Sucky vacation

[Zenn7]

Took the week off, so we could go to Wisconsin and visit the in-laws (about 400 miles, 8 hour or so drive).

Decided to leave after supper (thinking 6 PM Eastern, ended up being 8:30 PM).

Get to Michigan City, IN (about 3ish hours). Stop and get gas at the same place we always do. Go, use restroom, etc.

Come back out, start the van up - check fuel cap. Odd...

Shut the van off, check the fuel cap. Reseal it. Try to turn the van back on... nothing. Has power, but turning key makes no noise at all, not the slightest bit of a crank. Check fuel cap still on.

After googling and talking to my nephew who's a car handy guy, about an hour or so. Nothing. Tow truck guy came and tried for about an hour or so (it's a little after midnight local time), nothing. So we will have to stay in a hotel... except... it's some big Grand Prix boat race this weekend in Michigan City, IN. Tow guy says probably 15-20,000 people watching it. EVERY HOTEL IS FULL!!! We give up after about 4-5th one.

Call a friend who lives a few miles from our house. Caught him before he fell asleep (or he wouldn't have heard the phone). It's about 2:30 AM EST now. He drives all the way down there, picks us up, we get our stuff from the van (it's towed to a local shop now) and all the way home.

About 10:30 AM we get home and can finally rest. About an hour later, I go to bed for a few hours (no sleep for 26 hours at this point).

Gotta wait til Monday before the shop opens, but tow guy thinks the starter is probably shot and said we had the start of a leak of some sort.

Once they fix the van, we have to drive back down there to pick it up (I have a car, but wife hates it, Toyota Camry - nice car, but we are not small people - I can fit fine, she is a bit uncomfortable in it).

Last time we tried to go to WI was XMAS 2017 - got about 1.5 hours out, hit snow storm, turned around.

Think the time before that, we got stuck in a snow storm on the way home, only going 15-30mph on the highway most of the way. Took 15 hours instead of 8.

We're about done trying to drive there. Looking into train options for the next attempt.

I hate going on vacation.

[Kraken]

That blows. I'm no fan of vacations either -- all my stuff is here, why would I want to leave? For the past three years I haven't gone farther than the Berkshires (150 mi), and not for more than three nights. The Berkshires are like a second home to me so it's a stretch to even call that a vacation.

[Jeff V]

Sounds familiar, down to the desitination, Wisconsin. My dad had a first generation Dodge Caravan. He and I were going to Eagle River for a week, and didn't make it past Rockford before the car started shutting down. A garage off the interstate declared it to be a bad starter, and it was most of the day before he could obtain a replacement and install it. We lasted just past Beloit when it started failing again. We exited the interstate, ended up in a town called Waterman that had no hotels nor public campgrounds. Dude at the garage said he couldn't do anything until Monday. We decided to limp along all the way to Eagle River,arriving nearly 24 hours after we left (normally a 6 hour drive). We took the car to a Dodge dealer in Eagle River who had the car all week. They could not find the problem. It took us 18 hours to get home. Over the next year, my dad never had the problem again and then took it back to Eagle River with my mom and brother. Apparently the trip there was uneventful. I went up with a friend the next day; the following Sunday they left at 6 am, we didn't leave until 9. Got home at 3 pm, no parents. No word for hours. Finally, I get a call around midnight. They just made it to Oshkosh -- 4 hours away. I call my brother because my car at the time was too small for them and luggage. We both drive up there to fetch them and have to call in at work the next day. Meanwhile, the Oshkosh Dodge dealer has the next week to futz with the car and figure out what was wrong. And they failed. The next weekend, dad and I drove up to Oshkosh, he rented a UHaul with a towing trailer and dragged the thing back to Chicago. Some months later, a tech manager from Detroit is in town visiting the local dealer and took a look at this mysterious problem that at least 3 dealers could not solve. And he solved it. A cheap (like $2) inline filter on the gas line failed, and would collapse when the car heated to a certain point. He replaced the filter, and no more failures.

[Daehawk]

If a car is running and dies why on Earth would a mechanic think its the starter? Thats only used to turn the engine until it fires. Weird.

[dbt1949]

Daughter in law's car wouldn't start. Her son told her it was the starter. He could replace it. I told her it was the timing belt.
Three weeks later she finally got the car back with a new timing belt.

[Jeff V]

If a car is running and dies why on Earth would a mechanic think its the starter? Thats only used to turn the engine until it fires. Weird.

When the engine turned off, it would not turn on again until that filter re-expanded itself (it would sometimes take 30-60 minutes). Guess they figured no start = bad starter.

[Scuzz]

If a car is running and dies why on Earth would a mechanic think its the starter? Thats only used to turn the engine until it fires. Weird.

You don't fill a gas tank up with the engine running. Not a good idea.

[pr0ner]

If a car is running and dies why on Earth would a mechanic think its the starter? Thats only used to turn the engine until it fires. Weird.

You don't fill a gas tank up with the engine running. Not a good idea.

I've seen people do it before.

[Scuzz]

If a car is running and dies why on Earth would a mechanic think its the starter? Thats only used to turn the engine until it fires. Weird.

You don't fill a gas tank up with the engine running. Not a good idea.

I've seen people do it before.

While chatting on their cell phone.

[Alefroth]

If a car is running and dies why on Earth would a mechanic think its the starter? Thats only used to turn the engine until it fires. Weird.

You don't fill a gas tank up with the engine running. Not a good idea.

I've seen people do it before.

While chatting on their cell phone.

Smoking a cigarette.

[Zitterbacke]

What the display says and what the real problem is differs quite a bit from my experience. Twice my car wont let me use it because it said engine immobilizer triggered. Once service had to flush the memory of the computer and all was fine, the other time a switch in the steering-wheel lock broke, supposedly because I had too much clutter on the keyring and it didn't like the weight of that... Just the car key on that ring ever since, and a suggestion I make whenever I see janitor style car keys rings. What I remember the service guy saying is to leave the car and lock it, then reenter and try again, as central lock gets a clear go that way. This goes into one computer (or at least did in a 20 year old car, now there will be 50 of them), it made sense to me, also didn't help in both of my cases. I took it as a "have you tried switching it off and on again" routine.

[Jeff V]

Partly because of that experience, if I'm driving more than 6 hours to go somewhere I'm probably renting a car these days. Weekly rates are often less than adverse affects on depreciation; and almost always it's a newer car plus the rental company will immediately replace it if there is a problem.

[Zenn7]

Called the shop we left it this morning to make sure they had the right info and see what the ETA on checking it out might be. Later today, left over work from last week first.

Call back just before 6 PM their time...

They checked simple (or basic, I forget which) stuff, but that wasn't it. Need to get their engine guy to check it out. He should be able to tomorrow, he was finishing up current job tonight. They will let me know and transfer to a dealership if needed (??? - never heard that before; I know it's Honda, not American, but Odyssey's gotta be one of the most common minivans in the US).

See what tomorrow brings.

[Kraken]

They will let me know and transfer to a dealership if needed (??? - never heard that before; I know it's Honda, not American, but Odyssey's gotta be one of the most common minivans in the US).

Depending on your state's right-to-repair law (or lack thereof), independent shops might not have access to Honda's diagnostic codes and tools. OEMs like to keep those proprietary.

[Zenn7]

They called this morning to get details about what happened. Based on what I told them, they thought the starter was the right place to start (as did everyone else involved before this point).

$300-400. Not great, but not the end of the world.

If it's not that, then they have to get into the wiring/electrical, and their guy who does that is tied up today, may not get to it until Thursday. And that's $75/hour diagnostic time. That could get expensive.

Tow truck guy thought something was starting to leak. Told the shop about that - nothing gushing, but they did see some signs of oil or transmission fluid. That could be really bad... makes me think seized engine with oil; or maybe transmission if it's trans fluid - but that would prevent the car from turning over at all - so I could have multiple problems... wee

They will let me know and transfer to a dealership if needed (??? - never heard that before; I know it's Honda, not American, but Odyssey's gotta be one of the most common minivans in the US).

Depending on your state's right-to-repair law (or lack thereof), independent shops might not have access to Honda's diagnostic codes and tools. OEMs like to keep those proprietary.

Never been an issue in Michigan, maybe it is in Indiana. They didn't say anything about sending to dealership this time though. So maybe that was just "we're busy, if you can't wait, we might have to send it elsewhere" and dealership is the elsewhere of choice. Which would presumably involve more tow fees and dealership would cost significantly more to repair the van (though possibly if they can identify the problem faster and w/o replacing unnecessary parts, that would likely offset the increased cost). Think I'd rather not go there.

[El Guapo]

Can you put the rest of the family on a bus to Wisconsin or something, while you figure out the car situation?

[Zenn7]

They replaced the starter, started right up (thankfully it was the most likely thing). $375+tax.

Going to pick it up tomorrow.

We looked into the bus - cheapest option gets us from Pontiac to Milwaukee - $50/person. Price varies based on the day of the week. We can get a ride locally to bus station easy enough. Milwaukee is about 2 hours from where we are going, but we could get a ride out there. Borrow father-in-law's van while we're there if we did this. Then, if we stay long enough, $50/person to come back. $300 for round trip just for the bus.

Looks like I could rent a Rav4 or equivalent SUV for about $280+tax for a week with unlimited mileage.

Or, the car just could be fixed (we never had a vehicle breakdown driving there, just once while we were there, had issues) and we just drive it like we normally do.

For now though, wife just wants to get van back and cancel vacation. We'll try again next year. Might look into that rental option for real though. We get all the maintenance done on the van, and it's a Honda Odyssey so expecting a long life, but it's also a 2008 and over 150k miles on it. Issues are not out of the question.

Thanks for the feedback/suggestions and hope everybody else's vacations are going better than this!

[Jeff V]

Last time I took a long road trip (to New York) we rented a Dodge Journey for $160 per week.

[Zenn7]

Last time I took a long road trip (to New York) we rented a Dodge Journey for $160 per week.

How far in advance did you reserve that? I just looked out 2-3 weeks to see pricing in August. Might also depend on when you did it I guess.

[Rumpy]

Oh, I know what you mean. Two summers ago during our Eclipse trip to Oregon, our vehicle broke down twice. The first time, we had just finished a hotel stay in Billings, Montana and we were eager to make a good amount of progress towards our destination, but our vehicle had other plans and started to lose power just outside the city limits. We were on the highway and were able to coast back into town using the next exit, but damn that was scary. Next few hours, we waited for a Ford dealer to help us diagnose the problem, which I think ended up being corroded connections to the battery.

The second time on the trip was on our way back home, this time driving through Canada heading back east. I remember it being really hot and our AC wasn't working very well, when one of our tires blows out in the middle of Saskatchewan. The closest town was Moosejaw. We waited nearly a half-hour for the tow-truck to come and tow us there to the nearest place that could help us. But as luck would have it, we arrived on a Friday afternoon just as things were preparing to close up and had to spend an entire weekend before we could get serviced.

[El Guapo]

So, what is there to do in Michigan City, IN?

Seems like a confused town. Do they realize that they are in Indiana, not Michigan?

[Z-Corn]

So, what is there to do in Michigan City, IN?

Count your blessing that you are not in Gary.

[Isgrimnur]

So, what is there to do in Michigan City, IN?

Count your blessing that you are not in Gary.

Don't kink-shame.

[Jeff V]

So, what is there to do in Michigan City, IN?

Seems like a confused town. Do they realize that they are in Indiana, not Michigan?

Outlet malls, mostly. I believe there's a microbrewery in that town. Mostly it's just an exit sign on the highway as I'm traveling to an actual Michigan city (which I will be doing in 2 days). How long are you stuck there for and do you have a car so you can escape?

[El Guapo]

So, what is there to do in Michigan City, IN?

Seems like a confused town. Do they realize that they are in Indiana, not Michigan?

Outlet malls, mostly. I believe there's a microbrewery in that town. Mostly it's just an exit sign on the highway as I'm traveling to an actual Michigan city (which I will be doing in 2 days). How long are you stuck there for and do you have a car so you can escape?

Ummm, I am not there. But Zenn 7 is there - he has a car, but cannot escape.

[Isgrimnur]

[Jeff V]

Last time I took a long road trip (to New York) we rented a Dodge Journey for $160 per week.

How far in advance did you reserve that? I just looked out 2-3 weeks to see pricing in August. Might also depend on when you did it I guess.

I don't recall, but probably a couple of weeks. Hertz tends to keep most of their fleet at the airports and sends them to local branches as needed.

[stimpy]

[Jaymon]

Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary, Indiana, let me say it once again.

[Zenn7]

So, what is there to do in Michigan City, IN?

Seems like a confused town. Do they realize that they are in Indiana, not Michigan?

Outlet malls, mostly. I believe there's a microbrewery in that town. Mostly it's just an exit sign on the highway as I'm traveling to an actual Michigan city (which I will be doing in 2 days). How long are you stuck there for and do you have a car so you can escape?

Ummm, I am not there. But Zenn 7 is there - he has a car, but cannot escape.

No, Zenn7 is not there - all the hotels were booked, had to ask a friend to come get us that night (technically, it was 5 AM or so when he got there, local time). Though I was there briefly today as we retrieved the van. It's about a 480 mile round trip - long drive.

Wife drove it home (her vehicle, I have a Camry), A/C's dying, so she mostly drove without A/C. Neighbor mechanic will be checking that out, possible leak that tow guy informed us of and changing the oil.

I hate vehicles by the way. Almost more than I hate being a home owner. Owning things is expensive and stressful!