I pulled in to my dad's driveway a week ago. I haven't driven my VX for about 2 weeks now since I really need gas saving car to travel to work almost 35 miles a day. So I decided to take VX for a spin - you just can't neglect your baby like that. I also planned to take it to the mechanic that day to finally take care of this weird raving right after start up. Well, to make a short story longVX was running a bit rough. I thought it's just because I haven't driven it consistently for so long. There is about 7 miles to my dad's and I was thinking it will go away. I just pulled in, put it in park and the whole car was in convulsions. The 4LO shifter was going crazy, and whole car felt like it's going to fall apart. Then there was my dad running towards me and screaming something at me. I got confused and forgot my windows are still up. My dad was gesturing to pop the hood but all I could think of is the check engine light that just came on.
I finally turned off the engine and popped the hood for dad. All looked normal so dad asked me to start it up. I cranked it. It coughed and died. I had to put my foot on a gas to keep it running. The engine got life of it own. Then my dad said those dreaded words: I think one of your cylinders is running dry. I freaked out thinking this is it, it's over for my baby. What to do? What to do?
We took it to Pep Boys as it was the closest, and I was scared to drive to the dealer. They pulled three codes - lower intake manifold gasket leaking air, first and second bank running dry and something else. Then someone mentioned 1st cylinder misfire. You should've seen me; hunging over the counter, with my hands on mechanic's shirt, demanding answers, and my dad trying to pull me way from that poor guy. They brought two other mechanics and a manager to reassure me that my cylinders are fine. Problem was the sparkplug wires came loose. It was sucking up air and those two sparkplugs got ruined. After all was done they run tests again and found another air leak in upper gasket. Three days and $700 later I have back my baby running like new...
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