no "check engine" light? no problem

I finally took my car to the local auto shop for repairs. Saw right away that there was a line of cars, but when I went in to see the head guy, for whom the shop is named, he came right out to look at my car. I told him about the stall-outs, and he asked me whether the "check engine" light tended to come on before, during, or after these stall-outs. I said no. He shrugged and, after listening to my Honda's engine purr for a bit, suggested that the problem was a simple clog in one of the lines, and that I should visit an auto-parts store in town and buy a product called "C-Foam." "Just dump it in your gas tank," he said. "With no 'check engine' light, it's a waste of money trying to figure out what's wrong."

I thanked him, trundled down to one of our town's many auto-parts stores (we're definitely the town to live in if you've got car trouble; mechanics and parts people are everywhere), and bought the product, which turned out to be called "Sea Foam," because it was originally developed for use by the US Navy. The auto-parts lady who told me about Sea Foam noted that you can dump a can of it into any part of your car: the gas tank, the carburetor, the oil-- makes no difference. It's a universal de-clogger.

So I dumped the Sea Foam into my gas tank, and I suppose we'll see tomorrow whether my engine's idle continues to bottom out, or whether the de-clogger has done its job. If I'm still stalling, I might try buying more Sea Foam and dumping it into the oil.

Assuming today's "repair" has worked, I've saved myself a goodly $200-$300 in wallet rape. That can only be a positive thing.


_