To Sydney, I hate you. Love Ross (its a long read)

**Rednut** · 05-10-2007, 01:17 PM

Greetings all,

Appologies for the lack of appearances of late.. been concerntrating on a few different things..

Up until yesterday, my Toledo had been running beautifully.. drove from newcastle to sydney on wednesday without a hitch(exept for the 2hour delay due to bushfires{thanks for the in-car movie mr.laptop})

Woke up with a rotten hangover from the night before and had to move the car because it was in a 2hour park. kicked it over and could hear this hiss/pissing sound coming from the engine bay... drove 10metres to the next car spot in order to get another 2 hours before going back to newcastle.. little did i know.. i had left an oil spill on the road as big as a kiddie-pool aswell as a trail from where i was parked to the new position!

my immediate thoughts were something along the lines of F@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@CK!!! and the fact i was probably leaving the toledo in redfern of all places.. not to mention the train trip and everything else that would come with it.

yay for Mrs! Amy has some FREETOGO thing through the NRMA which gets her free roadside assistance regardless of who shes travelling with. clear sailing? of course not, the membership expired a week ago didnt it! anyways, we got onto them and renewed for a hefty(not) fee of $35 for the year. 20mins later and mr nrma was parked behind the Tolly. a quick 5min inspection showed the oil filter seal had busted which was causing the oil to piss out everywhere in the engine bay and on the ground.

Onto the "do you want the good news or the bad news" statement.
good news: easy cheap fix
bad news: no spare to replace it with
more good news: 8km's of towing is covered under the freetogo membership

got onto the wireless connection with my laptop and did a yellow pages search for the closest workshop that could replace and fit a new oil filter today. To my suprise each place i called said they could fit me in.. but the 3rd place was the clintcher as he goes "bring it right in mate, no worries".

So the tow truck driver rocks up 30mins later and off we go to the repairer. Home free? Heavens no!!!!!!! the driver mentioned before the tow that if theres any oil on the tray of the truck.. theres a $100 fee to clean it(get stuffed, gimmi the keys and ill go wash it!!!!!) plus, before he put the car on the truck, i said i'd throw some towels down on the tray to stop it.. "nah, should be right". Off we go again.. we leave the car out the front of the repairer(in the middle of the road) and shoot off to an ATM so i could pay the brstrd the fee(invoice was included).

Back at the repairers, the guy comes out to inspect and goes "no worries mate, gimmi 5 mins and i'll do it for ya, just sit next to ya car so the cops or rta etc, know its yours and wont try take it away or book you". 2mins pass and i get approached by some 40yearold junkie asking for money, then starts asking questions about the car.. 4mins pass and a group of 5 gangsta kids start walking towards me.. so i shut the car, and walk to the repairer and wait inside!

$55, 20mins, a new oil filter and 4 litres of penrite premium oil and im BACK ON THE ROAD!!!

I fly back home, pick up all our stuff, grab the mrs and get the shiz outta there!!!!. 4 hours have passed, no water,coffee,food have been consumed and my hangover is well into the worse stages.. we hit the fast food in linfield before hitting the freeway home, my bro rings and says i should go wash the excess oil of from the bay incase it heats up too much and catchs on fire. He tells me theres a carlovers in gordon which is still on the way. i roll in and get served straight away, they spray and blast all the excess out within 5mins and slapped a hefty(not) bill of $5. HOME FREE!!!!....not

2mins down the pacific highway the wipers start on their own.. wont turn off, had to keep the water pumping for a good 5mins until i could pull over at the pub in pymble to assess. after alot of cursing i realised the easiest solution would be to pull the wiper fuse. yay for manuals, i found the fuse and ripped it out(almost broke the dash cause i didnt have a screwdriver{which i had used the night before we left for sydney})

1.5hours later. we were home. yet another ****ty adventure in sydney.

i think the moral of the story is.. keep your car regularly serviced.. mine was 500k's over its due date. Could have possibly avoided this saga if i had done it at the right time.. anyways, time to flush the coolant and put some new stuff in.
Again, Appologies, this time.. for the looooong story!

**The_Hawk** · 05-10-2007, 01:37 PM

500km's over shouldn't be an issue.... unless of course it takes you 2 years to do 500kms

Good advise anyway, cleaning and servicing your car ensures you pick up on those little things before they become big expensive things (or at least prepares you for the big expensive things

)