AAAAHHHHHGHGGGGHGH!

Well, it happened again tonight. As the Vento was being cleaned in an autowash in Ames, the car just died. Then it wouldn’t start and was giving me the same symptoms as it did at the Atlantic GTG (see January 22 post). After some research, I’ve found the ignition coil to be the culprit. It’s located just under the driver side windshield wiper and is known to go out.

I was pretty ticked when it happened because it was freaking cold out today! Plus, I was trying to be nice to the Vento and give it a much needed bath, and she just quit on me right inside the wash bay. I didn’t even get to have the car dried off by the power dryer because I couldn’t get it started.

I ended up pushing the car out of the wash bay at 5pm and walked from the Taco John’s on Lincolnway all the way down to the movie theatres to check out Smokin’ Aces. I finally made my way back to the car around 7:30pm and she started up no problem.

About 5 minutes ago I ordered a bunch of stuff from German Auto Parts, including a new ignition coil, distributor cap, rotor, coolant flange (Jordan Motors Lithia Motors told me this was leaking a couple months ago) and some various o-rings and clips. I’ll probably put the new ignition coil on right away, but I want to save the distributor cap and rotor until I can order some new spark plugs and wires. Then I’ll just tune up all of that ignition stuff all at once, and hopefully in some warmer weather.