Car Wars, Episode II (backlog item 1/10)
The BMW Strikes Back
Friday evening I was driving home from work, having stopped by my sister's house to feed her cat. Wait, did I say feed her cat? hahah no, you see, I left her cat a mound of food on Thursday night, and it couldn't have possibly eaten all of it by Friday.
So, why was I stopping by her house on Friday? My sister who, for 29.997 (a little NTSC nerd humor there) years of her life despised cats is now a cat fanatic. She was concerned that her darling might have accidentally knocked over its gargantuan water dish, thus spilling across the floor life-giving water. Deprived of this water and possessing a singular inability to lick it off the floor, the cat would wander around the house on Friday slowly, fatally, dehydrating. This is compounded by the fact that the cat's food supply was "dry food", virtual poison in this envisioned arid sahara that could potentially become her house.
My Sister's Kitchen
So, to prevent such a catastrophe, I agreed to stop by her house on Friday after work and make sure that the cat still had food and water. Miracle of miracles, the cat did have food and water, in much the same quantity that it had when I left her house on Thursday evening.
Disaster was, thus, narrowly averted.
Coming up to a stop light near my house I realized that I had not yet called Linda to tell her that I needed to stop at my sister's house and feed the cats (and thus was going to be about an hour later than normal). I was at a red light, so I plugged my )otherwise battery dead) cell phone into the cigarette lighter and called Linda, to ask if she wanted me to bring anything home. As she answered, the light turned green and I happily accelerated into the intersection.
I did not happily accelerate out of the intersection. About mid-way through this intersection my car decided that just then would be the perfect time to turn itself off. It happened so quickly, that I had no indication that my car was off until I tried to accelerate and nothing happened. My instrument panel was lit up with yellow warning lights, and I was coasting.
Fortunately, there is an enterprise rant-a-car at the corner, which I drift into and park in the parking lot. I take a few deep breathes and try to start the car. It starts up fine. No warnings. No errors. No outward indication that anything at all had gone wrong. I drive home on eggshells.
The next day I called the BMW service station and had the following conversation:
Ed: Hi. I just had my car in for service, I was driving it and it turned itself off.
Service Toddler: That could be caused by anything. Why don't you see if it happens again and if it keeps happening, bring it in.
Ed: What causes this?
Service Toddler:It could be an air bubble in the fuel line. Alot of times it is caused by your key.
Ed: My key??
Service Toddler: Yeah, there is an anti-theft device in the key. If, at any point, your key loses "communications" with the car, it shuts off the fuel pump. As keys get older they can go bad and you need to get a new one. Make sure to carry your spare key with you in case this is the problem.
Ed: Can you test my key to see if it is going bad?
Service Toddler:No. There is no way to tell if the key is bad.
Bad Key?
Oddly, this conversation did not impress me. My brother-in-law who works as a luxury car dealer was quick to say that such events are not unheard of and a single incident is no cause for panic, especially if the car shows no warning or error lights on start-up -- thus indicating the success of several dozen start-up self-diagnostics.
Until then, you can find me driving to work on the shoulder goind 30mph. 8)
Friday evening I was driving home from work, having stopped by my sister's house to feed her cat. Wait, did I say feed her cat? hahah no, you see, I left her cat a mound of food on Thursday night, and it couldn't have possibly eaten all of it by Friday.
So, why was I stopping by her house on Friday? My sister who, for 29.997 (a little NTSC nerd humor there) years of her life despised cats is now a cat fanatic. She was concerned that her darling might have accidentally knocked over its gargantuan water dish, thus spilling across the floor life-giving water. Deprived of this water and possessing a singular inability to lick it off the floor, the cat would wander around the house on Friday slowly, fatally, dehydrating. This is compounded by the fact that the cat's food supply was "dry food", virtual poison in this envisioned arid sahara that could potentially become her house.
My Sister's Kitchen
So, to prevent such a catastrophe, I agreed to stop by her house on Friday after work and make sure that the cat still had food and water. Miracle of miracles, the cat did have food and water, in much the same quantity that it had when I left her house on Thursday evening.
Disaster was, thus, narrowly averted.
Coming up to a stop light near my house I realized that I had not yet called Linda to tell her that I needed to stop at my sister's house and feed the cats (and thus was going to be about an hour later than normal). I was at a red light, so I plugged my )otherwise battery dead) cell phone into the cigarette lighter and called Linda, to ask if she wanted me to bring anything home. As she answered, the light turned green and I happily accelerated into the intersection.
I did not happily accelerate out of the intersection. About mid-way through this intersection my car decided that just then would be the perfect time to turn itself off. It happened so quickly, that I had no indication that my car was off until I tried to accelerate and nothing happened. My instrument panel was lit up with yellow warning lights, and I was coasting.
Fortunately, there is an enterprise rant-a-car at the corner, which I drift into and park in the parking lot. I take a few deep breathes and try to start the car. It starts up fine. No warnings. No errors. No outward indication that anything at all had gone wrong. I drive home on eggshells.
The next day I called the BMW service station and had the following conversation:
Ed: Hi. I just had my car in for service, I was driving it and it turned itself off.
Service Toddler: That could be caused by anything. Why don't you see if it happens again and if it keeps happening, bring it in.
Ed: What causes this?
Service Toddler:It could be an air bubble in the fuel line. Alot of times it is caused by your key.
Ed: My key??
Service Toddler: Yeah, there is an anti-theft device in the key. If, at any point, your key loses "communications" with the car, it shuts off the fuel pump. As keys get older they can go bad and you need to get a new one. Make sure to carry your spare key with you in case this is the problem.
Ed: Can you test my key to see if it is going bad?
Service Toddler:No. There is no way to tell if the key is bad.
Bad Key?
Oddly, this conversation did not impress me. My brother-in-law who works as a luxury car dealer was quick to say that such events are not unheard of and a single incident is no cause for panic, especially if the car shows no warning or error lights on start-up -- thus indicating the success of several dozen start-up self-diagnostics.
Until then, you can find me driving to work on the shoulder goind 30mph. 8)
posted by Ed at 1:06 PM
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