The transmission of my van didn't function very well when it was parked outside in cold condition for hours, especially overnight out of the garage. It took me several minutes to drive it forward because the transmission seemed stuck. Since I hadn't had my van's 30,000 miles maintenance performed, I assumed underperforming transmission oil and filter might cause the issue. However, this didn't happen when I missed this maintenance from 150,000 miles to 180,000 miles, but during that period of time, my van was still newer and it spanned from spring to summer, the temperature was much warmer.
As scheduled with Eric, who has owned a repair shop for decades and I have known for 15 years, I drove my van to his place in the morning. It was supposed to take a whole day, so I brought the novel I bought at bargaining price at Barnes & Noble during the holiday season with me. Walking around the little plaza Eric's shop close to, I grabbed a large cup of strip coffee at a gas station, then came back to the waiting area to read the book. The Counterfeit Agent was an very interesting story portrayed all over the places globally.
Eric only had transmission oil and filter replaced by his technicians and mentioned to me if the problem didn't go away, I should think about either having transmission box replaced which would cost $3,500 or buying a new car. I had a plan to buy a sedan with the price under 20K for my son after he would get his driver's license in this summer. Because we wouldn't go for a cross country trip, that plan was being held. If I needed to have my car replaced, I would buy one then and still keep this van. However, I would test by parking it in the cold weather for several days. If the problem was gone, I would stick with my plan on this van to keep it until 2018. As I shared, I bought it brand new at $30,000 in April, 2000 and I had put on 220,000 mileages on it.
After the maintenance, the van became pretty smoothly. Working for an entire day starting at 11:00 am, I left the office building in darkness. At that moment, I was able to drive the van to leave instantly after parking it in cold weather for more than 8 hours. Hopefully, the problem was gone.
Parking the car outside the garage, I would test if it would work appropriately on Friday morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment