[olerud400]

So I'm very sad right now...

Driving through Union and Kenilworth today in that wonderful torrential downpour known as monsoon...

Trying to get back to my building parking lot - driving through some nice rivers, err lakes, err puddles.

Thump. Mini Dead.

Eventually when water drains enough, my coworkers (even my boss) help me pull and push the Mini into the parking lot..Engine is still dead.

There is oil in the water - I just think it's from the road and drains - rising water tends to do that...

No...I'm wrong. I notice something when the tow trunk (yay Mini Roadside Assistance even if it took them a while...). What I notice is oil spewing out the back of the engine.

So now my Mini is dead - or at least on life support - at Morristown Mini. Service was there so they checked me in and all - and will let me know. The tow trunk driver thinks the motor seized...

First question asked - "Do you have an aftermarket intake?" Fortunately I can answer no to that. All my interior mods - new swtiches, stereo, garage door opener wiring, etc. probably don't need to be removed either which is good.

I guess it's also good that I haven't done anything rash to the interior like the power trunk or painted dash - though those were both coming up (or so I had hoped). So I now wait in silence hoping it's ok...if you see a silver rent-a-look Mitsubish Lancer with a despondent driver honk cuz it's probably me!

In a word...DOH.

Adam

[stryder]

Mitsu Lancer's stink... I feel for you.

Any news yet from Morristown?

[olerud400]

mo-town sucks. i forgot how bad service has been with them. call at 11 - car not looked at. call at 2 - car will be looked at in 10 minutes... call at 7-7:40 - either voicemail with full mail box or "well they may have looked at the car but haven't put anything into the computer. I'm all alone so i don't know diddly"

[stryder]

How annoying. but not much you can do expect wait, and they probably know it.

[olerud400]

Well I got a call from the service advisor a little while ago.

1) Engine is hydrolocked - needs to be replaced
2) It's an act of g-d occurrence (he even mentioned floods in the plains states)
3) I have to call my insurance company who:
(a) just sent me a letter saying my rates could go up from a ticket last year (speeding)
(b) I just had to fight through the Dept. of Banking and Insurance and my state
Senator's office to get them to agree to the required 5% insurance discount (good
for 3 years) for taking a Defensive Driving class for which they initially refused
4) So now I'm waiting in agony for a fax with approx. cost of replacement before calling them...

Mind you this is just over a year after I was non-renewed by my previous Car Insurance provider for an accident I had in 1999...it actually boiled down to getting caught in a hail storm last April and arrive from that with a $5K damage bill.

Not the best for my Mini - not even two years old...

Adam

[stryder]

Good luck with the insurance fight, but usually (of course in theory) they're pretty good about covering uncontrollable acts. Not sure that helps much though, because usually they don't fight over stupid 5% discounts.