Always Heed the Warning Lights

(Carrie) Charles and I enjoyed a much-needed vacation to Utah last weekend. Our flight left at 7:30 am Saturday morning. Thankfully we decided to drive to Phoenix Friday night to begin our trip or we would have missed our flight on Saturday.

About a month ago, Charles noticed that the brake light and the battery light went on at the same time in our little Nissan Sentra. He asked a coworker (this coworker's family owns an auto repair shop) what the problem could be and was told it was the alternator. Charles took the car to AutoZone to have the alternator tested. The employee said that everything was fine, but the battery connectors were loose. After tightening the connectors, the lights stayed off for awhile. About a week before our trip, both lights came on again. This time Charles called the Nissan dealer to see what the problem could be. Charles was told it most likely was the alternator, but we could take the car in to be tested for $90. Since AutoZone said our alternator was fine, we didn't take the car in.

Fast forward a few days and we are now on the freeway headed to Phoenix for our trip. Charles was sleeping and I was driving. About one hour into the trip, I noticed the radio lights started blinking, the dashboard lights and headlights became dim all at the same time. I woke Charles up, pulled into a truck stop, and left the car running. It died after about 2 minutes. Luckily we were close to a town where Charles' cousin Steve lives. We called Steve who just arrived home from his kids piano recital. He bought an alternator and met us at the truck stop.

While we were waiting for Steve, a kind gentleman asked us what we needed help with. We explained our situation and he said he was not a mechanic, but he thought our car had been sitting long enough and the battery and alternator would be fine for the remainder of our hour drive. I turned on the car, and it was normal again!

Steve arrived and we told him that we were just going to continue our drive to Phoenix, but would he mind following us a few miles just in case. We didn't even make it to the next exit before the same problems returned. Steve had to jump our car battery about 10 times during the 3-mile trip (which took 45 minutes) to Pep Boys. What an adventure! Pep Boys fixed our car while we were in Utah - and the alternator was completely dead. We've learned our lesson to listen to the dealer and always heed the warning lights!