welcome to Pennsylvania" sign. It was Friday night and they don't drive on the Sabbath, so they couldn't really help me. After about and hour and a half staring at the state line and many phone conversations with many people (and an update text saying I was gonna be super late) my dad has located some options of places to get towed to. One is in the city about 10 miles behind me. There are some in Philly but he doesn't know if I could get towed that far. I told him it was bumper to bumper traffic, a tow truck would take hours to get to me. We were both pretty frustrated at this point and figuring this out with him was not being productive. While talking to my aunt and uncle (who is good with cars) we figure out that cars over heat faster in bumper to bumper traffic not moving. At highway speeds the air flows through the radiator cooling it.
So we decide I should wait for Traffic to break up then try to get to their house which is closer than my friend's. I do. I wait. and wait. and wait. Till about 8pm traffic is moving normally and off I go. My car has has about 3 hours to cool down so it's fine. I probably averaged 80 on my way to my aunt's house to make sure it didn't over heat. Whenever I had to slow down or there was a small period of construction, the needle would ince towards hot on the gauge but I managed to keep it at normal until I got to my aunt's.
I finally arrive exhausted and frazzled and 3 hours late for my get together at my aunt's. 7 hours after my departure from MD. She very nicely fed me dinner and let me take her car to my friend's house where I arrived 4 hours late. At least I got there. The whole experience was rather traumatic and I wont even go into how I got lost the next morning coming from my friends to my aunt's and turned what should have been a 1/2 hour drive into a 3 hour one. Ugh.
So my car went into the shop. The fan that cools the radiator had rusted off. I wait for it. But I'm leaving for Poland on Sunday so finally today when the shop said my poor car wouldn't be ready today, I had to take the bus home to get ready.
Now I'm here and I'm never driving again. Kill me.
