Friday Night Adventure

My plan for Friday night past was simple. To go to the local service station, fill the car with fuel, and then return it to my garage. However, what should have taken only 20 odd minutes, turned into a one hour adventure.

It started with me warming up my rotary like all good rotary owners should. After about 5 minutes of this I was ready to leave and as such got into my car and backed it out of the garage. It stalled.

"No worries", I thought, "it's probably just because the fuel is so low". After closing the garage and heading out of the town house complex within which I live, I arrived at a T intersection where I had to wait for other cars. Again, it stalled.

Undetered and of the opinion it was still due to the low fuel, on I headed. Upon reaching the next intersection, again it stalled. But this time, there was no starting it again, the starter motor didn't have enough power to turn over.

Thanks to the help of a local bus driver and passerby, I pushed the car off the road and on to the traffic island. Then I rang my friends and before I knew it they were there giving me a jump start.

Following the jump start, I headed off to the petrol station again in search of petrol. My friends remained behind just in case as we travelled up what is normally the most boring bit of road in the world. Before long the car was starting to cough and splatter and I was unsure of whether I'd make it.

Well make it I did, but I literally rolled to the petrol pump as the car had died again. I filled up the car and my mates jumped me again. But on the way home the car stalled again half way, and then once more as I was just about to enter my garage.

It would be fair to say I was slightly stressed out by then.

Well, today my mates came over and we attempted to find the problem. After miscellaneous poking around we narrowed it down to the alternator. It appears that it may not be able to cope with the work load the car is requesting of it. Potentially then, I will need to look at getting a new (larger) alternator, but for now I'm discussing it on AusRotary.

Hopefully I can get it sorted in the next two days, as I have the car booked in for a rego inspection on Wednesday, and if I can't drive it there then I'll have to further delay the process. So tomorrow I will be seeing when I can get my local auto electricians to have a look.

UPDATE: I did not mention the names of the ppl involved above, as I was concerned they may not wish to be mentioned in a public space. However, since then one has made it clear he does not mind. As such, thanks go out to Erg, Frizza and Scotty for being the good mates they are for helping me out. Thanks also go to Marto and Daniel for stopping to make sure all was well - by then I'd already called Erg an' Co.. Cheers guys. ;)