Heather and I ran a few errands Saturday, including the first part of our three stop cake testing extravaganza (more on that in a later post). Unfortunately my Escape had different ideas, and refused to start when we were leaving a tux shop.
I will say that AAA pretty much sold us on getting a membership once we are married. The free tow would nearly make it worth it, and the addition of an extremely helpful tow truck driver pretty much sealed the deal. There was no question he was willing to go miles out of his way to drop me off at the church for an engagement, or for driving heather back to her car after dropping my Escape off at the shop. He also spent almost an hour trying different things to get us going before resorting to towing.
Now the downside is, from what the mechanic tells me this morning, he was completly miss-diagnosing the problem. The symptoms were that the dome lights came on, and the automatic locks were fine, but when I turned the key *nothing* happened. No clicks, no fans, nothing. Even putting the ignition in the “run” position wouldn’t let you roll down the windows or turn on the radio.
The theory the AAA guy was working under was that the on board security system had tripped, preventing the power from being engaged for ether the “run” or “start” positions. Everything he tried was related to tricks to reset the security system (apparently a problem he sees quite often). The last thing he tried was unhooking the battery for 5 minutes, and while he was at it he tested the battery and cleaned the terminals.
The shop told me over the phone that I just needed a new battery. Completely plausible considering the one in there is at least 6-7 years old. The symptoms don’t quite seem to add up to a weak battery, but its hard for me to know given I didn’t see the tester when the AAA guy checked it. If a new battery fixes it great, I just hope its still not some weirdness in the security system that just reset after setting outside the shop all day Sunday
-Jordan
Nelsons 