A Bad Start

Throughout my trip I will be staying at my parents' place (they moved to assisted living in October) in the McCully-Moiliili district.

On the first night their car wouldn't start. The engine cranked--so the problem wasn't the starter--but didn't engage. After a few tries I quit. Maybe I'd flooded the engine. I will try again in the morning.

Exposed colored wires meant the
shielding was gnawed through

The morning effort to start the car was unsuccessful. Before I called a tow truck, I checked to see if the issue was something simple, like a loose wire or a clogged fuel filter.

The first order of business was to remove the engine cover on the Nissan. That meant finding Dad's hoped-for socket-wrench set in the storage shed, which only took an hour.

Removing the cover revealed that the problem was beyond my capabilities. The engine was covered with rat droppings, and a maze of wires had been chewed through. Nissan's engine cover was a good idea gone wrong. The cozy gap provided a nesting space for rats, especially since the car isn't used for weeks. I cleaned off the poop with a mild Clorox solution and called triple-A.

The dealer called to say that a complete wire-harness replacement would cost $1,700 (there was damage I couldn't see under the car); the repair would take a week because parts had to be shipped from the Mainland.

Auwe!