This is weird, just really weird.
A couple of months ago, I noticed there'd be the start of a hesitation--not a hesitation itself, but the start of one--for about the first five or ten minutes after I'd turned it on.
I thought perhaps it was the fuel pump; more than two years ago, the local mechanic, who's known this car since it was brand-new (I wasn't the original owner), told me the fuel pump was going bad.....but then offered tips on how to prolong its life* (fuel pumps aren't cheap), which I then started doing.
Well, after all this time running on a "going bad" fuel pump, I figured it was inevitable.
I mean, how many can run a vehicle more than two years after its fuel pump went bad, so I got no complaints.
At the same time, I did notice this "hes-hes-hes-" (the start of hesitations) occurred only in mornings, and only in mornings where the preceding night had been damp (not necessarily rainy, but damp).
The mechanic checked it, and said, "well, it's still going bad, but doing what you're doing, it's still got life in it."
He replaced the fuel filter, a $17 job, part and labor.
(He showed me the fuel filter right as he took it out; I guess it was clogged.)
That worked for some weeks--the car ran slicker than a pig sliding on ice--but then I noticed the starting-in-the-morning-after-a-damp-night thing began again.
But then on Wednesday morning, after a very damp night, when I turned the key, while the ignition turned over and all that, something refused to "catch," so as to make the motor run continuously and harmoniously.
I finally flooded the engine, and the mechanic in town had to come to take the car away.
This afternoon, Friday afternoon, I asked him what he'd done, as the car ran easily and smoothly (it'd been returned to me Wednesday afternoon), starting up with no problem.
He said, "Well, we brought it in, and your engine was just flooded, nothing more than that."
A $12 charge for taking it in and bringing it out here again, no other charges.
I asked if perhaps the distributor cap was cracked. He showed me. Nope.
I asked if something might be wrong with the catalytic converter; he said he'd checked it out, and it was fine.
A new ignition had been installed in December 2011 by a mechanic in a small town far away from here (because that's where I was), also a new starter, new spark plugs, a tune-up, the whole bit. This other mechanic has an outstanding reputation, a great reputation, and there's no doubt about the quality of his work or the parts.
Okay. Not the fuel pump, not the fuel filter, not the ignition, not the starter, not the catalytic converter, not the distributor cap, not the battery.
Even though the car at present is running as if just off the assembly line, I sort of suspect the next time there's a damp night here, ooooops.
If this happens again, what haven't I considered thus far, as the source of the problem.
*as I don't make a whole lot of money, and am so tight I make Ebenezer Scrooge look like Santa Claus, this mechanic and the second one mentioned further on have always been knowledgeable about, and sympathetic of my plight; considerate of my funds.
