Vehicle may be old, but I can fix it

Our lives have become way too complicated and so have our automobiles.

Mysterious instrument lights come on for a while then go away.

Malfunctions pop up and then correct themselves.

I'm pretty comfortable driving with an instrument panel that isn't completely functioning. Growing up I frequently drove a truck that had a speedometer that never worked and I've driven lots of vehicles on which the speed didn't register correctly.

My dad always told us to drive using the tachometer or the sound of the engine rather than the speedometer. These days with nearly soundproof cabins it's a little hard to drive by the sound of the engine and nobody has any idea what that tachometer is really for, so that makes that bit of fatherly advice as worthless as his father's advice to grip the reins firmly when driving a four-horse hitch.

I'll admit I'm not driving the newest vehicles on the block by a long shot, but they are paid for and have model years in this century (barely). Old vehicles aren't a problem if you have enough of them parked around the yard and you don't plan on going out of town or using them for work. Right now I'm down to just a couple clunkers and problems have cropped up.

My 13-year-old pickup threw up an ABS (automatic braking system) light and then a check engine light a long time back. The ABS is actually malfunctioning but the brakes work fine and that truck without the speedo cable never had ABS so I know a little about stopping without locking up my wheels anyway. Fred Flinstone would be proud.

One day as I was servicing the pickup in preparation for an out of town trip, it quit starting. Headlights burned brightly but it wouldn't even turn over. Just for grins I tried jumpstarting it and it fired right off.

Well, I'm not leaving town in it on that note so I took the battery down to have it tested. Since it tested a little weak we replaced it and I took off on the trip. While gone the check engine light went out mysteriously.

With no problems I figured I had the problem solved until one day when I needed it at work. Backed up to unload Ag Expo supplies it failed again and this time jumpstarting didn't work. Thinking it might be the starter, a buddy gave it a thump and the thing fired up. Three weeks later it's still starting every time the check engine light is back on and I'm stumped.

Similarly an out of town trip in the car produced an emissions light that illuminated for a while then went out and still hasn't come back.

I was thinking maybe it's time to trade up for a newer vehicle until I got a call from my mother on a trip in her van, which is actually manufactured this decade. She was having mysterious rear door problems, which they finally decided was a battery.

After buying a battery she drove all the way home with an error message displayed on her radio and no radio. I had been through that problem with my own Honda and was able to set hers right much quicker than my own.

A four-horse team and wagon is starting to sound pretty dependable.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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