Car Trouble. Off to the Shop...
Mar. 17th, 2021 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerI've been having trouble with our Nissan Xterra. Yes, this is the car that's had the "SERVICE ENGINE SOON" light on & off intermittently for the last several months. Oddly the light was off this week when the problem became more severe.
The symptom here is that the engine occasionally loses power. The revs drop even if I'm pressing on the throttle. Sometimes the engine catches again after a few seconds; other times it stalls out. Today it stalled out 3 times in the course of about 15 minutes. Thankfully I was able to restart the engine right away each time. Also, I was driving around town on short errands, so if I did need a tow it wouldn't be a huge inconvenience.
It's mildly frustrating to have to deal with this right now. I mean, it's never a good time to suffer car trouble. But my schedule this week is pretty tight. I'd be willing to put it off to next week when my schedule is more flexible except this Friday I need to drive 220 miles round trip for a Covid-19 shot. I'm not going to try nursing the car on such a long highway trip in its condition. There's too much chance of getting stuck a long way from home and possibly missing my shot— which might take months to reschedule at this point.
I know some people say, "Never take it to a dealer." Or, "Dealership is a stealer-ship." Car dealers in general get a bad rap on repairs. They tend to be expensive and don't necessarily have mechanics who are any more skilled than a good independent shop. But I haven't located a Nissan specialist. And last time this car had trouble and we took it to a generalist indie shop, they couldn't diagnose the problem. We had to pay around $1,000 to tow it to a dealership 150 miles away. But hey, at least we got a few cool pictures towing it over a major mountain range! 😂
But the local Nissan dealer is now closed. A casualty of the pandemic shutdown.
The next closest Nissan dealer is about 15 miles away. That's not ideal. I just keep reminding myself, though, 15 miles is a lot less than 150. But still, it'll take some planning.
I'll drop the car off late this afternoon so the shop can start work first thing tomorrow. Hawk will meet me after work to drive me home. If they can fix it tomorrow— unlikely, but possible— I'll take a Lyft over there to pick it up. In the more likely case they need at least through Friday to work on it, I'll either drop Hawk off at the train station to get to work on Friday so I can drive to Davis for my shot, or I'll go to SJC airport Thursday night to rent a car for my Friday vaccine run and return it Friday night.
Whew. So much to do. Starting with leaving for the dealership... NOW.
UPDATE: $1,400 later....
The symptom here is that the engine occasionally loses power. The revs drop even if I'm pressing on the throttle. Sometimes the engine catches again after a few seconds; other times it stalls out. Today it stalled out 3 times in the course of about 15 minutes. Thankfully I was able to restart the engine right away each time. Also, I was driving around town on short errands, so if I did need a tow it wouldn't be a huge inconvenience.
It's mildly frustrating to have to deal with this right now. I mean, it's never a good time to suffer car trouble. But my schedule this week is pretty tight. I'd be willing to put it off to next week when my schedule is more flexible except this Friday I need to drive 220 miles round trip for a Covid-19 shot. I'm not going to try nursing the car on such a long highway trip in its condition. There's too much chance of getting stuck a long way from home and possibly missing my shot— which might take months to reschedule at this point.
Which Shop?
Where to take it? was the next question. My first idea was the local Nissan dealer, less than 2 miles from my house.I know some people say, "Never take it to a dealer." Or, "Dealership is a stealer-ship." Car dealers in general get a bad rap on repairs. They tend to be expensive and don't necessarily have mechanics who are any more skilled than a good independent shop. But I haven't located a Nissan specialist. And last time this car had trouble and we took it to a generalist indie shop, they couldn't diagnose the problem. We had to pay around $1,000 to tow it to a dealership 150 miles away. But hey, at least we got a few cool pictures towing it over a major mountain range! 😂
But the local Nissan dealer is now closed. A casualty of the pandemic shutdown.
The next closest Nissan dealer is about 15 miles away. That's not ideal. I just keep reminding myself, though, 15 miles is a lot less than 150. But still, it'll take some planning.
I'll drop the car off late this afternoon so the shop can start work first thing tomorrow. Hawk will meet me after work to drive me home. If they can fix it tomorrow— unlikely, but possible— I'll take a Lyft over there to pick it up. In the more likely case they need at least through Friday to work on it, I'll either drop Hawk off at the train station to get to work on Friday so I can drive to Davis for my shot, or I'll go to SJC airport Thursday night to rent a car for my Friday vaccine run and return it Friday night.
Whew. So much to do. Starting with leaving for the dealership... NOW.
UPDATE: $1,400 later....
I spoke to the service writer
Date: 2021-03-18 06:34 pm (UTC)That gave me optimism the repair could be completed Thursday rather than stretching across multiple days. It also validated my idea that taking the car to a dealership would be good because the mechanics there would have more experience with the model's engine and control systems than the mechanics at a generalist shop. It's Thursday approaching noon now; I expect to get an update soon.