April 2018. We bid on a car at
Copart. Like
IAA, it's a place where insurance companies sell the totaled cars after they pay their customers the market value. They usually specify the areas where the car was damaged. This one has been listed as "minor scratches and damages". We saw the car prior at the auction lot, together with one hundred others. Did not realize the car was actually in an accident, partially fixed and put back in auction and sold again at a higher price. I paid a total of 45 hundred dollars, including Copart fees.
When i went and picked it at the auction site, the car was driveable, but was making a weird noise at the engine. The mud cover on the right front was damaged, the fender was not holding in place, battery was almost dead and 5 years old. Serpentine belt was bent by a foreign object that gut between belt and pulleys at the time of the accident. When i got home i found in the trunk the broken windshield washer reservoir and the right headlight. Car was painted on the right side, with the right door and fender damaged. It was unclear if the right door airbag was still functional, though no dashboard light was on.
They were some sort of crystals on the windshield and hood, maybe from car being driven behind a de-icer that did not go away after a year or something, impairing visibility. Nr.1 and 2 cylinders had spark plug loose (0 torque) and there was oil in the cylinders and on the threads and inside the spark plug wheels. The shoulder at the bottom of the spark plug wheels where the washers of the spark plugs seal sit was damaged and it was impossible to seal the spark plug when torquing it. Exhaust was leaking by the spark plugs in the engine compartment. Hood was bent (never fixed) and was not touching the seal with exhaust coming through the air intake grill in the cabin. There was oil in the the cylinders and on the spark plug threads.
3 years of struggle followed, with me working at the cars for hours, several days a week.
First went to Beaverton Hyundai and bought a battery and had it installed. Bought there a serpentine belt and installed it. Bought on Amazon a 6 mm diameter camera (about 20 bucks) to look inside the cylinders where i did not see piston slap damage but oil.
I tried to wipe the spark plug threads with balls of cotton soaked in alcohol, but they were not holding.
Designed and build in a machine shop a tool to resurface the shoulders of the spark plug holes. Finally torqued the spark plugs. Ordered a mud cover for right front on ebay and installed it. Ordered a windshield washer reservoir and installed it. Straightened the hood by stepping on it while hood semi-open, several times over the years. Did not realize the plastic grill was still leaking in several places by design, until about a week before the accident. Over 3 years i drove the car from 35 k to almost 100, while breathing exhaust inside the cabin, though less and less.
Did not realize the battery connectors could not be tightened enough, and were constantly getting loose, again by design, with battery never fully charging, until i bought a plug in USB charger with a digital voltmeter and because of needing jump starts several times after exhausting the battery with radio and fan in parking lots i also bought a 40 dollars 10000 mah li-ion smart jump starter on Amazon.
There was foam in the oil indicating sticky valves and squishy lifters. Tried to use some valve cleaner for the noise and injector cleaner additive inside the tank. As that wasn't working, i tried to clean the throttle body when i saw the inside of the composite intake manifold, which was installed in front of the compartment, or the left side of the engine, which was oily.
I tried and used a 3/8 piece of vinyl tube connected to a vacuum cleaner and pulled from the intake ounces of oil. It was then when i realized that oil from the PCV was condensing inside the cold manifold that was installed in front of the engine compartment and pooling at the bottom of the intake which was installed upside down, by design, with the bottom bellow the runners, unlike any car i seen before. From there, oil was trickling up the runners, burning on valves and making them sticky, especially at number one cylinder. More oil was getting inside the cylinder, lubricating the piston rings unevenly, contaminating spark plugs, etc..
I pulled the injectors and tried to clean them applying voltage and some solvent from a spray can. Can had twice the pressure of the fuel and blew the injectors microfilters. I had to buy new injectors from dealer, for 400 bucks.
Over the years, i designed and installed several versions of catch cans on the PCV circuit, trying to minimize the amount of oil that gets in the intake which i was vacuuming "regularly" with a device i designed myself, made of a piece of tubing and a mat pump. With the last version of the catch can i could not vacuum oil from the intake anymore, there was none left.
A few months ago i bought an Exide battery and installed it and the noise was gone for a few hours. That was until the nuts at the connectors got loose again. Weeks before the accident i degreased the connectors together with the 8 bolts and nuts that were around the battery connectors and sealed the nuts on top with some adhesive. The voltage on the plug in charger with digital voltmeter was finally showing 14.3 volts while driving, 14.1 while idling. In the day of the accident, the noise was almost gone.
The noise was coming from the nr.1 cylinder or the furthest on the fuel rail, where fuel had not enough pressure because of low voltage at the fuel pump and injector was dripping, causing uneven washing of the cylinder, with probably some slap while the engine cold, and not enough fuel washing the oil condensed on runner and trickling on valve, which was not getting washed enough because of low voltage at the fuel pump, making the valve stick and the lifer squish oil which was foamy. One cylinder working less than others meant vibration at the engine which meant poor driveability at high speed.
When i did rear brakes, a couple of years ago, i saw the indicators for pad wearing were bent and acting like springs, pushing the pads on the rotor, diminishing mileage.
Over the years, the car was doing an average of 35 mpg on the freeway and @20 in stop and go traffic. The car was quite comfortable to drive, due to soft suspension and many options, including working AC, bluetooth and satellite radio (which we did not subscribe for). In the days prior to the accident it was in its best shape ever, with smooth running engine, good driveability and almost no noise.
On August 19 Angela told me on the phone she had a flat. On the same tire there was another, several months ago when i got it fixed at Les Schwab in Lake Oswego. When she got home, i found low pressure in right rear, enough to trigger the sensor, put the tire in the tub full of water and didn't see any bubbles. I took the tire, for precaution, at the same Les Schwab shop in Lake Oswego.
There i spoke to a guy who resembled the current Finance Minister of Romania. Of course i didn't realize right away. Inside there was this Hungarian opera singer who acted like Phil Wick, Les Schwab's CEO after the death of Les Schwab.
The Romanian guy called me inside the shop which didn't happen in a long time, i went reluctantly after he called me a couple of times and showed me a tire similar to mine that had a damaged rim for about 1/6 length of the whole rim. He told me if it was from a previous installation which was in the same shop and asked me if wanted a new tire, i asked him if he had
Michelin, the brand that was originally on car when i got it, he said no, if he can get it by tomorrow, he said we should talk in the morning, he had the number on my record, he then put the tire back on the wheel, inflated it and the wheel in the trunk. He insisted to put it there himself. This car doesn't come with a spare, though it has the space for it in the trunk. I found one at the junkyard, from a Ford that fitted. Though spare was new, the car was not driving the same as with the original wheel, especially at high speeds on the freeway. In the same evening i re-ordered a couple of tires similar to those in front which i changed more than a year ago, similar to the original ones. They were scheduled to arrive Monday, however they came Saturday morning or the day after the accident.
Friday evening i drove to Ilany, after both of us changed our mind, first Angela, then me, not to go that evening. 40 miles one way, had some difficulty driving, the car was drifting a bit, they were lots of drivers with weird LPN like KGB harassing us, as usually in the last few years. So i had to go with the speed limit.
In that day when she came from work she said she saw a light on the dashboard, it was the light showing something wrong with the airbags.
At midnight 20/21 i was coming back doing 60 in a 60 area on cruise control (which is kinda slow i recon). I was in the middle lane, because i was close to the interstate bridge where i don't want to drive on side lanes. Suddenly i noticed i was surrounded by a group of cars, left, right and behind. I saw in the mirror the lights from behind approaching at high speed, probably 20 over the speed limit. I could not change lanes, though the cars left and especially right might have slowed down in that moment, living me alone. Thing is i can't remember, because it all happened very fast. All i know is in my mind i had few options except to tell Angela to brace for impact and probably i accelerated in the last few seconds, reducing the difference in speed between the vehicles. For one second i thought he gave up then he accelerated too and i felt the impact. I was pushed forward at higher speed while all the other cars in the group fell behind. When i realized i still had control of the car i looked, the right lane was free, i veered right, stopped on the shoulder and tried to see his LPN. However when he passed he was surrounded by the other cars. All i could see was the tail of a huge white Ford pickup with the letters 4x4 on the tail. I took a picture of the car which was pretty damaged but still driveable (in the end, after talking to the cops who called a towing company who didn't want to go that far, calling our own towing that wasn't calling back, i drove the 22 miles from there to home, on right lane, and i had to pull over at least one time because of a truck that was coming again threatening from the rear).
The Washington State police came within 5 minutes. The cop looked bored and interested in a car that zoomed at high speed. He left the front lights on onto my car and i could not see his face. He said i should not drive the car back home cause it could not take another hit like that, which in the end almost happened. However, i do remember he looked like
this guy.
He then agreed to drive before me (while another Police SUV came from behind, following me) and pilot me to a safe place. He exited the freeway than choose a street with poor illumination, near a property called
G&G in the Minnehaha neighborhood of Vancouver, Washington, 2 miles away from Columbia river and Oregon.
There he asked me to write on a form called SUSPECT/WITNESS statement what happened and sign it. Then he asked me this question. What happened right after the impact? Because only those who survived such impact know what happens. The speed of your vehicle increases and that of the vehicles who hit you decreases. I think it was a test question. However, he did not write on the report "hit and run" which could have triggered a call for potential witnesses in the media.
Then he called their contracted towing company which came but refused to tow us "because of the distance". So i called the insurance, but the menus where such designed i had to file the claim first which meant an almost one hour conversation with the insurance claims rep. The cop left, the towing left and we were all alone on the dark street. I had to pee in a bottle i had in the thank that was crushed by the accident. The towing was not coming, i tried to call insurance again, got lost in menus and then i decided to drive back home. As i got on the freeway at around 2 AM, towing called saying they are within 10 minutes distance.
to be continued
