Bizarro Day

[nivek]

Strange day so far and its not even noon yet but it all started when I woke up, my phone was not cooperating, its like all the settings were scrambled, Google software was gone from my phone, the microphone access was gone, if not for the pictures and contacts still there I would have thought it wasn't my phone...

Then go out to my car at 5 am to go to work, car is dead, no power, I didn't leave my house yesterday, didn't drive it since Saturday morning when I went grocery shopping...So I had to leave my car at home and call one of my employees to come pick me up...I'll deal with my car when I get home this evening...

Then...Not even two hours into the work day, the entire building goes dark, lose of power...20 minutes later I hear the entire 3 block radius is out of power, the electric company said minimum 4 hours before restoration of power...So we are here in the dark waiting for power to return, actually light from the sun which is behind clouds is the only light shining inside the building, trying to keep people busy until power is restored..

Ugh, what's next?...(waiting for a plane to drop out of the sky or something, seems like this is building up to some major event?)

...

 

[Wade]

You must have trampled some dwarfs ganja patch while out bushwacking with your canine companion this past weekend.

 

[michael59]

Strange day so far and its not even noon yet but it all started when I woke up, my phone was not cooperating, its like all the settings were scrambled, Google software was gone from my phone, the microphone access was gone, if not for the pictures and contacts still there I would have thought it wasn't my phone...

Then go out to my car at 5 am to go to work, car is dead, no power, I didn't leave my house yesterday, didn't drive it since Saturday morning when I went grocery shopping...So I had to leave my car at home and call one of my employees to come pick me up...I'll deal with my car when I get home this evening...

Then...Not even two hours into the work day, the entire building goes dark, lose of power...20 minutes later I hear the entire 3 block radius is out of power, the electric company said minimum 4 hours before restoration of power...So we are here in the dark waiting for power to return, actually light from the sun which is behind clouds is the only light shining inside the building, trying to keep people busy until power is restored..

Ugh, what's next?...(waiting for a plane to drop out of the sky or something, seems like this is building up to some major event?)

...

Hey, I joined your club. It's only fitting that you should join mine.

Welcome. lol

Seriously though, I hope everything will be okay.

Hugs

Michael

P.S. I know that looks weird but, this computer won't let me access the smilies. lol

 

[Double Nought Spy]

Yikes!

My phone has been acting up too, which is unusual. Mostly happens after some Google update. Dunno about the rest though. Sounds like you pissed off some god of electrical current or something.

 

[nivek]

Then go out to my car at 5 am to go to work, car is dead, no power, I didn't leave my house yesterday, didn't drive it since Saturday morning when I went grocery shopping...So I had to leave my car at home and call one of my employees to come pick me up...I'll deal with my car when I get home this evening...

I arrived home from work a few hours ago, one of my employees dropped me off, and connected up the battery charger and let it run for a little while...Shortly after that I go out and start the car, it sounds rough, it runs about 5 seconds or so before dying, but it sounded like it was misfiring or something...I tried to start it again but the battery dead again, so I wait a while and let it charge up more....

After a little while I go out and try to start it up again, it starts and sounds fine, nice and quiet as normal, just idling...I pack up the charger and extension cord and decide to drive in to town to make sure everything is good and the battery gets fully charged from driving around a bit...I take the dog and we go off, everything seems fine, about 20 minutes we are in town and I smell this weird odour I cannot pinpoint what it is...It smells mechanical in some way but then it goes away, I figure its something in town as we just got here, so I park near a store building where I see an electrical outlet, just in case I need to charge up the battery again...I have the charger and cord in the trunk...

I go in the grocery store and get back in the car and it starts back up just fine...We head out of the parking out to go home and the car starts running a little rough again, I keep going down the road and the computer starts beeping, it won't stop this, every 5 or 10 seconds its beeping off...Then on the dashboard where text is displayed from the computer its flashing over and over, service parking brakes, it won't stop flashing that and the beeping won't stop...I keep going and then as I get close to home that smell comes back, I can't figure out what that smell is, after a couple minutes its giving me a bad taste in my mouth, then I start smelling exhaust fumes, the car isn't smoking or anything, but its definitely exhaust fumes...

I pull in the driveway at home and stop quickly and get me and my dog out of the car...a few minutes later I get this sudden headache from the fumes I assume, I can taste it in my mouth, I'm sure my dog is not feeling too good either...For 20 minutes or so I thoroughly check my car visually, up it, over it, inside, everywhere and cannot visually see anything wrong, even the exhaust pipes look fine...I ate a barbecue sandwich and gave the dog some barbecue to get that awful taste of fumes out of my mouth and went back out to start the car again, its idling fine as normal but I smelled fumes again and at least the beeping computer stopped...

Calling the repair shop to more morning and getting it checked out, and get fixed whatever is wrong...

What a bizzaro day its been...

...

 

[pigfarmer]

How old is the battery? When they start to go bad and the car's computer isn't being supplied within the range of what it wants it can't do it's job; adjust the fuel/air mixture, idle and so forth hence the rough running, stinkiness. I wouldn't hit it with much more than a 1.5 to 2 amp charger when it's in the vehicle, but I'm fussy. That would take a long time to fully charge a flat battery with one of those, they are really just tenders. Even a 10amp charger isn't that much but I am a little paranoid about the electronics so I usually disconnect the positive lead before I connect that. The battery might show the correct voltage but you'd have to load test it - could have a bad cell.

I won't give or take a jump from anyone either - I carry one of those jump packs. A friend uses a really small one he got somewhere, I know they have come a long way. A plain old one is maybe $50 at Harbor Freight

I'm no expert, but as it turns out, my brother is and what you described sounds a lot like what his son-in-law tortured him with for weeks. Fancy Porsche SUV and the battery is locked away somewhere odd. He was too cheap to get the correct tool to get at it from the Fatherland. Now that he finally did Walmart solved the problem for him.

 

[nivek]

My battery is new, less than two years old, I have had no concerns or problems with it until now, in fact I didn't even look at the battery at all this year until recently when I gave someone a jump a couple weeks ago...My battery is in the trunk of my car where the spare tire is...

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[pigfarmer]

when I gave someone a jump a couple weeks ago

Well, the shop will sort that out for you and hopefully it's something simple.

This is exactly what my brother warned me against doing with my 2015 truck and why I carry a jump pack instead. He's a retired heavy equipment mechanic with 40+ years under his belt so if he tells me something vehicle related I listen.

 

[michael59]

Nothing a battery would do to make you smell gas fumes in the car though. There is definitely something else wrong.

You know how a lot of people have a favorite smell? Mine is petroleum. lol

I love the smell of gasoline and those old zippo lighters and the old magic markers. Another weird smell I like is moth balls. I have no idea why I am attracted to those scents.

You didn't mention how it went at work, Nivek. What happened?

 

[nivek]

Well, the shop will sort that out for you and hopefully it's something simple.

This is exactly what my brother warned me against doing with my 2015 truck and why I carry a jump pack instead. He's a retired heavy equipment mechanic with 40+ years under his belt so if he tells me something vehicle related I listen.

Yeah I was thinking about that day when I gave that fellow a jump, if it did something to my car, a surge or something...I couldn't say no the the guy though, he was handicapped and struggled to walk across the parking lot to ask me for a jump, I didn't have cables but he did...If it ends up costing me a thousand dollars so be it, I think the karma for not helping him would weigh heavier on me...The more I think about it, could be a surge feeding back hurting my battery, I think I will buy one of those jump boxes for just such an occasion in the future...

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[nivek]

Nothing a battery would do to make you smell gas fumes in the car though. There is definitely something else wrong.

You know how a lot of people have a favorite smell? Mine is petroleum. lol

I love the smell of gasoline and those old zippo lighters and the old magic markers. Another weird smell I like is moth balls. I have no idea why I am attracted to those scents.

You didn't mention how it went at work, Nivek. What happened?

It started up and drove okay to work, the computer was acting fine, no weird beeps or messages, but I did still smell the exhaust fumes and its idling rough...As soon as the repair shops open this morning I am making some calls...

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[michael59]

Yeah, they'll figure it out for you and I hope it's just a cheap fix because you didn't do anything wrong to the car, right? Are your roads like ours? Some of the roads here have potholes that can really cause damage to a car.

But I'm curious about the other things that happened on your bizarro day. Is you phone working properly again, if so did it just correct itself or did you have to fiddle with it, and what happened at work?

 

[pigfarmer]

Sorry - not trying to make you chase gremlins.

I rebuilt the Holley carb on that old 'vette and after that it was a matter of using a vacuum gauge to set the fuel air/mix and then trial and error to finding a set of accelerator pump cams, nozzles and so forth, then getting the old points driven ignition curve dialed in. A challenge which is why I like it as a hobby. Believe me I reeked of gas for weeks.

A current trend is to retrofit these old cars with Electronic Fuel Injection - which basically provides you with the very flower of '80s vintage EFI tech. You wind up putting bungs in the exhaust system for O2 sensors and have a handheld Garmin looking gadget connected to the EFI. It's adjust itself automatically by sniffing the exhaust and eliminates all the manual fiddling (and fun). It's how our modern vehicles do it although much more refined for emissions, fuel efficiency etc.

I think I have to go downstairs and rub some used motor oil on my face now .......

 

[michael59]

Sorry - not trying to make you chase gremlins.

I rebuilt the Holley carb on that old 'vette and after that it was a matter of using a vacuum gauge to set the fuel air/mix and then trial and error to finding a set of accelerator pump cams, nozzles and so forth, then getting the old points driven ignition curve dialed in. A challenge which is why I like it as a hobby. Believe me I reeked of gas for weeks.

A current trend is to retrofit these old cars with Electronic Fuel Injection - which basically provides you with the very flower of '80s vintage EFI tech. You wind up putting bungs in the exhaust system for O2 sensors and have a handheld Garmin looking gadget connected to the EFI. It's adjust itself automatically by sniffing the exhaust and eliminates all the manual fiddling (and fun). It's how our modern vehicles do it although much more refined for emissions, fuel efficiency etc.

I think I have to go downstairs and rub some used motor oil on my face now .......

Hahaha. You have a great sense of humor. I love it. lol

 

[nivek]

Yeah, they'll figure it out for you and I hope it's just a cheap fix because you didn't do anything wrong to the car, right? Are your roads like ours? Some of the roads here have potholes that can really cause damage to a car.

But I'm curious about the other things that happened on your bizarro day. Is you phone working properly again, if so did it just correct itself or did you have to fiddle with it, and what happened at work?

Well I would like it to be a cheap fix but I think I'm looking at a few hundred dollars, I'm going to have a new battery put in as well as replacing all the coils, each cylinder of the engine has a coil, so I need eight and have them check the exhaust for any leaks...Our roads are very good around here, no major holes, but most of the roads around my area have been paved with new asphalt in the last few months...

My phone is back to normal, I had to reinstall Google stuff and put all the settings back the way I like them lol...

At work everything ran fine the rest of the day, once the power came back on...I had all the machinery breakers off so no power went through to that equipment until I checked the main feed to ensure we had full power back...Partial power running to machines will harm the machinery and any computers tied to them...

Today has been a normal day for the most part...

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[pigfarmer]

You need some Bourbon.

 

[humanoidlord]

whoa lol

 

[nivek]

You need some Bourbon.

Thanks, actually had a glass of Malbec 2014 from Argentina, damn good year too for this brand...

The car ran great going home this evening, didn't even smell exhaust anymore, weird but still going in the shop Thursday...Normal day for the most part today, business as usual, never had a weird day like yezterday before...

In fact that glass of Malbec tasted exceptionally well this evening...

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