Old Blue (aka 1993 Geo Prizm LSi, aka Toyota Corolla disguised as a Chevy) is mechanically about the best $700 car anybody could want. It starts on the first crank every time, all the time, and gets me where I need to go as long as that doesn’t involve freeway speeds.
But beyond its solid gold engine performance, it’s … well, more than a bit funky. I long ago gave up trying to keep the radio tuned in to any actual station (a pebble in the road can bump me from NPR to Mexican tubas to metal to country twang). Before I Gorilla taped all around the trunk and taillights, rainwater would saturate the back seat and create puddles on both the front and rear passenger-side floor. The headliner drapes down onto my head in wet weather. The passenger-side window rolls down but can’t be rolled up (Gorilla tape to the rescue once again; the window is now permanently closed). The driver’s-side door handle lost its spring and it now requires a voodoo ceremony to get the door open. The brake light likes to flash on at random, particularly on cold mornings. And so on. And on.
All these things I could grit my teeth and live with. $700 car. Reliable engine performance. Not complaining.
But recently the blower on the ventilation system began randomly cutting out. No heat. Worse in this damp climate, no defrost. It might work first thing in the morning (good). But after that … maybe yes, maybe no. Today “no” became its preferred mode and I finally decided I had to do something about it. So I started looking up the cost of replacing blower motors and blower motor resistors.
This was one of the first databits I found:
Today has been a very bad day of what’s been a couple of rough months in what’s turning out to be a pretty darned iffy year. Every time I turn around, something else is falling apart, and unfortunately one of those things is me. Life holds so many complications at the moment — most of them potentially terrifyingly expensive and a few of them life-threatening — that I’m tempted to find some method of just walking away to avoid dealing with everything. (In the case of Old Blue, that’s actually possible, as I live within walking distance of most places I need to go.)
But when — already totally freaked out about the costs and complications of life — I saw that price range, I broke down and laughed and cried. And no, of course I don’t take it seriously. But at that moment I just felt like the Internet was Out To Get Me.
FWIW, I couldn’t get that site to give me an actual Geo Prizm estimate and right now I really don’t care. I’m going to gorge myself with Mexican pizza, binge watch season two of Being Human (the Brit version), then drown my sorrows in a nice cup of hot, sweet decaf tea.
Hi Claire- hang in there! It was nice of that silly site to come to your rescue and allow hysteria to break through the melancholy.
Funny that. A few weeks ago the blower in my 84 Subaru GL decided to pop the fuse and replacing the fuse killed it within seconds again. SubeHeads are passionate Subaru folks, almost cult-like. So I found out easily online in Subaru forums it might just be a 15 dollar relay, or a 60 dollar blower, or both.
How are you enjoying Aidan Turner in Being Human? Can’t say I’ve seen it, but his work in that series and another, Desperate Romantics, reportedly led to his being cast as Ross Poldark in the new BBC remake of the Poldark series, which just finished up its second season on PBS’s Masterpiece to worldwide acclaim.
If you haven’t seen it, you might want to check it out. Besides the incredible production values, Turner is outstanding as the British officer protagonist returned from the American Revolutionary War, who rebels against everything from aristocratic niceties to evil bankers.to the colonialist system while driving women viewers wild in his tricorn hats and shirtless scything scenes.
I think you’d find some freedom-friendly values in the series. Turner’s character is a sort of Mal Reynolds character in period drama and with fewer humorous sidekicks (but don’t worry; there is a decent amount of comic relief).
Just a suggestion. ;^) Definitely bingeworthy.
Shopping on line can be a real challenge, along with the occasional hysterical hooting over the price range sometimes. 🙂 Amazon gets really goofy that way often. I was looking for some new winter boots and found some that looked EXACTLY like what I’ve wanted for years. Only problem was that the size I really need was not available, and when I clicked onto the next half size that would do ok… the price doubled!! No idea what that’s about… but I parked the item in my wish list and will go back to check on occasionally. Those goofy things do get fixed now and again.
So glad my 2002 Saturn is still good. A portion of the headliner is drooping by the passenger side, but I have not yet figured out how to fix it. Had to replace the struts in the rear this week, but they were original equipment. No other mechanical failures so far, but I expect more as the old crate slides toward being 15 years old.
Anyway, a good belly laugh and a cup of hot tea (caffeine for me!) goes a long way toward maintaining sanity in an otherwise insane world. Hang in there. 🙂
Beth — I first saw Aiden Turner in season one of Poldark. Haven’t yet watched season two. And yes, he’s definitely all that you say and he’s one of the main reasons I’m sticking with the British version of Being Human rather than going with the (similar, but so much MORE OF EVERYTHING) U.S. version. I didn’t know about Desperate Romantics, but right now I’ll check out any show in which Turner appears. (Well, except for those dreadful Hobbit movies; tried two of them and just could. Not. Watch.)
And yes, I love the Poldark character. In Being Human I also really like Russell Tovey’s George — poor, conscience-stricken Jewish werewolf.
Thanks for the good words and good wishes, guys. And Coyote Hubbard, I’m hoping (and expecting) that the fix for Old Blue will be that simple. I’m definitely not anticipating paying $80,000 and change!
“I was looking for some new winter boots and found some that looked EXACTLY like what I’ve wanted for years. Only problem was that the size I really need was not available, and when I clicked onto the next half size that would do ok… the price doubled!! No idea what that’s about…”
Yeah, I’ve noticed that, too. Very frustrating! I think in the case of different sizes/colors being priced so crazily it’s because they’re being offered by different vendors. But no question, Amazon itself plays around with prices. Whenever I need to buy something largish, I do what you did — put it in my wish list, then watch for its price to take a dive.
I remember there being a kind of defroster that plugged into the cigarette lighter and mounted on the dashboard. I don’t remember any more details than that, but might that be an option if yours turns out to be unfixable?
ellendra, I was looking at that option myself last week. None of the ones on the market at an affordable price were rated more than two stars. You cant get enough juice thru the lighter plug to make an effective defroster. you move up the cost ladder you can find some that work well but you have to hard wire it with heavy duty wiring, and with that, the higher costs, labor, its cheaper to buy a new blower.
To some extent it’s more expensive to make shoes on either tail of the size bell curve. A lot of manufacturing cost is setup. If 1,000 people want a particular style shoe in a popular size 10, you divide setup cost by 1,000. If 10 people want the same style in size 13 (what I wear) then the setup cost gets divided by 10. Plus, the same is true of stocking costs and several other factors.
I’m also going through that process, looking for a pair of brown Ropers in 13EE, now that my previous pair has holes in the second set of resoles.
Plug in defrosters… I live in NE Wyoming with sub zero temps for months on end, and have never had a frozen lock or needed a defroster. When it is warm, and you know the lock is dry, spray some WD40 into the lock and leave it. The WD40 won’t freeze ever. Renew the spray from time to time… I usually don’t remember more than once a year. I also wash the door and window seals at least once in the fall, and apply the spray protector stuff. No leaks so far…
Claire: IIRC, you have some ability and inclination to do basic electrical troubleshooting. In this case, I think that would be worth doing – even if you don’t intend to try to fix it yourself, if you have some idea of what the fault really is, you’ll be in a much better position to deal with a mechanic. In my experience (more extensive than I care to contemplate in any detail) when motors and resistors fail, they fail solid, whereas intermittent problems are more likely to be switch or wiring (especially connector) related. Here’s some links that may be helpful:
General system info and troubleshooting hints:
http://geometroforum.com/topic/3998249/1/
http://geometroforum.com/topic/5021840/1/
Blower motor removal, for a Toyota quite a bit newer than your car, but the motor assy itself looks to be identical (so it is almost certainly in the same location). Your older Chevy variant likely won’t require as much trim panel fussing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPQUc7L0Jdk
Replacement blower motor assy, ~$50. I’ve dealt with these folks before, and been very satisfied:
http://www.partsgeek.com/nd8jw6t-geo-prizm-blower-motor.html
I don’t know about defrosters, but I’d have that NPR thing looked into if I were you.
I agree with trying2b-amused: the intermittent nature of the blower problem suggests a loose wire or a faulty switch, not a bad blower. Do you have a mechanic who can test the circuit for you?
Trying2b — Thank you for the wealth of info. I agree with you and Laird that the intermittent nature of the problem suggests bad wiring or a bad switch. As of yesterday afternoon, the fan seems to have died completely, so it’s become pretty urgent to get it fixed. I do have a shade-tree mechanic who can probably fix this, whatever it is (and do it for somewhat under $80,000).
In fact, I suspect there’s a lot of iffy wiring in there somewhere. But I’ll still look into all the possibilities.
“I don’t know about defrosters, but I’d have that NPR thing looked into if I were you.”
🙂 What, you’d prefer I permanently tuned into the Mexican version of tuba-and-accordion oompah music? (Well, you may have a point there.)
Without looking but based on your comments about moisture getting inside, I’d wager a decent sum you have corrosion on a connector that is making continuity an iffy proposition. Best guess is a ground wire not continuously making contact.
Mike — You definitely have a point, especially given how many electrical things are misbehaving (radio, brake light, fan). Might be quite a bit of corrosion under the dash.
That poor little car has been leaking badly for years. Even with all my Gorilla taping, I still have to keep two Eva-Dry renewable dehumidifiers in the passenger area (http://amzn.to/2h4pslD). Those are marvelous little things to have in this climate. But even with them, the inside of the car is impossible to keep completely dry.
I think Mike has a good read on this. Sounds like a bad ground. Try hard wiring the blower motor directly and see if it will work. Then you will know if it is good.It could also be a loose wire near the fuse box. Not completely unheard of.
And don’t knock Mexican tuba music. I have a lot of Latina music loaded on my mp3 player. And I don’t speak a word of Spanish. It is just so good.
MamaLiberty, thumb tacks work to hold a headliner up and they are cheap.
I personally have about fifty thumbtacks holding my headliner up.
I had seen the first season of the British ‘Being Human’ years ago and didn’t realize that Poldark was in it – I’ll have to go back and watch the rest of it.