By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
NOV. 18, 2022 | Sometimes you get lucky and dodge a bullet.
There I was, in a shopping center parking lot, and my vehicle had a slight pause in starting. Then it slowly cranked and I moved the gear from park…..but what? Instead of a smooth sliding into readiness, the gear was hard to move, and felt heavy handed.
Something was wrong.
Being cautious, I, with some difficulty, put the gear back into park.
Then the car announced to me that something was amiss, and not something small in itself.
“Your transmission needs service,” came the message on the screen.
Oh no! This could be costly. By then I was wondering if I could even drive the SUV. I cautiously moved the gear, it crankily slid into reverse, and I carefully backed out of the parking space.
Putting the gear into drive, I moved slowly down the lane, turned around the stores to a back street, and drove very slowly, traveling at about 20 mph. I was about six miles from the service station where I routinely get my car worked on. I finally gained a three lane side street, and kept to the right of the road and drove slowly. Soon several cars were backed up behind me, though I don’t know why they didn’t pass me in the center lane, for no other cars were coming.
Turning south on four lane Buford Highway, cars continued to pass me as I moseyed along. About then I realized something was wrong with the radio. And it was a warm day, and the air conditioner wasn’t working right either. Meanwhile, continuing about 20 mph, I could feel nothing wrong with the transmission, but I didn’t want to risk going faster.
It seemed like this trip took forever, but eventually there was Bolton’s Service Station on Buford Highway, and I turned across the lane. When Bill Bolton came out and tried to start the car, nothing happened. “Bet it’s your battery,” he said immediately.
That surprised me. “But what has a battery got to do with a cranky transmission?” I asked.
Then the understanding, as Bill said: “Cars today are run by computers. They are in every part of the car, and that transmission acting up was caused by the dead battery. And you were lucky that you got the car to start at all. Once you were moving, the alternator took over, and you were able to get here.”
So Bill pulled out his battery charger, ran it a while to get my old battery pepped up, and in the meantime called an auto parts store down the street. He had given them my vehicle number. “They’ve got two batteries that will fit your car,” he said. After a couple of minutes of charge, the car started smoothly, and Bill sent me off for Advanced Auto Parts.
Without a hitch, I made it to Advanced. While I remember batteries costing $25, this modern one was $224. The other one cost $400. Soon I had a new battery, and everything in the car was working soundly.
Since then, mentioning my plight to several people, everyone has had the same reaction: “I didn’t realize the transmission had computers in it, too. I’ve learned something new.”
And I had dodged an expensive transmission problem.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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