kherrmann3
Well-Known Member
OK, let's set the scene here. Will and I got into a fight last night (June 17) because he's a big jerk. I'm never wrong, so it wasn't my fault. 
I got ticked off and took my car out for a drive at 9:45pm. I know that wasn't a smart idea, but I can't change it now. I drove about 15-20 miles from home on some rural, but well-traveled, highways. I was impressed with myself because I found a wildlife viewing area by mistake that I wanted to go to today (June 18).
On my way home, I noticed a burning plastic/rubber smell. None of my "dummy lights" on my dash board were lit up, so I just thought that someone had burned something in their fire pit that they shouldn't have.
As I was driving 45 mph on my way back home on HWY X (great name for this random car problem), some jerk was riding my tail pretty close. I was watching him in my rear-view mirror when I noticed sparks shooting out from under my car. There is no noise to indicate something dragging. I thought the jerk threw a cigarette at my car (the sparks looked like a cigarette butt getting flicked onto the road at high speeds).
I pulled over immediately because of the sparks and let Mr. Jerk could pass. Then I sat there with my hazard lights on. Smoke is pouring out from under the hood. It was white smoke, so no oil fires... Yay? I was too afraid of opening the hood of my car because I was afraid that there could be a little fire underneath, and I didn't want a back-draft.
There was no fire, but a red-hot bit of metal near my air conditioner that was throwing off smoke. It was literally red-hot, like a glowing ember in a fire pit.
I got down on the ground next to my car and looked underneath with my handy-dandy built-in flashlight on my cell-phone. Nothing dragging underneath the car. I couldn't drive it anywhere, so I call my apartment. No one answers. I call Sean's (roommate's) cell phone, so he had to come get me. Problem was, I had no idea where I was. It was dark, no close street signs, and no street lights. I was between creepy trees to the right, and a house on the left. All I knew was that I was on HWY X in Waukesha somewhere.
Luckily, he did find me. I called my mum and had her stay on the phone with me until Sean got there. I had my first-aid kit with me, so I took out the little medical-tape scissors as a "self-defense" weapon, just in case. OK, I'm paranoid, but I'm only a 145 pound, 5'3" 21-year old, so I think my paranoia was justified. Yes, I locked all of my doors, too.
When he got there, he took a look at it and said, "Did you try to restart it?" :grumpy: No, I didn't. I don't know enough about cars to know what was going on, but I wasn't going to start up a car that was throwing sparks off of a glowing bit of metal. The guy who lived in the house to the left came on out to help. Him and Sean pushed my car into a court about 50-meters up the road while I steered my poor, "dead" car.
Once there, we started unpacking my car and shoving all of my crap into Sean's car: my purse, the first-aid kit, a 30-pound bag of Yesterday's News, Will's tools for work, a Wal*Mart yellow smiley-face volleyball, you know, the important stuff! We got into Sean's car while the guy who was helping ran inside to get the non-emergency number for the Waukesha Police Department so I could have them flag is as a "disabled vehicle" overnight. There were mosquitoes EVERYWHERE inside Sean's car! We smacked like two dozen of the darn things. It was icky. We literally closed the car doors and you could hear this really loud whine from their wings. Ick!
We got the number, called the police, then sat there for 45 minutes until they arrived. They helped push the car onto the shoulder more, then I was able to leave. I got home and told Will what happened. He's going with me today to check it out.
I think it was the air conditioner, because it was where the spark appeared to be coming from. My air conditioner never really worked too well, and has been running warm air lately. I thought it just needed to be recharged. I had my air conditioner on last night while driving, but I had my window open (I didn't know the air conditioner was on). It would explain why I didn't smell the burning until I was at stop signs, though.
My poor car, Kirk. Yes, I named my car. KRC are the last 3 letters on my license plate, and I figured out that it would be pronounced "Kirk". My poor little Wonder Wagon...
I got ticked off and took my car out for a drive at 9:45pm. I know that wasn't a smart idea, but I can't change it now. I drove about 15-20 miles from home on some rural, but well-traveled, highways. I was impressed with myself because I found a wildlife viewing area by mistake that I wanted to go to today (June 18).
On my way home, I noticed a burning plastic/rubber smell. None of my "dummy lights" on my dash board were lit up, so I just thought that someone had burned something in their fire pit that they shouldn't have.
As I was driving 45 mph on my way back home on HWY X (great name for this random car problem), some jerk was riding my tail pretty close. I was watching him in my rear-view mirror when I noticed sparks shooting out from under my car. There is no noise to indicate something dragging. I thought the jerk threw a cigarette at my car (the sparks looked like a cigarette butt getting flicked onto the road at high speeds).
I pulled over immediately because of the sparks and let Mr. Jerk could pass. Then I sat there with my hazard lights on. Smoke is pouring out from under the hood. It was white smoke, so no oil fires... Yay? I was too afraid of opening the hood of my car because I was afraid that there could be a little fire underneath, and I didn't want a back-draft.
There was no fire, but a red-hot bit of metal near my air conditioner that was throwing off smoke. It was literally red-hot, like a glowing ember in a fire pit.
I got down on the ground next to my car and looked underneath with my handy-dandy built-in flashlight on my cell-phone. Nothing dragging underneath the car. I couldn't drive it anywhere, so I call my apartment. No one answers. I call Sean's (roommate's) cell phone, so he had to come get me. Problem was, I had no idea where I was. It was dark, no close street signs, and no street lights. I was between creepy trees to the right, and a house on the left. All I knew was that I was on HWY X in Waukesha somewhere.
Luckily, he did find me. I called my mum and had her stay on the phone with me until Sean got there. I had my first-aid kit with me, so I took out the little medical-tape scissors as a "self-defense" weapon, just in case. OK, I'm paranoid, but I'm only a 145 pound, 5'3" 21-year old, so I think my paranoia was justified.
Yes, I locked all of my doors, too.When he got there, he took a look at it and said, "Did you try to restart it?" :grumpy: No, I didn't. I don't know enough about cars to know what was going on, but I wasn't going to start up a car that was throwing sparks off of a glowing bit of metal. The guy who lived in the house to the left came on out to help. Him and Sean pushed my car into a court about 50-meters up the road while I steered my poor, "dead" car.
Once there, we started unpacking my car and shoving all of my crap into Sean's car: my purse, the first-aid kit, a 30-pound bag of Yesterday's News, Will's tools for work, a Wal*Mart yellow smiley-face volleyball, you know, the important stuff!
We got into Sean's car while the guy who was helping ran inside to get the non-emergency number for the Waukesha Police Department so I could have them flag is as a "disabled vehicle" overnight. There were mosquitoes EVERYWHERE inside Sean's car! We smacked like two dozen of the darn things. It was icky. We literally closed the car doors and you could hear this really loud whine from their wings. Ick!We got the number, called the police, then sat there for 45 minutes until they arrived. They helped push the car onto the shoulder more, then I was able to leave. I got home and told Will what happened. He's going with me today to check it out.
I think it was the air conditioner, because it was where the spark appeared to be coming from. My air conditioner never really worked too well, and has been running warm air lately. I thought it just needed to be recharged. I had my air conditioner on last night while driving, but I had my window open (I didn't know the air conditioner was on). It would explain why I didn't smell the burning until I was at stop signs, though.
My poor car, Kirk. Yes, I named my car. KRC are the last 3 letters on my license plate, and I figured out that it would be pronounced "Kirk". My poor little Wonder Wagon...
