Our VW (very wonky) Jetta has gone through its share of woes lately. But it culminated last Friday in a ride equal to any coaster ride found at Six Flags.
Friday was a weather phenom if there ever was one. The day started mild and rainy causing large accumulations of water on the roads due to the ice festival that occurred the previous evening causing blockage of the sewer drains. I was forced to spend an inordinate amount of time coming into work sloshing my way through the maze of closed roads (due to downed power-lines).
While daydreaming my way through work the temperature plumetted several degrees and the wind picked up. By the time I was working my way over to the “Clubhouse” near St. Agatha the roads were icy, the wind was blowing and the snow was drifting.
With about 500 m to go before the driveway, the engine sputtered and conked out. It took me a few moments to realize this, so I had only a few seconds of coasting remaining before the car would be dead and stuck on the road. Unfortunately, the stretch of road I was on had enormous drifts and the snow was gusting to near white-out conditions. I had to decide whether to try and get it into the driveway or to get it off to the side of the road.
With only about 20 m to go (damn! So close! Why me?) I knew there was no way the car would have the momentum to turn left into the driveway and work its way over the drift enough to get out of oncoming traffic. So the next decision was whether to throw it into the ditch and have CAA pull it out or stopping as far over to the side of the road as possible and see if the car would restart. Either way I can walk to the Clubhouse and deal with it from there. I opted for plan B which ended up putting the car on the shoulder but with a good ft of the width of the car still in the driving lane.
Naturally, the car wouldn’t start (Very quickly I work my way through the seven stages…). The battery wasn’t dead, the cylinders just wouldn’t fire. I had this problem before last summer whenever it would rain and reflecting back on how wet it was in the morning and the size of some of the puddles I went through it wasn’t a big surprise to me.
I tried starting the car until Pat (who was also heading over to the Clubhouse) pulled up behind me. By this time it was snowsquall conditions with very poor visibility in the area I was stuck. So, the dork behind him who was not driving appropriate to the conditions had to bail into the ditch behid us to avoid a collision. Completely his fault and he was chastised appropriately while he was being pushed out of the ditch. But it was evident that leaving the car where it was could become quite dangerous.
So we hiked over to RJ’s (the owner of the Clubhouse) who just so happened to be driving his massive frontloader around. We concocted a plan to use the tractor to somehow get the car into a safer location. By now, the wind was howling and it was almost zero visibility. The road had become a skating rink and I was without gloves or hat. Oh, and without insurance or ownership for the car. Not the time to be getting involved in any collision type situations.
The plan was to hook up some chains to the back of the Jetta and attach them to the bucket of the tractor. Then we would just tow it further into the ditch and let CAA come and tow it later (original Plan A). Not so fast: The Jetta has a hook up but only on the back right portion of the fram and the hole was too small for the hook to fit on securely. A simple plan was about to become very non-simple.
Due to the rapidly deteriorating weather and the sheer danger of walking around the area of the car, we took a chance: we hooked the chain to the car in ‘as securely a fashion as possible’ (i.e. the hook was precariously attached and could/should by all rights slip off without warning) and attempted to ‘whip’ the car into the ditch.
This plan fell apart quickly for 2 major reasons:
1) The hookup was on the wrong side of the car to be able to pull it in the right direction
2) The road was so icey by then that the Jetta had zero traction
Cranking the wheel was futile. So, here I am sitting in the Jetta being dragged backwards down the middle of the highway like a ragdoll praying that a) no cars are coming because we certainly can’t see them and b) the hook holds or I’m dead on the highway fair game for both directions of traffic.
It took me about 40 seconds to realize RJ had a plan B once he realized that he wouldn’t be able to get me into the ditch (which oddly enough I couldn’t have wished more to have happened). After dragging me about 400M he whipped me around and neatly into a neighbours driveway. In a perfectly safe location and in perfect position for a tow from CAA.
Frigid and a little shaky I hopped on board the tractor and headed up to the Clubhouse to ‘settle’ my nerves and deal with CAA in the comfort of friends. And thanks to Pat and the Jeep we snaked our way through several accident aftermaths back to Heidelberg with Sonia’s birthday gift (heh) and flowers in hand (and still healthy after the excitement).
The car was towed up the road to the Esso in St. Agatha. The mechanic phoned me the following day and told me he was able to start the car no problems without any work. So Sunday I went out to pick it up and drive it home. Several times on the way home the engine almost stalled. An old veteran to this behaviour by now, I knew I had to keep the car running or else she’d be dead as nails back on the side of the road. So, I spent 20 kms in 2nd gear (even though it’s an automatic) and a foot on both the brake and the gas when coming to a stop in order to keep the engine revving. The old “Speed” scenario if you know what I mean.
Monday morning I managed to get it into my mechanic. They discovered the problem that has been hounding me for almost a year now: a hairline fracture in the ignition coil. They discovered this by taking a garden hose and spraying water over the area to see what would happen. Sure enough the spark would go everywhere except the right location when it was wet.
Finally, the Jetta is moderately usable again. Life is good.