It appears that the sick bug going from person to person in my house, has finally left. I hope it has at least. The Wife and oldest have returned to their regular daytime activities, and once again I have the house to myself. Yesterday I was feeling quite a bit more worn out than usual, and worried I might be coming down ill, but I awoke this morning feeling fine. I may have been skipped with all the sharing we have had this time around.
The Wife's van is leaking radiator fluid. Quite some time ago we noticed the temperature gauge starting to read higher than normal, so checked the fluid level. Seeing it was low, I added water (yes, instead of some 50/50 mix) as I needed to see if I could tell where it was leaking from. No luck. We were not finding any drips or spots on the ground even after driving it around. The problem was just assumed to be a regular thing and needed to be topped off. Except it happened about every 3-4 weeks. After the third time, we knew we needed to figure out what is wrong and where is the fluid going. I thought hard about it and came to the possible conclusion that since I was using just water, with no anti-freeze/coolant mixed in, that the water was reaching steam point temps, and thus was escaping through the overflow once the pressure reached a certain point. Thus, when the engine cooled, there would be a shortage of fluid. Sure sounds reasonable.
No leak had been found as of this point, so I went ahead and bought coolant. I poured it into the system with the mix ration it recommended. Filled the jug with water, and put in the back of the van for emergency use. Seemed okay for awhile, until yesterday. The Wife had to run over to the MIL's, and had just left the house when I arrived back. There was quite a bit of liquid on the drive. It was definitely coolant and water. From the location, it looked like it might be a radiator hose leakage. So I checked it when she got home, but can find no damage, cracks, wear, etc in the hosing, and the vehicle wasn't leaking at that point (when she first drove back in).
So I don't know what the problem is. When we bought it last summer, there is a warranty on a majority of the vehicle, so I will be calling the dealership as to when I can get it in for them to check the system. I think it may be a radiator leak, not the hose. In which case, it should be covered. If it is just a hose, they'll prolly charge me 4x the price to do it. In the meantime, I told the Wife to watch the temp and we'll keep fluid in it as often as we can until I can get it in the shop. Good thing about getting it to the dealer, is one of the automatic sliding doors isn't working properly, too, so maybe it can be looked at as well.
I just dread the whole dealer thing. Between waiting for a day to get it in, and how long they may have it. Add it the pressure of having to drive to the far west side of town to pick-up/drop-off the Wife for work while it is in the shop.... Not something I am looking forward to. I may have to call RM and PT to help get me to/from the dealer at least for the van. I am sure they would be willing.
RM made us dinner last night, to help the Wife out since she was recovering from being ill. RM prepared her 'Garbage' dish. I think the story behind the name goes back to when I was in high school, and RM prepared a dish with a bunch of 'throw togethers' and baked it sort of like a casserole. There was no recipe, and I presume dinner convo went something like her asking what should we call it. Someone (I don't recall who) said garbage, since it was made from stuff that was going to the garbage anyways if not used. Somehow the name stuck. Either way, it was nice to have RM do that to help out, and I enjoyed having some since I can't remember the last time I ate the stuff. Thanks RM.
Planning on the movies tomorrow morning with PT. We are going to see 'Argo'. It may be the last movie I see in in the theater for awhile. RM has a couple passes I guess we will be using. That'll save $5 at least.
Welp, guess I should get busy calling the dealer about getting the van in.
PeacE
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