Doing It Wrong

Banality is below the fold.
For those rationally dis-interested in such matters, here is something for the Tsukasa fans amongst you.

Last week I was told not to come in on Valentine's Day...normally one of the heavier non Christmas days of the year....There was simply no work. Well, all the stuff that was immobilized by the recent blizzards finally came crashing into our UPS center the first half of this week. As a result, I was late for class twice and it indirectly (along with the repairs to the ice damage on the bridge-tunnel) caused me to miss one physical therapy appointment.

Although. I'm still in a good deal of pain, it is mostly in the tendon rather than the bone. All in all, my foot is doing much better and the therapist seems confident that I can dodge the surgery bullet. I find this heartening, especially since I am of the opinion that surgery should be performed with scalpels or lasers. It seems that all this time I have been walking wrong and am having to re-learn how to do this basic task.

The Christmas-like hours at work were annoying but profitable. However, as I drove down the interstate Wednesday the car started to make tappy noises that were audible over Nightwish. I noted a total LACK of oil pressure, wept, and pulled over. Checking the oil I was surprised to discover that it was not at all low. Well, I am not a mechanic, but I know from painful experience that tappy noises are bad for ones bank account, so I added two quarts of 5W30 and tried starting the car.
No tappy noises! Yay!
Oil Pressure. Yay!
I proceeded to the doctor and checked the oil before I left, reassuring myself that it was there. Thursday after therapy was a gorgeous day, so, I washed the car, vacuumed it out, cleaned the windows, cleaned the trunk, inventoried my first aid kit, charged the battery charger, checked the oil, tried to figure out why this Fright Ranger song was on my MP3 and stopped by BOB!'s comic store.

On the way back...tappy noises!

Tappy noises that were audible over The Connells.  My oil pressure was GONE, so I pulled over checked the oil and was presented with a conundrum...the dipstick said the oil was full. At this point I was thinking "oil pump" and remembering that adding oil had temporarily solved the problem earlier, I added a bit hoping that I might prime it.

The result was a tappy-noise deficit and pressure registering on the oil gauge. As I was only a few miles from my mechanic I decided to try to make it there, keeping an eye on the oil gauge the whole time. I made it.

Yesterday, I picked up the car and was informed that the problem was 5W30 oil. The Cressida, unlike my previous Toyota, or pretty much any car I've ever had, takes the same 20W50 the diesel Pickup-of-Peril does.
I don't have the cars manual, but in a million years I would not have thought that the sedan would take such heavy weight oil. When I inquired about this I was to;d that the Cressida's engine took a heavier grade oil than average, and due to it's age it now requires somewhat heavier still. Every time I topped off the oil, I was diluting and thinning the oil in the engine with nearly disastrous results this time.

All this time I've been adding the wrong oil. The only thing that's saved me is that I generally don't change it myself and the mechanic put in the right oil. The result of thiswas somewhat mixed as I saved the car but was unable to attend Japanese class yesterday. As that class was held in a restaurant, I probably failed to learn how I've been eating with chopsticks wrong.

As I type this the car seems to be running fine (actually it's sitting in the driveway...but it was running fine 'till then) so I guess its all right. I also got the AC fixed...which has been an issue for a few days, but will be much less of one next week, when we are predicted to get snow again.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 708 words, total size 5 kb.