[Xist]

Tuesday struck again! She drove fine to and from the school, but I filled the tank, started leaving town, and she started misfiring. I did not have any pending codes, but there was no way that I was going to make it to my appointments, so I turned around, was greeted by the CEL, and drove straight to the mechanic, who apparently closes by 4pm now. I grabbed what I thought was my speech bag from the trunk, and continued trying to reserve a rental. That did not finish until five minutes after I got there.

I saw three clients and drove seventy-five miles, pulled the spark plugs and wires, and looked up how to clean them.

I did not really find anything. Everyone says to just replace them, they are garbage, but I really try to not throw parts at a problem. Fourteen-month-old wires should be fine. Two-week-old plugs should be fine, but the cables would have transferred oil residue to the new plugs, and unless I cleaned the plugs, essence of motor oil would have insulted the chakra of Tīw, my real problem here?!

So, I used Dawn and hot water. I could not find any brushes to fit inside. Small-caliber boomstick brushes may have worked, but the ones that I saw did not have wires at the end, the only place that actually seemed to matter. I needed a stiff paintbrush?!

I do not know, everything sounds crazy, but I needed to do something. I also bought another multimeter and the wires checked out. I asked Mom what time it was, she said "8:01," and I asked her to call the shop and tell them that was my car and I would be there soon. The mechanic said that he had been calling a tow truck to have it hauled off.

I didn't stop to leave a love note, I was already horribly late for my appointments, but I do not have any paper without confidential client information anyway.

So, I drove in the spark plugs and wires, he told me what I put in the subject, and I pointed out that I could not move my car, the spark plugs and wires were sitting on his counter.
"I'm not working on your car, you work on your car, but you can't do it here!"
"How do I get my car where I can work on it?"
"Call a tow truck!"

How long do tow trucks take? How did that make any sense? I had parked in the only available space, but he said that I was blocking his lift. A mechanic could not take the time to install spark plugs and wires and charge me to do so?!

So, I pushed it into the street, the manager from the friendly neighborhood AutoZone helped me push it into the next parking lot, I positioned it out of the way, drove home, grabbed Mom and my tools, drove her back, and she drove my rental while I drove my car.

She did not drive great, but was not misfiring like before.

So, the misfires get progressively worse? What the heck?!