The First Post- VW adventures

Aug 17, 2006- A bad day

Despite Dan being laid off from his job we had some bad news from our front, which makes Aug 17 a bad day:

So some news from our trip. The climbing was fun in maple and I am starting to feel strong again after only climbing for 3 days there. The plan was to to take Megan to the airport on wednesday night but as we were driving up to Salt Lake, I noticed the A/C in Marge (the van) wasn't working. I checked the fuses and sure enough, the fuse was out but when I tried to replace it, it just blew again. Oh well, I though, don't really need the A/C right now so we jumped back on the freeway and started driving. After about 15 minutes we heard a snap and then smelled burning rubber. The battery light came on and I pulled off the freeway instantly. I managed to drive the Van into an apartment complex parking lot (the power steering wasn't working). And turned it off. Upon inspection I was managed to pull the A/C, powersteering, alternator belt right out. It had snapped. What surprised my was how far we could drive the van on just the battery with no alternator. After some discussion Megan, we decided that this could be an epic fix on the van and megan called to reschedule her flight rather than leave me in Provo by myself with a broken car. I felt bad making her postpone her trip, but I kind of didn't want to be left alone out here in the heart of mormon country.
We grabbed a phone book and looked up foreign garages around where we were and saw that there is actually a volkswagon dealer about a mile from where we were parked. We decided to spend the night in the parking lot and then attempt to drive the van on the battery from where we were to the dealer. Kind of a sleepless night as I was running through all the scenarios in my mind as to what we would do if the battery ran out half way to the dealer on the busy street. "There is an extra battery in the back" I thought, "I could pull it out and use it to finish the voyage." Half way through the night, I heard a car pull up and park in front of our van. Then I saw a flashlight. I looked out through the window and saw a guy with a clamp about the clamp our tire. After I knocked on the window he told me I had to move my car because this lot is for tenants only (the lot was mostly empty). I told him the car was broken down and that we planned to move it in the morning, but he told me to move it now or it would be towed. So we got up and pushed the van to a safer spot. I was afraid to turn it on for fear of running the battery down and didn't want to commit to the trip to the dealer in the middle of the night just in case we couldn't make it. I figured it would be easier to tow the van in the morning rather than at 3 in the morning. So there was megan pushing the van across an empty parking lot to spot we were aloud to park in the middle of the night.
Finally morning came and it was time to drive the thing. We were both glued to the windshield, hearts pumping as we drove as quickly as possible and at as low as rpms as possible (so as not to use to many sparks), to the dealership up the road. We didn't say a word as we cruised up the road and then spotted the dealer. Without incident, we pulled into the dealer parking lot and breathed a sigh of relief at not having to wave down traffic while waiting for a tow truck.

So here we are at the VW dealer and I just got the estimate for the belt and the AC compressor (the compressor was seized up)- $1000. That sucks! We could maybe call around and see if we can get it done elsewhere, but here we are and so it goes.

Anyway, hopefully we can get the job done today so megan can make her 8 am flight tomorrow. If not, we'll come up with a plan C.