Car Breaks Down

My beloved little car broke down tonight.

Began stuttering when I pushed on the gas, then violently shaking and vibrating and would barely get me the two blocks home.  Check engine light came on, along with VSC or VCS, can't recall which way that goes,  and TRAC off lights.

I don't think its running on all its cylinders.  My mechanic quit and got another job.  Finding another that is honest is like a crap shoot. Then there's the cost.  They get $90 plus per hour just for labor.  I'm not exactly rolling in the dough here.

The poor car has over 270,000 miles on it, mostly run up carrying cats to be fixed or to new lives.

It acted this way when it blew a coil pack years ago.  Maybe that's what is wrong this time.  Cheaper than lots of other things that could be wrong, like a cracked head or something.

The engine compartment is still out there hot as hell.  From driving two blocks?  In rain?  I had gotten it into the garage at least.  It bucked like a wild horse doing so.  Now I"m thinking maybe I should just shove it back out, in case it catches fire or something, its just way too hot.

Plenty of oil.  I check that constantly because I add oil every couple of weeks.  Plenty of water, because I check that frequently now too, because I have a slow leak going on with that.

I am worried, very worried.  I live miles from even a grocery store, outside of the Circle K.  But I can buck up and walk to the store. It is about 2 miles one way.  But I can't carry cat litter and cat food that far.  Well, it's a lot farther to where I buy that.  A long long way.

And my biggest concern?  The farm colony cats.  They depend on me.  I'm in a panic over that.

Been watching youtube videos like crazy. I think its going to be a coil pack again.   I am sure I can replace a coil pack and even figure out which one might be bad, if that's what is wrong, if I can get the darn part locally.  I love youtube so much.  Watched a youtube video on how to reset the dash lights after doing it, too.  I might save a boatload of money if I can fix this myself.  Course I could end up trashing the car in the process.

The biggest problem will be getting the part, if its available local, since its miles to anywhere from here.  Six miles round trip walk to the auto parts store I use. Take me half the day to walk there and back.  That's life.

So my big plan is to get up in the morning, back it out of the garage so I don't scare Max, whom I was going to return tonight, but couldn't when the car went bonkers.  Then I'm going to take everything off to the spark plugs and pull off the wires one by one, see if engine sound changes, like slows down.  This all came from youtube.

 If nothing changes when I pull of the wire, then that coil pack or spark plug is suspect.  On one youtube video, the guy then switched out coil packs, so if in the same cylinder with a different coil pack pulling the wire off still makes no engine noise reduction, then you got to think about the wiring harness or something else. But if the coil pack from where nothing changed with the wire off gets switched to another and pulling the wire off there, causes no engine change, then the pack is bad.  Clever because its simple.

So if then I figure its a coil pack, I will come inside and call auto parts stores, to see who has them in stock, if anybody does.  Then I put on my shoes and my game face and head out.  Come back with the part, and with any luck, I might be still able to pick up the Lebanon cat this evening I'm supposed to, and get her to Heartland to be fixed tomorrow.