So long, Rover..
In late April/early May she started losing antifreeze, but without any drips or signs of leaking at all. We checked the oil dipstick and found that our antifreeze was mixing with the engine oil. Never a good sign. That could only mean one thing: blown head gasket. So we had to take the pickup down to Salt Lake for school, and while we were there I found some interesting information about our car. The engine block is made of aluminum, while the cylinders are steel. Aluminum heats faster than steel of course, so when the block got hot the cylinders would start slipping until they reached the same tempurature. The slipping caused the head gasket to crack. Lance was fully prepared to undertake the task of replacing the gasket, until we realized (from reading online reviews) the problem would never go away, and we would have to continue replacing head gaskets for the life of the car! Furthermore, I had been driving it while running antifreeze with the oil, so who knows how long until the blow up..? Lance poured in a quick fix head gasket sealer with new antifreeze, then drained the oil/antifreeze mix and refilled the oil. Meanwhile I researched cars online until I settled on an Acura MDX. The best price I could find on a used MDX was at a lot in American Fork, Utah. So a few days after we got back from school, Andrea, Andy, and I took off in the Rover headed to Salt Lake. We spent the night and in the morning drove to the lot in American Fork. The check engine light came on a block away from the lot because a cylinder started misfiring, but I'm just thankful we actually made it there! The 3 salesmen were from Idaho Falls and were excited to take the trade (yikes!) I loved the MDX I had found on their website, so Andrea kept Andy busy while I worked out all the paperwork. I'm so glad she was able to come with us because it would've been very difficult for me to take care of him and get everything done with the cars all by myself. The salesman I was working with (Brad) had adopted a baby of his own, so we were talking adoption and when I told him that Andrea was Andy's birthmother he about fell out of his chair! And a little while later I said goodbye to the Freelander and we were homeward bound. I thought I would miss the Land Rover, but the MDX drives very similar to it, so it wasn't much of an adjustment. And I'm liking all the extra features on the Acura to miss the rover too much! And so it is true, we are on our 13th car in 6.5 years. Pictures to come..
In late April/early May she started losing antifreeze, but without any drips or signs of leaking at all. We checked the oil dipstick and found that our antifreeze was mixing with the engine oil. Never a good sign. That could only mean one thing: blown head gasket. So we had to take the pickup down to Salt Lake for school, and while we were there I found some interesting information about our car. The engine block is made of aluminum, while the cylinders are steel. Aluminum heats faster than steel of course, so when the block got hot the cylinders would start slipping until they reached the same tempurature. The slipping caused the head gasket to crack. Lance was fully prepared to undertake the task of replacing the gasket, until we realized (from reading online reviews) the problem would never go away, and we would have to continue replacing head gaskets for the life of the car! Furthermore, I had been driving it while running antifreeze with the oil, so who knows how long until the blow up..? Lance poured in a quick fix head gasket sealer with new antifreeze, then drained the oil/antifreeze mix and refilled the oil. Meanwhile I researched cars online until I settled on an Acura MDX. The best price I could find on a used MDX was at a lot in American Fork, Utah. So a few days after we got back from school, Andrea, Andy, and I took off in the Rover headed to Salt Lake. We spent the night and in the morning drove to the lot in American Fork. The check engine light came on a block away from the lot because a cylinder started misfiring, but I'm just thankful we actually made it there! The 3 salesmen were from Idaho Falls and were excited to take the trade (yikes!) I loved the MDX I had found on their website, so Andrea kept Andy busy while I worked out all the paperwork. I'm so glad she was able to come with us because it would've been very difficult for me to take care of him and get everything done with the cars all by myself. The salesman I was working with (Brad) had adopted a baby of his own, so we were talking adoption and when I told him that Andrea was Andy's birthmother he about fell out of his chair! And a little while later I said goodbye to the Freelander and we were homeward bound. I thought I would miss the Land Rover, but the MDX drives very similar to it, so it wasn't much of an adjustment. And I'm liking all the extra features on the Acura to miss the rover too much! And so it is true, we are on our 13th car in 6.5 years. Pictures to come..
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