Her name is Abigail part 1

Photo by Denin Lawley on Unsplash

This is the start of my tale of woe for our cars.

I, at the writing of this post, own a 2004 Acura TSX. I have owned it since 2013ish, and I have enjoyed it very much. It is by far the nicest car I have owned. I named her Abigail and she has a leather interior, heated seats, nice radio system, and a sunroof. She has been good to me getting me back and forth to Michigan a few times, back and forth across Virginia and all the way down to Georgia.

Since we've owned this car, and I am the second owner, we've replaced all the basics, tires, battery, ignition coils, the alternator twice, serpentine belt at least 3 times, and the power steering pump I think twice. Overall, since the car has been paid off, these bills, though not welcome were never killer until the last few weeks.

This story starts about a month ago at the end of a hot July when Husband and I went with his mom, dad, grandpa, and grandma to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, TN. That trip was overall very enjoyable and I really need to write a post about it. I digress. Before we even left town, we had deicded to take my car because the AC is the best and it was going to be hot. However, earlier in the week it had had some starting issues. We came to the conclusion that it must be the starter. Husband, being the badass he is, replaced it after working a 12 hour night shift. This made it possible for us to leave on our trip. It acted fine all the way over to TN and all that weekend. All the way until we tried to leave.

We were leaving Pigeon Forge, Sunday, around 4:30pm and we gave everyone hugs and high fives and headed down the road so Husband could visit the Smokey Moutain Knife Works on our way home. It was about 20 minutes away from our last adventure and they closed at 6. It was going to be close but we were going to make it.

We got on the road about 5 minutes before all the lights on the dashboard flashed on, then all the gages needles dropped straight down and the car died. Like, shudder once and then die. We hit the hazard lights, and then Husband gets out to try and push our car out of the way. We had died in the third lane of a three-lane road. As he started to push, a guy pulls in front of us, gets out and as I steer and we slow down traffic we get rolled into a Days Inn. We thank the guy and Husband pops the hood. By this time I'm on the phone with AAA.

However, before we could get a claim going the car started again. Still trying to make it to Smokey Mountain Knife Works we said never mind, hopped in the car and while the car was still running, got gas, water, an energy drink and then continued down the road. We made it about 2 miles before the same thing happened.

All the lights on the engine dashboard turned on, gage needles went straight down before the car died. This time we were in the right lane and so as Husband got out to push us into a Speedway/Subway, another guy jumped out to help him push. We thanked him and then headed into Subway. We sat in the AC, ate some food and then started to figure out our next step.

I called AAA again and he called his folks and grandparents since they were still in town. They came by and while we waited the hour and a half quoted for us to get a tow to a local shop. Grandma and mama sat with me in Subway while I filled out postcards while papa, grandpa, and Husband all fiddled with the car. They came to the conclusion that it was the battery.

They hopped into the car, went over to Autozone, and bought a new battery and had it in the car before the tow truck got there. The weird thing about that battery was that it was less than 2 years old which is why we didn't think it was causing the issue at first. The tow truck guys said okay never mind, call us if you need us. We gave hugs and thanks again before heading down the road.

It was a very tense ride back to Southwest Virginia but we made it safe and sound. We both got about 5 hours of sleep before we rolled out of bed for a fun Monday morning.