Well, not surprisingly, Dexter is having electrical problems. Not terribly unusual, considering Lucas Electrics is widely known as The Prince of Darkness.
The problem first surfaced in early December, when my radio started to act up. This was not the first time I’ve had this problem, specifically the sound fizzling out when I accellerate. Last time this happened I replaced the plugs, leads and the ignition coil. So I took Dexter in to Dan our mechanic (since January of 2008) for an oil and tune (and any other misc items…) I went to pick Dexter up, turned him on and idled while we chatted – then it died. Coun’t get him started at all. So I left him with Dan again. It turned out I fried the ignighter, so he replaced that and I went on my merry way the following day.
Two weeks later (on the 24th of December) I’m driving the wife up to her martial arts class when it just stopped. We pushed Dexter off of San Tomas Expressway, and on to El Camino – where there was street side parking. After an adventure of talking to a AAA dispatcher in Arizona, who obvioulsy know nothing of our major roads in California, we managed to get a tow truck over to us. The driver seemed to be a bit of a British motor fan, and was familiar with our destination. Luckily for us, Dan was working that day (it was the the day of Christmas eve, after all) and was there to recieve Dexter.
Being at the start of two major holiday weeks, and having a pile of “I need my car today” jobs ahead of me, Dexter is just now being looked at. Hopefully this issue will be able to be delt with swiftly (thories of bad coils and adding resistors were bantied about.) Though, while I miss Dexter, I do not miss getting out first thing in the morning in the winter cold to drive him to work.