On the Verge of a Breakup

My car and I have been like peas in a pod. Her name is Glenda, and she's my first car I ever bought and paid for with my own dollars. I got her after the brake lines rusted through and broke on my old Buick. To replace the brake lines would have meant replacing the equally rusted fuel lines.

Altogether, it would have cost me more to fix the vehicle than it was worth. Plus, insurance renewal time was coming up, and being that I had an out-of-province car, it would need a fresh gamut of inspections and repairs to be brought up to snuff for the crooked privatized insurance industry of Alberta.

So, to the wreckers my Buick went. Two weeks later, I was the proud owner of a 94' Mercury Grande Marquis.

This isn't actually Glenda

The end of this month will mark our two year anniversary. But, the honeymoon period is long over. Since last fall, she's been giving me nothing but trouble. My fuel line was rusty, and leaking. This severely limited my ability to drive over raging infernos.

This situation comes up more often than you'd think

After a fix on the cheap though, she was patched up, and lasted another 3 months before the same thing happened again.

On top of this, since all this fuel line trouble happened, she's been a thirsty girl. Gas is expensive, and her economy is terrible. Far worse than usual actually, even compared to when most of my gas was pouring out of a rusty fuel line.

Since this fuel trouble started though, there's been other issues. When I'm idling at stop lights, the engine starts to shake, and then it stalls. No problem starting up again though, and she runs fine when she's actually driving around, but stalling at stop lights is rather unsettling.

I've been reading online and talking to people, and nobody is totally sure what's wrong.

Is it the sparkplugs misfiring? Is it dirty fuel injectors? Is is something with the air intake? Is too much of something getting in? Or is it not enough of something else?

The extent of my car knowledge extends to windshield washer fluid, air filters, checking the oil, and changing tires (a surprisingly effective cost saver).

Luckily, I know a few people who are good with cars who are happy to lend a hand. But this shit is difficult! If there's one thing I've learned to appreciate over the past few months, it's that people who are good with cars are extremely valuable. I think a good summer project would be to take a basics of automotive care course, that kind of stuff pays for itself. Especially when you can only afford to drive jalopies.

I would totally drive this

So, if any gear heads have any ideas, I'm all ears. Or better yet, if somebody has a car that's saftied in Saskatchewan they'd like to sell, let me know. I may be in the market sooner than I realize.

Our Lady Peace - 4 am