My car is haunted

 

 

Friday, June 19, 2009

 

The rain let up for a day, and the temperature has risen to more seasonable levels.

But my car again struggles with its electrical system, reacting to odd circumstances as if under some kind of spell.

For almost a year after someone broke in and took the air bags from my car in 2002, the car often wouldn’t start in cold weather – some tiny break in a wire in the ignition that made contact during warm weather, but separated during cold.

Repair people could not find it. So found it for them.

Some time later, the electrical release for the trunk lock stopped working. I didn’t bother to get it fixed until after months using the key, the key broke off in the lock and I was forced to take the car back to the dealer to fix.

They changed the lock, gave me new keys, but could not completely fix the electrical release.

Apparently, some glitch in the chip wouldn’t allow the lock to engage every time.

The thing unlocked well enough. But often remained stuck open.

This is strange since the mechanical portion of the lock had no problem at all. If I opened it with the key, it always closed when I shut the trunk. But if I used the electrical, the chip sometimes causes the lock to remain open. This requires me to click more than once before trying to close the trunk to make certain the locks are engaged.

I don’t dare walk away from the trunk without checking twice.

And I don’t dare use the key extensively because it might break in the lock again from too frequent use, and I would have to replace lock and keys again.

Since the keys contain a chip, this is quite an expense.

Now the driver’s side door has an electrical problem as does the passenger side window.

The door alarm goes off as if the door is open when it is not.

This only happens after it has rained for a few days in a row – such as has happened for the whole last month – and as I drive, the alarm sounds and the dome light goes on, and sometimes, if I pull the car door tight with my elbow (which requires the window to be open and my arm to get wet since it is mostly raining when this occurs) the alarm and light will go off less often.

The real problem is the switch that the door presses closed when shut. The rubber is worn from eight years (as well as the occasional seat belt getting stuck in the door) so that it doesn’t shut properly. I’ve solved the problem by sticking a piece of paper in there, but this results in the alarm not going off at all, even when the door is open or I leave my keys in the car.

The window is another matter.

Since these are electrical, too, and summer is upon us, I sometimes open both passenger and driver side windows open while I drive.

When I park, I closed them from the driver’s side, only they don’t close at the same rate of speed. The passenger window in fact comes to a near stop about three inches from the top, and then requires another few moments to very slowly close. More than once I left the car with that window open, and with the rain that seat gets watered better than my house plants.

Although there are logical reasons for all of these electrical ills, I like the idea that my car is haunted.

Something to keep me company while I drive.