Living Car Free - Is it a bad thing when an auto tranny sounds like gravel in a garbage disposal?

Ok, this is going to take some explaining and I am going to vent more than a little bit here. I dare someone to have a worse night than I have had tonight.

My parents have decided to get away for a week or two to get away form the house and just enjoy each others company in my fathers’ place where he works on the opposite end of the state. So they leave me alone with my two youngest siblings (I’m 23 and they are 17) and even though I am doing most of the housework (which I expected) things are going fairly well. I am sitting at home and for some reason I have a craving for a McDonald’s Fish sandwich (something I eat once every couple of months at the most). Anyway I decide after I take all the trash out (it is collected early tomorrow morning so this is trash night) I am going to make a fast trip to go get my fish sandwich.

So I decide to see if I can just dump some week old rotting soup down the garbage disposal to make it faster. I chose the smallest of the three containers (one that will hold at least 3-4 cups of water) and dump it down the drain with the water running like always. I then flip the switch and much to my surprise nothing happens. The garbage disposal chose just then to completely die on me. So now I have a garbage disposal, and drain full of rotting soup and about 1/3 of a sink of rancid water. I get to experience the joy of picking at least 3 cups of rotting soup out of a garbage disposal that I do not trust to not just suddenly turn on again while my hand is in it even though I know it is off and malfunctioning.

I finally pick all of the soup out without getting my hand shredded by some miracle and then all I have to deal with is a 1/3 of a sink full of very unpleasant looking water. To make a long story short I discovered that my fist is the perfect size to make a great plunger for the drain. This is apparently a useful bit of information to know. It took a good while but the rancid water finally goes down the hole and I am left with a trash bag half filled with things better left unmentioned and my hands smelling much the same as the stuff in the trash bag.

So I finish taking the trash out and I clean myself up to a point where I no longer feel and smell like I was violated by what came from the fridge. I warn my siblings that they should refrain from using the garbage disposal and then get in my car to take the short trip to the closest McDonalds about three miles away (to far to ride by bike in the dark and at below freezing temperatures). After spending over an hour with the creations of the dark side of the fridge I feel I have earned the damned sandwich regardless of weather it is basically poison or not (my personal sentiments towards about 95+% of fast food).

So I finally get my tasty bit of fish and as soon as I start to leave something even more unexpected and at least as unpleasant as the rancid soup and water happens to me. Just as I make my first left turn to head away from the second drive through window my transmission starts sounding similar to what gravel in a garbage disposal might sound like (I am guessing there). Basically lots of loud grinding and almost no motion coming from an auto tranny at under 15 mph, a bad sign. So here I am in the exiting lane (off to the side, I was able to get mostly out of the way) with a car that has a working engine and no working tranny. There is nothing but grinding from every gear I try to put it into, then it starts rolling backwards in Drive so I just kill it and call my younger siblings to come and pick me up. After spending several minutes trying every combination I could to get the ****ing thing to move I turn it off and then back on and the grinding sound is no longer there. I drive the 20 feet it takes to get to a safe parking spot and then I shut it down again until my siblings arrive about 15 minutes later. The car decides it wants to work now so they follow me while I take it to a deserted parking lot out of everyone’s way and park it there. That PoS is staying there for a while as well, probably days if not a full week (it has royally gotten on my Black List for this stunt). They then take me home after making a quick stop at Subway for themselves where I proceed to notify my parents on the opposite side of the state of this evenings happenings and then get online to post this in an effort to calm myself.

It looks as if I am going to be living car-free for the next couple of days at least, fortunately the weather is warming up and it is going to be in the low to mid 50s for the next week here. I had already begun to replace the car with my nice shiny Trek 7500 shown in the pic below and it looks as if I am going to get a much greater opportunity to do so in the upcoming days. My mother is concerned about me doing to many miles but to be honest I only have on appointment out of town this week so the 7500 will meet nearly all of my transportation needs, that is one of the main reasons I bought it anyway. I intended to replace about ¼ to ½ of my driving with the bike and I already know that it can get me anywhere I need to go in town as does my mother so this will not really be that big of a deal until I have to pay for a repair bill for the Corolla if it comes to that.

I hate to make my parents come back home early due to worry but I might not be able to help it.

For those interested here is a pic of my 7500 with my friend Joe in the background.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/9946/img07519pw.jpg

It's a bad thing. Check the transmission fluid. If it's dark looking/smells burned you're probably going to need some $ervice.

If you had taken your bike to get the fish sandwich in the first place, your night would've been much better. =)

Cars suck. And to answer the original question: no, it isn't a bad thing when a car makes that noise. It means you'll be spending much more time in the saddle! =)

If you had taken your bike to get the fish sandwich in the first place, your night would've been much better. =)

Cars suck. And to answer the original question: no, it isn't a bad thing when a car makes that noise. It means you'll be spending much more time in the saddle! =)

Remember when I said this? (To far to ride by bike in the dark and at below freezing temperatures).

Cars alone do not suck but misuse of them does, automobiles are useful devices designed to improve the welfare of people and they do just that. Normally I would not have just jumped in the car for something so trivial as just running across town for junk food (in fact recently that has been one of the 7500s main functions) but after the devil of a time I had just prior to my trip and the traveling conditions outside I decided I deserved a treat of some kind regardless of what it was. This was the first time in over three days the Corolla had even been turned on because all trips otherwise had been done by bike.

On a side note I checked the transmission fluid and it looks and smells perfect and there is more than enough for the transmission to function properly. It was pretty cold last night and it is not uncommon for old cars to have one time screw ups like this in cold conditions, it is something I have experienced numerous times in the past. I will make an appointment for the transmission to be checked later this week and until that time as far as I am concerned the Corolla is grounded unless I have no choice but to use it.

I'd avoid driving it....I tried to limp a work vehicle that was making a similar noise like that along for a few days, thinking because it worked "okay" for awhile, it would get me back to the office 60 miles away (didn't know much about cars then). It lasted two days, then the transmission quit entirely and I had to get it towed to a mechanic. Turns out a needle bearing had fallen out of its race somewhere in the trans, and had been merrily trashing the rest of the vitals all the time I was driving it. It cost my employer a new transmission for the car, and nearly cost me my job. Cars!!

What the hell does this have to do with bicycles or living carfree?

What the hell does this have to do with bicycles or living carfree?
That's an excellent point, Roody, but as a relative newbie I didn't want to be the one to bring it up. Is it just me or do we need a little more moderation around here? What with certain car-loving members trolling in various LCF sub-forums, and entire non-topical subforums like this one, maybe it's time for a little enforcement.

It is car free because it is now forcing me to be car free for a while.

There is no royal road to becoming carfree. But some ways are quicker than others. A bad transmission is one of the fastest!

There is no royal road to becoming carfree. But some ways are quicker than others. A bad transmission is one of the fastest!

Indeed it is! I think I will make it a point to bring the 7500 with me every place I go until I know for sure that this was just a one time thing and I do not have something seriously wrong with the car. I will run some errands tomorrow and try to get it to the mechanic then, I have wanted to test the cycling experience in the next town over anyway, this could be a great chance if it is over 50 degrees tomorrow!

This does have some up side that hopefully will not be ruined by a $1000+ repair bill I simply cannot pay right now.

I think I will make it a point to bring the 7500 with me every place I go until I know for sure that this was just a one time thing and I do not have something seriously wrong with the car.

Again, really not car-free, in fact this is just the opposite. Apparently you are not "forced to be car free" as you previously said. At any rate, "car free for a while", because your car broke down, is definitely not living car free, especially if it's forced rather than a choice. Please keep this kind of thing in the Foo forum. It really doesn't belong here.

Remember when I said this? (To far to ride by bike in the dark and at below freezing temperatures).


Oh! It was DARK! Oh, sory, I must have missed that part. Of course, everyone here who is car free never rides in the dark, because bike lights are a mystery that have yet to be solved so that they can be common enough for everyone to use. (end sarcasm here)

No, really reptile blade, I'm just joking around. But seriously, 3 miles in nothing. Put on your heavy gloves, put a light on the bike, and go. Doing that would have been much easier than dealing with a messed up tranny.

And, yeah, I can also imagine after being angry with the garbage disposal, you also didn't feel like pedaling. But the one-two punch of that disposal and then the car tranny must have been super frustrating. Go for a ride to burn off the stress!

Hope this day is shaping up better for you. =)