Oh Car...

By Fiz

We were supposed to leave Sydney today… but our car was having issues.  We found out yesterday that it had spilled a bit of transmission fluid after the drive from Melbourne.   With the help of our wonderful host Krisy, who is quite the car aficionado, we searched for a leak, and found oil leaking into our radiator.  We also discovered that the very fine dust of Tatura had caked every surface in our engine, everything.

So we went to her local auto shop, where she gets a decent discount, and bought 1.) coolant concentrate for 10 L 2.) 5 L of engine oil and 3.) a bottle of liquid that you pour into your radiator that stops leaks. 

    We got back to her place and spent the rest of the day flushing out our radiator, trying to keep the radiator water from boiling with the sealant, replacing the coolant, and topping up our oil.

After everything was said and done, Krisy asked her neighbor across the street to come have a look-see at our handy work.  He thought it was good that we cleaned out the radiator and fan belt, but he also told us that after long drives, if there is too much transmission fluid it bubbles out of the transmission when the vehicle cools down, hence the puddle that got us all stressed out in the first place. 

He also said that women are very sensitive to sounds, and that strange sounds make them anxious. But cars just make funny sounds, so ignore them. 

Personally I feel like that is poor advice. I mean, if a woman comes up to me and tells me it sounds like my car is going to explode, I’m gonna get the hell out of it and run.

Since being in Australia we have learned so much about cars.  It seems that any DIYO work on cars is common knowledge out in the outback.  They even have beginner car care classes for women.  Since being here we have picked up quite a bit of car know how. 

At any rate, we finished as the sun was going down, so we will depart along the coast for Melbourne tomorrow morning.