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[FreeFlier]

Some people say that becoming an expert is a matter of figuring out all the possible ways to screw up . . .

--FreeFlier

[Alkarii]

Well... surprisingly, I'm finding it pretty easy going, living alone. Much easier than I thought it would be, actually. I'm able to keep myself entertained the way I always have, except now there isn't anyone calling me from the opposite end of the house to go do something every 15 to 20 minutes.

I've been making Minecraft videos and watching a lot of Star Trek lately, too. Mostly The Next Generation and Strange New Worlds, and I gotta say... I think Pike (well, this version of him) is my favorite captain from the franchise.

Also, the new title for my car arrived in the mail the other day, so I'm almost there to replace my car, so I don't have to worry about the damn traction control that loves to kick in when I really, reeeeeeally don't want it to. It cuts all power to the tires, it kicks in when traction control is turned off, and it even does it if I'm going straight. It happens at least every day.

[Typeminer]

You do get used to it. Both living alone and living with people have advantages and drawbacks.

Hope you're staying warm. Nasty cold a lot of places this week.

[Alkarii]

Yeah, it was 15° F yesterday, and 9° F right now. Someone ended sliding on the packed snow on my road and somehow got turned around and slid backwards over my mailbox. Just minutes after I discovered the car sitting on my mailbox, someone showed up to pull it out, and it turns out the mailbox itself only got scratched up and a little dirty, with a little bit of frozen dirt getting crammed into a seam. I managed to get it put back by myself quite easily, too.

The being alone part hasn't taken much adjusting, to be honest. I spend most of my time doing the things I'd always done, which has been playing games on the computer or one of my consoles and watching a lot of YouTube or whatever I have on DVD or blu-ray. I can also get away with cooking whatever I feel like, because nobody is going to complain.

[Alkarii]

Well... I was on my way home from my brother's, and I was just a few miles from home when suddenly... the transmission decided it wanted to be in neutral and stay that way, no matter what I did with the shifter (aside from putting it in park).

So now I'm waiting on my brother to drive all the way from the Jacksonville/Cabot area, and once they get here I'll have to call a tow truck and wait some more.

Oh, and I don't have a backup vehicle, either. Hopefully the new insurance can cover a rental for me.

[Typeminer]

Check the fluid level (assume it's automatic)? Was it acting glitchy at all before it quit?

With automatic transmissions, either it's something fairly simple and low-cost (like a bad cover gasket), or it may not be worth the price of diagnosis to find out.

Good luck!

[Alkarii]

After letting the car sit for a while, it acted normal when I turned it on, but I still had the tow truck take it to my house because I didn't want to have it give me more trouble.

What it was doing was the RPM would go to about 1.7k or so and then the needle would "bounce," with the RPMs going up just a little higher and dropping to just a little under. After letting it sit a while, it revved like normal, and would go into reverse. I have no idea when dad last got maintenance done on the transmission, either.

While I was handling the payment for the towing service, I got a text from my insurance company, saying the payment was ready for me to claim, and that they sent an email, so sometime today it should finish processing, and I'll be getting $10.6k deposited into my account, so I should be able to get a new car either today or tomorrow.

Edit: wound up in the dealership already.

[Just Old Al]

I don't normally express opinions on other folks' car problems but this sounds altogether too familiar. What you have here i would guess is a low fluid level causing cavitation of the fluid (the fluid is getting beaten into foam) which simply won't drive the hydraulics. Been here done this dance wiped up the floor with the oil-stained T-shirt.

A fluid change or simply checking and refilling to the proper level if it's severely low might well set it to rights if the clutch packs aren't burned out. If they are, change the fluid and trade it the hell in or get rid of it as quick as you can.

[Alkarii]

The problem is that it's one if those Nissan CVTs, where you can't just check the fluid like you can with oil.

However, your explanation certainly seems to lend more weight to my suspicions. I don't know when dad last had something done with the transmission, but was thinking it needed a drain and fill.

[FreeFlier]

Hopefully it's not like the Chevy Citation where you had to change the transmission fluid and filter when you changed the oil or the transmission would fail and it was not covered under warranty.

Not one of Chevy's better ideas.

--FreeFlier

[Alkarii]

Well, I'm certainly having to get my hands dirty now.

My dryer stopped heating a couple weeks ago, requiring multiple cycles of the air dry setting and hanging things in random places because I have no clothesline at the moment. I could quickly improvise an indoor line, though I ordered a replacement part for the dryer.

I had also done what I could to clean out the dryer hose, and the total volume of dryer lint that I knocked out of it looked like it was greater than that of my entire head.

I'm going to go handle the DMV business regarding my car on either Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully I can keep the plates from my previous car.

[Dave]

One of the nice things about older appliances is that they're often more easily repaired than newer ones, if something does go wrong... and there's less to go wrong with them.

More specifically, the older models are often electromechanical - motors and gears and switches, but not a lot of electronics. A modern washer or dryer probably has a custom microprocessor board at its heart... and the chance of being able to repair such a board, or replace it more than a couple of years after the washer is purchased, isn't very good.

Our washer and dryer are both about 30 years old... I've put on new hoses and vent ducts a couple of times, replaced rollers in the dryer, and replaced the timer-and-switch module in the washer, and that's it.

From what I hear of product complexity and quality today, I'm dreading having to replace them. I figured a modern washer might last five years if we're lucky.

[Alkarii]

I managed to fix the dryer on Wednesday. I should have pulled up the video on my phone, because all the walking back and fourth made it take more than an hour to replace the thermostat. I'm going to have to go back and adjust the belt's position, though, because it's making a bit more noise than it should. There was also so much lint inside the dryer (especially on the heating unit) that I'm surprised there wasn't a fire already. While I had removed more lint from the hose the previous week, it wasn't a whole lot more than what was inside the dryer itself.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been expanding my collection of '90s Lego sets, to the point that I need more shelving around the house to display everything at the same time... A lot more.