Brothers Can Come In Handy

Friday my Tracker started acting funny. When I started it after work, it was shaking horribly at idle. I drove it home, and I didn't drive it again until today as it's my "daily driver". When I started it this morning, the same awful shaking. As I drove, I noticed it also had almost no acceleration. It has less than 100 horsepower, so it's never all that swift, but it acted like the gerbils were just worn out. I googled the symptoms, and it looked like the most likely culprits were things that were fairly inexpensive, somewhat of a relief.

When I got home, it was time to contact my car consultant, aka my brother. He knows lots about vehicles, and he even has a degree on the subject. He said it could be several things, but he'd have to have the vehicle with him to be sure (he lives an hour away). I asked him if I should drive it. He said not until I figured out what was wrong with it. I inquired if there was anything I could check myself, he said I could check the spark plug wires. I popped the hood, then asked which wires they were. He described them to me. I selected what I thought was them, and they looked fine. I quickly realized I was looking at the wrong thing. I should have been able to figure out where the spark plugs were fairly readily as not too long ago I'd helped my brother put new ones in my other car (helped= watched him do it).

I checked the plugs and they were connected to the block just fine. My brother also asked me to check the other end of the wires. When I found where they went I asked "Could one being completely unhooked be the problem?" He said "yes". I reconnected it, then tightened two others that were about to come loose. Now for the moment of truth. I started it up, and no more death rattle. Yea little bro!

The technical explanation is this: one of the spark plugs had come unconnected from the distributor cap (I asked my brother so I'd get it correct on my blog post). When I asked him why, he said they're probably just old. He recommended I replace them and the plugs since we have no idea the last time that was done, if ever. He said parts will be less than $30. I'm going to have him do that later this month just as good preventative maintenance. If it ever happens again though, I know just what to do.

I'm so thankful my brother was able to talk me through this. I told him he'll have to tell his friends and coworkers (he works at an auto parts store) that he did his first car repair via conference call. Brothers can indeed come in very handy.