For the last couple of years, I’ve had an old car in my driveway. I’ve been trying to sell it, without success. I’ll probably call one of those charities that takes old cars and gives you a tax receipt.
Anyway, owing to some landscaping I’ll be having done in my back yard, it had to be moved. Its battery was, of course, dead; so I jump-started it from my truck. It started–a little reluctantly–but it did start. I moved it to my front yard, and let it run for a half-hour or so. Maybe not enough to build up a new starting charge, but it’s out of the way of the landscapers and their equipment.
But here’s the ironic thing: the gas gauge didn’t work for the last eight or so years that the car was in use. Now, it works again. Whodathunkit?
After the gauge stopped working, it always read as empty. As I recall, it had about a half-tank when I parked it; and when I started it yesterday–it read half-full.
Probably normal gas then. With the new E-blends in the States and how it sort of separates over time, I’m not sure it would work. At least not very well.
That’s funny… I almost posted that I bet it is a Blazer. I also have a 2000 with a broken gas gauge. It is supposed to be one of the most common problems with them. Mine fluctuates between totally full and totally empty and occasionally reads right. We just watch the mileage.
A couple of days ago my wife took it to work and drove over a nail. When we jacked it up we realized the bracket that holds the back of the leaf springs to the frame has totally rusted through. I’ll also be calling some charity to take it off my hands.
Sad thing is it still looks great and only has about 85,000 miles on it. It even has fairly new tires and a new battery but there comes a time where you have to stop putting money into it.
There are many, many charities that will take your car. I donated my late father in law’s car to my local public radio station. I was going to donate my old car to them as well, but it got squished by a falling tree before I could be bothered to clean it out for donation. But seriously, getting rid of FIL’s car was probably one of the easiest things I had to deal with regarding his estate. So if you listen to public radio, ask about their car donation program. It was no hassle at all.
I also just got my husband’s car running again after 2 1/2 years of non-use. It had a lot more wrong with it than just the battery, so I had it towed to my local Pep Boys, where they took about a week to do about five years of deferred maintenance, new tires, etc, in addition to the new battery. I got the registration caught up with the DMV, and it even passed its smog check. It’s so nice to be a 2-car family again. (The reason it went unused for so long was that my husband was quite ill and could not drive for a long time, and I don’t like his car so I was a bad wife and didn’t drive it during his hospitalization and recovery.)