The Angry Red Car

Yesterday was quite a mixed bag. I checked my email to find that I had some work to do. WHOO HOO! The place that hired me on in the middle/end of February ended up hearing back from the individual they were waiting on. I was excited to get to work on it, so I worked really quickly and got it done in the morning, sending a draft to them that afternoon.

We went out to run some errands and to get Wifey's car (a red 2001 Hyundai Accent) an emissions test. The errands went well, but as soon as we pulled up to the emissions place, the check engine light went on.

Uh-oh.

Needless to say, we failed. I had tried to get it tested last Saturday, but it ended up that the engine was revving too high, so we got it fixed. There was a big hole in one of the hoses that connects to the engine, so it was letting in a lot of air where there shouldn't be air coming in.  I thought I was in the clear after getting it fixed once, but evidently not.

I'm usually not one to be angry. But this really got my goat. The reason why is because this car has been notorious for failing emissions. When Wifey bought it, she found out that there was a problem when she went to get it tested the first year. The schmuck who sold it to her had removed the check engine light so that she wouldn't know. He also neglected to tell her that the car had been in an accident and had the engine rebuilt. With this in mind, it is better that I didn't post yesterday, otherwise I would have inserted some more colorful language into this post...

Every year when we get emissions test notices from the state, a pit starts forming in my stomach. I dread having to pull up and have them plug in their computer to test it. In my mind, it means that we are going to have to spend a couple hundred dollars in order to try to get it fixed. In years past, we have replaced the camshaft sensor and the gas cap. This year was the hose.

Today I went back after unhooking the battery. After praying to everything holy, the light went off and didn't come back on when I had to start the car back up.

I was almost in shock when the guy handed me my results saying I passed. But I'm not one to bring up the fact that it has not passed in previous years, so I drove away while being unsure what to do next. I'm sure the light will come on in the next few days, but for the time being, we are in the system and can officially drive the car.