From the fun at the dealership, the car continued on in its fun ability to help me have adventures I wasn't planning on having. Next up - the battery.
I went out to start my beloved car about two weeks after it was towed to the dealership, and wouldn't you know - the battery was dead. The weather here in Colorado had changed, and it was quite a bit cooler, so us locals are used to things like this happening. Thank goodness I was living with my mom and brother, so I just called my brother and he gave me a jump. An important thing to note is that the battery is in the back of the car, under the hatch.
Once I had time I started to call around to get quotes on how much it would cost to replace my battery. Because of the kind of car, the batteries are harder to come by. The Mini Cooper dealership in town was willing to replace it, but it was a rediculous amount - over $200! Are you kidding me? For a battery? And, they didn't even have a battery in stock and didn't know when they would be getting one. Um yeah, no thanks.
I finally tracked down a battery at NAPA, and I decided to exert my feminine powers and change it out myself. I have a tool box that was given to me when I turned 16, and it has girly tools in it. These tools are not the size they should be, so the project turned into quite a production with plyers being used to turn the wrench... I'm willing to give lessons if anyone is interested... Here's the finished product - I was quite proud!
Just an inside scoop on this - the cover for the battery doesn't stay up on its own, so I had to use my fun-sized tools, hold the cover up with my head, and bend over so it looked like my car was eating me whole. My sister-in-law walked out right as this was all taking shape and got quite the chuckle.
So, I replaced the battery and continued on my happy way... For a couple of weeks at least. Two weeks after the replacement was completed I was driving back from Denver to Fort Collins, and the flat tire light began flashing. Fantastic! I was right near an exit that's pretty large and well lit, so I pulled in to the gas station and used their tire guage. Their tire guage was spring loaded, and it was dark, so there was no way I could tell what my tire pressure was reading.
I'm a gutsy girl. Hence the name of this blog... I marched myself up to a truck, knocked on the door, and a very kind trucker from Kentucky popped his head out. I'm sure he was wondering what the heck was going on with a little white girl from Colorado knocking on his door in the middle of the night... Oh well - you gotta do what you gotta do. And I needed his help.
He very kindly got out of his toasty warm truck and began rolling around on the pavement around my car, testing the tire pressure. What a kind gentleman! He told me that the car tires looked like they would get me home, but I needed to get the car in to the dealership and have them look it over.
I took the car in to the dealership to do just that the very next day. The car was in and out in a matter of 2 minutes after I asked them to check my battery installation job as well as my tires. They reassured me that all was well, and my car was just fine. The light continued to flash, but that's not something they could fix because they weren't a Mini dealership and didn't know how to reset it. I could deal with a flashing light as long as my car was fine.
Little did I know that I was going to have troubles with both of them... and the emergency hatch release... Stay tuned for more of the mis-adventure!
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