So my old car is sick again. Not really surprising for 36 and counting, is it? But anyway. The starter drive is not engaging in the ring gear properly, so about four times out of five, it just spins, sounding like an empty blender when you hit PULSE. So far, it's managed to start each time, eventually. I'm not at all confident in that continuing to happen ...

So I took it last week to Pep Boys where I got a new starter fitted last April. Yes, I know, they're a bunch of not-very-trained monkeys over there, and normally I wouldn't trust them to do more than sell me quarts of oil, but the first time it died with starter problems was right over the street from Pep Boys so I figured, what the hell? They managed to fit a new starter last time, which is still under parts warranty. So I take it, anyway, and after a couple of hours they call me and tell me that yes, it's gone, yes, they'll replace it under warranty, BUT ... not until I fix the oil and coolant leaks that are, they claim, getting into the starter and making it short out.

Now I know I have both sets of leaks. The block has some soft plugs that are leaking coolant, and those were scheduled for fixing, and I know the rocker cover gaskets are shot and that's probably what's leaking a good deal of the oil. But still, it sounds rather dubious to me, because the starter, fitting underneath the engine as it does, is in a prime exposed-to-the-elements position as it is. You'd think it would be waterproof. And oilproof.

The guys on my mailing list seem to agree; they reckon it's more likely that the starter's just not fitted right. Anyway, Pep Boys claim that if I take it somewhere else to get the leaks fixed (they can't do stuff like that) I can just bring the busted starter over to them while it's in the shop and they'll give me another starter to have the shop install. So I'll do that; I get a new starter AND don't have to trust them to install it right. So it goes in Monday (pay day). I'll see what my regular shop says about it. They're not the cheapest place in the world, but they know old cars (on the average day, half of the cars in there are 25 or older) and they do good work.

While I'm at it, I think a new radiator is called for. Let's get those cooling issues just out of the way and gone.

In other news, my job sucks. Not that that's news or anything ...